Should Priming Sugar Solution Have Minimal Oxygen?

Question

Should Priming Sugar Solution Have Minimal Oxygen?

Dale

2016年7月27日 09:01

When I bottle, I follow the typical step of boiling some water, adding bottling sugar, letting it cool, and adding it to the beer that's done fermenting (but still of course has live yeast floating around). Those little beasties probably would like a sip of O2 to grow better and carbonate the bottle better/faster, but I'm as careful not to add oxygen to the priming solution as I am to keep oxygen out of the beer. But I got to wondering, does anyone have any data or experience on aerating the priming solution? Seems like it would be an easy experiment that might have been tried, or maybe some author commented on it.

Topic aeration priming bottling homebrew

Category Mac

barking.pete · Accepted Answer · 2016年7月27日 09:01

I have "aerated" the priming solution by cooling the sugar solution and shaking the bottle that the priming solution is made up in. Adding such a solution to the beer before bottle or keg conditioning caused no real problems that I could notice.

However I now as (a matter of course) pour the beer from the 25 lt. settling vessel into another similar vessel that contains the made up dextrose priming solution. This "wholesale" pouring produces a lot of foam (de-gassing) and presumably oxygenation of the young beer. After a short while to allow the foam to settle, I put the beer into bottles and leave them for a month. Never had a failure yet (touch wood)!

Other brewers have commented on the "novelty" of this mixing method and most say they would never do it themselves. But it works for me and has produced many hundreds of litres of excellent beer in many styles.

The point being that "oxidation" is not a guaranteed and universal phenomenon - however one wishes to describe it. Some say their beer tastes like cardboard due to "oxidation". IMHO I have never suffered from that problem, yet I have given my beers ample opportunity to "oxidise".

baka · Accepted Answer · 2011年8月26日 01:11

As far as I understand things, the yeast won't go through a serious growth phase in the bottle. The pressure and alcohol make for a harsh environment, and you shouldn't be using enough yeast to really consume any oxygen that you would add. At this point, you really want to avoid oxygenation, so that you limit oxidation flavors in the beer. Thus, you boil out the oxygen in your priming solution and prevent stirring air into the beer.

More oxygen might carbonate faster, but it would probably do so at the expense of cardboard flavored beer.

Should Priming Sugar Solution Have Minimal Oxygen?

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