StayThirsty
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In a recent video, Vinnie Cilurzo and Russian River's lab head discussed many topics regarding managing oxygen levels in brewing. At one point they did a live experiment where they used a very expensive dissolved oxygen meter to measure oxygen levels in hand-filled and capped beer bottles. Various methods of reducing oxygen were measured, including pre-purging the bottle and capping on foam.
His capping on foam technique involves swirling the bottle to create a foam-over, then quickly dropping the cap on the foam and sealing it.
There are multiple lessons to be learned but the most dramatic was that capping on foam significantly reduced oxygen levels compared to pre-purging. This makes sense because the foam-filled head-space is a physical barrier containing mostly carbon dioxide, while empty head-space contains a good dose of ambient air that will be trapped long-term in the capped bottle.
Here is a screenshot of their results:
Here's the link to the video - the experiment starts at the 1:11:11 mark:
Other topics of note:
1:01:44 Flushing hoses
59:00 Reducing oxygen ingress during dry hopping
His capping on foam technique involves swirling the bottle to create a foam-over, then quickly dropping the cap on the foam and sealing it.
There are multiple lessons to be learned but the most dramatic was that capping on foam significantly reduced oxygen levels compared to pre-purging. This makes sense because the foam-filled head-space is a physical barrier containing mostly carbon dioxide, while empty head-space contains a good dose of ambient air that will be trapped long-term in the capped bottle.
Here is a screenshot of their results:
Here's the link to the video - the experiment starts at the 1:11:11 mark:
Other topics of note:
1:01:44 Flushing hoses
59:00 Reducing oxygen ingress during dry hopping
