Expert Fining Opinions

[Mills]

I have a helles that I used gelatin to fine with. It worked great. When I tasted the beer, I perceived a great amount of astringency in the back of my palate. It ended up that it was my palate reacting to seasonal allergies. In order to combat the astringency, I degassed and added polyclar in hopes of pulling tannins and polyphenols, per Palmers How to Brew. Now one week later after the polyclar dose (made into a slurry with boiled, cooled, dechlorinized water) sitting at 35, the beer is hazy.

WTF?

Do gelatin and Polyclar not play nice together?

Mills

[SacoDeToro]

Not sure about incompatibilities between gelatin and Polyclar. I used Polyclar many years ago and was not impressed with the results. I've been using gelatin to fine all of my beers for about the last 5 years. It was my understanding that gelatin was the only fining agent that was really capable of pulling meaningful levels of polyphenols.

BTW, what is the beer style that you're having an issue with and what yeast did you use?

[Mills]

Munich Helles, 833. It was clear as a bell with just the gelatin on it. Live and learn...

Mills

[Thirsty Boy]

If time doesn't solve the problem for you - then if you aren't able to filter it out, then perhaps you could try counterfining with a negatively charged finings agent.

Bentonite, Silica Gel, Tanic acid

Might be that you have overfined with the gelatine and PVPP and the net +ve charge is making things reluctant to settle out.

[thatguy314]

You can try colloidal silica. Morebeer and midwest (and maybe some others) sell it as biofine clear. If you see anything that just says biofine (without the clear) that's actually isinglass.