6 replies to this topic

[Big Nake]

I realize that talking about commercial brewing and homebrewing in the same breath is shaky ground but... with all of this low-O2 talk lately, what do you do in your commercial brewing to control O2 pickup? Do you have things in place to control it, do you only worry about it post-fermentation, etc? Thought I would check to see what a commercial brewer has to say about this topic. Cheers.

[denny]

I realize that talking about commercial brewing and homebrewing in the same breath is shaky ground but... with all of this low-O2 talk lately, what do you do in your commercial brewing to control O2 pickup? Do you have things in place to control it, do you only worry about it post-fermentation, etc? Thought I would check to see what a commercial brewer has to say about this topic. Cheers.

 

I'm not Chuck, but I can tell you that in the commercial breweries I've worked with, there is nothing special done.  At packaging, random beers are picked off the line and checked with a DO meter, but that's it.  Nothing in particular (anything more than we do as homebrewers) is done.  Now, these are local breweries in the 20 bbl. range, so maybe the big guys are doing something else.

[Genesee Ted]

Some folks use their DO meters at various points in the process, but I've never heard of or seen anyone use them on the hot side.

[Big Nake]

Yeah, that seems legit but I have also tasted some God-awful commercial beers. I'll just say this... in all of the homebrewing information I have absorbed over the past 17 years, I know that I have never heard anyone say that O2 pickup needs to be reduced as much as possible and all throughout the brewday. That may be because it's BS and it may also be because I just didn't see it. We exchange a lot of information here but sometimes there are things that may just be understood as gospel and there may also be things that are just known by very few. Hell, I made so many gallons of crappy pale beer because I didn't know to neutralize bicarb with acid. It was something that Martin told me so casually and yet it was a huge moment in understanding water for me.

[denny]

Yeah, that seems legit but I have also tasted some God-awful commercial beers. I'll just say this... in all of the homebrewing information I have absorbed over the past 17 years, I know that I have never heard anyone say that O2 pickup needs to be reduced as much as possible and all throughout the brewday. That may be because it's BS and it may also be because I just didn't see it. We exchange a lot of information here but sometimes there are things that may just be understood as gospel and there may also be things that are just known by very few. Hell, I made so many gallons of crappy pale beer because I didn't know to neutralize bicarb with acid. It was something that Martin told me so casually and yet it was a huge moment in understanding water for me.

 

I've only been brewing a bit longer than you, but as you know I've dug into it pretty deeply.  Hence my skepticism about the DO reduction methods.  I think it's always been well known that O2 is an enemy of beer, but normal care and methodology has always been enough to deal with it.  Nowhere have I ever heard anyone refer to the need to pre boil mash water to remove oxygen, use buttloads of SMB, or remove copper from your brewing.  In fact, most traditional brewing lit recommends a bit of copper somewhere on the brewing process.

[Genesee Ted]

I've only been brewing a bit longer than you, but as you know I've dug into it pretty deeply. Hence my skepticism about the DO reduction methods. I think it's always been well known that O2 is an enemy of beer, but normal care and methodology has always been enough to deal with it. Nowhere have I ever heard anyone refer to the need to pre boil mash water to remove oxygen, use buttloads of SMB, or remove copper from your brewing. In fact, most traditional brewing lit recommends a bit of copper somewhere on the brewing process.

Yeah, I need some real science not amateur tinkering

[denny]

Yeah, I need some real science not amateur tinkering

 

  As Dornbusch said when he read their "paper", "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing".