gunhaus
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As I peruse the internet, I see lots of concern from new brewers about oxygen and what it will do to their beer. It seems that more and more, simple beginner questions are being responded to with long dissertations of the evils of ANY oxygen exposure. NOW – if you are an experienced brewer, with the money and the interest to buy all sorts of pressurized SS conical fermenters, and closed transfer vessels, and can afford a scientific vacuum chamber clean room in space in which to brew your beverages – Then good on ya – You probably don’t want to read this, and will no doubt view me as a lying, heretical, unwashed heathen – I am, but I sleep good anyhow.
YES – minimizing O2 exposure is a good thing – MINIMIZING. If you are new to this sport, do not fret endlessly that you are doing something wrong if you do not have all the goodies and gadgets. People have been making VERY GOOD BEER, for a very long time, in buckets, and carboys, and jugs. They have been transferring to bottling buckets with nasty old racking canes, and putting the end product into antiquated bottles to grow bubbles. AND they have been pleasing themselves, their friends, family, and GASP . . . . Judges at competitions the whole time! They still are.
Anytime someone tells me that something is “absolute” I start to get real suspicious. The only thing in this universe that is absolute is the speed of light – and I ain’t really so sure of that! Sadly, there are more and more people responding to O2 questions with “absolute” statements about o2 exposure. There is an implication that even the most minuscule exposure will ABSOLUTELY render a beer virtually undrinkable. It will be bland, tasteless, papery, and unfit for anything other than being dumped on the garden. “I can ABSOLUTELY taste if even a tiny O2 exposure occurred.” “Even a few molecules of O2 in a few micro seconds will irreparably ruin a beers flavor profiles FOREVER.” Pretty bold and all too common statements. This is just so much utter nonsense - it is ridiculous! If a person is O2 obsessed, and has all the mechanisms to prevent it, and inadvertently has a minimal exposure they will no doubt taste the O2 – or at least they will BE CONVINCED they taste it. I am sure there is a psychological name for this! If you believe it is there you WILL taste it – no one else will – but you will. ANYWAY - If you do not have closed transfers, kegging systems, and sealed fermenters DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT. Most beginners do not. And they SHOULD NOT be made to feel insecure or inferior because they are starting out with basics and growing on the fly.
Yes, O2 exposure is to be limited as much as YOU CAN. But do not waste time worrying about not having all the latest high tech gear. Do not worry if your beer sees a little O2 when bottling. Simply DO NOT WORRY so much. And don’t let the uber technical out there put you off of brewing or trying something just because THEY think you can not do it if you don’t do it their way! Use what you have, take your time and do it well, and enjoy the results. If you end up loving this hobby, and can justify the expenses, then please add on more and better O2 control measures. But don’t hold back or give up because someone tries to convince you all the do-dads are mandatory!
OBLIGATORY ANECDOTE:
We have a small local brew pub, that makes very good brews (And excellent food!) My nephew and brother are good friends with one of the owners. Recently I went with them to help with a small construction project at his home, and afterward, we retired to his garage/home brew cave to talk and taste a few cold ones. (The absolute BEST payment for “friendly construction” projects!!! Guess that is TWO absolutes in the universe!) He had a SS conical (empty at the time) a couple of good old Ale Pales, a glass carboy, and a Big Mouth Bubbler, in sight. While we were there he recruited a few spare hands, and he bottled up the contents of one of the buckets. This was a mild that had been down 10 days. He sent it to the bucket with a small homemade transfer pump, on a plain old corn sugar priming solution, put the lid loosely on the bucket, and bottled with a cheap old bottle filler on a 2” long piece of tube. We helped cap. This fellow is a kegger, we were drinking from a 6 tap keezer. And he had empty kegs. Why did he bottle? Well, he said for starters he really LIKES THE TASTE OF THIS BEER FROM A BOTTLE! Terrible I know! But since he is a pro, we must allow him his idiosyncrasies. Secondly, there is a small local competition coming up in about a week, and he was timing this brew to be ready. Last year he had entered this bottle finished mild in two small contests and had won a first and a second. He had tweaked it a bit and was hoping for best of show this year. YES, he has a counter pressure bottle filler. YES he had beers down in kegs that he was bottling to enter as well. He just LIKED the way this one bottle finished. Now this person surely knows all about the evils of O2! And I have been in his professional brewery and they surely do all the things you would expect! And yet, he felt perfectly fine about putting a mild in bottles, for both personal consumption and competition. Hmmmm. There is a lesson in there I am sure of it.
If you don’t like any of the above – you are probably gonna REALLY hate rant part 2: The Nonsense of Extract Bashing!
YES – minimizing O2 exposure is a good thing – MINIMIZING. If you are new to this sport, do not fret endlessly that you are doing something wrong if you do not have all the goodies and gadgets. People have been making VERY GOOD BEER, for a very long time, in buckets, and carboys, and jugs. They have been transferring to bottling buckets with nasty old racking canes, and putting the end product into antiquated bottles to grow bubbles. AND they have been pleasing themselves, their friends, family, and GASP . . . . Judges at competitions the whole time! They still are.
Anytime someone tells me that something is “absolute” I start to get real suspicious. The only thing in this universe that is absolute is the speed of light – and I ain’t really so sure of that! Sadly, there are more and more people responding to O2 questions with “absolute” statements about o2 exposure. There is an implication that even the most minuscule exposure will ABSOLUTELY render a beer virtually undrinkable. It will be bland, tasteless, papery, and unfit for anything other than being dumped on the garden. “I can ABSOLUTELY taste if even a tiny O2 exposure occurred.” “Even a few molecules of O2 in a few micro seconds will irreparably ruin a beers flavor profiles FOREVER.” Pretty bold and all too common statements. This is just so much utter nonsense - it is ridiculous! If a person is O2 obsessed, and has all the mechanisms to prevent it, and inadvertently has a minimal exposure they will no doubt taste the O2 – or at least they will BE CONVINCED they taste it. I am sure there is a psychological name for this! If you believe it is there you WILL taste it – no one else will – but you will. ANYWAY - If you do not have closed transfers, kegging systems, and sealed fermenters DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT. Most beginners do not. And they SHOULD NOT be made to feel insecure or inferior because they are starting out with basics and growing on the fly.
Yes, O2 exposure is to be limited as much as YOU CAN. But do not waste time worrying about not having all the latest high tech gear. Do not worry if your beer sees a little O2 when bottling. Simply DO NOT WORRY so much. And don’t let the uber technical out there put you off of brewing or trying something just because THEY think you can not do it if you don’t do it their way! Use what you have, take your time and do it well, and enjoy the results. If you end up loving this hobby, and can justify the expenses, then please add on more and better O2 control measures. But don’t hold back or give up because someone tries to convince you all the do-dads are mandatory!
OBLIGATORY ANECDOTE:
We have a small local brew pub, that makes very good brews (And excellent food!) My nephew and brother are good friends with one of the owners. Recently I went with them to help with a small construction project at his home, and afterward, we retired to his garage/home brew cave to talk and taste a few cold ones. (The absolute BEST payment for “friendly construction” projects!!! Guess that is TWO absolutes in the universe!) He had a SS conical (empty at the time) a couple of good old Ale Pales, a glass carboy, and a Big Mouth Bubbler, in sight. While we were there he recruited a few spare hands, and he bottled up the contents of one of the buckets. This was a mild that had been down 10 days. He sent it to the bucket with a small homemade transfer pump, on a plain old corn sugar priming solution, put the lid loosely on the bucket, and bottled with a cheap old bottle filler on a 2” long piece of tube. We helped cap. This fellow is a kegger, we were drinking from a 6 tap keezer. And he had empty kegs. Why did he bottle? Well, he said for starters he really LIKES THE TASTE OF THIS BEER FROM A BOTTLE! Terrible I know! But since he is a pro, we must allow him his idiosyncrasies. Secondly, there is a small local competition coming up in about a week, and he was timing this brew to be ready. Last year he had entered this bottle finished mild in two small contests and had won a first and a second. He had tweaked it a bit and was hoping for best of show this year. YES, he has a counter pressure bottle filler. YES he had beers down in kegs that he was bottling to enter as well. He just LIKED the way this one bottle finished. Now this person surely knows all about the evils of O2! And I have been in his professional brewery and they surely do all the things you would expect! And yet, he felt perfectly fine about putting a mild in bottles, for both personal consumption and competition. Hmmmm. There is a lesson in there I am sure of it.
If you don’t like any of the above – you are probably gonna REALLY hate rant part 2: The Nonsense of Extract Bashing!
