Beer finings

[DenDen]

Does it help the Beer to add copper tans to help clear the Beer, or should I not bother?

[Pale Man]

34 minutes ago, DenDen said:

Does it help the Beer to add copper tans to help clear the Beer, or should I not bother?

What is copper tans?

[Shamus O'Sean]

3 hours ago, DenDen said:

Does it help the Beer to add copper tans to help clear the Beer, or should I not bother?

Do you mean the Copper Tun brand of finings?  I have never used that brand.  However, I use finings in all my brews except the ones that are meant to be hazy.  I currently use Biofine Clear A3.  It is a liquid.  You add about 0.5ml/litre to a batch that is already cold.  Then gently stir it in.  Either during cold crash or when you keg the beer.  My beers are very clear.

I have also used Isinglass and Polyclar in combo with each other.  I tried Gelatin, but did not get great results with it.

I think it is worth doing.  However, it is not necessary.  Your beer will still taste great.  Some just might look a little clearer.

[Tricky Micky]

11 hours ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

I tried Gelatin, but did not get great results with it.

Shamus @Shamus O'Sean, I've used gelatin with varying results. Used mainly in beers which are not meant to be hazy. I stopped using it recently not because of the results but for fear of contaminating the wort. This may be unfounded but it occurred to me gelatin is an animal by-product and may have negative effects on the outcome of the brew. I might look at using Biofine Clear A3.

Interestingly Dr. Google has this to say about Gelatin:

Gelatine is an animal protein with many industrial applications. Previous studies pointed out that endosporeforming bacteria, belonging to the genus Bacillus or related genera, might contaminate and survive the production process of gelatine, leading to products of low quality and safety.

[Oldbloke]

I tried gelatine donkey years ago and wasn't particularly impressed.  Haven't bothered since. 

[Classic Brewing Co]

5 hours ago, Tricky Micky said:

Shamus @Shamus O'Sean, I've used gelatin with varying results. Used mainly in beers which are not meant to be hazy. I stopped using it recently not because of the results but for fear of contaminating the wort. This may be unfounded but it occurred to me gelatin is an animal by-product and may have negative effects on the outcome of the brew. I might look at using Biofine Clear A3.

Interestingly Dr. Google has this to say about Gelatin:

Gelatine is an animal protein with many industrial applications. Previous studies pointed out that endosporeforming bacteria, belonging to the genus Bacillus or related genera, might contaminate and survive the production process of gelatine, leading to products of low quality and safety.

I tried it once, IMO it didn't make any difference, so I don't use it. Clear beers don't matter to me anyway.

[RDT2]

I use Gelatine all the time in my clear beers works really well! I cold crash and add it to the fermenter and leave for a couple of days, then keg!

[Tricky Micky]

42 minutes ago, RDT2 said:

I use Gelatine all the time in my clear beers works really well! I cold crash and add it to the fermenter and leave for a couple of days, then keg!

Clearly  (sorry) - the proof of the pudding is in the eating.  They look awesome @RDT2

[kmar92]

I also use gelatine regularly to fine my beers and I also find that it works very well. If you are using it in the FV the beer must be very cold for the gelatine to work effectively, same if you use it as keg finings. For maximum clarity cold conditioning for a sufficiently long period is also a must.

[Back Brewing]

1 hour ago, RDT2 said:

I use Gelatine all the time in my clear beers works really well! I cold crash and add it to the fermenter and leave for a couple of days, then keg!

So all you do is gently tip it into the fermenter ?

I read you hade to stir it in and thought nah I won't do that but if that is all that is required I might give it a go

[RDT2]

9 minutes ago, Back Brewing said:

So all you do is gently tip it into the fermenter ?

I read you hade to stir it in and thought nah I won't do that but if that is all that is required I might give it a go

I sanitise a coffee cup tip boiling water into it add a teaspoonful of gelatine give it a good mix and tip gently into the cold fermenter and give it a very light stir. Leave for a couple of days then keg. Seems to work with my beers  

[Otto Von Blotto]

Copper tun or other no name brands of finings are more than likely just gelatin. I used it a few times too and didn't really like it much either. It cleared the beer but it also made the sediment like jelly and too easy to disturb it. 

I moved onto isinglass and polyclar which were fantastic in combination. I haven't used isinglass for a while because I used to be able to get it in powdered form and it worked out really cheap per brew as I only needed a quarter of a teaspoon or whatever it was, mixed in cold water. Those packets lasted forever. Can't find that anymore of course, just liquid form that's way more expensive per brew . I still use polyclar however. 

I did try biofine, but the yeast sediment settled out weirdly in the fermenter, like there was a 2 inch film of it on the bottom. I don't think the beer tasted as good either, but it could have been older ingredients too, can't remember now. 

[Oldbloke]

11 hours ago, kmar92 said:

I also use gelatine regularly to fine my beers and I also find that it works very well. If you are using it in the FV the beer must be very cold for the gelatine to work effectively, same if you use it as keg finings. For maximum clarity cold conditioning for a sufficiently long period is also a must.

There you go. Learn something every day.

[Beerdo]

Not that it would bother many of you but if you use finings/gelatin your beer isn't vegan friendly. This doesn't bother me either but I'm happy I can offer my BIL, who follows a vegan diet, a beer when he visits. After I informed him of it's vegan qualities he also started home brewing. Ironically, he used to be a high flying, corporate type with one of the major megaswill breweries.

[RDT2]

7 hours ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

Copper tun or other no name brands of finings are more than likely just gelatin. 

I used an another brand of finings which came in a sachet (2.95 an pack) and looked just like gelatine and acted the same, hence I started using gelatine after cold crashing the beer in the fermenter. I only use it in the fermenter as I have heard of jelly on the first pour of the keg etc. I have dirty batched afterwards as well and doesn’t seem to effect the yeast. 

 

[Otto Von Blotto]

11 hours ago, RDT2 said:

I used an another brand of finings which came in a sachet (2.95 an pack) and looked just like gelatine and acted the same, hence I started using gelatine after cold crashing the beer in the fermenter. I only use it in the fermenter as I have heard of jelly on the first pour of the keg etc. I have dirty batched afterwards as well and doesn’t seem to effect the yeast. 

 

I used it in the fermenter too, maybe I didn't do it quite properly but I wasn't too impressed with the jelly sediment in the bottles. Isinglass I found the complete opposite, the sediment in the fv was very compacted and hard to dislodge. 

[iBooz2]

I always used to use isinglass but it became hard to source there for a while so switched over to gelatine.  I stopped doing the tip in and stir method as it stirred up what trub I had already settled out down to the bottom of the FV.  After that I just used one of these Parmesan cheese shakers to rain/dribble the gelatine mixture into the chilled beer in the FV.  I was happy with results but since moving on to yeast harvesting, I decided to stop fining and just to cold crash much longer and then re-use some of the trub.  I wanted the trub to be a clean as I could get away with to spin up starters and re-use as is.

Edited January 17 by iBooz2

[RDT2]

5 hours ago, iBooz2 said:

I always used to use isinglass but it became hard to source there for a while so switched over to gelatine.  I stopped doing the tip in and stir method as it stirred up what trub I had already settled out down to the bottom of the FV.  After that I just used one of these Parmesan cheese shakers to rain/dribble the gelatine mixture into the chilled beer in the FV.  I was happy with results but since moving on to yeast harvesting, I decided to stop fining and just to cold crash much longer and then re-use some of the trub.  I wanted the trub to be a clean as I could get away with to spin up starters and re-use as is.

I use @Otto Von Blotto ‘s yeast harvesting method so my trub doesn’t matter so much, I think it’s best way to keep the original yeast clean and then I just start again with the harvested yeast!

[Aussiekraut]

On 1/17/2024 at 8:07 AM, Beerdo said:

Not that it would bother many of you but if you use finings/gelatin your beer isn't vegan friendly. This doesn't bother me either but I'm happy I can offer my BIL, who follows a vegan diet, a beer when he visits. After I informed him of it's vegan qualities he also started home brewing. Ironically, he used to be a high flying, corporate type with one of the major megaswill breweries.

Gelatine and Isinglas are not vegan friendly but PolyClar is. Crudely put, it is ground up plastic  It is perfectly vegan safe. 

[Back Brewing]

My beer is at 4c at the moment for the last 2 days because if I try to go lower the fridge has a hissy fit and won't hold any lower 

Is this cold enough to add gelatine? I'm still tossing up whether to do it or not as always when I'm about to do something different to the brew I start second guessing myself OR do I just CC for a week and clear it that way

[Beerdo]

3 hours ago, Back Brewing said:

My beer is at 4c at the moment for the last 2 days because if I try to go lower the fridge has a hissy fit and won't hold any lower 

Is this cold enough to add gelatine? I'm still tossing up whether to do it or not as always when I'm about to do something different to the brew I start second guessing myself OR do I just CC for a week and clear it that way

4C is cold enough for gelatin. Add it! It won't ruin your beer. You may not be overjoyed with the results but you won't know unless you try. That's one of the beauties of DIY beer, the more mistakes you make the more you learn.

[Aussiekraut]

I only ever used gelatine once and the beer was a little "odd". It tasted fine and looked great but it felt a little viscous. I can't tell whether it was from the gelatine or if it was just coincidence and something else had happened. I thought I had inadvertently invented a new type of beer that "goes down like oil" but that's what it was like to drink it. Even pouring it into the glass, it seemed somewhere between "normal" beer and extra virgin olive oil in terms of consistency. A bit like runny jelly. 

As I said, I don't know what caused it and I may simply have buggered something up but I blame the gelatine and have refrained from using it ever since. 

[RDT2]

11 hours ago, Beerdo said:

4C is cold enough for gelatin. Add it! It won't ruin your beer. You may not be overjoyed with the results but you won't know unless you try. That's one of the beauties of DIY beer, the more mistakes you make the more you learn.

That’s the temp I put it in mate seems to work!

[Classic Brewing Co]

52 minutes ago, Aussiekraut said:

I only ever used gelatine once and the beer was a little "odd". It tasted fine and looked great but it felt a little viscous. I can't tell whether it was from the gelatine or if it was just coincidence and something else had happened. I thought I had inadvertently invented a new type of beer that "goes down like oil" but that's what it was like to drink it. Even pouring it into the glass, it seemed somewhere between "normal" beer and extra virgin olive oil in terms of consistency. A bit like runny jelly. 

As I said, I don't know what caused it and I may simply have buggered something up but I blame the gelatine and have refrained from using it ever since. 

Same here, I didn't think it did anything special, just a something different about the beer, but I have never used it since.

[Shamus O'Sean]

On 2/14/2024 at 5:21 PM, Back Brewing said:

My beer is at 4c at the moment for the last 2 days because if I try to go lower the fridge has a hissy fit and won't hold any lower 

Is this cold enough to add gelatine? I'm still tossing up whether to do it or not as always when I'm about to do something different to the brew I start second guessing myself OR do I just CC for a week and clear it that way

4°C is cold enough for gelatine.  I tried it a few times.  It did not seem to clear my batches.  Maybe I did it wrong.  I did not notice any flavour or oily effects.  

I had great results with fish guts (Isinglass) and crushed poly pipe (Polyclar).  Now I use Biofine Clear because it is easier than the previous two step, two day process.