How long for gelatin to work?

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Lando

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How long does it usually take gelatin to work in the keg to clear the beer? I have had a few pints of sludge pour out since adding it in 24 hours ago, but the beer still has a lot of stuff floating in it. Not sure if it hops that got through the dry hop bag in secondary, or yeast that got in from secondary. Either way there is still a lot of stuff floating around. In the past I have used it in secondary with good results, but this is the first time trying it in the keg.
 
Gelatin only works on suspended yeast. It won't clear out hop remnants or anything but yeast. I've had good luck in 4-5 days, but it needs to be cold. Correction: I think it has a slight affinity for proteins as well, but not hops.
 
Gelatin works better the colder you can get your beer. I put gelatin in a pale ale with US-05 yeast (not the most flocculant...) three days ago. After 48 hours in a keg at 33 degrees F, I dumped a pint off and then poured another to check the clarity and found it rather cloudy. Today, after 72 hours, I poured off the dumped the first pint again and poured a second pint that was nearly crystal clear. The difference between the second and third day were pretty dramatic. This mirrors what I've noticed in the past: I've had clarity problems after letting the gelatin sit for 24-48 hours but have been impressed with the results after 72 hours.
 
LD Carlson gelatin (from my LHBS), took around 3-4 days at 38 F to clear the beer.

Knox unflavored gelatin, (from the grocery store), took less than 24 hrs at 38 F to clear the beer.

YMMV.
 
In my experience (with Knox), it really depends on the yeast strain. S-04 tends to take a few days. Wyeast 2112 (California Lager) clears overnight. Everything else is somewhere in between. I cold crash my fermenter the night before, heat up the gelatin, pour it in the keg, and then rack from the fermenter to the keg.
 
Transfer to the keg, let the keg get really cold for a day or two and then add the gelatin. In 2-3 days it should start getting pretty clear. That's been my experience with Knox gelatin atleast.
 
When I'm getting ready to keg my beer, I cold-crash the primary for a couple days down to ~35, add gelatin, continue cold crashing another day or two, and then transfer to the keg. Clear beer goes in the keg, and all of the trub/flocculated yeast/gelatin is left in the primary. Works great every time. When the keg kicks there is very little mess to clean up at the bottom.

As with most things in homebrewing, there are many methods to achieve the same end result. Find what works best for you.
 
First time doing honey lager ("Rocky Raccoon's" it says here) So, If I add .25 oz of knox unflavored Gelatin to the boll at last 10 minutes, will that do anything to help clear it later
?
I just realized I have no Whirlfloc in the house.
 
Mark300y94 you need to add the gelatin after fermentation is done and you have cooled to 50*F or lower. You can add it to the fermenter or keg.
 
First time doing honey lager ("Rocky Raccoon's" it says here) So, If I add .25 oz of knox unflavored Gelatin to the boll at last 10 minutes, will that do anything to help clear it later
?
I just realized I have no Whirlfloc in the house.

It's Whirlfloc or Irish Moss you add the last 10 minutes, Gelatin is added after fermentation, cold crash, add Gelatin, wait 24/48 hrs and rack or keg.
 
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