I've been working on implementing techniques to help reduce oxidation and off-flavors after bottling. I notice that my beers have very short shelf-life and it is a shame to dump bottles of beer because we simply can't drink it fast enough in its prime. The flavor I get is sweet, sherry-like most of the time, but often it's just a stale, old taste.... after only a few weeks in a bottle. I'm guessing it's an O2 problem, but I could be barking up the wrong tree.... going with my gut, here's my QUESTION:
If I keg, force carb, then bottle, is there a formula or a way to "microdose" a clean yeast to the bottles that will not dry out or change the character of the beer, won't add much additional carbonation, but will consume any O2 that inevitably enters the bottle when going from keg to bottle?
Background information to supplement my question:
1. I keg and force carbonate, but end up bottling quite a bit after carbonating, because I need to free up the keg for the next batch.
2. I bottle using the Blichmann Beer Gun. I also use clarity ferm regularly now as a standard part of my brewing process.
3. I'll admit that I could do better in whirlpooling and not picking up so much break into primary, but I do cold-crash and feel like I get quite clear results once its conditioned in the keg. I feel like most particles that would encourage off flavors are dropping out before hitting the bottles.
4. I understand that homebrew in itself is not going to carry much of a shelf life because I am not using chemical preservatives, or otherwise.
I am exploring the technique of krausening, in which a second actively fermenting batch of beer (starter) is pitched into the main batch just as fermentation slows. This is new to me and pardon the explanation if you already are an expert here. In researching this technique for cleaning up and speeding up fermentation completion, I came across a comment indicating that a big benefit of bottle conditioning is that the yeast are consuming any O2 remaining as part of the conditioning process. Duh. But it had never crossed my mind that this could also be used as a way to minimize oxidation from sloppy bottling to near 0.
If I keg, force carb, then bottle, is there a formula or a way to "microdose" a clean yeast to the bottles that will not dry out or change the character of the beer, won't add much additional carbonation, but will consume any O2 that inevitably enters the bottle when going from keg to bottle?
Background information to supplement my question:
1. I keg and force carbonate, but end up bottling quite a bit after carbonating, because I need to free up the keg for the next batch.
2. I bottle using the Blichmann Beer Gun. I also use clarity ferm regularly now as a standard part of my brewing process.
3. I'll admit that I could do better in whirlpooling and not picking up so much break into primary, but I do cold-crash and feel like I get quite clear results once its conditioned in the keg. I feel like most particles that would encourage off flavors are dropping out before hitting the bottles.
4. I understand that homebrew in itself is not going to carry much of a shelf life because I am not using chemical preservatives, or otherwise.
I am exploring the technique of krausening, in which a second actively fermenting batch of beer (starter) is pitched into the main batch just as fermentation slows. This is new to me and pardon the explanation if you already are an expert here. In researching this technique for cleaning up and speeding up fermentation completion, I came across a comment indicating that a big benefit of bottle conditioning is that the yeast are consuming any O2 remaining as part of the conditioning process. Duh. But it had never crossed my mind that this could also be used as a way to minimize oxidation from sloppy bottling to near 0.
