For those of you who use gelatin and keg, do you always transfer to a clean keg after the gelatin has done its thing? Im thinking of eliminating a step by simply adding the gelatin to my serving keg accepting that my first few pints from that keg might be cloudy.
I always gel my ales and lagers, never dark beers unless they are amber or like a dopplebock. As far as temperature goes with lagers I always ramp it up to 76-80 deg. F. for a day to allow the yeast to clean up, then crash it hard to 33 deg. F for at least 5 days. Right before crashing I do two things, remove the trub and yeast for harvesting, then remove the air lock or at least make sure to remove it from my sanitizer solution as it will suck it up with the change in temperature.For those of you who use gelatin and keg, do you always transfer to a clean keg after the gelatin has done its thing? Im thinking of eliminating a step by simply adding the gelatin to my serving keg accepting that my first few pints from that keg might be cloudy.
I usually do most of my brew work on week ends so I brew and put in primary weekend#1 then after a hydrometer check to ensure fermentation is complete I put in secondary weekend#2 and cold crash for 2 weeks. I get a second cake that is decent because the beer does fall clear. I dont use any finings. Weekend #4 I rack to a bottling bucket and then keg it (to remove the trub) and have it sit on gas for a week. Weekend #5 I am pulling a pint.
I know this may be longer than necessary but since I pull the beer off the cake there is no harm and its easy to remember what to do when. With my work schedule this works best for me as as long as it makes good beer I am fine with it
"Why is there any trub left when you are putting it in the bottling bucket?"
After primary fermentation what falls is a yeast cake which can be reused. After cold crashing what falls is all the precipitate that can make your beer cloudy. Hence the reason to cold crash.
"Just my opinion, but all that racking!!! A risk for oxygenating your beer."
I use siphonless food grade fermentors. If you use a hose long enough to reach the bottom then you get very little splashback. So I get clear beer that shows no sign of oxygenation
The sooner you get the beer off the yeast cake after fermentation the less risk of Autolysis (off flavors from the dead yeast in the cake). So 1 week in primary is more than enough time to complete fermentation then you have to get the beer off the yeast cake to reduce any risk of Autolysis. Then 2 weeks cold crash lets the beer fall clear. Then you want to get the beer off the precipitate so you rack to a bottling bucket and immediately keg or bottle.
Most cold crash fridges or freezers are too low to siphon from anyway. Just move it slowly and gently. It won't stir up too much. I also use gelatin which compacts the yeast cake.
On my work table, I tilt the fermenter, put the autosiphon at the low point resting on the bottom, then catch the first pint or so and dump. I also purge my kegs with CO2 prior to filling.
Hope that helps
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