I was gelatin fining for awhile adding warm and then I read the Brulosopher's posts on it and tried it cold. Again, no scientific triangle test, but it seems to work much better. I am not really sure why.. but why fight it
Dear UndeadFred,
You are the man!
It's been 4 months since I commented about decided to try your seemingly unnecessary step of starting the cold crash "24 hours before pitching the gelatin"
IT WORK FOLKS !
I've adjusted my cold crashing procedure on a number of beers since Christmas, and I have to say that pitching the gelatin onto cool beer results in nearly clear beer in just a couple of days.
Same exact recipes . . . Completely different results than when I pitched the fining agent on the start of the cold crash rather than 24 hours later.
One thing that I tried avoiding but will not change (wasn't your comment Undead) was about gently stirring in the gelatin.
After experimenting with adding the gelatin after waiting 24 hours, but without gently stirring it in, when it came to bottling time I found clumps of semi-clear crap at the bottom of the fermenter that was easily drawn into my racking cane when it was lowered to the bottom during the last few seconds.
It was some sort of semi-transparent crap that appeared to be the result of the gelatin, and was getting sucked into the racking cane easier than the trub.
So from that point on, I decided to take my stir stick and gently stir (just near the surface of the beer) for 20 seconds. Then I added the gelatin, and gently stirred near the surface for another 20 seconds.
At no point was the stir stick anywhere near the particulates at the bottom of the fermenter, and the stirring was slow enough were nothing was getting kicked up from the bottom.
To me, this gentle stirring ensured that the fining agent was going to be introduced into solution with the beer and not sink to the bottom like what appears was happening in the first few experiments.
The results speak for themselves !
Thanks again UndeadFred
Cheers