Using gelatin finning at bottling?

I brewed a batch of wheat on Friday I think; maybe it was Thursday, and I am guessing that it will finish bubbling by tomorrow. It's been bubbling for a good 4-5 days anyways and is slowing down now. Normally I like to leave my beer in the fermentor for a good week or two after all bubbling has stopped because I am an advocate of allowing the beer to age a little while on the trub. However, on Thursday or Friday I am leaving for the summer and either need to rack to secondary and let it sit for a few months, which wont hurt it, or I can bottle week old beer and let it age in the bottle for a few weeks. I would prefer to bottle so I can take some with me . Does anyone have an opinion as to which is better?

Also, I usually like to use gelatin finnings and put them in the primary fermentor 3-4 days before bottling. I know its a wheat beer and cloudy is good, but I prefer clearer home brew. Does anyone see a reason why I couldn't mix the finnings in with the priming sugar? I don't see why the gelatin would affect the carbonation process and I don't see why the gelatin wouldn't also clear up the beer and leave everything in the bottom of the bottle just like it does the bottom of the carboy. Opinions?

It might work - I don't know. Honestly though - if a giant blob of gelatin fall into my glass during a pour I'd probably freak out a little.

My experience is that it works poorly. Gelatin seems to not stick and compact to the bottom of the bottle like bottle conditioned "trub" normally does. The few times I've done it, the pours resulted in a floaties in my beer. Taste was fine, but visually it was bad. You could get a good, clear pour, but you had to be careful and leave extra beer behind. I say don't do it.

the gelatine makes the yeast clump together and fall out of suspension. you want yeast in suspension for carbonation. ergo, gelatine will interfere with carbonation. i don't know if it will interfere sufficiently (and fast enough) to inhibit carbonation but it certainly might.

i'd skip it, man up, and deal with a hazy wheat beer... the way the beers gods intended them (exception made for kristalweizen )

It's not my preferred method now, but last year I did a couple batches of mixing the gelatin in at bottling time. It seemed to work and I honestly didn't notice any unusual sediment.
So, if you must, you must. Anything to have a few extra beers to bring with you.
I would be a little concerned however that you might be bottling before your fermentation is complete, ie. Bottle Bombs.

OH, wait, had another thought: Bottle up a dozen to bring with you and rack the rest for secondary conditioning. Interesting little experiment on which way turns out the best. Good luck!

Well, I was wrong about fermentation being done. It is still bubbling away and I leave tomorrow, so this wheat might just spend a couple months aging on the trub. Most of my beers have only bubbled for about 4 days, and I think this one is on day 6 of bubbling. I'm pretty exciting about it. the first few days, you could really smell the orange peel I put in it and now the banana has been coming out.

redking11 said:

Well, I was wrong about fermentation being done. It is still bubbling away and I leave tomorrow, so this wheat might just spend a couple months aging on the trub. Most of my beers have only bubbled for about 4 days, and I think this one is on day 6 of bubbling. I'm pretty exciting about it. the first few days, you could really smell the orange peel I put in it and now the banana has been coming out.

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bubbling doesn't necessarily mean that fermentation is happening... could just be off-gassing.

i like the secondary idea. i wouldn't want to leave the beer on the primary yeast for that long.

can someone explain to me what off gassing is?

off gassing, at least how i was using it here, is just CO2 being released due to differentials in ambient pressure. at a certain point your brew will not produce enough CO2 to push through the air lock, and your fermeter will stop bubbling. but if, for example, air pressure drops (low pressure weather system moves in), your beer may be able to start bubbling again. heat or vibration can have a similar effect. it doesn't mean that there is active fermentation.