Aging after fining

My tripel was looking particularly cloudy, even after I thought I had reached FG. So, when I transferred it to secondary, I thought I’d throw in a little gelatin to clear things up.

Boy did it ever! 12 hours later it dropped like a rock. There’s a thicker layer of sediment at the bottom in the secondary than there was in the primary! (So much for getting it off the yeast sediment.)

I’m wondering what this means for the beer in terms of aging. My understanding is that filtered beers don’t really ‘age’ – they just get old. But is fining with gelatin similar to filtering in that regard? I had planned to let the tripel age in secondary (@ ~64 F) 6-8 weeks to let it mellow out before kegging… but now am wondering if that extended time will help or hurt my beer now that it’s turned clear as a bell.

Also, does gelatin yank out the yeast so hard it stops working? As I said above, I thought I had reached FG – but later discovered that my hydrometer was reading 3 pts too high - - so the beer might have had a few more points to chew on. But I fear I killed my chances of that with the addition of gelatin.

all gelatin does is help proteins coagulate and fall out. its not filtering. there are still plenty of yeast floating around in the brew. but i have to warn you, because your OG was so high and the resulting ABV is so high your going to have a hard time bottle carbing it. i would recommend force carbing.

by this point the yeast are in pretty bad shape just from the alcohol. so chances are it will never get those final 3 points. i wouldn't worry about it. just make sure your SG is stable then bottle.

No intention of bottling. Going to keg and force carb this one.
Thanks.

But you bring up a good point about the yeast being fairly well-beaten. When I transferred to the secondary, I poured off a good amount of slurry to save for later. I was planning on using it to brew a Belgian Blonde this weekend. Perhaps it's not a good idea to reuse yeast that's been through the 9% abv ringer? On the other hand, I do have an awful lot of it... I'm sure way more cells than recommended, so would the quantity of my cell count make up for the lack of quality in my cells?

I was planning to pitch a large count and at cooler temps with the hope of keeping phenolilcs and esters to a minimum. The goal is to make this Blonde very restrained in its 'Belgianness'.

Judochop said:

... I thought I’d throw in a little gelatin to clear things up.

Click to expand...

I'm glad this worked so well for you. May I ask how you introduced the gelatin into the secondary? Some suggest dissolving in water at 170 F and then cooling before poring into the secondary. I'm interested in what, precisely, you did. I have a lager in the primary now that will need considerable fining!

So far my best result with gelatin was on Biermunchers Centennial Blonde. I racked to a secondary and then I ran and prepped the gelatin. 1/2 packet for about 6oz water I eyeballed it really. Then when it cooled I poured it into the secondary then hours later you could see the proteins falling out. I had a nice layer of white at the bottom after a day.

Futureman said:

I'm glad this worked so well for you. May I ask how you introduced the gelatin into the secondary? Some suggest dissolving in water at 170 F and then cooling before poring into the secondary. I'm interested in what, precisely, you did. I have a lager in the primary now that will need considerable fining!

Click to expand...

That's about what I did. I brought about 1.5 cups water to a boil (boiled off about 0.5 cup) then let it cool to... um... something hot. Can't remember exact temp. It might have been only 90-100 F. I don't think it's critical though... the instructions I received said to make sure the water was hot, in order for the gelatin to dissolve well. Just how hot may only be a matter of convenience.

Stirred it up till dissolved, then I let cool to 70'ish and poured into secondary. Went clear as a bell a day later.