Using Gelatin as a clarifier Question ? ? ?

[Azorean Brewer]

Team,

Per my previous post, I did not have Irish Moss in my last batch and thanks to everyone's help and suggestions I used gelatin, 1/4 oz (6 grams) per 5 gallons of beer. I diluted the gelatin in cool water, and warmed it to 165F +/- and cooled it. Pitched it into the carboy and rocked the locked carboy to evenly distribute.

The Carboy temp is at 45F I did this yesterday (2-17-03) at 6:00 a.m. before work. When I checked it this morning (24 hours later) it is Crystal clear. So much so that now I wonder if there is any yeast left to carbonate my bottles with.

With all that information my questions are:

1.) I bottle not keg, do I have enough active yeast left to naturally carbonate my beer? It might be a month before I bottle?

2.) Will it be necessary to repitch yeast and if yes, will re-hydrated dry yeast be ok (I made a pilsner lager and a marzen lager beer, I'll use lager yeast or champagne yeast) I do not have any more White Labs.

3.) In bottling does it matter when I put the Gelatin in?

Thanks for this help, I am an old time brewer and a new time user of gelatin. Much appreciated.

Regards,

Paul.

[jayhawk]

I will have to resort to this gelatin method too, Paul. Thanks for the update, it helps me out big time to hear your experience. I am suprised that the beer cleared so fast. I am thinking of preparing the solution, adding it to an empty carboy, then racking the beer in to the same carboy. This should provide adequate mixing, as well as allowing me to harvest some yeast from the secondary for repitching at bottling. I guess it is a good idea to leave the beer and finings for at least a couple of weeks before bottling, so I doubt much yeast will be left in suspension. Why not just prime and bottle as usual, then add a few grains of neutral dried yeast to each bottle before capping. If you use a high quality neutral yeast, the beer should be fine, although repitching would be ideal.

What kind of gelatin did you use? What was your mix ratio? Did you use water or beer as the solvent?

Chris

[Freon12]

Take a sample of the brew and put it in a sanitized bottle with an air lock. Feed it some DME solution that has been boiled and see if there is activity in about 24hrs. If so, you can bottle.

If you want to wait(woodshop business) you can make more of that yeast by feeding it every week once you get air lock movement. You can have more than enough to bottle.


Steve

P.S. !@#$ old timer, move to the keg genration.
Don't make me send you one!

[Azorean Brewer]

I WANT to move to kegging, bugetary constraints are keeping me bottling. Wife was out of work for a long time ... blah blah blah ...

Anyway great idea about "feeding" my yeast, I am glad I thought of that ... actually it is a very good point, or I could actually bottle one early and see if in three weeks I have carbonation. I recall the calculation I laid out as to how much sugar to use per bottle etc... so I'll try air lock or bottle method. Either way some good bantering going on here Ehhh ?

Cheers fellow and lady brewers ...

Paul.

[Azorean Brewer]

Chris,

I used regular unflavored Knox gelatin. The package I bought was great there are 4 - 1/4 oz. packets in the box. I "cleaned" a bowl, and put in 1 cup room temp cool bottled drinking water (67F or so). Sprinkled in one packet (1/4 oz.)of the gelatin on top while stirring. Once mixed I put everything in a "clean" saucepan and warmed it to about 165F. Covered it with foil and allowed it to sit and cool. Once cooled I poured it into the carboy and rocked it in a circular motion to get a small whirlpool going. That's it ... worked like a champ.

Paul.

[Fraoch]

seems i missed this last posting regarding this subject.I used to use gelatin all the time due to its fast progress,availability and cheapness.
2 tablespoons of gelatin to a 2 cups water is more than enough to clear 5 gals or so. Be careful not to try to force clear your beer by trying to remove the yeast too early(maybe you reached your ideal FG and want to halt fermentation), all that happens is the gelatin sets on the surface as there is too much boyancy still in your brew. Gelatin will clear in 24 hrs.
Add to carboy gently and mix thoroughly,It sets and drops through taking the suspended yeast with it.There are p[roblems though in that you may reaerate your beer by the mixing,this you do not want to do.There is also little point in clearing the beer then waiting several weeks to bottle.Once clear, bottle straight away.Gelatin is meant to be flavourless, but it does smell which means it has some flavour. There will still be enough yeast in suspension to carbonate if you rack straight away.Allow to mature in the bottle or rack to another vessel to mature, i would not let it sit on the coagulated gelatin/yeast.
The more you rack off the more risks you take,likewise the more processes and things you add.If you own a fridge then crash cool instead.Takes a little longer but is a far safer method.

Fraoch

[jayhawk]

What temp would you preform the gelatin fining process? Did you notice any flavour/aroma left behind by the gelatin?

[Fraoch]

2ndary is normally conducted at lower temps to primary around 15c or 55f??.But before my brew fridge manifested everything was conducted at ambient.Gelatin will still work fine as it will solidify somewhat at room temp.If spread liberally through the beer it will cling to the suspended yeast and congeal.It is heavier than the beer and so drops through.As i said, i always racked off the then trub created once cleared.Because of this i never experienced any flavour profile due to the gelatin.If you are not going to bottle or keg, there is very little point in clearing your beer,after all it will eventually clear itself, given enough time.
Fraoch