gelatin finings?

Oh well you should be fine then. It'll probably just take a bit longer for the gelatin to start sinking. Once it does it will start dragging everything down with it

I let it sit for over a day and just decided to rack.

Guess I have to let it sit longer next time.

Does the first pull from a keg ever have gelatin in it? I would think that the amount of gelatin settling to the bottom would get sucked up into the tapped beer.

Also, I like to do the roll and carb method when I first throw a keg into the fridge. Could that cause the gelatin to flow around and get caught up in the dip tube or in the top of the keg or will it just drop down before it has a chance to turn into full jello?

How cool do we want to drop the gelatin before putting into keg?

If I ever use gelantin, I disolve it in 180 degree water for several minutes to sanitize, then put 50% cold water in solution thereafter before using. Seemed to work fine many times.

OK, trying to figure this cold-crash/gelatin thing. I have a cream ale I cold crashed on 3/27. 0n 4/1 I dissolved 1 tsp gelatin in 1 cup hot tap water, let sit 25 minutes, then brought up to 180 degrees, then cooled to about 90 degrees, then poured into the beer. today 4/5, it seems to be a nice jelly-like layer floating on the top of my beer now. If I give the carboy gentle nudge it start to have that lava lamp effect. Did I do something wrong or does it just need more time?

Sould I try the gelatin again?

02fx4dude said:

OK, trying to figure this cold-crash/gelatin thing. I have a cream ale I cold crashed on 3/27. 0n 4/1 I dissolved 1 tsp gelatin in 1 cup hot tap water, let sit 25 minutes, then brought up to 180 degrees, then cooled to about 90 degrees, then poured into the beer. today 4/5, it seems to be a nice jelly-like layer floating on the top of my beer now. If I give the carboy gentle nudge it start to have that lava lamp effect. Did I do something wrong or does it just need more time?

Sould I try the gelatin again?

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Boil the water, not the gelatin -180 is too hot for the gelatin. Bring the water to a boil, let it cool a bit, dissolve the gelatin in the water, let it bloom and cool for a few minutes, pour it into the beer.

Slurm said:

Boil the water, not the gelatin -180 is too hot for the gelatin. Bring the water to a boil, let it cool a bit, dissolve the gelatin in the water, let it bloom and cool for a few minutes, pour it into the beer.

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OK, sounds like a good method. I'll try it.

Any ideas what to do about the floating goo?

Somewhat old thread, but I have to post my results because I'm so impressed with the gelatin trick. Had two half-or-so batches, one a honey blonde and one a mild, both with wicked haze. The blonde was so opaque, it looked like paint. One packet of gelatin, dissolved in 1 cup of 180 water into each keg, three days later, and you can read through the blonde. No real noticable change in the mild though.

Before:


After:


Close up of the blonde:

Just an fyi, using a full packet of gelatin is way to much. You can really strip off aroma and even flavor with that much, ask me how I know. The commercial stuff I use only calls for 1/2tsp per 5 gallons. It doesn't take much.


_

wildwest450 said:

Just an fyi, using a full packet of gelatin is way to much. You can really strip off aroma and even flavor with that much, ask me how I know. The commercial stuff I use only calls for 1/2tsp per 5 gallons. It doesn't take much.


_

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I had read that too, but the haze was just so bad with these two that I figured I'd go with the shotgun approach. Doesn't seem to have affected negatively. The mild even seems to taste a little better than it did before.

BierMuncher said:

I use a tablespoon per five gallon batch.

Mix it with hot tap water in a sauce pot, about 1 cup of water per tablespoon.

Stir it up and let it sit for 20-30 minutes to hydrate and bloom.

Put the pot on the stove and heat until it looks like it’s about to start boiling…don’t boil.

Cool slightly (I put my pot in a cold water bath).

Add it (gently) to the secondary (or keg) as you’re racking your beer.

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Why would you add it to a keg that your going to serve out of? The first runnings for a while would be gelatin.

pola0502ds said:

Why would you add it to a keg that your going to serve out of? The first runnings for a while would be gelatin.

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No, it dissolves. I always add it to the serving keg when I use it, no problems.

_

So I have seen a couple people ask the question I want to ask with no answer.

Is it possible to add the gelatin to the primary after 3 weeks and then transfer to a keg to age?

Any problems with this?

I'm sure it works I just don't get it. You add gelatin to clear the beer. When you add it the gelatin removes the stuff that clouds the beer and falls the the bottom, so at least the first few beers would be cloudy, correct?

pola0502ds said:

So I have seen a couple people ask the question I want to ask with no answer.

Is it possible to add the gelatin to the primary after 3 weeks and then transfer to a keg to age?

Any problems with this?

Click to expand...

I have added gelatin to the primary many times, usually with a cold crash at about 33 deg F. Works great.

I've done both. No problem putting it into the primary (cold crashing) and transferring. (to get it to settle faster).

For the serving keg. Essentially what happens is that it all settles to the bottom, I don't think I've noticed because I prime using sugar in those and toss the first few ounces anyways due to the yeast. But, it compacts enough that it's not really an issue except for the little bit around the dip tube (like the yeast).

This equates to about one beer, or the amount you'd wind up leaving in the fermenter when transferred.

I gelatin in the keg all the time. Works fine, and the beers are crystal clear by the third pint.

I will add that I have also used gelatin in the keg. The first pour had some, when the keg kicked the last pint had much.

Same here. I've added 1/2 packet knox gelatin to the keg and get a cloudy pint the first pull but everything is crystal clear by the 3rd or 4th.

If you naturally prime a keg with dextrose, would you add knox gelatin once you put the keg into the kegerator? My kegerator is full right now, so I have a keg that was primed with dextrose ready in about a week. Obviously, I would have to open the top to pour the gelatin in.

BrewThruYou said:

If you naturally prime a keg with dextrose, would you add knox gelatin once you put the keg into the kegerator? My kegerator is full right now, so I have a keg that was primed with dextrose ready in about a week. Obviously, I would have to open the top to pour the gelatin in.

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The English method is to add the finings and priming sugar at the same time, but you could certainly add the gelatin after priming (you will lose some carbonation though).

Last night I added 2 tsp of Knox to a partially carbed keg of Czech Pils. I'm not normally a clear-beer-snob, but this one is for the Urquell competition coming up in a month.

Oldsock said:

The English method is to add the finings and priming sugar at the same time, but you could certainly add the gelatin after priming (you will lose some carbonation though).

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I just purchased a package of Brewcraft gelatin powder. The instructions state to dissolve 1 tsp in a half pint of water, warm until dissolved, and stir into beer at priming or kegging.

I bottle, I don't normally secondary, and I don't really like to cold crash because the big pot I use for cold crashing makes it difficult to see into my carboy, so I end up severely disturbing the yeast cake with my racking cane, which seems to defeat the purpose. Finally, I'd prefer not to add gelatin to my primary because I want to wash this cake of yeast.

Following Brewcraft's instructions to the letter, you'd think I could avoid all that stuff I don't want to do by just racking from primary into my bottling bucket, adding the priming sugar solution and gelatin solution at the same time, and bottling.

Does anyone have experience with doing it both ways? I.e., the easy way described above, and the more involved way, with a cold crash in secondary? Does the more involved way deliver noticeably better results?

Ok so I've used Knox gelatin as per biermunchers instruction on a 5 gal APA and it worked better than I had hoped.

I want to use it on a 1 gal batch that I'm playing with and would like to know if anyone has suggestions for scaling it down for this size batch. I have to do this tonight so...a little help please.

Mdessert said:

Ok so I've used Knox gelatin as per biermunchers instruction on a 5 gal APA and it worked better than I had hoped.

I want to use it on a 1 gal batch that I'm playing with and would like to know if anyone has suggestions for scaling it down for this size batch. I have to do this tonight so...a little help please.

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Add 1/5th of what worked for you with 5 gallons, I would imagine.

tonyolympia said:

Does anyone have experience with doing it both ways? I.e., the easy way described above, and the more involved way, with a cold crash in secondary? Does the more involved way deliver noticeably better results?

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You will get clear beer adding it at priming, but you'll end up with a pretty fat layer of yeast at the bottom of each bottle. FYI there are a few people earlier in this thread who didn't have an issue washing their yeast after using gelatin.

Sorry for the pun, but can anyone clarify how clear the beer becomes after adding gelatin? Are we talking no sediment, or "macrobrew crystal clear?" I've tried to add KC finings for less than impressive results. Every time I keg, my beer is opaque until the last 1/2 gallon or so....usually after sitting a month in the keg...then it's clear as can be. Am I to assume that gelatin will speed this process up? I'm using a 7 gal conical, so I usually skip secondary.....can I just add the gelatin to the conical after a few weeks and let it sit for another week or so? Can I get good results without a cold crash? Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

guinnessface said:

Sorry for the pun, but can anyone clarify how clear the beer becomes after adding gelatin? Are we talking no sediment, or "macrobrew crystal clear?" I've tried to add KC finings for less than impressive results. Every time I keg, my beer is opaque until the last 1/2 gallon or so....usually after sitting a month in the keg...then it's clear as can be. Am I to assume that gelatin will speed this process up? I'm using a 7 gal conical, so I usually skip secondary.....can I just add the gelatin to the conical after a few weeks and let it sit for another week or so? Can I get good results without a cold crash? Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

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I could read a book through the beer. Even the dry hopped ones. Does that answer your question?

Eric

EricCSU said:

I could read a book through the beer. Even the dry hopped ones. Does that answer your question?

Eric

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I'll echo Erics response . Half packet of knox gelatin prepped and poured in the keg as it goes into the kegerator and on gas. Dispense a pint 2-3 days later. 2 week wait for it to fully carb and age a little and 3rd or 4th pint is crystal clear just like EricCSU says.

I asked this question in another thread, but never got a response: if you want to use gelatin finings in primary, but you also planned to add spices or dry hop in the primary, should the gelatin be added before or after the spices/hops?

I would normally add gelatin at the very end, two days or so before packaging, but I worry that if I add the gelatin after the spices or hops, it will strip away the effect of the flavor/aroma additions.

EricCSU said:

I could read a book through the beer. Even the dry hopped ones. Does that answer your question?

Eric

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Sure does. I'll try some for the brown ale I have in the conical. Thanks for all the responses

guinnessface said:

Sorry for the pun, but can anyone clarify how clear the beer becomes after adding gelatin? Are we talking no sediment, or "macrobrew crystal clear?" I've tried to add KC finings for less than impressive results. Every time I keg, my beer is opaque until the last 1/2 gallon or so....usually after sitting a month in the keg...then it's clear as can be. Am I to assume that gelatin will speed this process up? I'm using a 7 gal conical, so I usually skip secondary.....can I just add the gelatin to the conical after a few weeks and let it sit for another week or so? Can I get good results without a cold crash? Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Click to expand...

Everytime I use this method my beers come out crystal clear as if a pro did it.

Holy cow! I tried out the prescribed method (dropped into an already carbonated keg of blonde) and it worked in less than 24 hours. Clear as a bell. Where have you been all my life, gelatine????

I tried the gelatin in my pumpkin ale and it is absolutely crystal clear! You guys weren't kidding when you said you could read a book through it! Thanks a lot.

Just did this method on 10 gallons of a APA that used 10 ounces of hops and then dry hopped and it's crystal clear..

I actually used the knox gelatin on this one, the first one I did I used the LD carlson gelatin finings, is there a preference? I think the knox worked faster

I've always used the knox, works great and super easy to get and cheap.

I am not sure if it has been mentioned and I apologize if I am repeating information.

Whenever you use gelatin in a keg, make sure to draw off a couple ounces every few days until it is carbonated. The gelatin makes a big glob of beer jello at the bottom of the keg. If you don't move the beer, it clogs the dip tube.

If that does happen to you, use the pressure relief valve to blow off the surface CO2. Then unhook the beer line and use a sanitized diptube cleaning tool to clear the jello.

I once kegged three beers, added gelatin, and put them on gas before visiting the in-laws for two weeks. As you can imagine, I needed a beer when I got home. All three faucets were dry. I had to pull each keg, sanitize the diptube cleaning tool three times, then hook up the kegs and pour out beer jello. It still takes a few days to clear after that because of moving the kegs.

Eric

Marking....

Well, I used knox gelatin in my keg and it's amazingly clear. Love this stuff. After I bottled a few from the keg and shared, my buddy wants to try it too. The problem is that he can't cold crash and he doesn't keg. Will gelatin have any effect at room temperature?

BrewThruYou said:

Well, I used knox gelatin in my keg and it's amazingly clear. Love this stuff. After I bottled a few from the keg and shared, my buddy wants to try it too. The problem is that he can't cold crash and he doesn't keg. Will gelatin have any effect at room temperature?

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I did it at 68F in the 2ry and bottled 2 weeks later and it turned out perfect!