Recently participated in my first homebrew competition and recently received my score sheets.
Didn’t do too bad with an averaged score of 30 (one 28 and one 31). There was 25 entries in the IPA (14a,b) category.
It was an IPA with Amarillo, centennial, falconer’s flight and warrior bittering. I thought it turned out really good and received great feedback from everyone who tried it.
I guess I was a little perplexed with one comment about oxidation. The comment indicated there was oxidation present and that took away from the beer significantly. I was a little confused as I, along with others, some who are certified judges, never picked up any oxidation when trying this beer previously. I looked at my notes to see if I transferred to a secondary but I didn’t on this one. So, I was confused about oxidation.
So my question is, what are some of the best practices to prevent oxidation? Maybe I am doing something wrong.
I wouldn’t read too much into it if only one person tasted it. Could have been their palate not enjoying a good bitter IPA at that time. Otherwise, great scores.
The beer could have been oxidized. Perhaps it was mishandled in shipping and/or storage. I think I’ve had this happen a couple of times. If this was just one particular judge then I would just ignore it and focus on the other comments.
I never take one guy’s word for anything. I always recommend entering at least 3 if not 4 competitions with any single batch in order to get a big load of scoresheets so that you can safely filter out the ones that are wrong. There’s always some judges trying to show off by using terms like “oxidation” or “astringency” when in fact they don’t even know what the heck the terms even mean. Happens a LOT. No worries. Enter a couple more competitions and see if the scores and comments stay consistent. Then just throw out the scoresheets that are obviously wrong and don’t look back. 8)
I certainly agree with the others who said don’t worry about oxidation. But, you also asked about best practices. Some people will purge their fermenters with Co2 prior to filling. (I’ve never done this) I do purge my kegs prior to filling. And, then of course using a counter pressure bottle filler or the Blichmann beer gun with Co2 hooked up. I have a Beergun, and have never hooked it to Co2. Although I’m strongly considering it now after I had the same type of comment in a competition.
Of course it could be a bad comment, but don’t discount the impact of shipping and storage, either. Unless you hand delivered your entries to the judging site, then you don’t know if they got exposed to high temps. If you mailed them in the summer, then you do know! Charlie Banforth on a BN episode talked about a doubling of the rate of staling for each 10c.
So if you did introduce some oxygen during bottling or racking, and it got warm in transit, then the beer the judges saw wouldn’t be the one you get from your fridge. The stability of the beer (rate of staling) will be influenced by your process.
Take a bottle, warm it and keep it warm for a week or so. Compare with a cold stored bottle and see how they compare. If they are the same, then safely disregard that judges comments.
All the above comments are good. Some people are more sensitive to these flavors and pick it up way too early. Others mistake it for something else.
Sometimes you can pick up some oxygen if you are transferring from a keg to a bottle for competitions while there is less chance of oxidation in bottle-conditioned beers. Which was yours?
“Sometimes you can pick up some oxygen if you are transferring from a keg to a bottle for competitions while there is less chance of oxidation in bottle-conditioned beers.”
I agree with this. My keg-to-bottle beers have a way shorter life span than bottle conditioned beers.
This is probably common knowledge by now, but since i started doing it my bottle conditioned beers have been somewhat better.
When you fill the bottle, lay the cap on the bottle for a few minutes before sealing it. The beer will off-gas some of the CO2 from the fermentation process and push residual O2 out as it does. You can tell its working because the cap will wobble or move slightly as it happens. I started bottling 6 beers at a time and by the time I’m done with the 6th I go back and start sealing the caps in the order I filled them.
I guess that little bit of O2 in the headspace of the bottle is significant enough to cause slight oxidation in some cases.
Maybe that’s what the judge was tasting if he had a sensitive enough palette?