Does Kegging Reduce Oxidation?

[alcibiades]

I'm thinking that the bottling process involves many maneuvers that introduce the beer to oxygen:

1) racking to bottling bucket, it splashes initially
2) While filling oxygen filled bottles, the bottling wand agitates the beer and it might cause oxidation
3) There is a space of oxygen in the recently capped bottle, above the beer and below the cap


so with kegging, i understand a lot of people pump C02 in the keg before racking, so the beer never comes into contact with oxygen. Am I right in worrying about oxidation during bottling, and seeing kegging as a solution?

 

[GroovePuppy]

I can't answer your question but I do wonder the same. I just switched to kegging and people obsess over flushing the keg headspace with CO2. Then, if bottling from the keg, the recommendation is to allow a little foam to clear the bottle headspace. Why does it apply to one and not the other?

BTW, +1 on the Pirsig quote. Great books!

Edit: I should add I'm not aware I've oxidized a brew in 22 batches in bottles.

 

[troutab81]

I think oxidation is always a concern, depending on how careful you are. Yes, when you rack to a bottling bucket, you are introducing the beer towards an oxygen environment. However, the minimal splashing and mnimal time you are exposing it to the air before bottling is minimal. If you put a sanitized lid over the bottling bucket, even better.

Same goes with the bottle, but the wand rarely ever oxidized my beer. Same goes with the capping process, however the CO2 created by natural conditioning is heavier than the oxygen (probably even mixes with it a little) and forms a barrier decently when the yeasties and priming sugar do their thing.

Long story short, it isnt a big deal at all unless you are careless.

As for kegging, purging the keg with CO2 before racking creates a blanket barrier that pushes out the ozygen when it fills up.. by blasting the headspace at the end with C02, you are in about as Oxygen free environemnt as you could expect...so kegging does offer a lower risk of oxygenation... but once again, I believe it is all about how well you handle your beer. Dont be carless and RDWHAHB

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

When the beer goes through the secondary fermentation the yeast consume some of the O2 you introduced at bottling. If you are careful with your bottling process you shouldn't have any oxidation problems. It's not a problem that is solved by switching to kegging, it is a problem solved by improving the process imo.

 

[GroovePuppy]

When the beer goes through the secondary fermentation the yeast consume some of the O2 you introduced at bottling. If you are careful with your bottling process you shouldn't have any oxidation problems. It's not a problem that is solved by switching to kegging, it is a problem solved by improving the process imo.

Excellent point. When bottling from a keg the yeasties are probably pretty much done and may not consume any new O2 introduced at that point. That would also apply to kegging of force carbonating. So far I've done one keg primed (where it would be less of an issue) and one force carb'd. Both took three weeks to be ready by the time I finished dealing with foam issues on the forced one so I'll be priming from here on out. (And saving on my CO2 bill.)