IDK he said “Excessivesplashing on the hot side ans O2 introduced after fermentation is what causes staling”. Lol, I read stalling.
I’m interested because I had attenuation problems when I started recirculating during mashing and whirlpooling in my kettle. But it’s also a new system. Regardless the less fancy my process the less issues I’ve had. Regardless I don’t splash at all but always wondered how much a little cavitation or trapped air pocket in a hose could impact hot side aeration.
Oxidation in the mash will not cause low attenuation in the final beer. Re-circulation of the mash, if done correctly, will increase the overall quality and fermentability of the wort. There are many factors that lead to good attenuation, grain bill, mash pH, mash temperature, pitch rate, wort aeration prior to pitch and the strain of yeast. Many things to consider. Whirlpooling has no effect at all on attenuation.
Hot side aeration should be avoided, but it will not directly lead to staling in packaged beer, cold side aeration is the biggest problem facing any brewer. The is some evidence that hot side aeration may effect malt flavor, but evidence is often subjective and relies on on personal preference and opinion. I think there is some sense to it, but I'm not convinced that is that substantial as to go to herculean efforts to eliminate it. I use some techniques of LODO and it seems to make a difference. I recently had a Czech Pils judged by a man who spent quite a bit of time there and he commented that it was as good as any in Pilsen, he gave it a score of 45. It was a nice compliment, but I'm not entirely sure if it was because I used some of the LODO methods, luck, fermentation or whatever.
I brewed for many years following the Bible of “relax, have a home brew” which served me well. Now after about a 10 year hiatus I’m brewing again and have gone way further down the rabbit hole than previously imagined. I too now follow some of the easier LODO methods, use a PH meter, have various acids and brewing salts like never before. I’m not sure if I’m brewing as good a beer as I once did but in many ways I’m now brewing the cleanest brews I’ve ever made from a technical point. I did struggle with attenuation for about 10 batches but I seemed to have resolved that issue once I stopped using my RIMS to raise my mash temp to 168-170 prior to sparging. Makes no sense so so I’m always worried that my latest batch won’t fully attenuate and yet the problem has seemed to go away since I stopped doing it. At the same time I did find that given a few months in a keg at cellar temp, all but 1 of those beers fully attenuated. In fact 1 came out to be one of my favorite beers. I chalk that one up to a little of everything!
