Gelatin and Biofine clear fining - saving time and $

[Sparger]

Cream ale with 50% 6-row, 50% 2 row. I have typically used the gelatin method to clear my lagers. 1/4 teas gel, 1/2 c. water heated to 155 in 8 sec microwave bursts. I typically do this after I’ve transferred to a secondary and got temp down to 50F. This method works well, but as you know it’s not glass or filtered clear, like what happens about three weeks later in a keg So, I bought some biofine clear and decided to try it after gelatining in my kegging. I tranfsered the gelatin fined beer from the secondary to my keg and dropped in 10 g of biofine clear. Purged with co2 and gave the keg a decent shake. 48 hours later (at 30 psi) I got this photo (after a 1/2 pint of the sludge from the bottom). To me, the biofine clear sped up the clearing process by 3 weeks. The benefit of this process is getting 80% there with cheap gelatin and the rest of the way there in about a day and a half, without having to dump a lot of biofine, which is much more expensive than gelatin.

 

[Desertbrewer]

Nice, great tip! I’ve found the same results as you, that gelatin works well but with some yeast strains it does take a couple weeks to get very bright. I’ll have to pick up some biofine to try this out.

 

[passedpawn]

Thanks for the tip and experience. I'm going to be making some pilsners in the next week. I think I'll try out the biofine.

 

[Queequeg]

I just bought some keiselsol which is the EU equivalent. Not too pricey £13 for a litre and you only use 7ml per 19L.

Keiselsol (and by inference biofine) is designed to be used in conjunction with gelatin.

So exactly how it is being used (by OP) here is exactly how it's supposed to be.

I will be making a Marzen in a few weeks and so will take some photo's pre and post keiselsol treatment.

 

[Queequeg]

So the kieselsol came in the post today. This is a similar product to biofine composed of colloidal suspension of silicic acid.

Instruction is to treat with kieselsol first then 3 hours later with gelatin.

I will try this approach as it's reverse order to OP's treatment and more tightly spaced.

I have a Marzen fermenting now, so will report back with photos of the results

 

[Queequeg]

. The result after 5 days at 36F with 10ml keiselsol and 1/2 tsp of gelatine (in 60ml of water).

Key is I didn't start carbonation untill after fully clearing

 

[passedpawn]

I've got a light lager (VERY light!) and a marzen ready for fining. I've got two carboys of each. I'm going to add gelatin and biofine tonight. Not sure yet if I'll do A/B comparisons, and also not sure of the order of addition. I will probably just follow the advice in the posts above.

 

[Queequeg]

So to clarify I treated with the biofine first, then 1 hour later the gelatine. Im not convinced the sequence of timming makes a difference.

 

[passedpawn]

I fantasized about doing a timelapse of several fining methods. I was going to put some glasses of wort in my fridge, each with a different fining method, put my camera in there on time lapse and just take a picture an hour for a few days to watch the rate of clearing. Of course, I didn't do it. Life gets in the way of my hobbies.

 

[passedpawn]

I lied. I had a packet of Biofine powder. The powder is isinglass, which is completely different that the Biofine Clear (which is what I set out to use). I just made a solution out of it and am going to use it anyway, but I suspect that it's doing the same thing as the gelatin.

I did a brief search for charge of gelatin molecules vs charge of isinglass, hoping to find some simple info that said one was positively-charged, and the other negative, and that my combination of both was consequently going to remove more suspended particles. I was hoping for a particulate dragnet. But nay, I immediately got sucked into a bunch of tech papers that I had no possibility of understanding (though I tried, I always do try, kidding myself).

 

[Queequeg]

As far as I understand geltine and isinglass do the same thing.