I heard a podcast where they used a small amount of SMB at packaging for hoppy beers to prevent or delay staling dude to O2. I tried this myself adding a small amount of SMB to the keg at packaging for a dry hopped grisette. I used my usual oxidation prevention measures in that batch, OxBlox in the mash, closed transfers, etc. I believe that the color, hop flavor and aroma were pretty stable for the life of the keg. I am wondering if anyone else has tried this and what they perceived to be the effect. Trying to rule out confirmation bias on my part.
What is SMB and PMB?
I obviously haven’t used them. My own philosophy for my brewing is to do what I can to have my beers stand up well over time, but not stress about it too much. I drink most of my homebrew on draft and don’t necessarily expect my batches not to change over the 6-10 weeks that it might take to drink 5 gallons. I wouldn’t describe any of the changes as negative or “staling.” Everybody’s goals and level of effort to achieve them varies- it’s all good so long as you enjoy your beers.
Cheers!
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Sodium Metabisulfite or Potassium Metabisulfite.
Ascorbic acid is another antioxidant that can be used at packaging.
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Second that
A lot of the competition brewers use bisulfate to preserve the beer. I tried it but drifted away from it. I haven’t noticed any difference in scores.
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The older perceived wisdom is that SMB is not effective in beer because beer’s pH is usually too high. The effectiveness of SMB does vary by pH, but perhaps SMB is effective in super hoppy beers because hop flavor is so fragile. I haven’t tried SMB in beer, but I use it in cider.
My understanding is that SMB (or also potassium metabisulfite aka KMB or KMS or K-meta) can be used to kill wild yeast (hence its usefulness in cider), but it can also be used, at lower levels, to removed dissolved oxygen from the water or the beer.
I generally add a small amount (0.25 g per 5-gallon batch) to my hoppy beers, and I wait a day or so before kegging so that the small amount of sulfur dioxide gas can escape.
To address the OP’s question, Brulosophy has done numerous experiments with k-meta on different types of beers. In general, I take some issue with their interpretation of the statistics, but for their American IPA and hazy IPA they did reach statistical significance, indicating that it’s not just confirmation bias. For more info, go to their website and search for ‘metabisulfite’.
Scott Janish in The New IPA says sulfite is one of the primary antioxidants in beer. He also says that the recommended level is 8-9 mg/l. He has a lot of cites in his book, but not for this information, so apparently he thinks this information is fairly well known. He doesn’t say anything about using metabisulfite.
Anyway I am going to try SMB or PMB in small quantities when dry hopping.
I have been using potassium metabisulfite in all my beers along with closed transfers to improve overall shelf life with my beers. I try to keep oxygen away from the beer except at pitch. My goal to not expose the beer to atmosphere until it’s in the glass. Whether or not I accomplish this, I can’t really say, but it is a noble goal.
I add metabisulfite anytime a dry hop or add clarifiers to the fermenter that has a positive pressure (venting) and it seems help with the overall shelf life of the beer. I add .55 grams per 5-7 gallons of beer each time the fermenter gets opened, the maximum dose is 1.1 grams. I was worried I would develop some sulfur aromas, but so far that has not happened.
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Thanks for sharing.What kind of yeasts have you used SMB/PMB with? Beer yeasts can be inhibited by metabisulfite unlike wine yeasts.
I used it mostly on 34/70 lager yeast (I make IPA/PA’s with lager yeast) and the fermentation is typically completed, so it has no effect on the yeast.
Do you bottle?
I don’t bottle condition, if that’s what you mean. But I do bottle from the keg.
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Yeah, bottle condition is what I was thinking of.
Did you wait a day before kegging after adding the SMB? That’s the key thing I do to let the gas escape. But honestly with a grisette you might actually see a difference better than in a big IPA just because there’s less malt character to hide any drift, so confirmation bias might not be the whole story here.
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