Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Measured air in finished product

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Measured air in finished product

    Who out there measures the final o2/air content in their finished product and what readings are you finding acceptable? I'm a little high in air content in one of my beers and was wondering what this might do to my shelf life. I'm also looking into what might have caused this. Pump seal leak? Oxygenation levels too high during fermentation? Brite tank not fully purged? Seal leak during filtration? Damn variables! Also, what kind of o2 meters are you all using? I have an old Zahm series 5000. Thanks in advance.

    Geoff Logan
    Last edited by Geoff Logan; 06-10-2009, 11:35 AM.

  • #2
    I would expect high levels in final package to come from the packaging process, most likely - what do you package into?

    Alternatively, pipes, pumps and flanges are likely points of O2 entry into a system. Difficulty is often that you won't see a beer leak out so assume everything's ok.

    As far as 'acceptable' levels are concerned, I'd be looking at under 0.5ppm, ideally under 0.3ppm. These are on a shaken sample fresh off the filler, so will take into account both the inherent O2 of the beer AND the O2 in the headspace.

    Comment


    • #3
      You'll also want to compare these airs to airs in the bottle after some time (like a week) to see if you're actually getting O2 pickup due to (usually) inefficient capping.

      Comment


      • #4
        Indeed - badly set crowners can certainly lead to poor oxygen control.

        A good-quality crown with an efficient seal, preferably oxygen-scavenging, can help, but making sure the crown goes on squarely and is crimped equally all-around is vital.

        The other thing is good bottles with an even, well-formed crown ring. Correct dimensions are below:
        Attached Files
        Last edited by TL Services; 07-27-2009, 04:00 PM.

        Comment


        • #5
          Well, I'm filling 12oz. bottles with a 6 head Meheen filler and it works great. Their motto is no O2 so I hope it's no the machine. Caps are not o2 scavenging. We used to use them but can't find a good source for them anymore. Ideas? Thanks.

          Geoff Logan

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by Geoff Logan
            Well, I'm filling 12oz. bottles with a 6 head Meheen filler and it works great. Their motto is no O2 so I hope it's no the machine. Caps are not o2 scavenging. We used to use them but can't find a good source for them anymore. Ideas? Thanks.

            Geoff Logan
            It was a 4 head Meheen fillling 12oz. Heritage twist-offs that was giving us insufficient crown cap crimps. We were even using O2 scavenging caps, but still picking up plenty of O2 over time. Just FYI, so you don't go relying too much on someone's motto.

            Comment


            • #7
              Geoff,

              I'd pick some points in your process where you can take a good sample, as a first step to locating the issue:

              - End of fermentation
              - Newly-filled maturation vessel
              - End of maturation
              - Pre-filter
              - Post-filter
              - Newly-filled brite tank
              - Freshly-filled bottle
              - Aged bottle

              Those are a guess as I don't know your exact process, but a starting point. They should let you build a picture of where there are O2 changes that might be causing the issue.

              Also - and I'm not too familiar with Zahm as it's not common here in the UK - are you sure your results are ok, ie. do you use any known O2 standards to check against?

              If not, might be worth running a water sample - fresh-running water from the tap (faucet?) is around 7-9ppm as a rough guide.

              Comment


              • #8
                High O2 readings

                The first thing to check is your fobbing. The water you use should be at least 185F. This will insure that the beer foams rapidly and consistently before the bottle is capped.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by benself
                  The first thing to check is your fobbing. The water you use should be at least 185F. This will insure that the beer foams rapidly and consistently before the bottle is capped.
                  To my knowledge there's no water jet to create fobbing in a Meheen filler. It all has to do with pressure differential and snift. The basic advice is good, though, always make sure that you have a foam cap all the way to the mouth of the bottle before capping to prevent O2 pickup.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Thanks all. Much abliged!

                    Geoff

                    Comment

                    Working...
                    X