I also wanted to add to add my observation about gelatin to the conversation. I look at gelatin is another tool in the home brew toolbox that has its specific uses and I use to yield specific results such as:
1) Brewing For Other. If I am brewing a beer for visiting in-laws, a party or for people who might be skittish around home brew I tend to want my beer to look as close to possible as something they would buy commercially. I love when someone doesn't know I home brew and walks up to me at a party and asks what king of beer I'm serving and are shocked when I tell them they are drinking home brew (I do leave out the fact they will be farting up a storm in about 2 hours).
2) Fast Turn Around Beer. I love the fact that I can take a 1.055ish american pale ale with US-05/wlp001/1056 from grain to glass in 14ish days using gelatin. US-05 drops out great given enough time, but I find 2-3 weeks isn't enough. Add gelatin to the cold kegged beer and the yeast drops right to the bottom in 24-48 hours.
3) Lack of Dedicated Cold Crash Box. If I had a dedicated cold crash chamber I wouldn't need gelatin except for fast turnaround beers.
On the point of gelatin stripping flavor and aroma the jury is out for me. I do think that gelatin changes the profile of the beer, but I think the positives outweigh the negatives by a long shot, in my system. Although, it changes the profile and maybe you get two slightly different beers, I'm under the opinion that if it was great beer to start with it will still be great beer after the addition of gelatin with the possibility of a slightly different profile. So, side by side maybe you could tell a difference between the two, but would one be better than the other? Or would you just have two slightly different beers? I have built my house pale around using gelatin every time. If it needs more body I increase the mash temp, if it needs more hoppy flavor I increase the hop schedule, etc.
So, all things the same, yea maybe gelatin strips a beer a bit, but if you build your recipe around using gelatin every time and adjusting to your taste buds and olfactory receptors than it shouldn't matter.
1) Brewing For Other. If I am brewing a beer for visiting in-laws, a party or for people who might be skittish around home brew I tend to want my beer to look as close to possible as something they would buy commercially. I love when someone doesn't know I home brew and walks up to me at a party and asks what king of beer I'm serving and are shocked when I tell them they are drinking home brew (I do leave out the fact they will be farting up a storm in about 2 hours).
2) Fast Turn Around Beer. I love the fact that I can take a 1.055ish american pale ale with US-05/wlp001/1056 from grain to glass in 14ish days using gelatin. US-05 drops out great given enough time, but I find 2-3 weeks isn't enough. Add gelatin to the cold kegged beer and the yeast drops right to the bottom in 24-48 hours.
3) Lack of Dedicated Cold Crash Box. If I had a dedicated cold crash chamber I wouldn't need gelatin except for fast turnaround beers.
On the point of gelatin stripping flavor and aroma the jury is out for me. I do think that gelatin changes the profile of the beer, but I think the positives outweigh the negatives by a long shot, in my system. Although, it changes the profile and maybe you get two slightly different beers, I'm under the opinion that if it was great beer to start with it will still be great beer after the addition of gelatin with the possibility of a slightly different profile. So, side by side maybe you could tell a difference between the two, but would one be better than the other? Or would you just have two slightly different beers? I have built my house pale around using gelatin every time. If it needs more body I increase the mash temp, if it needs more hoppy flavor I increase the hop schedule, etc.
So, all things the same, yea maybe gelatin strips a beer a bit, but if you build your recipe around using gelatin every time and adjusting to your taste buds and olfactory receptors than it shouldn't matter.
