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Gelatine finings


King Ruddager

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I'm only just looking into finings as I don't have an issue with hazy beer or chill haze. However I do get jealous when I see crystal clear beers in the RDWHAHB thread 🙂 

@BlackSands mentioned using gelatine once the CC is well underway as we need to get particles to coagulate in order to remove them. It made perfect sense until I remembered the only time I used gelatine as a fining. It was quite a while ago, before I started CCing, so I stirred the gelatine into an 18C brew and it pretty much immediately started to turn jelly, clumping up and a large amount of the gelatine remained on the spoon used to stir. How on earth do you prevent the gelatine from immediately hardening when you pour it into a 0-2C beer?

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I'm thinking my gelatine addition process to my last two CC'd brews @ 2 degrees may have caused fluffy white particles floating just off the bottom of the bottle.

I've reviewed my procedure and after reading what's available online regarding the process of adding gelatine to the brew I may have been doing things slightly wrong - although I can't be sure.

I may have been overheating the water which I'd added the gelatine to. Most brew sites have the temperature of the water @ approx 60-65 degrees stressing that the temperature shouldn't be raised over this threshold as it might cause the gelatine to turn to jello when added to the wort.

Secondly, I may have been adding the gelatin mix too early to the CC'd FV. It's claimed by some that I should wait until the chill haze has been created (if one is going to be that is) before adding the gelatin mix and that the cold crash temperature should be as low as possible without freezing i.e. 1 degree.

I'm not sure how accurate all of this is but I'm going to try and see if following this carefully that I might be able to do away with my fluffy bottoms. 😂

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4 hours ago, Aussiekraut said:

 

@BlackSands mentioned using gelatine once the CC is well underway as we need to get particles to coagulate in order to remove them. It made perfect sense until I remembered the only time I used gelatine as a fining. It was quite a while ago, before I started CCing, so I stirred the gelatine into an 18C brew and it pretty much immediately started to turn jelly, clumping up and a large amount of the gelatine remained on the spoon used to stir. How on earth do you prevent the gelatine from immediately hardening when you pour it into a 0-2C beer?

- was it pre-dissolved?  Allowed to 'bloom' in cold water first, then pre-boiled water added to completely dissolve before adding to the FV?  This is the flawless method I use.,, and I have ample photographic evidence!  😎

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2 hours ago, Mickep said:

I'm thinking my gelatine addition process to my last two CC'd brews @ 2 degrees may have caused fluffy white particles floating just off the bottom of the bottle.

I've reviewed my procedure and after reading what's available online regarding the process of adding gelatine to the brew I may have been doing things slightly wrong - although I can't be sure.

I may have been overheating the water which I'd added the gelatine to. Most brew sites have the temperature of the water @ approx 60-65 degrees stressing that the temperature shouldn't be raised over this threshold as it might cause the gelatine to turn to jello when added to the wort.

Secondly, I may have been adding the gelatin mix too early to the CC'd FV. It's claimed by some that I should wait until the chill haze has been created (if one is going to be that is) before adding the gelatin mix and that the cold crash temperature should be as low as possible without freezing i.e. 1 degree.

I'm not sure how accurate all of this is but I'm going to try and see if following this carefully that I might be able to do away with my fluffy bottoms. 😂

No disrespect but I really don't get why anyone is having trouble with this.  It's a far simpler process than many other aspects of brewing: 

  1.  Sprinkle a teaspoon of gelatin in some cold water and let it 'bloom' for a while.  Volume of water?  - who cares... just a 1 or 2 hundred ml I guess... doesn't really matter
  2.  Let it sit for 10 - 15 minutes.  It's not critical... whatever time is convenient for you...
  3.   Stir in some pre-boiled water - just to make sure it's fully dissolved...
  4.  Tip it in the cold-crashed FV and give it a gentle stir...
  5.  Give it a few days...  2, maybe more...  whatever fits in with your life
  6.  Go have a beer,  watch the news, take a dump... whatever...  

It really is extremely simple... no need to over complicate and get all anal over what is a very simple, and one of the more straight-forward parts of the overall brewing process.   🤓 

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55 minutes ago, BlackSands said:

- was it pre-dissolved?  Allowed to 'bloom' in cold water first, then pre-boiled water added to completely dissolve before adding to the FV?  This is the flawless method I use.,, and I have ample photographic evidence!  😎

It was stirred into warm, previously boiled water until it appeared dissolved. I'm sure I did something wrong but what is the question as always.

 

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13 hours ago, Tone boy said:

If I add gelatin to my CC’d FV, can I then harvest that yeast? Or does adding the gelatin mean I have to chuck that yeast now?

I haven't done it but from comments I think you can harvest as when you pour it into your storage, the layers separate out. I may be misremembering but I've seen pics with distinct layers and only 1 of them if the yeast.

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15 hours ago, BlackSands said:

No disrespect but I really don't get why anyone is having trouble with this.  It's a far simpler process than many other aspects of brewing: 

  1.  Sprinkle a teaspoon of gelatin in some cold water and let it 'bloom' for a while.  Volume of water?  - who cares... just a 1 or 2 hundred ml I guess... doesn't really matter
  2.  Let it sit for 10 - 15 minutes.  It's not critical... whatever time is convenient for you...
  3.   Stir in some pre-boiled water - just to make sure it's fully dissolved...
  4.  Tip it in the cold-crashed FV and give it a gentle stir...
  5.  Give it a few days...  2, maybe more...  whatever fits in with your life
  6.  Go have a beer,  watch the news, take a dump... whatever...  

It really is extremely simple... no need to over complicate and get all anal over what is a very simple, and one of the more straight-forward parts of the overall brewing process.   🤓 

Perhaps I didn't make myself clear.

I have been having issues with fluffy particles near the bottom of my beers in my last two brews, can't really tell if it's been the yeast or the gelatine or something else in my process that's causing that as I haven't had the issue before. 

"No disrespect but I really don't get why anyone is having trouble with this."

So, it's in that context that I'm looking for answers. The truth is it's still a process and as near as I can tell judging from the online material available on the subject it seems to matter what the temperature of the water is when adding it to the fermenter and according to the more reliable websites on home brewing it also matters when you add it to the FV regarding the worts temp as well.

Thanks for the heads up re; your own gelatine process. And just so you know I'm not anal about this just trying to solve the issue.

 

 

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33 minutes ago, Mickep said:

Thanks for the heads up re; your own gelatine process. And just so you know I'm not anal about this just trying to solve the issue.

Though I was quoting you I was really speaking more generally with some of my comments.  As it happens I've just been engaged in a very similar discussion elsewhere and finding there that some people really are over-analysing/complicating the process.  I've seen online what I believe are some unnecessarily complicated approaches to preparing the gelatin - e.g.  a common method I see is this idea of incrementally increasing the temperature in a microwave oven, carefully checking the temp along the way until the desired temp is reached.  Seems absolutely ludicrous to me.  But, it's a common phenomenon that I notice generally - in other fields outside of brewing - people making things out to be far more than they really are. 

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i hummed and arrred about putting gelatin in my kolsh   as i want it very clear.

i decided not to thats what my gut was telling me... i am glad i didnt

it was clear as a bell it looked as clear as a carlton draught (didnt want the taste of draught)

i think depending on what you want to bring out in the beer   i think gelatin should still be for jelly in most cases


is really getting  a very clear beer the main point  of a pale ale or ipa  or even with hazy's and neipa's

the word pale  can mean a few things i know , but to me in a pale doesnt mean clear


it astounds me that some people use gelatine in a hazy ipa  and then wonder why it is not hazy when they used gelatin..


they even use it in Stouts,  ya not going to pick up much clarity in a stout,  becuase ya want it to look black ya not worried about how clear it is

stouts are forgiving in that sense


my thoughts are if you dont need crystel clear beer then dont bother using it..

or atleast brew  once without gelatin  then brew again with it..  just dont do it becuase all the sheep are using it





 

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I put a teaspoon of gelatin in water, stir it thoroughly, then nuke it in the mickrowarvee until it gets to 70c.  Then cover and cool, chuck it in - at the end of ferment.   If I'm dry hopping it always goes in a bag, don't seem to have much goop escape.

Seems to work, fill to the keg is clear, beers are clear.  I sugar carbonate in the keg, even with that I don't see too much goop in the bottom.

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