Gelatin in Fruit Beer

[markus2982]

Hey everyone. Sorry if this answer is in another thread but haven't been able to find it. I brewed a raspberry ale (Requiem Raspberry recipe) and have it in the secondary with the raspberries right now. I have never used gelatin as a clearing agent before and was wondering if the berries would prevent the gelatin from doing its job.

Any advice would be great

 

[jmf143]

I don't see why it wouldn't. What are your concerns?

 

[markus2982]

Mostly that the gelatin would get caught up I the fruit and not spread through the beer well.

 

[jmf143]

Gelatin works best if the beer has been cold crashed first. The fruit will have fallen, and won't interfere with the gelatin.

 

[Warthaug]

If you're kegging, add the gelatin to the cold beer in the keg. This way there is little risk of the fruit interfearing with the process. Suspended fruit material will be precipitated by gelatin - at the cost of the gelatin precipitating the proteins & yeast it normally precipitates.

That said:
1) Like jfm said, if the fruit has all settled (via cold-crashing, etc), it shouldn't interfere.
2) We homebrewers typically use far more gelatin than needed (we really need about 1/8th tbsp/5gal, not the usual 1tbsp), so if you use the 'standard' amount for homebrew, you'll probably have enough to overcome any loss caused by suspended fruit particualtes.

Bryan

 

[Captain Damage]

If you heated the fruit to pasteurize it, you may have a pectin haze. This can be removed with pectic enzyme, available at most LHBSes.

 

[markus2982]

Thanks for all the info