Has Anyone Tried Oxygen Eating Bottle Caps?

[Bribie G]

I've decided to do all my comp beers this year in glass as I'll be storing some of them for several months. When bottling in PET I squeeze to expel all the air before tightening and the bottles of course go back into shape as they carb.

With glass this isn't an option, so I'm thinking of using the oxygen eating caps and wonder:

How do they work
Has anyone used them

 

[proudscum]

a little o/t when you bottle you get a nice little bloom of co2 coming out of the beer,so i have always filled, put cap on and gone on to fill the next one and then capped the lot in one go.sometimes the cap will jump around a little as the co2 comes out of suspension.I have bottled for years and this has worked for me.

 

[Bribie G]

i.e. "cap on foam"
Some of my brews, when they have been lagered for a few weeks, aren't particularly gassy - plus I keg and bottle cold.

 

[proudscum]

i.e. "cap on foam"
Some of my brews, when they have been lagered for a few weeks, aren't particularly gassy - plus I keg and bottle cold.

Same this is why you should have more co2 in suspension,but then i really only make ales and crush chill for 5 to 6 days.

 

[katzke]

I bought some because that was all the had. Never did see any difference. But I did not let the beer set around and that was when I was just starting.

 

[Sammus]

has anyone actually ever had a problem with oxidation? I used to fill my bottles from the tap, without a wand. Some of them have sat for over 2 ears using regular caps, and not showed any signs of oxidation...I personally think it's much harder to oxidise a beer than what people think... IMO, definitely not worth an extra $15 a batch for some fancy caps.

 

[drsmurto]

Yeast absorb oxygen and unless you sterile filter you will always have yeast present in beer. :icon_cheers:

 

[Bribie G]

One thing I've always wondered about bottle conditioning:

You ferment in primary, there's a lag phase then an aerobic phase as the yeast breeds up. Fairly quickly it runs out of oxygen and enters the anaerobic beer-producing phase, then mostly drops out. So you bottle and add priming sugars. At that stage does the yeast stay anaerobic and say

"goodo, some more sugar, I'll keep going a bit longer and produce a tad more CO2 and alcohol"
or
"that was a nice nap - wow here's some more oxygen - I'll go a bit aero and bud off some clones then go back to anaerobic and hit on that extra sugaz that I notice around the place all of a sudden"

I'm counting on the latter

edit: if that's the case then I may be actually working against myself by squeezing the PET bottles before capping.

 

[Pennywise]

a little o/t when you bottle you get a nice little bloom of co2 coming out of the beer,so i have always filled, put cap on and gone on to fill the next one and then capped the lot in one go.sometimes the cap will jump around a little as the co2 comes out of suspension.I have bottled for years and this has worked for me.

This is how I bottle. Funny, first time I bottled & heard the caps popping up and down I shit myself thinking, "oh shit, it's not finished fermenting", but soon realised that it was some co2 comming out of suspension. Sounds quite scary at first once all the bottles have the caps just sitting there going off. Now it's music to my ears

 

[DanRayner]

Get into kegging and make yourself one of these bad boys (not hard to make and if you make it out of all stainless it shouldn't cost more than $90 or so)

Never have to worry about oxidised beers again and you can bottle the day you need to take it/submit it into comp/drink it/whatever

 

[warra48]

a little o/t when you bottle you get a nice little bloom of co2 coming out of the beer,so i have always filled, put cap on and gone on to fill the next one and then capped the lot in one go.sometimes the cap will jump around a little as the co2 comes out of suspension.I have bottled for years and this has worked for me.

This is exactly what I do, and it's always worked for me.
I bottle all my brews, and have never noticed oxidation, even after many months in the bottle.

 

[KillerRx4]

Has anyone noticed oxidation in their unfiltered bottle conditioned home brews? I doubt it.

I'm very sensitive to oxidation after extensive sampling of freebie out of date filtered/pasturised commercial beer.

Ive got some old bottled homebrew & some of it is starting to turn cidery, over carbonated gushers. some not. But none are oxidised...

 

[Bribie G]

Get into kegging and make yourself one of these bad boys (not hard to make and if you make it out of all stainless it shouldn't cost more than $90 or so)

Never have to worry about oxidised beers again and you can bottle the day you need to take it/submit it into comp/drink it/whatever

Dan, yes I have a CPBF of the old school variety but find that it doesn't seem to provide the same "spritz" of a commercially bottled beer for some reason. Maybe I should gas to higher volumes in the keg? With some of the comps the beer sits for up to 3 weeks before judging and I've been criticized for flat beer despite using the CPBF. Off topic but what Kpa would you gas the beer at in the keg before CPBF?

 

[itmechanic]

Dan, yes I have a CPBF of the old school variety but find that it doesn't seem to provide the same "spritz" of a commercially bottled beer for some reason. Maybe I should gas to higher volumes in the keg? With some of the comps the beer sits for up to 3 weeks before judging and I've been criticized for flat beer despite using the CPBF. Off topic but what Kpa would you gas the beer at in the keg before CPBF?

With CPBF filling you always loose a bit of c02 no matter how slowly and carefully you fill. I always carb my beers just a tad higher if im going to fill any bottles. If i want 2.5 volumes of co2 i will carb to 2.6. Use the beersmith carbonation calculator to work out the pressure needed for volumes of co2 at different temps. Or use a chart like this Carbonation Chart

Cheers,
Paul