Moving...what to do with my sour?!

[jnacey]

Hey guys,

I'm moving here in about 2 months, at which point my Flemish Red will be around 7 months old. It's been sitting in a BetterBottle for the entire fermentation without me disturbing it too much. I've read on here that most people recommend transferring to a keg and blasting it with CO2 to keep oxygen out. I don't keg so thats not an option. So my question is as follows:

Is it better to 1) package the beer now and just age in the bottle for however long I would have bulk-aged the beer, 2) leave the beer in the carboy and try to find some handheld CO2 dispenser to lay a blanket of CO2 on the top (does this even exist)?

Thanks

 

[MileHighBrewer]

Probably too soon to bottle. Here is a thought...get a flexible water container, 6$ at walmart. Clean, sanitize, rack carefully. Press out all the air and seal as absolutely close as possible to moving it. When you get to the new place rack it back to a clean carboy. You could blast it with co2 from a portable keg charger (uses air gun cartridges) if you rig a way to hook up a tube or cane. Maybe a small amount of seltzer water and rack on top? The co2 escaping may push out the 02, i read about someone doing this with a lacto grain starter. A cups worth should not affect the flavor and pH should be low enough to worry about infection. Or just a tiny bit of something fermentable to get some fermentation going to create co2.

 

[peterj]

I would just bring it with you in the carboy. Not sure why you would need to add CO2. It's sealed right? It will just be exposed to whatever oxygen is already in the carboy (which it's been exposed to for the last 7 months, and is hopefully not very much) and as long as you don't open it or anything I would think it would be fine. I actually just moved and I just brought a sour in my better bottle carboy with me in the front seat of the moving truck to the new house.

And yes, the "CO2 blanket" is a myth. CO2 doesn't settle below oxygen, it's constantly moving and mixing. If it did we would all be dead because all of the CO2 in the atmosphere would settle out as well.

 

[dantheman13]

And yes, the "CO2 blanket" is a myth. CO2 doesn't settle below oxygen, it's constantly moving and mixing. If it did we would all be dead because all of the CO2 in the atmosphere would settle out as well.

Yeah, still a myth that prevails too often, I am recently realizing. This article shed a lot of light on the science behind what actually happens.

 

[peterj]

Yeah, still a myth that prevails too often, I am recently realizing. This article shed a lot of light on the science behind what actually happens.

Thanks, that was a good read! I'll have to remember that to cite it later.

 

[jnacey]

Thanks for the help guys. I suppose I'll probably just bring it as is (I'm lazy).

 

[dantheman13]

What about if you have to fly to your new home? Any suggestions/ideas on that?

 

[Zuljin]

I don't believe that article states that a CO2 blanket is a myth. It says that a quantity of CO2 in open air is going to dissipate and mix with the air around it. That's correct. It also says that a quantity of CO2 sealed in a container is going to stay there so long as it is sealed in. That's also correct. It goes on to say that continuously generated CO2 can continuously replace the air immediately around it. Correct again.

All the article really says is don't expect a blanket of CO2 to hang around without containment and/or regeneration. Is there really a belief that CO2 covers something in the manner a solid does? That it acts like a wool blanket staying where it's put?

 

[dantheman13]

I don't believe that article states that a CO2 blanket is a myth. It says that a quantity of CO2 in open air is going to dissipate and mix with the air around it. That's correct. It also says that a quantity of CO2 sealed in a container is going to stay there so long as it is sealed in. That's also correct. It goes on to say that continuously generated CO2 can continuously replace the air immediately around it. Correct again.

All the article really says is don't expect a blanket of CO2 to hang around without containment and/or regeneration. Is there really a belief that CO2 covers something in the manner a solid does? That it acts like a wool blanket staying where it's put?

Very true, but I think sometimes we use it as a crutch without thinking about what the real mechanisms are. For example, I've read about purging fermenters with a hand held bicycle CO2 dispenser. What is really happening is that the gasses are mixing. Same thing happens when you "purge" an empty keg with CO2. There is still plenty of O2 mixed in (in the case of the keg purging, you could potentially remove all of the O2, but that would take an impractical amount of CO2).

Another example of people potentially thinking of the CO2 blanket incorrectly with aging sour beers: as air locks are not a perfect seal, different air locks let in a different amounts of air over time (not to mention the air that gets in while taking samples). Some people might assume that the air let in isn't going to effect the beer because of the CO2 blanket, which is not the case.

 

[peterj]

All the article really says is don't expect a blanket of CO2 to hang around without containment and/or regeneration. Is there really a belief that CO2 covers something in the manner a solid does? That it acts like a wool blanket staying where it's put?

Yes, that's the part that I'm referring to as the myth. There are people that believe that's the case. Or they believe that if there is any CO2 in the headspace that it will settle below the O2 and cover the surface, protecting the beer from oxidation.

 

[peterj]

What about if you have to fly to your new home? Any suggestions/ideas on that?

No idea what I would do in that case. Maybe put it in a keg for easy transport? Or go ahead and bottle it. Luckily I don't foresee that happening for me!