Gelatin? Yes or no??

[bazookazilla]

I have some imperial oatmeal stout I am planning on kegging tomorrow. I always use gelatin to fine my beers. I know the stout is not going to "clear" but I want to get as much yeast and trub out as I can without stripping out any flavor. Is gelatin a good idea or should I just give it a little extra time to precipitate out?

[BDawg]

sure, go for it

[brewinhard]

How long has it been sitting in primary for? Why not just let it sit another week for things to settle out a bit?

I typically give my big beers about 4 wks in primary before kegging them.

And as for an Imperial Stout which is already very dark (opaque mostly) I don't see the benefit of gelatin even if it is just to drop out extra proteins, yeast, trub, etc. Time and gravity is all you need for that in a big dark beer like this. Just my 2 cents though.

[bazookazilla]

I kegged it Monday after three weeks. The final gravity was 1.018.

[Charlie]

Why use gelatin? The trub should have stayed in the kettle, and the yeast should fall out a week after it's kegged and crashed.

Removing stuff from a finished beer usually involves removing flavor and aroma too. I favor a minimalist approach in that respect. Hazy beers are all the rage now. One local brewer is even using a hefe type yeast to keep more aroma/flavor in their finished ales! That's a bit weird to me, but what do I know?

Charlie

[bazookazilla]

Why use gelatin? The trub should have stayed in the kettle, and the yeast should fall out a week after it's kegged and crashed.
I favor a minimalist approach in that respect. Hazy beers are all the rage now. One local brewer is even using a hefe type yeast to keep more aroma/flavor in their finished ales!

Charlie

I agree with you, Charlie. I think hazy=lazy. I don't want to filter it for sure, but wasn't sure whether gelatin would be a good idea or not. I think i will skip it altogether.