Macros produce far too much beer for local consumption therefore have to distribute their products regionally and nationally, to keep share holders happy. Internationally not that long ago, before mergers and acquisitions and licences to brew 'exotic' beers locally. So, for macros, product stability and shelf life have always been a concern. In fact, it's an active field in industrial brewing science. However, there is no consensus among the experts re HSA. There's insufficient data. It's nothing more than a plausible theory.
Not really, all the sources I got access to said the same things. If you want somewhat of a comprehensive overview (rather than navigating the whole literature, which can be a daunting task), see 'Technology Brewing and Malting' in the relevant sections; there are other books talking about the detrimental effects of oxidation on the hot side but that's a pretty thorough one, with many references. If you prefer a list of relevant academic articles, you can find some relevant papers
here (in the resources section).
Also, there is a misconception here: hot-side oxidation affects both flavor stability and flavor itself (and color, but let's just forget about it); the former may or may not be relevant for homebrewers depending on their goals, but the latter is going to affect anyone equally.
Even if it is a real thing, and I suspect it is for some tasters, it's just potentially one of numerous factors impacting product stability.
For sure.
As far as I can tell, the claimed impacts don't extrapolate to the home-brew batches I brew in my kitchen and ferment in my basement.
What makes you think that? Vessel geometry is not on our side.
I respect some believe HSA is a thing, but I don't accept subjective opinions as data. Nor do I accept a collection of cherry-picked publications as a consensus.
Cherry-picking means selectively using some sources while deliberately ignoring others: what are the sources being ignored here?
We know, for example, adding ascorbic acid to the mash increases the levels of antioxidants post boil, but the result might only be detectable as 'better' by those who might express hypersensitivity to some things most don't. We're clearly a very long way from being able to show with confidence any benefits to controlling so-called HSA. I don't see any reason in pushing a theory with too much enthusiasm when there's a lack of convincing data to back it up. It's possible some macros have the data for their own process, but that's their property and there's little reason for them to share it with competitors. Unfortunately, they're the only ones interested with the resources to test the hypothesis properly.
Let's see it from another perspective: trying it isn't really a long way, is it? Use some dry yeast to scavenge oxygen from water, throw in some antioxidants, dough in carefully, use a mash cap, don't sparge, boil gently, and if your cold-side practices are on point then there is not much else to do. Underletting and spunding may be slightly more challenging depending on equipment but that really isn't much harder than other things homebrewers do... without wondering what the academic consensus about them is, I would say.
This contains some relevant information.
Edit: There's
this and even
this, but where's the 'abundance of data'? Looks like it's all vanished back into thin air
Are you just linking search results to prove your point or the links are broken? I tried to list some sources I personally found interesting above.
