[Village Taphouse]

I went through the low-ox approach over several years and was making beers with about a gram of KMeta, a gram of Brewtan B and a gram of Ascorbic Acid in a 5 gallon batch in the mash.  I would pre-boil the water and chill to mash temp before adding the water treatment and the grains to dough in with a mash cap (pizza pan that fit the mash tun perfectly with a silicone gasket).  After many, many batches, I pulled out the KMeta and Ascorbic Acid and quit using those.  Then eventually, I let go of the pre-boiling and simply avoided excessive splashing.  The beers seem to turn out fine (I won awards both ways), so I just live with the gentle stirring and modest boil to keep O2 at bay without undertaking more aggressive low O2 measures.  I am not saying that my Helles is just as good as the German brewers or low O2 adherents, but I haven't had one turned down when offered for as long as I can remember.

Just sayin'...KMeta isn't an absolute necessary addition to a good pale lager.

Instead of the boiling and chilling, I used (and still do) the yeast + sugar addition to the brewing water.  It's supposed to bring the O2 level down to close to zero within about 20 minutes.  I still have some of my low(er)-O2 processes in place but the SMB/AA is out of my process now.