Kai Troester's initial thoughts on low O2 brewing

[Owenbräu]

Judges may be used to tasting oxidized English beers, so you will have to choose for yourself which you enter in competitions. However, they are much improved lodo.

[mchrispen]

My 2 cents...

I have toured the northern English breweries extensively and had a few conversations with head brewers (no idea south of Manchester, and not a fan). Given that many are using ancient and discarded kettles and mash tuns previously used for distillation, few are hyper focused on low O2 on the hot side. That said, they are still generally gentle with the mash, and keyed into water chemistry. Particularly Timothy Taylor, Theakstons, and Black Sheep, and a few much smaller micros like Sheffield's The Brewery. That said - their primary focus is in the fermentation; yeast strain, temp, aeration, and pitch rates to control (or maximize in the case of Black Sheep) esters while minimizing phenols. That these beers are incredibly different between bottles (a modern non-Camra process) and "Real Ale" cask conditioned is surprising - especially when a cask goes stale so fast. They can turn a cask ale from mash to cask in 14 days. It's a whole different world - even from Scotland or Belgium.

It seems prudent to avoid "oxidized" in these terms. Rather non-LODO or non-DO (de-oxygenated) might be less confrontational and easier to swallow. In the BJCP world, oxidized has a fairly clear definition (if poor interpretation) of cold side mishandling, although I recognize that hot side problems compound the issue. I have had a lot of fresh North British styles, and fresh they are as distinctive as German styles when compared to the crappy bottled examples in the States.

The very best British pales, bitters and milds have distinct malt and hop characters. I expect LODO will deliver this in spades, eliminating the muddled and muted burnt caramel examples I find in comps consistently. Still, I also expect the recipes to shift dramatically in a LODO environment. If I can feature Golden Promise, pale chocolate and Thomas Fawcett medium and extra dark crystal in a beer with fruity and floral esters - that would be the bomb!

[Owenbräu]

You're about to experience a palate shift, where you'll soon begin to pick out oxidized malt in commercial beers instantly. I'm looking forward to hearing what you think about the English beers once you retaste them.

Fwiw, if people currently really like drinking most commercial craft beers, then I heartily recommend you do not go down the lodo path. I don't mean that to be snarky or condescending, but it's a bit of a curse and there are a lot of beers I can't drink anymore.

[Techbrau]

[mpietropaoli]