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  • Gelatin not Working??

    Hey all, we are in the need of some clear beer, and for some reason aren't having any luck. We have brewed 1bbl of an Irish Red Ale using Wyeast 1084. We split the batch into 15gal a piece and put into conical fermenters

    This past Thursday we crashed the beer to 35deg, on Friday we added 1.5tsp of gelatin into each fermenter, checked it Sunday and no clearer. So Sunday we added another 1.5tsp to each fermenter, and have dumped the yeast trub a total of 3 times.

    We mixed the gelatin in 1.5cups of water, fully dissolving by heating up to 160deg. we also let the gelatin bloom

    Any ideas, why the beer isn't getting any clearer??? Anything we can do?

    Thanks!

  • #2
    If you can spare the space, I would continue to let it sit cold for a week and see what happens.

    1084 is a fairly good floc'er, especially at cold temps. It may not be yeast still in suspension - it may be chill haze or another form of protein/polyphenol. You should choose a clarifier based on the type of haze.

    If you're still cloudy after a week, taste the beer. Does it taste more bitter/astringent than normal? That could be a sign of polyphenol in solution, in which case PVPP (Polyclar) is excellent at removing.

    Pour a sample and allow it to warm. If the haze goes away, that's chill haze. Chill haze can be removed with silica gel.


    I tried to find some good references on finings. The best reference was from Dr. Brad Smith (creator of Beer Smith):

    The clarity of homebrewed beer is cherished for many beer styles. Fining agents added at the end of your boil step or later in the fermenter can help to rapidly clear your beer. I previously covered a range of techniques


    BSG has a pretty good manual on clarifiers, but it relates more to cask ale and goes into a lot of depth that may or may not be interesting to you:

    http://www.brewerssupplygroup.com/Fi...rFining_Manual[1].pdf
    Kyle Kohlmorgen
    Process/Automation Consultant
    St. Louis, MO

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    • #3
      Great! Thanks!

      I will pour a sample and let sit to see if chill haze.

      Our next step was to add some biofine clear. Prefer to have the beer to market by friday, but not going to push it! Clear takes precedence

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      • #4
        That seems like a very low dosage to me. We use 100g (dissolved in .5 liter of warm water) per hectoliter which is close to a barrel. 1.5 teaspoons has got to be less than 10g.

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        • #5
          Gelatin generally doesn't work as well as isinglass finings, but I assume you have been using it to your satisfaction before, and this problem is more or less a one off. The comments about keeping it cold for longer than you normally are a good start. Picking up on the comments about what appears to be a low addition rate (I can't comment on the rate, as I haven't used gelatin for years), it might be worth you taking some of your beer, and doing a finings rate trial to see if any further addition is worthwhile.

          I also suggest that you do finings rates trials for your beers, as optimum addition rates do vary from beer type to type (and gravity). Rather than go through the procedure here, I suggest you look up Murphys, based in the UK (www.murphyandson.co.uk) . They provide a good description of finings addition optimisation, and though it is based on isinglass finings, the same principles apply. Note also they talk about use of copper finings and auxiliary finings, which will help to reduce the suspended proteins which lead to chill haze.
          dick

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