Gelatin Questions

[Omahawk]

Looking to clarify some Ales that I'll be bottling and giving away to family and friends, and thinking I'll try gelatin. I used Islinglass previously and didn't notice any benefit. Two questions related to gelatin for beer clarifying:

1) What type of gelatin do you use? Just the plain "Knox" gelatin that's sold in the baking aisle at the market?
2) How/when do you add it to the beer? Through searching forums, I've seen references to diluting it with water and adding after attenuation is completed, but have not seen proportions (gelatin/water ratio) and exactly how long it should be suspended prior to bottling.

Thanks for the tips.

Edit: I used Irish Moss during last 15 minutes of boil if that matters.

[Elbone]

Yes- plain old Knox Gelatin.

I use half an envelope sprinkled on top of a cup of cold water and "bloomed" for a few minutes. Bring that almost to a boil to sanitize, cover, and allow to cool back to room temp.

Gelatin works best at packaging so add it to the bottling bucket or to the bottom of your serving keg before racking on top of it to mix. I also try to cold crash the beer in the carboy before racking to the keg to get it as clear as possible. If I don't have the fridge space to crash the carboy, I'll go ahead and keg, chill, and then add gelatin. Gelatin works better in cold beer. Cold condition for a week or so while it carbonates. You'll pull off a pint or so of goo right at first and then clear beer.

[Omahawk]

Yes- plain old Knox Gelatin.

I use half an envelope sprinkled on top of a cup of cold water and "bloomed" for a few minutes. Bring that almost to a boil to sanitize, cover, and allow to cool back to room temp.

Gelatin works best at packaging so add it to the bottling bucket or to the bottom of your serving keg before racking on top of it to mix. I also try to cold crash the beer in the carboy before racking to the keg to get it as clear as possible. If I don't have the fridge space to crash the carboy, I'll go ahead and keg, chill, and then add gelatin. Gelatin works better in cold beer. Cold condition for a week or so while it carbonates. You'll pull off a pint or so of goo right at first and then clear beer.

Thanks for the tips. So if I'm not kegging, the steps are basically: 1) try and fit my carboy in a fridge to cold crash, 2) rack it to a bottling bucket with my priming sugar and gelatin-water mix.

I've never cold crashed - does it affect the time it takes for carbonation? (i.e., how long does it take for the yeast to "wake up" and go to work on the priming sugar?) I typically carbonate for at least 3 weeks in bottle.

Thanks again.

[Elbone]

Yes- plain old Knox Gelatin.

I use half an envelope sprinkled on top of a cup of cold water and "bloomed" for a few minutes. Bring that almost to a boil to sanitize, cover, and allow to cool back to room temp.

Gelatin works best at packaging so add it to the bottling bucket or to the bottom of your serving keg before racking on top of it to mix. I also try to cold crash the beer in the carboy before racking to the keg to get it as clear as possible. If I don't have the fridge space to crash the carboy, I'll go ahead and keg, chill, and then add gelatin. Gelatin works better in cold beer. Cold condition for a week or so while it carbonates. You'll pull off a pint or so of goo right at first and then clear beer.

Thanks for the tips. So if I'm not kegging, the steps are basically: 1) try and fit my carboy in a fridge to cold crash, 2) rack it to a bottling bucket with my priming sugar and gelatin-water mix.

I've never cold crashed - does it affect the time it takes for carbonation? (i.e., how long does it take for the yeast to "wake up" and go to work on the priming sugar?) I typically carbonate for at least 3 weeks in bottle.

Thanks again.

I have to be honest and admit I've never used gelatin while bottle-conditioning. Perhaps another soldier with some experience could chime in on this.

[Travisty]

I think what your steps would be for clarifying a bottle conditioned beer would be to add the fining agent (i.e. gelatin) to the beer, mix it in, and cold crash to drop the yeast and the haze. Then when you rack to your bottling bucket with the priming sugar you're going to need to add some yeast back, since you've dropped your initial yeast out in the fining process. I don't think that finings are meant to be used in the bottles.

Time is a great fining agent though. I've always found that my bottle conditioned beers have been very clear after a week or two in the fridge after carbonation.

[Omahawk]

I think what your steps would be for clarifying a bottle conditioned beer would be to add the fining agent (i.e. gelatin) to the beer, mix it in, and cold crash to drop the yeast and the haze. Then when you rack to your bottling bucket with the priming sugar you're going to need to add some yeast back, since you've dropped your initial yeast out in the fining process. I don't think that finings are meant to be used in the bottles.

Time is a great fining agent though. I've always found that my bottle conditioned beers have been very clear after a week or two in the fridge after carbonation.

A previous episode where I used Islinglass and my beer didn't carb is now making more sense.

Great advice, Travisty and Elbone. I might just cold crash it, might do both cold crash and gelatin, might do none of the above ... we'll see how much work I feel like putting into this one.

[noahnchina]

I used WL 570 on a belgian golden strong I did. I think it is done fermenting and was wondering if I should use gelatin to get it to clear. I have heard this yeast takes months to floc. I bottle and assume i would need to drop maybe 1/4 of a tube into the bottling bucket if I use gelatin. or alternatively should I just rack to a secondary and let it clear after a number of months? any advice is appreciated thanks.

[dogma46an2]

would it be ok if I used the knox in the car boy at room temp before i keg for like a day then keg or do i really need to do this in the keg and cold crash for a week