How to use beer finings

I've purchased some beer finings for my second batch as I'd like it to be as clear as possible. It's a 22ltr batch. I was wondering if I could move it to 5ltr secondary carboys after 10 days or so and then ad the finings. Would it be alright to seperate the beer into four containers to do the secondary fermentation?

Splitting a batch using 5L demijohns was Dave Lines prefered method of secondary fermentation (the author of the original homebrewers bible, the big book of brewing). This is probably due to the lack of 25L demijohns back in the 70's, none the less he produced fantastic beers and excellent 'clone' recipes which are still widely used today.
As for finings, it all depends what type you have bought. Most homebrewers finings available in the UK are a waste of time.

I purchased some isinglass finnings to help the clarity of my beer in secondary fermintation and I wonder how to put into my beer? Do I have to boil them with some of my ferminted beer? Water?

Or is it just a waste of time?

To use IG, (an approximation) take a small amount of beer and mix in 2 tablespoons of IG per gallon of beer in the final batch then mix this in with the full amount. Do not boil or it wont work. If the IG is older than 6 months old or it hasn't been stored in the fridge since manufacture its performance will be significantly reduced. Good IG will clear a beer in a few hours.

(the proper way to use it involves taking a few samples and ading differeing amounts and comparing the results noting flocculation, stability and speed of clearing).

Don't use in a clearing vessel prior to bottling as good IG will pull so much yeast out the bottles wont carbonate. If you use itimeadeately before bottling you will find the sediment is very unstable, you will have great looking beer in the bottle but you wont be able to pour it without stirring all the sediment up.

Wow, now I'm more confused

Sounds like I will hold off on this until I brew a few so I can compare results.

WTF!!!??? Why don't you just add the finings to the container they are already in???

I've never used finings, and never will. No need to mess with Reinheitsgebot!

Patience, racking, & crash cooling will clear your beer. No need to add anything funky to it IMHO.

homebrewer_99 said:

WTF!!!??? Why don't you just add the finings to the container they are already in???

Click to expand...

You can but mixing them in a little beer first helps them dispearese properly with minimum stirring. Proper issinglass is quite gelatinous and would otherwise need excessive stirring to distruibute properly and is best kept to a minimum in beer. It is actually very simple and commercial issinglass is amazing stuff.
I had a problem with a persistant yeast haze in a very pale (golden) ale which I wanted to serve in a few days so I added some directly to a corni keg. The intention was to get the finings to cause the yeast to drop out and then to draw off the yeast sediment. (Corni's draw from the bottom of the keg incase anyone reading doesn't know)

The glass on the left left is the first 1/3 pt drawn off from the keg with all the yeast and sediment the issinglass pulled out, on the right is next 1/3 of a pint drawn from the same keg. The keg took about 3-4 hrs to fall bright.

This is a shot of issinglass in action (added directly to a glass of hazy beer), the yeast is floccing together and starting to drop out.

(btw, the on-line store I use for homebrew supplies sells this stuff for around £1 for 250mls so it's cheaper than most of the fancy brightly packged stuff available)

This was reasonably fresh issinglass, stored properly (less than 6 months old and kept chilled). The 2 year old dusty bottles kept on the shelf in the corner of the homebrew store wont have the same effect.

The best alternative I have found to issinglass is regular granulated gelatine.

To use, draw off 1 pt of beer into a pan, heat on the stove to 80 deg c (just don't allow to boil), sprinkle on the granules and keep stirring, do this for 5 mins or so stirring occasionally.

Remove from the heat and keep stirring occasionally while it cools (in a sink of cold water). Add to the secondary or keg once cool (it doesn't have to be stone cold) you can either rack on top of it or add it carefully directly to the beer in the secondary or the keg. The beer should fall bright in a day or two. If you don't keep stirring while preparing the gelatine will turn back into a harmless beer-jello and sit on the top of the beer in the secondary or keg and anoy you.

Gelatine forms a more stable sediment than issinglass.

My point was to use it in the fermenter, and not the glass.

I use gelatin. 1 TBS in 1 C water warmed til it dissolves then into the carboy for a couple of days.

My point is you can use it anywhere you like at any point you like and it takes a few hours.

Recently I bought a little 7g sachet from the homebrew shop - and the bloke said to dissolve it in around 250ml of warm water with 3 teaspoons of sugar mixed in, then when it was all disolved to dump into the brew and let it sit for a week.