Gelatin - the science of why it works

[Kealia]

Guys, I came across this blog that explains not only how to use it (good reference for those that want it), but WHY it works.

It's heavy on the science, but I thought somebody might find it interesting.

[Beer-lord]

This is great, thanks for the link.
I wish I could do this before I kegged. I have no cooler so I'll have to chill my keg on gas a day or so then add the gelatin. I'm not crazy about opening up a keg after its done but have to dry hop so I will give this a try when the Levitation is done.

[BlackDuck]

Thanks for the link....not to hijack this, but how did you get the link in your post to print "this blog"?

[Sparrow]

I will know in a few weeks if the science is sound, as I added gelatin to a batch recently based on Kealia's post on that other forum.

[Beer-lord]

I misread.....I should chill my keg first, add gelatin then carb.
Got it.

Chris, take a look at this thread.

[Kealia]

It works, I promise! My batch of Levitation is the first batch that I've used it in the keg (carbing now) but I've used gelatin in other batches in primary and the beer is ridiculously clear. Note that dry hopping can add a bit of haze back.

Chris - when you use the URL tool it inserts this code:

Code: Select all

[url][/url]

Just put what you want to see in between the URL codes, and add "=actualURL" to the first piece of code. My link above looks like this:

Code: Select all

[url=http://suigenerisbrewing.blogspot.ca/2013/01/brewing-science-gelatin-clearing-beer.html]this blog[/url]

[Kealia]

Paul,

FWIW, I've added gelatin to beer at fermenting temps and then crashed and it worked just as good. If you remember my thread on my Kolsch from the MrB site, the gelatin was added to primary after fermentation was done at ~65 degrees. After adding it, I then crashed it and it came out crystal clear. I've read the article, but in my own experience I've found that adding it to warm beer works, too.

Who knows, maybe it could have been even clearer if it was cold beer - but I think it would have had to have been invisible for that to happen

[BlackDuck]

Thanks guys for the lesson on gelatin.....and the lesson on the links!!

[haerbob3]

going have to it a try I have been using insglass & benonite

[Kealia]

I've heard great things about Isinglass.

[genotype]

Great post Kealia. Going to experiment with this soon. Glad this forum is up and running. Not a fan of the new MRB.

[FrozenInTime]

The only thang MrB is doing is sending out threatening e-mails, they are not interested if fixing the crap they did.

The gelatin thang really works, I've done it before. I have 2 big IPAs in the bucket right now, went commando with the hops, will be doing this real soon.

[Kealia]

FIT - Have you used it in your IPAs yet, or previously?

I ask because in another thread (or two) we've been discussing the impact of gelatin so I wanted to resurface this discussion. My latest brew, that I've done three times now was vastly different this time around and one of the variables was using gelatin. The other variable was swapping munich for wheat and that accounted for some of the taste difference, but I'm primarily talking about aroma here. I doubled the dry hops in this latest batch but the gelatin basically negated it all. Nada on the nose except some malt and a hint of something. I used Nelson Sauvin hops and it really should have popped on the nose, especially with 2X the dry hops that I used before.

So I went back and looked at the batches that I've used gelatin on, and without copying the same information here I can say that all of them were lacking in aroma and to some extent some flavor, too.

While I have gotten CRYSTAL CLEAR beers from using this technique, I think it requires more research and testing before I will blindly recommend others to use it at this point. A quick Google search turns up many posts on many different boards about the affect of gelatin on dry hopping but oddly enough one of them came up with I was just learning about how to use gelatin in general. You'd think somebody would have mentioned it before but they seem to be separate threads: some on how to use it, and some of the effect of dry hopping if you do.

So, I'm curious to hear how you and anybody have fared?

And I wonder if people that filter like losman26 have compared a filtered beer to a non filtered same-recipe beer to see if the same holds true. I will suspect that filtering and fining produce the same results. A huge loss of aroma, and potentially flavor, from either technique. I know some people just use more hops to offset but that seems like a waste to me.

I was happy with the clarity of my beers before and I won't sacrifice aroma and/or flavor for the sake of a crystal clear beer anymore. If I were to brew a malt-forward beer (pilsner, some lagers, etc.) I may consider using gelatin again.

One day I'll get really adventurous and brew a 5-gallon batch of something and gelatin 1/2 so I can do a head to head. Until then, Bill Cosby can have his Jello back.

[mashani]

I know that highly flocculent yeast can drag hop oils and therefore flavor to the bottom of your fermenter. That's why S-05 and other similar American yeasts are actually medium flocculent, not high like some English strains. If you use an English strain the same hop schedule is mellower and the malt stands out more. So it might make some sense that fining agents could do something similar.

I'd think a dry hop would make up for it a bit though.

[Beer-lord]

Another question I would have is if you dry hopped the keg the same time you added gelatin, would that defeat the purpose of some of the dry hopping? I'm waiting another 2 days before I dry hop and it'll be 4 days after I added gelatin so I hope it's all out of suspension and at the bottom and done it's job by the time I dry hop. I'll pull off a pint and get as much gelatin as I can out before I dry hop as I don't want that to stay in my beer any longer.
For me, I'm not sure it's worth it. If my beers taste better cloudy, that's just fine with me.