Hey everyone, earlier this year I decided to enter some of my brews in home brewing contests. And while I am getting pretty good scores in the 36-39 point range, one consistent criticism continually comes up; all the judges have noted a presence of oxidation in my beer. The first couple I blamed on judges who couldn't tell the difference between oxidation and great flavors! By submittal number five, with apologies to the esteemed judges, I have to admit it has to be me and my process. I really thought I was doing everything right, but well, I guess not. So, I am coming to you for suggestions.
First off, I brew with a Spike 20 Gal Trio system on the hot side. The cold side is a SS Brewtech 17 gallon Unitank, with spunding valve, temp control, etc.
Here is my current process:
On the hot side at this point in time I do very little to control dissolved O2. I do control splashing, aggressive stirring, whirlpool, etc, but nothing really special on this side.
Transfer/chilling is done thru an Exchillerator wort chiller, into the bottom of the Unitank. I do aerate with O2 when adding yeast.
I am very anal on the cold side, with ONE major exception. Heres what I do.
Any other suggestions as well are welcome.
Thanks
First off, I brew with a Spike 20 Gal Trio system on the hot side. The cold side is a SS Brewtech 17 gallon Unitank, with spunding valve, temp control, etc.
Here is my current process:
On the hot side at this point in time I do very little to control dissolved O2. I do control splashing, aggressive stirring, whirlpool, etc, but nothing really special on this side.
Transfer/chilling is done thru an Exchillerator wort chiller, into the bottom of the Unitank. I do aerate with O2 when adding yeast.
I am very anal on the cold side, with ONE major exception. Heres what I do.
I use the CO2 released during fermentation to purge kegs of O2. I start purging the day after fermentation starts, fill the keg as high as possible with StarSan, use the fermentation to pump StarSan solution completely out of the keg, and continue purging for 6-12 hours after that to ensure as much O2 as possible is removed. I typically purge three kegs or so with this process.
When fermentation is about 95% complete, I will lock down the spunding valve in order to get the remaining CO2 generated to carbonate the beer.
Finally, transfer to kegs is a completely closed transfer driven by CO2 from the CO2 tank.
On the cold side, I now think there are two areas where O2 is getting in. First off is my dry hopping and gelatin addition. Up til now, I have just opened the lid, dropped the hops in and closed the lid, thinking that there was no way enough O2 was getting in through that five second window.
Secondly, I wonder if I am getting O2 in my bottling process for the beers for the contest. I use the Blichmann Beer Gun, with 5 seconds of CO2 blast at the bottom of the bottle, then top it off with beer foam filled all the way to the top of the bottle.
So, while my beer is pretty good, I guess to go that last mile I should get an O2-free dry hopping system. Suggestions for my Unitank (With 3" TC Lid) are welcome. Any other suggestions as well are welcome.
Thanks