I've been cold crashing most of my beers and that's been helping with the clarity, but even my lager that's been near freezing for 6 weeks still isn't quite as brilliantly clear as I would like it. I was going to try some finings (polyclar, gelatin, super kleen) just for grins and see what happens, but the instructions all say to gentlly stir into beer. Wouldn't that just re-suspend all the sediment that have fallen out during the secondary/lagering? Will these resuspended particles/yeast fall out much faster the second time around, especially with the finings? or should I try stir very gently and avoid disturbing the sediment on the bottom?
Cold-crashing/Lagering, finings and re-suspending sediment
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menschmaschine
Well-Known Member
Anything you kick up from [gently] stirring will settle back down. Are you brewing all-grain? If so, there could be a small correction to your brewing technique to help all of your beers be more clear. Lagering for 6 weeks at near freezing should clear a beer pretty well. I recently lagered a munich helles for 4 weeks at 34dF and it's clear as a bell.
I think if you gently pour in a mix of dissolved gelatin (1 Tbsp in 1/2 cup) and only give the beer one gentle swirl with a spoon, that should be sufficient.
The liquid mix will dissapate enough to do the trick. It's an electrostatic charge that clears the beer by binding with the proteins, so a thorough mixing isn't necessary.
You might also consider some Whirlfloc at the end of your boil.
The liquid mix will dissapate enough to do the trick. It's an electrostatic charge that clears the beer by binding with the proteins, so a thorough mixing isn't necessary.
You might also consider some Whirlfloc at the end of your boil.
EdWort
Well-Known Member
BierMuncher said:
Do you boil your water and let cool before you mix the gelatin?
When I use gelatin, I let it cool a bit. Like BM said, you just use a half-cup, so it cools off some just walking around with the pot.
TL
TL
Mix in the gelatin with 1/2 cup of warm water and stir to dissolve. I use 1 TBS per five-gallons.EdWort said:
Bring the mix up to 180(ish) degrees. Don't boil, it will render the gelatin "limp".
I usually just heat until I start see the pot "want" to start boiling.
Take off the heat, give pot a brief cold water bath and add to bottom of empty keg.
I don't stress about cooling it too much because a 1/2 cup of mix (per 5 gallons) won't impact the temp of the ber at all.
