Thanks for sharing these exbeeriments -- I found them fascinating. The
one where he uses SMB for a NEIPA in <cringe> unpurged kegs was
especially apt for me. The beer without the sulfite was obviously a bit
oxidized at only 5 days after kegging, when compared with the sulfited
keg. Interstingly, the former was deemed to have a bit more hop
character by the exbeerimenter initially, only to be surpassed with
time by the beer with the sulfite.
I never realized, or at least forgot, that metabisulfites will also
scavange chloramines in the brew water.
Regarding kegging, keeping in mind that even with multiple CO2 purges,
there will still be a few ppm of O2 in the mix (according to that
partial pressure of gasses stuff I vaguely remember from college). One
way around that is to fill the keg with sanitizer solution, then purge
that out completely with CO2. I am feeling a bit more emboldened to use
the PMB (never used the sodium, which was deemed more noticeable though
not necessarily in a negative sense) that I use for winemaking with my
brewing. Especially with my more oxygen sensitive dry hopped beers.
Again, thanks for sharing!
--
Bill O'Meally