Using gelatin for the first time

[SteveHeff]

Hey all. I brewed a pumpkin ale, last week, and I think the brew turned out pretty well. Started at 1.048 and finished at 1.018. It didn't finish a low as I would have liked, but hey, it's beer.

Since I've just moved to my new place, I was unable to grab my irish moss prior to brewing. So I decided to try gelatin. I've read plenty of good results stemming from its use. I'll be kegging, so it's a pretty easy process for me.

Here are the 2 questions: does mixing warm water with the gelatin result in a better product? And secondly, should the beer be warm or cold when I toss the the gelatin/water mixture into it? Thanks.

 

[mcotter]

I always cold crash the beer for 24-48 hours before adding my gelatin mixture, I then let it sit for ~ 72 hours before transferring to the keg.

As far as preparing the gelatin mixture itself, I boil 1 cup of water in the microwave then remove/cover it to let it cool down to ~ 150 F. Then I mix in the gelatin until it's clear and dump into my fermenter.

i can't say whether warm water is 100% necessary as it is all I have ever used.

 

[clairecunn83]

I've had great success with gelatin and prefer it to irish moss.

I take a small sauce pan/small pot, and 1 cup of room temp water. Sprinkle 1 pkg (~1 Tbs.) of the dry gelatin evenly over the surface of the water in the pot. Let it sit/"bloom" for a couple minutes. Then, turn on the burner heat to low to heat and fully dissolve the gelatin. Do NOT let the mixture boil. Heat it to right before boiling and you see a little bit of steam coming off the surface. Turn off burner heat.

Let it cool just a bit...but not enough for it to "set." (Which if it does set, you can easily heat it up again to liquid state.) Then, I add the gelatin mixture to a room temp carboy full of beer using a long kabob stick/stirring stick to distribute it. It'll do it's thing over a couple of days, and then you can rack to your keg/bottling bucket.

 

[carvetop]

I've been able to achieve excellent results every time with this method (for 5G of beer):
1. Cold crash beer in fermenter for 24 hrs.
2. Transfer to purged keg.
3. Add 5g of gelatin to 500ml of room temperature water and allow it to bloom for 20-30 mins.
4. Microwave in 20 sec increments, stirring each time until the mixture reaches 170-180F.
5. Pour hot liquid into keg, seal, purge, shake briefly, carb as usual.
6. Draw a pint 48-72 hrs later to remove sludge from bottom of keg.
7. Enjoy clear, tasty beer.

 

[shortyz]

I've had great success with gelatin and prefer it to irish moss.

I take a small sauce pan/small pot, and 1 cup of room temp water. Sprinkle 1 pkg (~1 Tbs.) of the dry gelatin evenly over the surface of the water in the pot. Let it sit/"bloom" for a couple minutes. Then, turn on the burner heat to low to heat and fully dissolve the gelatin. Do NOT let the mixture boil. Heat it to right before boiling and you see a little bit of steam coming off the surface. Turn off burner heat.

Let it cool just a bit...but not enough for it to "set." (Which if it does set, you can easily heat it up again to liquid state.) Then, I add the gelatin mixture to a room temp carboy full of beer using a long kabob stick/stirring stick to distribute it. It'll do it's thing over a couple of days, and then you can rack to your keg/bottling bucket.

this is the proper way, i often just put my gelatin into a pyrex measuring cup at room temp and wait till most of it sinks ~20 min. then microwave until 68c

 

[SteveHeff]

Thanks, all. I microwaved in short bursts, stirring after every cycle. Poured the gel solution into the crashed beer. I'll be back in 2 days to comment how it goes.

 

[SteveHeff]

Here's the final product. Looks great. It still has another 4-5 days to go before it's properly primed.

 

[clairecunn83]

Pretty!

 

[royal1911]

I've used gelitan for about 2 years and it always works great. I put 6oz of water in a Pyrex measuring cup, add 1 tsp,of Knox unflavored gelitan, stir, and microwave for 1 minute. This brings the temp to 150. I then pour it into the keg and rack my cold crashed beer on top.

I'm sure there are a bunch of different ways to add gelitan, this is just my favorite.