Gelatin at cellar temps?

[JonM]

He everyone!

I decided to give gelatin fining a a shot in a bohemian pils. My brew closet gets down to 46-48 degrees this time of year, so I have the fully fermented d-rested beer sitting in there.

I added the gelatin last night and am just now realizing that might not be cold enough for the gelatin to do its thing.

So option a is let the fermenter sit at 46-48 for a couple days and see what happens or

Option b - keg it and put it in the keg fridge. The catch with option b is that, due to a party, I won't have space for it until Sunday. If I wait a couple days will the gelatin still be in solution and able to do its thing?

Thanks everyone!

 

[eluterio]

Good question im about to use it on some of my already kegged beers. I figure at 48 instead of 32-35 it might take a few days extra. I have kegs already carbonated so ive got a test batch am about to use it on. to see how effective it is at 45 in my garage. it doesn't get cold enough for it to be at 32 and my fermenters are occupying my cold storage space.

 

[DurtyChemist]

I don't believe gelatin is temperature dependent. I know if you put jell-o in the fridge it will become solid unless your fridge is insanely warm.

 

[RachmaelBenApplebaum]

Jello-o is not the same as it's been boiled, which makes it solidify. When you use gelatin as a fining you let it "bloom" without heating it enough for the collagen to set. Yes temp makes a difference but I think at 46-48 you'll be fine, might juts take a little while longer and in the worst case, keg it and you might have ~1 pint that's cloudy and the rest will be fine.

 

[JonM]

Thanks everyone! And FWIW, I let the gelatin bloom for an hour in room temp water, then slowly heated to 160 so it all dissolved and then let it sit, off the heat, for another 10-15 minutes before adding to the beer. I'll let you know how it goes!

And it's about to get really cold in Wisconsin. Well, I guess it's about to get seasonable. Anyway, the beer closet might get down to 42-44, which can only help.

 

[NTexBrewer]

I have trouble getting my fermentation chamber much below 40 degrees especially when it is a 5 gallon batch and I never have a problem.

Last batch I did I but the gelatin in at 51 degrees and lowered the beer to 40 degrees.

As far as I could tell I did not have any problems.

 

[Qhrumphf]

The way I see it, gelatin (as with most fermenter finings) works as well as the temp it's used at. If you plan to serve these beers at cellar temp, you'll be fine. Below that temp, you may still get chill haze.