Bottling Oxidation Reduction - trick

[Adr_0]

So, I tried this tonight - basically a CO2 purge tee on my bottle filling tube:


It is constructed of a KegKing mini reg, a 1/4" SAE valve (available on ebay), and a couple of neat fittings from a mob in the US:
https://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/fflbarb12.htm
https://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/flarem14xflarem14.htm
Both got to semi-regional Qld in 10 days from the US, which was pretty good....

...then into a 1/2" barb tee via some silicone hose. Filling tube is just vinyl.

This can be tied in for fermenter transfers - to another fermenter, or to bottling bucket - or how I have set it up here for bottling. Basically have it set to a very low pressure and a short opening of the valve puts some CO2 in the bottom of the bottles.

Bottling shown here:


I know if you keg this is sort of redundant. It's probably worth the effort for bottling to make sure you don't prematurely stale your beer or get acetaldehyde production from oxidation of alcohol. Where we are it's a little warmer so these processes are helped along somewhat - so anything to reduce O2 post fermentation has got to help.

 

[mtb]

Good idea.. but how does it compare to one of these? The bottle filler gun purges the bottle of O2 as well

 

[contrarian]

Are you carbonating by adding sugar? If so surely the yeast will clean up a good chunk of the available O2 anyway. If it's already carbonated it makes sense to keep as much out as possible though, especially for longer storage.

 

[Adr_0]

Good idea.. but how does it compare to one of these? The bottle filler gun purges the bottle of O2 as well

That looks pretty neat. One of the guys from the CQ club here had one break and he lost an entire keg in the bottom of his freezer... My system actually works very well, and was about $30 on top of the regulator. Obviously different CO2 sources for different folks, but the idea works.

Are you carbonating by adding sugar? If so surely the yeast will clean up a good chunk of the available O2 anyway. If it's already carbonated it makes sense to keep as much out as possible though, especially for longer storage.

I batch prime, but I've had touches of acetaldehyde in a few beers, typically varying between bottles, that was not there at the end of primary. That leans me towards oxidation of alcohol causing this, and perhaps not enough yeast activity to clean it up.

Some people go to a lot more effort than this to remove O2 from bottling...