German Brewing

I will be bottling a pale ale and IPA from a keg for a competition and had the idea pop up that a small (how small?) dose of SMB in the bottle before filling could help preserve hop flavor and aroma that is degraded by O2.

Any thoughts from those with knowledge and experience with post fermentation and use during packaging?

Thanks

Thanks for the insight.

I will avoid the "Great Pale ale except for the Cheap wine notes and lingering headaches" comments form the judges.

Probably the way ahead will be to lager with spunding using a pressure/temperature to yield slightly less than full carbonation and then mix in a calculated small amount of priming sugar/wort (with a miniscule amount of fresh yeast) to top this up. That way oxygen will get scavenged and there will be very little yeast actually in the bottle.

I believe this is what Sierra Nevada do with their cans.

I've had minimal issues with bottling using a counter pressure filler. None of us have been happy with sulfite additions at bottling, partly because the residual SMB from the mash and a proper fermentation will leave more than enough.

From one of Jamil's podcasts, he claims SN filters their beer, then adds back a very specific amount of yeast for oxygen control and final carbonation. I've never been there myself.

I have had a couple of ales reach EVG before I got them spunded, so I added some sugar at kegging. Worked great.

Dosing inline on transfer via a syringe. That's how I add anything.