Thats how mine is. Ill probably do both. Maybe a quick boil to break up dried gunk/wort/sugars that might be in there and then bake once dried.
I use an immersion chiller. I put it in the kettle with 15 mins left in tbe boil along with a thermometer and stainless steel spoon I use to stir. The wooden dowel is only in there at the start of the boil to make sure im at my volume. I usually spray the fitting on my ball valve but I have forgot to do so many times. I also heard running a bit of the boiling wort out of it is a good idea too. I guess overall there are a few things I can certainly tighten up on.
I have the same one, and I boil it.
Yes, over-oxygenation of your wort is reputed to foster rougher, fusel alcohol formation. Jamil mentioned that in an article or one of his shows many years ago. If using dry yeast, there is little need to oxygenate the wort. About 10 minutes of oxygen at a trickle that barely makes it to the surface of the fermenter is about all your wort needs.
Did you mean 10 seconds? Ten minutes of pure O2 seems like a heck of a lot.
I have recently come to understand that. I found it weird that was never mentioned in the yeast book. Of course dry yeast just doesnt get the same regards as liquid at times. I have read although not needed, the extra oxygen aso will not hurt when using dry yeasts. I usually do not go over 60 sec on a low flow where the surface is barley broken or turbulent by bubbles. I have also been using oxygen on batches for a year or so now. Only recently these 3 batches are an issue.
Dave Logsdon has said that its (paraphrasing) virtually impossible to over oxygenate. I tend to lean more that way than Zainasheff’s presumption of why a friends beer seemed fusel. I remember the episode. Its a draw back of these info sources like podcasts. Its Jamil, so everything said is fact. Well, some of it is and some is just them discussing possibilities. I took him to be postulating on why a buddy’s beer seemed to be a little hot and he thought the o2 amount the guy used seemed high. Well, could be. But maybe not. In the same discussion, Palmer mused that perhaps too much oxygen would be placing yeast cells in a pure oxygen environment till they died, but short of that the extra o2 is going to dissipate before the yeast have time to do anything about it.
Besides, does it even make sense? When do yeast uptake o2? What are they doing at that time? What are fusels? When are yeast making that? The extra o2 is long gone before alcohol is produced, seems to me anyway.
I think that there’s a narrow band of not enough oxygen, then a wider band of what could be considered enough oxygen to work, maybe in that wider band there is a precise point we could call optimum, but that point probably moves around depending on wort composition and yeast strain. My money is on the bet that harmful over oxygenation is probably hard to accomplish without pressure and time.
I’ve had similar suspicions myself, Jim. Now that I have a dedicated fermentation keg, I may have to experiment with this some time. This also leads me to wonder if the alleged benefits to fermenting under pressure are primarily because the initial oxygenation isn’t lost to the atmosphere before the yeast can get to it.
Eric, I based the 10 minute mark off my typical practices. I have an in-line oxygenator and it typically takes about 10 minutes to complete the chilling and transfer. To calm your fear of over-oxygenation in my system, I can say that I get about 15 to 20, 5-gal batches per red cylinder of O2. So I am trickling oxygen into the in-line oxygenator. Those using up one of those tanks in a lot fewer batches should rethink their procedures.
Wow. Ten minutes is a lot longer than I’ve heard suggested by most proponents of pure oxygen. I usually hear times in the 30-60 second range.
Personally, I have no fear of over-oxygenation in your system. I have about as much faith in the claims of over-oxygenation as I do in hot-side aeration. I’m sure there may be a specific set of circumstances where it may cause an issue, but I have a hard time believing that it is common enough where I need to be concerned about it in my normal practices.
Yeah, sounds like a lot to me, too. But it looks like Martin’s rate of flow is obviously much slower than many. Back when I used O2 I used 60 seconds for standard ales and 2 minutes for lagers and big beers. I just use the mix stir now.
Martin is also using a fancy inline stone versus adding oxygen to the fermenter.
Jim, there is not a separate aerobic phase. Yeast cells basically start producing ethanol and other fermentation byproducts the moment that they are pitched into wort because only a small amount of carbon is shunted to aerobic (respirative) metabolic pathway. The majority of the carbon is being metabolized for energy production in the anaerobic (fermentative) metabolic pathway. Higher alcohols are the result of the metabolization of amino acids via the Ehrlich Pathway or sugar via biosynthesis. The rubbing alcohol aroma is more than likely the result of 1-propanol production.
OP, how much trub are you carrying over from your kettle?
I try to carry over as little as possible. My wort is chilled then I let it sit 15-30 mins to settle before I transfer to the fermenter.
I think I may have simply been tasting young beer and jumping the gun being paranoid from my last two batches where I did have that Rubbing Alcohol/Fusels flavor and aroma. It’s a bigger Robust Porter (almost 7% abv) I added cocoa at the end of the boil and I dry beaned some bold French Roast coffee, so things I was tasting right off the top of the fermenter (in the hydro sample) could have really thrown me off. The samples on this Porter now that its kegged and carbonating are much better than I had at kegging time from the hydro sample.
This has made me think about taking my sanitation a little more serious. You guys put out some good ideas and tips. There are some things I can improve on.
Isn’t that what this is all about? Trying our best to make the very best each time.
Absolutely. Since joining a short time ago there has been a lot of that. This place has defenitely helped me kick it up a knotch. And THAT is why I came here.
I need a teaching moment! Mark, what does this info mean for our practices? Is there an impact from oxygenation? Under or over?
My experience is that temperature plays a big role and I’ve heard that over-oxygenation also plays a role in higher alcohol production.
My experience too, Martin. Almost everybody started out fermenting too warm and paid the price with a fuselly mess that killed head retention. And gave a mean headache.