Findings

[ABI Brewery]

Does anyone have some directions for using gelatin for clearing up my beer, I have never used and am going to give it a whirl in place of cold crashing

 

[homebrewer_99]

Welcome to the forum. (Psst! The word is FININGS).

Add 1 tsp of unflavored gelatin to a cup of hot, but not boiling water and gently mix it into your fermenter.

Wait a few days before bottling or racking to allow the gelatin to clear the beer.

 

[elreplica]

Does anyone have some directions for using gelatin for clearing up my beer, I have never used and am going to give it a whirl in place of cold crashing

I would add to the previous poster that you should try to keep the beer cool at least, as the gelatin will clear better. I usually do both - gelatin finings and cold crash to make my beer crystal clear.

 

[cactusgarrett]

For clarification (no pun intended): make sure you're adding your gelatin solution to the beer after it's been chilled. The gelatin will work much better.

 

[beernutz]

A pretty sound experiment to support what elreplica and cactusgarrett (what interesting nicks!) said about cooling beer before adding the gelatin was recently posted as an HBT article here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/gelatin-fining-cold-versus-warm.html

 

[BrewInspector]

Great experiment.
This still leaves me curious as to how my own procedure compares.

I add the gelatin and put the keg in the kegerator to chill.

I suspect there would only be a slight difference to adding to already chilled beer. I suppose it too would depend on how quickly the beer temp falls.

 

[mikeschmidt69]

I cold crash beer to 1C first.

I use sheets of gelatin and prepare by placing 1 sheet on a plate with cool water for a few minutes while boiling some water. I pour a little boiling water into a measure cup and let temperature drop to 70C before adding the gelatin sheet from the plate. Stir to dissolve and add mixture to fermenter.

 

[homebrewer_99]

I cold crash beer to 1C first.

I use sheets of gelatin and prepare by placing 1 sheet on a plate with cool water for a few minutes while boiling some water. I pour a little boiling water into a measure cup and let temperature drop to 70C before adding the gelatin sheet from the plate. Stir to dissolve and add mixture to fermenter.

Sheet? Are you using a Fruit Roll Up?

 

[mikeschmidt69]

No fruit, just gelatin.

Search "gelatin sheets" in Google and look at images.

 

[ABI Brewery]

Thanks for all the suggestions, until the time that I can build myself a fermentation chamber (likely a use dorm fridge some polystyrene and of course a few beers to help) I am using a storage room in my basement that doesnt get heat (minnesota) so when I put my fermenters in there it was about 50 degrees, so the "cold crashing" isnt really that cold, but I did a "test" batch on my new electric 10 gal. self built system (pics to come later) I used 18 lbs. 2-row, 2 lbs. carmel 40 then into two diferent fermenters it went, then i dry hopped one with centenial and citra pellets, and the other with centennial whole leaf hops. the beer is looking real good and fairly clear, yes i used whirlflock, so I think that I am going to let these go and use the gealtin on the next on, probably going to be 20 lbs golden promise and all citra hops since i have about 8 oz. of citra that I need to use. I will add pics of the set up later, but a quick run down, i started with the Mr. beer, like may others on this forum, and just kept getting bigger, and through the process of asking around and knowing many people who tig weld i have taken a decommissioned keg and made an electric boil keggle, i found the parts researched other systems and found all of the material I needed and had one my friends weld in the fittings. I my newest addition is a counterflow chiller that myself and my dad made a couple weeks ago, it was a necessary addition since it didnt want to set my IC on the heating element. Now everything is its own spot and I can chill with out all of the long hoses and dont have move any kettle around, lovin electric brewing. I will get pics as soon as i get everything set back up.