BioFine Clear & Isinglass

[Thirsty Boy]

Unless you have abused the he'll out of your yeast, there is no finings agent on the planet that will take so much of out that you wont be able to naturally condition your beer.the finings manufacturers might wish it was that good... But it isn't.

OK - if you are conditioning some super high gravity thing you might want to re-pitch some more yeast... But that's about health not cell count.

Isinglass and biofine are bopth used for cask conditioned real ales, which by definition are naturally carbonated. He'll... I filter my beer through a 1 micron absolute filter and it still let's enough yeast through to be able to naturally carbonate... Yes I know yeast cells are bigger than 1 micron... But nonetheless it works. Very very bright, Post filtered beer, still manages to naturally carbonate. So I seriously doubt that any finings agent will give you trouble on that front.

Me, I fine with gelatin and any damn vegans who come to my house can bring their own damn beer.

TB

[Cliff]

no finings agent on the planet that will take so much of out that you wont be able to naturally condition your beer.the finings manufacturers might wish it was that good... But it isn't.

Interesting

Isinglass and biofine are bopth used for cask conditioned real ales, which by definition are naturally carbonated.

Well slap my fanny and cooler me purple I was unaware of that.

Me, I fine with gelatin and any damn vegans who come to my house can bring their own damn beer.

Ohhhh man that's harsh.

[andy77]

I kegged a trippel fermented with WLP500, and a Cider brewed with us-05 last Sunday, and just took a sample of each. I used 4 teaspoons of Biofine clear in the bottom of the keg for each. Both are too hazy to see through. I've never fined these yeast strains with gelatin, so take this with a grain of salt, but with my process I usually expect to be able to see through the beer at this point, clear enough even to read through, but not filtered looking yet, that usually takes another week or two.

[andy77]

All of this has me thinking, though. Can anyone think of a reason why we can't make a large gelatin solution and store it long term, to realize the convenience of a pre-prepared product like BioFine?

Boil water, let cool to 155, add gelatin at a ratio of say 1/2 cup to packet of gelatin, let sit for 30 minutes, transfer to a sanitized vessel with lid and store in refrigerator. Then, when we're ready to use, warm to room temp, measure our 1/4 cup to achieve the 1/2 packet of gelatin to 5 gallon beer that works for me, and add to keg before racking.

[beltbuckle]

won't it gell up if we put it in the fridge?

[Cliff]

All of this has me thinking, though. Can anyone think of a reason why we can't make a large gelatin solution and store it long term, to realize the convenience of a pre-prepared product like BioFine?

Protective Colloid/Crystal habit modifying properties.

If a gelled jelly is frozen, the product will suffer from syneresis and on thawing the clear jelly will disintegrate with much exuded water. However, if water containing 0.5 % gelatin is frozen, the water will freeze as millions of small discrete crystals, instead of forming a single solid block of ice. This effect is most desirable in "ice lollies" and is also used in ice cream manufacture to obtain a smooth product with small ice crystals and also to ensure that any lactose precipitates as fine crystals avoiding the development of graininess with time.

Source:
http://www.gelatin.co.za/gltn1.html

[andy77]

I kegged a trippel fermented with WLP500, and a Cider brewed with us-05 last Sunday, and just took a sample of each. I used 4 teaspoons of Biofine clear in the bottom of the keg for each. Both are too hazy to see through. I've never fined these yeast strains with gelatin, so take this with a grain of salt, but with my process I usually expect to be able to see through the beer at this point, clear enough even to read through, but not filtered looking yet, that usually takes another week or two.

As of today, still pouring very hazy and opaque, much like an un-fined beer at two weeks. I know that these yeast strains are not very flocculant, but with gelatin, I usually expect any beer to sparkle after two weeks. My evaluation is that, at this dose, Biofine is inferior to gelatin.

Anyone else have experiences to share?

[popihead]

I don't know about tsp measurements but I thought they had said 1-2oz per 5gal batch. I dropped some in some barley wine but that won't be ready for almost another 9 months. I will keg some Golden Strong Belgians this weekend. They always take their sweet time to clear, ie a few months. SO I will do some testing and try and take some pics in glasses and post them to see if there is much of a difference over the next week or so.

Robert