Anaerobic and Aerobic Beer Aging

[Richard]

Just been reading this (trying to figure out an off-flavour I've noticed lately):

http://www.agriculturejournals.cz/publicFiles/16225.pdf

[Richard]

By way of experiment when I finally get my CO2 tank I'm going to try bottle conditioning part of the batch, and kegging the rest. Making sure to flush everything on the kegging side with CO2 before racking the beer, and going business as normal with the bottles, I should have a good idea as to whether or not oxidisation is causing issues with the bottles.

[Kyle]

C02 flushing proir to kegging is good practice, but I don't always do it.

[Gil Breau]

I try to, but I forget a lot of the times to flush >.>

[Richard]

Well I noticed an off flavour that could be described as sherry-like (which would suggest oxidation), although it may turn out to be something I'm doing wrong on the hotside.

[Richard]

and fwiw the paper up there pretty much seems to boil down to "flushing oxygen and using antioxidants buys you time, but the end result is the same after suitable time has passed". The aging (redox of various compounds) still happens in the absence of oxygen, just slower.