Best method to cold crash, gelatin, and force carb in under a week?

[cah]

I've got 2 batches of beer ready to keg for a friendsgiving party this Saturday. I have done the cold crash and force carb method enough times, but I am curious when the best time to throw gelatin in the mix will be.

My initial thought is to toss the gelatin in as I cold crash, then pour a few non carbonated pints after 2 days to get rid of the ugly sediment. Then when I force carb and roll the keg around I won't be be stirring up as much sediment. The kegs is will have an hour drive before I get to serve them, so I would like to do anything I can to improve clarity ahead of time.

Usually I force carb by rocking the kegs aggressively for 5 minutes at 25psi, then bleed off excess pressure the next morning. For the most part they are pretty close on carbonation, and I will set them on their serving pressure (I serve at 10 psi) until I need to move them to their party.

Is there a better way of doing this? Should I skip gelatin until I have more time? I understand that 6 days is not a lot of time to cold crash & carb a beer, so if I will be pushing my luck with gelatin I don't have a problem skipping it. I just prefer to present beer with a little bit of clarity if at all possible.

Looking forward to any advice you folks may have.
Thanks for reading!

 

[Yooper]

How cloudy is the beer? I don't use gelatin, and get very clear beer but if your beer is cloudy and you want to use it of course that's fine.

All I do when I keg is to siphon the beer into the keg, and stick it in the kegerator at 40 degrees on 30 psi for 36 hours. Then, I purge and reset it to 12 psi. It's carbed in 3-4 days, without shaking/rolling/etc to mess up the clarity.

At that point, if I wanted to ensure no sediment on a keg I'm taking, I just "jump" to a new keg without moving the first keg. Just use two black QDs and a length of beer line. Turn down the gas to 2 psi or so, and snap one on the "out" of the original keg. Then put the other qd on the "new" keg on the out, and just pull the pressure relief valve to keep the beer flowing.

That's how I take freshly carbed, sediment free beer, to places and it works great for me.

(It took me longer to explain how I do it than it takes to actually do!)

 

[cah]

Here is picture of my last 3 batches. Cloudy may not be the best word to describe it, but it certainly isn't very clear.

Seems like your method of just jumping the beer to an empty keg after it has had a chance to sit undisturbed does the trick for you. I am nervous without shaking just because I don't want to have under carbed beer but obviously that prevents the beer from clearing up right away.

 

[Yooper]

Here is picture of my last 3 batches. Cloudy may not be the best word to describe it, but it certainly isn't very clear.

Seems like your method of just jumping the beer to an empty keg after it has had a chance to sit undisturbed does the trick for you. I am nervous without shaking just because I don't want to have under carbed beer but obviously that prevents the beer from clearing up right away.

I can't see the clarity (or lack of, I guess!) in the photo.

The other thing shaking can do is interfere with foam and head retention. I'd really suggest the no-shake, no-move method if you want to serve this in 6 days or so.

Just carb it up in 3 days, pour a pint to get rid of the sediment, and then jump to the new keg. That will really help, since you'll be moving the keg to the party.

 

[wilserbrewer]

I am curious when the best time to throw gelatin in the mix will be.

Gelatin works best at cold temps. I would add the gelatin as soon as the beer is cold, either in the fermenter during cold crashing, or in the keg. The colder and sooner the better.

 

[jigtwins]

Gelatin seems to work pretty quick. 2 days, and I've got nice clear beer. That's if its already cold. I use 1/2 cup water and 1 tsp Knox. Let it bloom in warm water (90 deg) for 20 min. Then 15 second bursts in the microwave till it reaches 150 deg f. Or looks clear. Let cool for 15 min then pour into keg of beer. I stir to create a slight whirlpool before pouring. Then close keg, and hook up gas @ 30 psi for 24-36 hrs. Drop to serving pressure and pull to remove sediment. Simple and effective.

 

[Grannyknot]

My method for quick beer is fairly simplistic, but I get pretty good results.
I put my carboy in the fridge to cold crash for 4 days.
Then I rack to my keg, hit it with 30 psi, & turn it on its side in the fridge (or keezer) for 2 days.
I usually let it sit at serving pressure for 1 day.

7 days later, clear beer.

 

[cah]

Well my beer has had 24 hours in the keezer so I dumped gelatin in tonight after I got home from work. Tomorrow I will put gas to the keg and hope for the best.

It seems that you guys (and gals) are able to carb up in no more than 48 hours just by setting the regulator to 30psi. Since I want to keep it as clear as possible I am going to just attempt to carb it without shaking and hope that it helps me get rid of more sediment on my first pours before I have to move the keg.

When force carbing I have always just put the gas on the normal 'inlet' port, and rolled it around on the floor. This time, since I want to not disturb the beer, would it be better to carb up through the beer out port, so that I am putting gas into the bottom of the keg instead of the top? I have the threaded MFL connections on all of my quick disconnects so it will be nice and easy to swap over.

Thank you for all of your input!

 

[wilserbrewer]

I would do 30 psi for 36 hours, vent the keg and sample, if you want a bit more carbonation, try say 20 psi overnight...just be careful not to overcarb...as it is easyto add a little more, yet tricky to remove c02.

 

[cah]

Easy enough.

Do you hook gas up to the beer post to allow co2 to get to the bottom of the keg? Or do you just hook it up to the gas in post since 36 psi is a lot and should be enough pressure to do what it needs to do?

 

[Yooper]

Easy enough.

Do you hook gas up to the beer post to allow co2 to get to the bottom of the keg? Or do you just hook it up to the gas in post since 36 psi is a lot and should be enough pressure to do what it needs to do?

I'd just hook it up the correct way. If you're not using a diffusion stone, the bubbles would be too big to really diffuse into the beer from the bottom anyway.

 

[cah]

Awesome, thanks again. It's all hooked up and doing its thing now. Will check it tomorrow after work and see what it needs.