When, where and if to add gelatine?

[Marcale]

Hi there,


I have returned from Saudi where I was reasonably active and successfully at making beverages. I have now retired to the Philippines, which in itself provides challenges to the home brewer, in particular temperature, and I am back in business. I have acquired two cornys and have converted a fridge into a kegerator with an STC temperature control system.


My overall aim is to produce a continuous supply of ales for me and my friends. I will mostly be using Coopers kits (because I can get them) and modifying them with malts, hops and the occasional dead cat for fun.


I have just fermented out a Bitter from 1.045 to 1.008 in 6 days, and it is now sitting in the FV with dry hops (Amarillo and Citra) in a spider. I plan to leave it like this for 5 days and then put it into a Corny for conditioning.


I want a nice clear beer so that I can thwart the naysayers who say - Yeah, homebrew is always cloudy, not like the proper stuff you get in a pub; you can’t make that!


My question is while I added “home made” Irish moss (C. crispus grows readily on the shores here)in the boil, should I add gelatine? And if so where, in the FV, or later in the conditioning Corny?


Cleary, no pun intended, if is crystal clear tomorrow then I won’t.


Your thoughts please gentlemen.

 

[terrym]

First welcome to the forum
I regularly make up Coopers kits with a malt and hops boost of some sort and all of their yeasts pack down well with any additional help .
In my view you really don't need to add gelatin to your beer. If you leave it in the conditioning/maturing stage long enough and better in a cold place as well the yeast will settle.
So in the end gravity and time will do the job just as well. The only time I tried gelatin I ended up with bits floating in the beer which defeated the object of adding it in the first place. Others may have more success, but I suspect those that add gelatin are in the minority on this forum.

 

[foxbat]

If you do use gelatin then it's supposed to be added to the entire batch once you've chilled it right down in the fridge. I must have been doing something wrong or using the wrong product (Dr Oetker) when I tried it because it made no difference. These days I pay close attention to my water's pH and mineral profile and use a properly prepared starter of WLP007 yeast for ales that flocculates hard leaving clear beer without the need for finings.

 

[Marcale]

Terry
Thanks for your response, I note your options, but you raise an issue that is a key issue for me. “...a cold place” - I don’t have one! Today is approaching the end of the cool season and at 1pm it was 26C. It will be warmer, up to 35C.

My plan is not to fight the temperature but to work with it using methods and ingredients (eg different yeasts) to get better results despite the heat. The kegerator is for serving and storing a few bottles.

For example, I put the FV on a step in the pool, where it is semi-immersed, and it doesn’t get above 26C at this time of the year.

 

[Dutto]

Schlitz Beer was aptly named ... :thumb:... apparently, it used gelatine as a clearing agent! Personally, I favour "Time + Gravity" to clear my brews.

 

[Clint]

Good luck with clearing your beer....I found a cold crash to around 3 then using a bottling bucket and time gives very clear beer.
BUT.....if your guests don’t like it they can always drink pop...

 

[foxy]

Keep your eye on Big Cols thread 'Fermenting under pressure in a no chill cube' at the temperatures you are fermenting at if you add some back pressure from the escaping CO2 not only will you get a clear beer you will be drinking it in a week.

 

[terrym]

Terry
Thanks for your response, I note your options, but you raise an issue that is a key issue for me. “...a cold place” - I don’t have one! Today is approaching the end of the cool season and at 1pm it was 26C. It will be warmer, up to 35C.

My plan is not to fight the temperature but to work with it using methods and ingredients (eg different yeasts) to get better results despite the heat. The kegerator is for serving and storing a few bottles.

For example, I put the FV on a step in the pool, where it is semi-immersed, and it doesn’t get above 26C at this time of the year.

You can still get by without a 'cold place' to condition. It will just take longer to clear. That said your ambient conditions are not ideal for fermenting and storing beer. If it were me I would be thinking of one fridge to help condition and store beers, and one in which to brew my beers i.e a brew fridge so that I could better control the fermentation temperature

 

[ACBEV]

I've only used protofloc at end of boil, all my beers have been crystal clear. I agree with terrym, you need a brew fridge really.

Fermenting at high temp. will encourage your yeast to go mental, creating off flavours... fusel alcohols (banana-tasting), excessive levels of diacetyl, also the beer may not condition nicely. Bare in mind the internal temperature of the fermentor can be much higher than ambient conditions.

 

[Marcale]

You can still get by without a 'cold place' to condition. It will just take longer to clear. That said your ambient conditions are not ideal for fermenting and storing beer. If it were me I would be thinking of one fridge to help condition and store beers, and one in which to brew my beers i.e a brew fridge so that I could better control the fermentation temperature

Hi Terry,
You have hit the nail on the head, - You can still get by without a 'cold place' to condition. It will just take longer to clear.

But it will condition/ mature quicker because of the heat. I want to ensure that it is clear before it is past its best, would gelatine in the FV or secondary achieve this?

 

[terrym]

My experience is that when carbonation is done (which at your ambient temeratures it very likely to be no more than a week) in UK summer temperatures the beer will be substantially clear in about a week maybe two, and will be almost crystal in about a month. Latter is about right for most beers to come into their own in terms of maturity. However if you put carbed beer into a fridge the yeast will drop and the beer clear in a matter of a few days. Clearing period is also determined by the type of yeast used, how well it flocculates, e.g some ale yeasts drop quickly and seem very sticky. Next, my understanding is that conditioning is best carried out cold rather than warm. My suggestion to you is to split a brew at packaging, and add gelatin to one half and then monitor how each half performs in comparison, to see which best serves your needs.

 

[ExpatBrewer]

There's generally two causes of hazy beer... suspended yeast, and also the haze resulting from the coagulation of proteins and polyphenols when the beer is chilled - commonly known as 'chill-haze'. Yeast generally settles out fairly quickly i.e. flocculates over time which varies depending on the strain. After a week or so the beer can look crystal clear at room temperature.

Chill-haze however is a little more complex to deal with and is exacerbated further when you start adding specialty grains and hop additions to your kit beers. If you serve at say typical UK cellar temperatures (10-14º) then the chill-haze may never actually form so the beer looks clear, but once you start to chill the beer down to fridge temps (approx 4ºC) it is then that the chill haze will start to form and become very apparent.

The usual way of preventing chill haze is to remove the compounds that cause it. That typically involves cold-crashing the beer prior to packaging to close to 0ºC which forces the haze to form. Finings such as gelatin is then added to the beer which then combines with these haze-forming compounds eventually pulling them out of suspension.