Gelatin fined three beers, all three under carbonated after bottling

[der_Missionar]

Title says it all. I used gelatin from Walmart, heated it to the suggested temperature, and added it to my 5 gallon batch 3 days before bottling.

Has anyone experienced this with adding gelatin when bottle conditioning?

After 3 months, the beers are slowly gaining carbonation, but it's still low....

 

[thehaze]

I've fined with gelatin many times and have bottled many batches, without any issues. I don't think gelatin was the problem ( unless the gelatin contained something else besides just gelatin - like something that inhibits yeast, maybe? ).

When you bottle beers, no matter the ABV, original and final gravity, you always need to make sure that you pitched enough yeast when you fermented the beer. It is also important to have a process, which allows you to mix the added sugar with the beer itself, in such a way, that it's evenly distributed. Once in bottles, the beer needs 5-10 days at 19-21C/66-70F for the yeast to eat the sugar and make it into CO2, which is then trapped in the bottle. Once carbonation is developed, you can easily put them in the fridge or a cool storage/basement ( 35F to 50F ).

I believe, that in order to help you from this point, we need to know more about the recipes, yeast and yeast pitch rate, fermentation, bottling and storage process, etc. Cheers.

 

[der_Missionar]

Hmmm...

I've been sitting here mulling over the last few brews I've done... and I think I've stumbled upon it...

DOH!

The last three beers in the beer kits have resulted in a higher OG than what the recipe predicted. As a result, I added water in order to match the predicted OG - I did this so I wouldn't end up with a higher ABV... Okay - that's all a lie - A higher ABV could have been okay, but I value a few more bottles of beer at the right abv, than a little more ABV... So it all comes down to -- more bottles of beer on the wall.

To make a long story longer, I didn't adjust the sugar with the added water. The last beer, I was stirring and adding water and it took about 1/3 to 1/2 gallon of water to finally hit my predicted OG. FG before bottling was pretty much spot on too (at least with two of these) ... so... the source of the under carbonating was... a failure to adjust sugar to the amount of water added.

I hadn't thought of this before, however, when adding water to hit the OG, I need to measure the water to make sure I can appropriately adjust priming sugar.

This mystery has been bugging me for 6 months...

Mystery solved?

 

[thehaze]

Adding water will dilute the beer - your purpose is to adjust OG. You end up with more " beer "/" liquid ", which means, you will need more sugar - just think that instead of 20 bottles, you had to bottle 25 - that extra liquid also needs to be carbonated. But it depends how much sugar you actually added to a 5 gallon beer? Did you measure exactly the amount of beer and the sugar? Put into a calculator, how many vol. of CO2 should it have ended up with?

 

[der_Missionar]

Well, I originally calculated for 5 gallons which was incorrect... 5 gallons is marked on the bucket, so that's an easy target, but anything I add over that, I need to add using measuring cups so I know exactly how much more is added.

 

[Jim R]

A keg for Christmas would solve the problem

 

[thehaze]

Kegs do solve problems, but not all. I still bottle a lot of beers, just because having a keg of a 8% ABV Dark Weizenbock is not something I would finish quickly, so it would stop from using that keg for, say experiments with different hops. A hoppy IPA I can have serving in 12-15 days, and even quicker with Kveik, but something you only want a glass of, will sit for many months.

And I do give away beer to family and friends, and many times, those are beers, that can be kept for many months/years. Kegs are nice for hoppy beers, I give you that. But everything else, with the right process, can be bottled.

 

[der_Missionar]

Aaaah the Keg.... but it's not JUST the keg... it's the fridge to cool the keg, the lines and everything else I dont have room for...

 

[thehaze]

Yeah... Kegging does come with more things you need to have for it and it is more expensive. Bottling works just as fine, when you do everything right.

Your beers wont carbonate further, unless the yeast slowly eats more sugars, but that will not happen, not after 3 months. Just try to drink them as is, if possible.

 

[Coastalbrew]

Well, I originally calculated for 5 gallons which was incorrect... 5 gallons is marked on the bucket, so that's an easy target, but anything I add over that, I need to add using measuring cups so I know exactly how much more is added.

What I do on bottling day is transfer the beer into my bottling bucket and see exactly how much beer I have to bottle. I then decide how much carbonation I want and use the calculator on Brewer's friend to figure how much sugar I actually need. I prepare the sugar in boiling water, cool it down, and then add to the bucket with some very gentle stirring to mix it thoroughly into the beer. Works great and since I started doing it this way I've not had any issues with inconsistent carbonation.

Cheers!

 

[der_Missionar]

Rule number 1 for homebrewing, it's almost always drinkable.

 

[der_Missionar]

Not sure how id measure *after* it's in the bottling bucket... unless you have a scale on there... I measured ot 5 gallons and that's my scale. It's a fine scale, one marking "-5"

 

[Coastalbrew]

Not sure how id measure *after* it's in the bottling bucket... unless you have a scale on there... I measured ot 5 gallons and that's my scale. It's a fine scale, one marking "-5"

My bucket has markings on it every .5G, so that makes it much easier.

It's pretty easy to make your own markings on the outside of the bucket with a permanent marker. Just pour a measured amount of water into the bucket and make a mark on the outside at the level, then repeat.

Cheers!

 

[LTBrewer]

"The last three beers" How did the previous batches turn out that you used gelatin on? Have you been tracking the temperature of the bottles? A bottle of beer at 65 degrees will take a lot longer to carbonate than beer at 72. Did you take winter into account? Another thing may be your process; in your late stage additions of water, sugar, stirring, you may have offgassed a lot of CO2. That may matter a lot more than a .5 ounce of sugar.

 

[bwible]

Aaaah the Keg.... but it's not JUST the keg... it's the fridge to cool the keg, the lines and everything else I dont have room for...

Then you’ll want a counter pressure filler so you can pull a bottle or two when you want - to give away, enter competitions, etc