Gelatin Finnings to Primary?

[Justintoxicated]

Quick question. This is my first time trying to skip a secondary. I'm on week3 of fermentation and I tried to cold crash the beer and there is still a light haze.

I think I can get a little more clarity if I add some gelatin as I have in the past.

I'm going to add it in to the primary instead of the secondary, but I don't think I can wait 4 days since I want to get the beer off the yeast cake. Would 2 days more of cold crashing with the gelatin be enough?

Also will I be able to harvest the yest still? There quite a healthy layer of yeast but if the finning will mess with it I'm ok with skipping the harvest this time around.

Any advice?

 

[stjackson]

I don't know if it will affect the yeast at all, but I'm pretty sure you'll have better success if you rack cold beer onto the gelatin and keep it cold for a couple of days. If you just pour it in, it won't mix well and won't clear the beer as well as it could.

 

[Justintoxicated]

I don't know if it will affect the yeast at all, but I'm pretty sure you'll have better success if you rack cold beer onto the gelatin and keep it cold for a couple of days. If you just pour it in, it won't mix well and won't clear the beer as well as it could.

Hmm well never had a problem just adding it in before. Just move the carboy around a bit and it should mix ok. It looking a little more clear today but I guess I will give it one more day to finish.

 

[libeerty]

Hmm well never had a problem just adding it in before. Just move the carboy around a bit and it should mix ok. It looking a little more clear today but I guess I will give it one more day to finish.

Yeah, I think it is typically added on top, at least that's how I learned . No need to mix it, in fact, that's bad for clarity as your nicely cold crashed yeast is being thrown around. Just follow the directions for heating it and put it in. Haze is sometimes not fixed by it, and I'm not sure how great it is at bringing hops with it.

2 days it does like 50% of its job, 3 days more like 75%, diminishing returns from there but the longer the better.

Not sure about harvesting yeast from it. Might be yucky. I rack from primary to keg, cold crash and carb, then after a couple days I add the gelatin. Never had a problem with it foaming out.

 

[bigbeergeek]

Zero problems with harvesting yeast from gelatin-fined beers! I do it routinely. Three days will do much more than two days of cold/gelatin for clarity.

 

[pacman]

I don't know if it will affect the yeast at all, but I'm pretty sure you'll have better success if you rack cold beer onto the gelatin and keep it cold for a couple of days. If you just pour it in, it won't mix well and won't clear the beer as well as it could.

I like this idea and have been thinking of doing it myself. Have you had actual experience with this method?

 

[stjackson]

I like this idea and have been thinking of doing it myself. Have you had actual experience with this method?

I've always done it that way. I rack my already cold beer onto my gelatin mixture and let it sit in the freezer for a couple of days. 48 hours is plenty of time for crystal clear beer, but there is still plenty of yeast in there to carbonate.

 

[AgentHubcap]

I've racked onto gelatin, and I've dumped it in primary. I never noticed any difference.

 

[stjackson]

I've racked onto gelatin, and I've dumped it in primary. I never noticed any difference.

I can't speak to the differences because I've only ever done it beer onto gelatin. Maybe next time I'll try it the other way round. I also never have to use it in a lager; 5 or 6 weeks at 32F usually results in a crystals-clear beer.