Beer Forum

I was going to hijack the other Bamforth thread, but different subject...

Is there anyone else here who breathes a little easier regarding HSA after that show? After all the years of worry about the subject, ranging back from Zymurgy Magazines in the 90's, HSA was always this phantom lurking in the corner, waiting to get oxygen to bind to your wort only to free it up later to degrade your beer early.

I listened to this show earlier this year and only heard it once (with my wife trying to talk to me). But what I got was this: Brew with common sense. don't go sloshing around hot wort like a fool, and keep your beer cold.

I came to the same conclusion about HSA. However that was based on discussions of it on the rec.crafts.brewing newsgroup and the www.hbd.org forum back six or seven years ago. The severity of HSA incidence is one of those overblown fears that just won't go away.

You always run into the anal retentive types that try to absolutely control every tiny aspect of the brewing process thinking that the slightest deviation from perfection will ruin a batch of beer. These folks do tend to make good beer and that reinforces their belief that you have to brew that way and they end up preaching that belief to new brewers.

This type of thinking takes the fun out of brewing. Wort and yeast want to become beer. We need to make sure we don't interfere with the process. Take reasonable steps to ensure good sanitation, avoid excessive splashing of hot wort, and prevent oxidation and your process won't keep you from producing great beer. It won't fix recipe problems, but the process at least won't get in the way.

Homebrewing is a hobby. It is supposed to be fun and relaxing. There is no point in turning homebrewing into a chore. If you are a pro brewer, then you need to obsess about such things so you can produce exactly the same beer time after time.

Time for me to step off my soap box.

Wayne

Well said Bug! Everyone should read the previous post. I'm always running across people who are so bound up in unnecessary parts of their process that they've taken the fun out of a great hobby. My experience in watching the pros is that they are much less anal about making beer than homebrewers.

Tasty

Couldn't have said it better. And this is fortunate for me since I am relatively lazy and carefree. The "breathe a little easier" was a bit tongue-in-cheek, and it was just good to hear I could keep my O2 tank attached to my mash tun and brew kettle...

Ironically, HSA never really made sense to me until it was explained best in the show that discounted it.