Gluten Free (and stout) question

So this is my second attempt at a GF Stout. First one turned out just ok but it was very thick- in fact my first 3 GF beers were thick in body and poor clarity and tasted a little yeasty. I have since used gelatin (2nd ferm) in my recent batches and that has really cleared up the problem. My most recent citrus IPA is pretty bomb digity:rockin: Maybe I was not letting the beer settle long enough to get all the suspended proteins and yeast out?

My stout is in the 2nd ferm (10 days in primary) and will remain there until 3 days before Thanksgiving when I will force carb (I also plan on saving about 12-18 bottles to age the beer and see how it tastes 3, 6, and hopefully but doubtful 12 months).

My question is what will putting a clearing agent (gelatin) into the stout do? Will it take some of the color (dont want that) and most of the body out of the beer? The color is choc brown right now (for some reason I cant get a black stout using the sorghum malt). Of course you dont want a stout being light in taste but I dont want the overly thick almost yeasty taste...

thanks for the suggestions!!

it might be helpful if you detail your recipe and process. It might give people a better idea what's going on with your brew, or at least give us some ideas of what to try on our own batches

Did you try cold crashing it?

I've just roasted some buckwheat and millet as dark as I dared to go that I will be using in both my american brown ale and my double chocolate oatmeal stout. I doubt I'll get black but I should get some decent color from them.

Well I guess I cold crash when kegging it. But really I should probably cold crash before I keg the beer so the sediment settles before putting it in a keg. How long after going into the 2nd ferm do you cold crash? When it stops fermenting?

fermentedhiker said:

it might be helpful if you detail your recipe and process. It might give people a better idea what's going on with your brew, or at least give us some ideas of what to try on our own batches

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sure I will get it on the forum sometime tomorrow. I tasted it going into the 2nd ferm and it tasted pretty dang good. Not very bitter at all and I hear that can happen when using coffee and cocoa powder.

andrewdell19 said:

Well I guess I cold crash when kegging it. But really I should probably cold crash before I keg the beer so the sediment settles before putting it in a keg. How long after going into the 2nd ferm do you cold crash? When it stops fermenting?

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I've gotten away from doing a secondary lately but IF I were still doing it and I was going to cold crash...probably 5 days before bottling is when I would cold crash it. I don't know if there is a written rule or a "this works better than that" thing going on.

Lcasanova said:

I don't know if there is a written rule or a "this works better than that" thing going on.

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Rule: Longer is clearer. After a week or so, hard to notice a difference in most beers though.

Keep in mind that anything besides Clarex or other extreme measures isn't going to change the mouthfeel much though, it is pretty much strictly for appearance. If you are getting a chunky beer, chances are good it is the recipe, not insufficient clarity.

For example, my hefeweizens (real, not GF) are very cloudy, but are also very light and crisp in mouthfeel.

DKershner said:

Rule: Longer is clearer. After a week or so, hard to notice a difference in most beers though.

Keep in mind that anything besides Clarex or other extreme measures isn't going to change the mouthfeel much though, it is pretty much strictly for appearance. If you are getting a chunky beer, chances are good it is the recipe, not insufficient clarity.

For example, my hefeweizens (real, not GF) are very cloudy, but are also very light and crisp in mouthfeel.

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Ok well it definately isnt chunky. I might not be explaining it too well. I think I will try the cold crashing and at a last resort the gelatin.

What in the recipe would cause the beer to be chunky? Too many brewing/spec grains? I guess shaking the primary or secondary ferm when transfering the beer would cause it be thicker.

Lcasanova said:

I've gotten away from doing a secondary lately but IF I were still doing it and I was going to cold crash...probably 5 days before bottling is when I would cold crash it. I don't know if there is a written rule or a "this works better than that" thing going on.

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So you just rack into a glass carboy after the boil? How much sediment is at the bottom before you bottle? For instance this stout I just did had almost a gallon of sediment at the bottom (cocoa powder and roasted gf oatmeal was probably the reason)

andrewdell19 said:

Ok well it definately isnt chunky. I might not be explaining it too well. I think I will try the cold crashing and at a last resort the gelatin.

What in the recipe would cause the beer to be chunky? Too many brewing/spec grains? I guess shaking the primary or secondary ferm when transfering the beer would cause it be thicker.

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Lots of reasons for a thicker beer. High FG would be the most common. Ingredients such as oats also make the beer feel thicker.

A beer with a bunch of yeast still in suspension would taste 'yeasty' but the mouthfeel wouldn't be affected much. Trub would just fall out again.

andrewdell19 said:

So you just rack into a glass carboy after the boil? How much sediment is at the bottom before you bottle? For instance this stout I just did had almost a gallon of sediment at the bottom (cocoa powder and roasted gf oatmeal was probably the reason)

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For beers where you have ridiculous amounts of trub, you can use a secondary, but I havent used one in quite awhile.

I just pump the wort into a corny straight from the BK. I think Logan just dump-strains his into a bucket.

andrewdell19 said:

So you just rack into a glass carboy after the boil? How much sediment is at the bottom before you bottle? For instance this stout I just did had almost a gallon of sediment at the bottom (cocoa powder and roasted gf oatmeal was probably the reason)

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After the boil I give it a good stir, I guess like a whirlpool but not as intense, and let it settle down, then siphon from the side of the kettle. I get a fair amount of trub in the fermenter but never a full gallon (pumpkin ale excluded). There is not a ton of sediment in the bottles, just the standard amount really.

DKershner said:

For beers where you have ridiculous amounts of trub, you can use a secondary, but I havent used one in quite awhile.

I just pump the wort into a corny straight from the BK. I think Logan just dump-strains his into a bucket.

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You ferment in cornys?

Lcasanova said:

You ferment in cornys?

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Yessir.

Just move from corny primary to corny serving with CO2. The first time the beer touches air is when the faucet on the kegerator is opened. Quite unnecessary but fun nonetheless.

DKershner said:

Yessir.

Just move from corny primary to corny serving with CO2. The first time the beer touches air is when the faucet on the kegerator is opened. Quite unnecessary but fun nonetheless.

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Thats pretty awesome! Do you force carb or do you use priming sugar? On a related note, do you need to keep adding CO2 (via CO2 system) to the keg if you use priming sugar in order to keep enough pressure so that beer comes out?

Do you also just periodically release CO2 when fermenting in the keg? It is an interesting idea that I might have to try out!

andrewdell19 said:

Thats pretty awesome! Do you force carb or do you use priming sugar? On a related note, do you need to keep adding CO2 (via CO2 system) to the keg if you use priming sugar in order to keep enough pressure so that beer comes out?

Do you also just periodically release CO2 when fermenting in the keg? It is an interesting idea that I might have to try out!

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I force carb, if you use priming sugar, you basically just do the same thing as bottles, but when it is done carbonating you just stick it in the kegerator and attach the correct pressure of CO2.

I attach a blow off tube (1/2") to the CO2 inlet. I just take the poppet and such all the way off and attach it to the threads. At the end of fermentation I sometimes just walk by and periodically release the pressure instead, but if you did that during vigorous fermentation the keg would shoot beer all over the place and you would probably run into the emergency pressure release. (130psi) Plus, your beer would be overcarbed.