Gelatin Mistake? I may have beer flavored jello

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Hoosierbrewer

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I decided to try gelatin for the first time. I heated it up (not boil) and then added it to the secondary. It was like jello when I put it in. Now I notice jello floating in my German Ale. Is this normal? If not, then I will figure out a way to keg the beer and not take in the jello. I wonder if it will taste good.
 
Your taste should be fine. I've never seen gelatin do that. What brand did you use?


Store brand (Meiers) knox blocks. I may have gotten it too hot. My thermometer was in the garage. As long as it attracts stuff, I don't care. It looks kind of cool.
 
Wait a while and see what happens. I have read to wait 3 days before bottling. Is it just a layer on top? Or did it all 5 gallons solidify?
 
I just went to check on it. It looks like the jello is on the bottom now. I plan to take a picture of it when it comes out. I bet we could make beer jello shots. not sure if they would taste good, but I do like to expirament.
 
ok, so i went out to move it around a little bit. The bottom 1/2 to 1 inch is jello. It looks like the color of my beer, but it does not move like liquid. I bet I lost 1/2 a gallon of beer. So much for harvesting the yeast off the bottom for another batch. it very well may be under the jello. Note to self, it is better to error on the under side than the over side of temp when working with gelatin. I should have used lime jello, then I would have had lime beer jello shot. Everyone seems to be drinking a lime beer now. Well, the beer is in the secondary for a few weeks. I thought about moving it to another carboy, but I think the risk is too great. I will just drink a few beers and forget about it.
 
The recommended amount is 1 Tbs per five gallons, dissolved in 1 cup of hot water.

If you plan on harvesting yeast, it is better to employ a secondary and use the gelatin then.

Properly dissolved, gelatin should not be visible. What you will see is newly formed sediment on the floor of the secondary within about 12 hours of adding the gelatin.
 
Thanks Biermuncher. I let it get too hot and then cooled it to a temp that was too low. Will the sediment cover the other sediment and the yeast?
 
There is sediment and jello on the bottom. THe jello looks clear. I think I will try the take the water to a boil, then cool down methid versus the heating up method next time.

SWMBO pointed out that I could probably make beer popsicles using gelatin. Not sure if it would work, I thought only a portion of the water in the beer would freeze. Wouldn't an oatmeal stout popsicle taste good?
 
There is sediment and jello on the bottom. THe jello looks clear. I think I will try the take the water to a boil, then cool down methid versus the heating up method next time.

Don’t bring the gelatin to a boil. Here’s what I do. Get a sauce pan and put 1 cup of cool water in it. Add the gelatin and stir it in. It won’t dissolve.

Put the pot over heat on the stove and continually stir, just until the gelatin dissolves and you can’t see it any more.

Don’t work too hard at cooling it. That small amount of hot liquid won’t affect 5 gallons of cool (room temp) beer.
 
This has worked for me:

Spray / dunk a pyrex measuring cup in star-san

add a cup of h20 and nuke in the microwave for 4 minutes

let it cool for a while and stir in gelatin until dissolved

Add to crash-cooled secondary and wait 2-3 days

Rack to keg or bottling bucket
 
Thanks. I appreciate all the help. The beer is a german ale/kolsch, so I plan to lager it for awhile. Maybe 4-5 weeks.
 
I finally kegged the german ale. Here is a picture of the beer jello. There was a lot more on the bottom, but I only kept a little. I am not a fan of the taste.


 
Hey! That looks kinda good. Did you try it? Think it'd be worth a small experiment for beer jello shots?

Oh NM... just re read the previous post...guess I won't try this, hehe.
 
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