Gelatin

[Ozwald]

Now that I've tried it once, I can't believe I've been brewing for so long without trying it. I can't find the original thread I was reading, but I used BDawg's suggestion of 300mL water & 1tsp of gelatin. (Boil water, cool to <150F, add gelatin, 10min bloom, add to the keg & rack on top). Unbelievable. I was expecting to notice a difference, but not a whole lot beyond that. I did a bigger batch & dosed 6 kegs. The first one that had a decent level of carbonation was a blonde ale. I just poured a pint & it's making Budweiser look cloudy. Brilliantly clear doesn't even begin to describe it. Easily the most beautiful looking beer I've ever poured.

On the downside, my 2 conicals share temp control & in the other one was my first attempt with WLP028 (Edinburgh). I typically ferment on the cooler side & had some massive problems with the 028 (that batch was brewed a week prior) going dormant below 65F. By the time the blonde hit the fermenter I had to hold the 028 @ 71F just to get it to (sort of) finish - the 001 blonde finished out in a 1.5 days & it definitely tastes like it. Not quite fusel-y, but it's a strong reminder of why I won't use 001 even @ 68. It doesn't help that I use that blonde recipe to play with different ideas & this one has a bit too much Marris Otter for my taste. Drinkable & I'll finish all 4 kegs of it, but not very impressive past the unbelievable clarity.

Since I don't brew wheat-heavy styles anymore, I do believe the gelatin regiment is going to find it's way in all my kegs from here on out.

[duckmanco]

Is this stuff completely dependent on the beer being cold? My regimen is usually 2-3 weeks in primary, and then strsight to keg from room temp with no cold crashing, mainly because I generally don't have a kegerator spot open every time I move a beer to a keg, so it sits warm until a slot opens up.

I've tried biofine clear both warm and cold and have been less than impressed. I'd like to be able to use gelatin IF the beer doesn't have to be cold.

[TheDarkSide]

Is this stuff completely dependent on the beer being cold? My regimen is usually 2-3 weeks in primary, and then strsight to keg from room temp with no cold crashing, mainly because I generally don't have a kegerator spot open every time I move a beer to a keg, so it sits warm until a slot opens up.

I've tried biofine clear both warm and cold and have been less than impressed. I'd like to be able to use gelatin IF the beer doesn't have to be cold.

I believe gelatin works ok warm but it works so much better when the beer is cold. I use it in all my beers except stouts.

[Ozwald]

Like I said it was my first time trying it out, so I can't give a whole lot of insight beyond this last batch, but here's my experience.

I kegged from 15g & 25g conicals giving me 4 kegs off one & 2 off the other. Each keg got 300mL of the gelatin mix. My conicals aren't pressurize-able, I put 12psi on the kegs after cleaning (& re-pressurized after adding the gelatin). My (sample) cock is connected to the liquid side & I use a gas connector with a small ball valve to regulate the flow into the keg. Since this causes me to fill kegs right to the bottom of the gas dip tube, I pour off a few ounces with a picnic tap right away so I don't get liquid up my gas lines. The kegs got put into my keezer & (another first) I slow carbed them @ 12psi. This time I didn't pull enough beer off & had some bubbles starting to enter the gas line on day 3, so I poured off a few more ounces to be safe. The gelatin had already taken hold & I got some nice clumps in the pour. It took 4 more days to reach a drinkable level of carbonation, but still pretty light overall. The darker beer from the 15g fermenter hasn't quite caught up yet & I got a few more clumps on a test pour. The blonde only spat out the gelatin clumps the first time. I try to be nice to the compressor in the keezer, so I programmed the temp control with a bit of swing - 35-42F internal ambient temp - so the kegs were cool the whole time, but I didn't try to crash it to -1C or anything. Since the keezer is still under construction & pretty new, I had room for all 6 kegs to get carbed & stay there, which is not likely to be the case when I'm back in full production. As of right now I'm planning on doing the same, but pulling extra kegs after they're carbonated & put into the coolest storage I can do (I have a closet that stays cool in the summer & a spare room in the winter).

I can't say I've ever tried making Jello (same concept) without putting it in the cold to set, so I'm not really sure how cold you have to get it to be effective. Another thing to remember is that the kegs can't be disturbed as I understand the gelatin won't re-settle out completely like some other finings. I think the non-carbed beer got bumped a few times being in the front, which might explain why I got Jello pellets twice. Even though I've been brewing for a decade, this was the first time I tried gelatin. At this point, I would recommend the same - just try it & see what happens. I was surely surprised at the results.

[spiderwrangler]

I've used it warm, probably less effective, since I still got bottle carbonation without adding new yeast, but that was on WLP 500 that was still hazy after 3+ months. However, the beer poured brilliantly clear, and I feel that the settled yeast was less easily picked up when I racked to bottling bucket.

[Stinkfist]

love me some gelatin

[RiggsSpiltMyDrank]

So gelatin > filtering? I can't wait to be brewing again, and this is a new process that I am looking into adding.

[spiderwrangler]

So gelatin > filtering?

To me it is.