braufessor:
I listened to one of this year’s NHC presentations the other day while brewing- Identifying and Avoiding Oxidation by Brian Bergquist: https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/attachments/presentations/audio/2016/HomebrewCon16%20-%20Identifying%20and%20Avoiding%20Oxidation.mp3
I had always thought I was quite careful and paid attention to detail wherever I could in my process in regard to oxidation and aerating wort in the wrong ways at the wrong times. However, I have to say, I was thoroughly depressed listening to this presentation. I couldn’t help but feel like it was just an utterly fruitless battle at a home-brew (or even small brewery) level to avoid oxidation and its ill effects on beer. In particular, when he started talking about oxidative effects even during mash in… and how larger commercial breweries are even going to nitrogen flushed mash tuns, etc. It just kind of left me feeling like it was a war that can’t be won.
Obviously, there are a lot of home brewers making great beer on a regular basis. I know I have made some great beer (along with my fair share of mediocre and even bad beer). So… did others attend this session at NHC, or listen to it from the website? Curious as to what others thought? How far do you go in avoiding oxygen (in the mash, etc)?
Is this level of detail something we should be fretting over, or is this an example of something that can be measured scientifically, but does not really seem to show up in a measurable way to actual people drinking beer (kind of like a number of Brulosophy experiments often indicate… i.e. - sure there is a difference, but most can’t tell there is a difference, and even if they can, they can’t confirm what it is, or there is no actual preference one way or another for the drinker).
I introduced Brian, as we chatted before hand I told him that Sierra Nevada wet mills with DO water under N2. Gordon Strong reminded me that he wrote that up in his Zymurgy article about what we learned at Beer Camp. It may be one reason they have beers with a long shelf life.
His talk was very good, one of the top ones that I did see. He covered reducing oxidation throughout the process. It was well researched and presented.