APA with US05: Cold Crash + Gelatin BEFORE dry hop?

[Killshakes]

I've got an APA (almost an IPA) fermenting with US05 that's bubbling away in my fermentation chamber at about 64 F right now, and I'm considering my next steps. Specifically, I'm considering the following schedule:

Ferment for ~14 days
Cold crash ~24-36 hours
Fine with gelatin, wait ~24-36 hours
Raise temp back to 64 F
Dry hop (pellets) for 4-5 days
Cold crash again to drop hops material for ~24 -36 hours
Bottle

What do you guys think? I've made similar beers by just dry hoping, cold crashing and then fining with gelatin before bottling, but I thought this might make the dry hop more effective by getting most of the yeast out of suspension first while still allowing the dry hop to be warm. Obviously it takes longer and is more complicated. Any chance the yeast and proteins removed by the gelatin could become re-suspended when the beer is warmed back up to 64 F?

 

[Rob2010SS]

Interesting concept. While I see what you're trying to do, I can't say you'll benefit much from it. When the yeast are finished and are settling out, they're not really active anyway so they're not going to scrub away your dry hop aroma. While it won't hurt you to try this, I don't think you'll get much of a benefit out of it honestly. If you try this, I'd be curious to hear your thoughts after. Let us know if you do it.

 

[Killshakes]

Interesting concept. While I see what you're trying to do, I can't say you'll benefit much from it. When the yeast are finished and are settling out, they're not really active anyway so they're not going to scrub away your dry hop aroma. While it won't hurt you to try this, I don't think you'll get much of a benefit out of it honestly. If you try this, I'd be curious to hear your thoughts after. Let us know if you do it.

I not trying to avoid hop aroma being scrubbed by co2 production, but rather losing hop oils that might cling to the yeast as it drops out of suspension. I've read some articles where people recommended dry hopping after a beer had cleared for this reason.

 

[Rob2010SS]

I gotcha. I can see your point where the gelatin after a dry hop might pull some of that out. I don't know enough to know how this would go. Interested to hear if you try it.

 

[eric19312]

How are you going to avoid oxygen ingress during cold crashing? If you are in primary you have enough headspace for this to be an issue and doing two cold crashing cycles doubles the issue. I'd dry hop the beer on day 8 then cold crash on day 12 and bottle on day 14. Skip the gelatin it is dry hopped APA and a little haziness will be attributed to the dry hop. You will likely get some O2 exposure on days 12-14 during the cold crash and more when you bottle but hopefully the bottling yeast activity will consume most of the O2 before too much damage is done.

TBH the whole cold crashing and gelatin fining thing is much easier to manage if you are kegging and if you are reading directions for doing this on brulosophy or other interwebs consider whether the author is bottling or kegging.

 

[Killshakes]

How are you going to avoid oxygen ingress during cold crashing? If you are in primary you have enough headspace for this to be an issue and doing two cold crashing cycles doubles the issue. I'd dry hop the beer on day 8 then cold crash on day 12 and bottle on day 14. Skip the gelatin it is dry hopped APA and a little haziness will be attributed to the dry hop. You will likely get some O2 exposure on days 12-14 during the cold crash and more when you bottle but hopefully the bottling yeast activity will consume most of the O2 before too much damage is done.

TBH the whole cold crashing and gelatin fining thing is much easier to manage if you are kegging and if you are reading directions for doing this on brulosophy or other interwebs consider whether the author is bottling or kegging.

How will I avoid oxygen ingress during cold crashing? I won't. I've cold crashed very similar beers before with no problems. I've never done the process twice though, so I suppose doing it more than once could pose a problem.

CC + Gelatin: I guess I could skip it, but I like clear beer. I've used the process with bottled beer before and gotten great results. Very clear, clean tasting beer. I haven't found it difficult to manage really: All I did was chill the fermenter, dump in some gelatin and wait a day or two. In fact, it seemed to make bottling easier in that the gelatin-ized yeast on the bottom of the fermenter stayed put, rather then being sucked up by my siphon.

 

[eric19312]

How will I avoid oxygen ingress during cold crashing? I won't. I've cold crashed very similar beers before with no problems. I've never done the process twice though, so I suppose doing it more than once could pose a problem.

CC + Gelatin: I guess I could skip it, but I like clear beer. I've used the process with bottled beer before and gotten great results. Very clear, clean tasting beer. I haven't found it difficult to manage really: All I did was chill the fermenter, dump in some gelatin and wait a day or two. In fact, it seemed to make bottling easier in that the gelatin-ized yeast on the bottom of the fermenter stayed put, rather then being sucked up by my siphon.

I'm sure you will be fine. If you want to try to exclude the oxygen there are a few solutions out there including this:
http://www.norcalbrewingsolutions.com/store/CO2-Carbon-Dioxide-Harvester-Kit.html

 

[Killshakes]

I'm sure you will be fine. If you want to try to exclude the oxygen there are a few solutions out there including this:
http://www.norcalbrewingsolutions.com/store/CO2-Carbon-Dioxide-Harvester-Kit.html

That's an interesting device. Looking at I'm not too sure why there needs to be two chambers though (I'm probably just missing something). It seems to me you could attach the tube from the fermenter to the jar with the airlock on it--only with the airlock filled with sanitizer (as it normally would be) and the jar completely empty. The fermenter could "breath" properly, no germs / bugs / bacteria could enter the system, and the jar would be filled with CO2-rich air for when you cold crashed. It wouldn't be pure CO2, like with the Norcal device, but it would still be pretty CO2 rich, and because the would be any mater to move around (except the tiny amount in the airlock) there would be less pressure inside the fermenter, which could be better for the yeast as fermentation slows.