Gelatin usable when you bottle?

I've received conflicting information from 2 credible sources when I've asked about using gelatin to clarify my beer prior to bottling. One said there will be plenty of yeast left and the other said it wouldn't carbonate if I used gelatin.

Anyone have some science to drop on me?

I don't have any science, but I have used gelatin on numerous occasion and bottled without adding additional yeast and everything worked as normal.

That's what I was told. There are plenty of yeast in there, but the other said my beer wouldn't carbonate.

Anyone else? And when did you add it?

I have used it several times and haven't had a problem with bottles carbing up.

Do u add the gelatin to the bottling bucket with your priming sugar? How do u use it when bottling?

I add it when I secondary.

No science either but I do have experience. We used gelatin in several batches added to secondary, all with great results as far as clarity and all with great carbonation. There are plenty of opinions out there, I just know it worked great for us.

Its more to do with the quality of the yeast in suspension rather than the quantity. Will using gelatin pull some yeast out and make carbonation take longer? Probably. But the only 2 times I couldn't get my beer to carb it was because they were both in excess of 10% ABV. These poor abused yeast are the ones that are going to fail in the conditioning. I think no new yeast is fine. Having said that, I rehydrate about a quarter of a packet of Nottingham for about 50% of my brews because it does ensure prompt carbonation.

If I have some dry hopping going on in my primary, can I just add the gelatin to that or should I move it to a secondary first? I obviously don't want to stir the primary as the inside of that thing is wrecked after the dry Nottingham went nuts for 4 days.

Well, you need to get the gelatin in the solution of beer. So, you are going to need to mix it, which is why I rack onto it. You could try to do it in primary, but I would think that you would lose some of it's function to the excess junk you have in there.

You can always add more hops later . . .

aseg said:

Well, you need to get the gelatin in the solution of beer. So, you are going to need to mix it, which is why I rack onto it. You could try to do it in primary, but I would think that you would lose some of it's function to the excess junk you have in there.

You can always add more hops later . . .

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Oh, so the gelatin would hurt my dry hopping? I was under the impression it was only to grab yeast and proteins but hadn't thought it might ruin some of my dry hopping.

So in the future, Gelatin for a few days, then dry hop?

Sorry for not being more clear . . .

What I meant was that the gelatin is going to cling to a bunch of stuff. The more stuff (protein, yeast...) you can "filter" out before adding the gelatin, the better. This makes the gelatin more effective by clinging to more of the stuff you want as opposed to the stuff that is falling out anyway.

The dry hops fall into the equation because dry hopping is most effective in the last 5-14 days. So, in theory you could rack onto gelatin in secondary for N months, then 5-14 days before you want to bottle, you could add more hops for the dry hop effect.

So - in summary, and hopefully this doesn't add to confusion. . . the process of adding gelatin and the process of dry hopping are mutually exclusive. You ought to consider timing between the two because they both are intended to affect the final state of the beer and will overlap.

That makes perfect sense. Thanks for the clarification.

Great question by the OP and if I may add this (not to highjack the thread), what about adding Superkleer a few days before racking? Will I still have enough yeast left for my beer to bottle condition or should that only be used when kegging and force carbing? Thanks a million for your input gentlemen!