Dissolved Oxygen vs. Bottle Carbing

[The_Glue]

How much dissolved oxygen you need in your beer for successful bottle carbing? (within the suggested 3 weeks at 70F timeframe)

I am thinking about ways of removing or limiting dissolved oxygen in my wort after the main fermentation finished but i am not sure if it would get in the way of bottle carbing.

 

[orangehero]

As little as you can possibly manage in the homebrew setting. Only at the beginning of fermentation is oxygen beneficial. At all other times a lot of effort is spent figuring out and implementing how to keep it away.

I'm assuming you're thinking that since oxygen is beneficial to yeast for the initial fermentation that it is the same situation regarding bottle conditioning. Oxygen is used by yeast to aid with reproduction. Since you don't need reproduction you don't need it for bottle carbonating and oxygen would only be detrimental to flavor stability. It's actually fortunate for homebrewers that the yeast is able to scavenge some of the oxygen during bottling.

 

[The_Glue]

As little as you can possibly manage in the homebrew setting. Only at the beginning of fermentation is oxygen beneficial. At all other times a lot of effort is spent figuring out and implementing how to keep it away.

I'm assuming you're thinking that since oxygen is beneficial to yeast for the initial fermentation that it is the same situation regarding bottle conditioning. Oxygen is used by yeast to aid with reproduction. Since you don't need reproduction you don't need it for bottle carbonating and oxygen would only be detrimental to flavor stability. It's actually fortunate for homebrewers that the yeast is able to scavenge some of the oxygen during bottling.

So i can even experimenting with adding all kinds of anti-oxidants and stuff to my beer before bottling?

 

[orangehero]

What I'm saying is you don't need to add oxygen to bottle carbonate and that the yeast do a pretty good job protecting from incidental oxygen pickup.

That is not to discourage you from trying though, although it's not clear what you mean by "all kinds of anti-oxidants and stuff". Allegedly it is not uncommon for beer to be dosed with metabisulfite to just below the threshold for the requirement of "sulfites added" to be disclosed on the label, but this is used in filtered and force carbonated beer and counterproductive for refermenting in the bottle.

 

[The_Glue]

What I'm saying is you don't need to add oxygen to bottle carbonate and that the yeast do a pretty good job protecting from incidental oxygen pickup.

That is not to discourage you from trying though, although it's not clear what you mean by "all kinds of anti-oxidants and stuff". Allegedly it is not uncommon for beer to be dosed with metabisulfite to just below the threshold for the requirement of "sulfites added" to be disclosed on the label, but this is used in filtered and force carbonated beer and counterproductive for refermenting in the bottle.

by "all kinds of anti-oxidants and stuff" i meant metabisulfite, ascorbic acid and some newer products

 

[flars]

Here is a basic definition of anti-oxidants:
Antioxidants are chemicals that block the activity of other chemicals known as free radicals. Free radicals are highly reactive and have the potential to cause damage to cells, including damage that may lead to cancer. Free radicals are formed naturally in the body.

Anti-oxidants you would not want to put in beer. I think you are referring to limiting air contact to reduce the chance of oxidation, or oxidizing the beer.

There is so little air in a bottle of beer, and the yeast quickly use most of the oxygen while consuming the priming sugar, the risk of oxidation is slight to none. Shaking the bottle of beer, immediately after capping may increase the risk for some oxidation by putting the entrapped air into solution.

You can bottle with oxygen scavenging caps which are supposed to reduce the oxygen in the head space.

 

[unionrdr]

You don't need to add anything when bottling your beer. Ue a racking tube, if your primary has a spigot, or auto siphon other wise with a tube that goes half-way around the bottom of the bottling bucket. This will prevent the beer from getting oxygenated during the transfer. The attach your bottling wand to the spigot on the bottling bucket with tubing. This will fill the bottles from the bottom up to further prevent oxygenation. Fill bottle to the top, then raise bottling wand an inch or two to close the pin valve & stop beer flow. Pulling the bottling wand out then creates the perfect head space by way of volume displacement.

 

[The_Glue]

You don't need to add anything when bottling your beer. Ue a racking tube, if your primary has a spigot, or auto siphon other wise with a tube that goes half-way around the bottom of the bottling bucket. This will prevent the beer from getting oxygenated during the transfer. The attach your bottling wand to the spigot on the bottling bucket with tubing. This will fill the bottles from the bottom up to further prevent oxygenation. Fill bottle to the top, then raise bottling wand an inch or two to close the pin valve & stop beer flow. Pulling the bottling wand out then creates the perfect head space by way of volume displacement.

I don't even use a bottling bucket anymore due to fear of oxidation. I connect the bottling wand to the end of the tube of the auto syphon and bottle straight from the primary. I add boiled sugar to the bottles individually measured with a syringe. I still get foaming and stuff and some of my aged (6 months or more) beer got oxidized.

I don't have a general oxidation problem btw, i just want to sorta "push the limits" or improve my process in new ways to see how my IPAs would react to antioxidants.

 

[Legume]

When bottling beers that I intend to keep around for more than a couple of months, I sometimes add a little ascorbic acid at bottling.

I have no idea if this truly helps reduce oxidation or not...but its cheap insurance, and does not seem to negativly affect the flavor.