Are finings important?

[scrimple101]

I've been thinking about finings lately. Are they important? I've never used them myself as I rack to secondary and use bottles. So tha's essentially three filterings, four if you count pouring into the glass. At every stage there is trub left over and it's pretty clear by the time i get to taste it. What do other brewers think? Is it important? I don't want to be missing out on anything. Regards, Rob Lane

 

[The Judge]

Finings are impurities. End of story

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Finnings are whats used to settle out impurities. There are a few differnt types of finnings like

Egg white
Gelatin
Irish moss
Whirfloc
Issinglass
Polyclear

They basically coagulate the solid impurities and drop them to the bottom of your vessel


You dont need them generally, but they can help to clear your beer up if you start loosing sleep over cloudy beer

 

[Bribie G]

I haven't used keg / bottle finings for years. Yeast will settle by itself. When kegging I try to keep two or three kegs ahead so it's pretty bright when it goes on tap.

However I always use kettle finings (Brewbright) to minimise chill haze and get the hot break clumping better.

Kit beers really don't need either.

 

[philmud]

If you don't have problems with clarity, they're probably unimportant. I use a kettle fining, but don't love the idea of cow hoofs or swim bladders in my beer. That said, if I wanted a really bright beer, I'd get over that aversion.

 

[Bribie G]

Gelatine is made from hides (I emailed Mckenzies) - the hoof thing is an urban myth. They get rendered down for Mrs Macs pies. I once got some isinglass powder but it must have got a bit damp because it started smelling like something the cat threw up so I chucked it.

mmmm hooves.. :icon_drool2:

 

[HardEight]

it's only a couple $$ for 100g of gelatine...
1/2 a Tbsp gelatine with 1Tbsp of sugar in a cup of hot water poured into your primary just before you rack to secondary isn't going to kill you...
Nor is it going to cost you much, or take much effort.. But it will improve the clarity of your beer...

.. the 100g will last you many many brews...

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Will it improve your beer.....Just cause you add a bit of gelatin ( why you add sugar is a mystery ) wont allways make your beer crystal clear. Neither will any form of finnings.

If ypu dont need it, dont use it.

 

[Bribie G]

Gelatine does a good job of dropping yeast in a bulk situation such as keg or secondary fermenter.

However never ever put it in at bottling stage. It will drop the beer super bright in the bottle, but forms "fluffy bottoms" that swirl up as soon as you even look at the bottle, and destroys the reason you did it in the first place.

 

[manticle]

it's only a couple $$ for 100g of gelatine...
1/2 a Tbsp gelatine with 1Tbsp of sugar in a cup of hot water poured into your primary just before you rack to secondary isn't going to kill you...
Nor is it going to cost you much, or take much effort.. But it will improve the clarity of your beer...

.. the 100g will last you many many brews...

What's the sugar for?
Who said it was expensive or deadly?

 

[scrimple101]

I always worried about finings dropping the yeast out.

 

[Bribie G]

Even if the fined beer looks crystal clear to the eye there are still billions of yeast cells there, for bottle conditioning.

There's a visual threshold, stated somewhere in my Yeast book.. but there's still plenty of yeasties in there.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

I always worried about finings dropping the yeast out.

Dont use finnings then.

I if you ask how many brewers used finnings, then asked the same brewers if they still use them...not many could be bothered

 

[manticle]

I always worried about finings dropping the yeast out.

That's like worrying about yeast eating your sugar.

 

[Black Devil Dog]

Depends how clear you want your beer to be. I like clear lagers, but my wheat beers generally, don't need to be clear.

If you can let your beer sit in the fridge at 1 deg c, cold conditioning for 3 - 4 weeks, then you probably won't need to use finings in your fermenter. Otherwise a tsp of gelatin dissolved in 1/2 a cup of water added to your fermenter does a pretty good job in about a week.

Try it and see for yourself.

 

[manson81]

I never found finings in the fermenter did much, so stopped using it.

I just leave it in the primary a little longer before kegging it (when possible) and then find most of the shit that's still left over drops in the keg after a few days. Still not crystal clear, but I tend to like a slightly cloudy ale anyway.

 

[HardEight]

What's the sugar for?
Who said it was expensive or deadly?

I was told the sugar is to kick the yeast slightly into gear to produce the C02 head in the secondary...

The "isn't going to kill you" comment was just to point out it's not a nasty chemical you are adding to your beer...
.. and a lot of people brew to save money.. I was merely pointing out gelatine is very cheap..

I'm assuming you are not a fan of it manticle?

 

[manticle]

I've used it but I prefer time and cold.
I have no problem with it beyond that it means I can't share the beer with vegoes.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

I've been thinking about finings lately. Are they important? I've never used them myself as I rack to secondary and use bottles. So tha's essentially three filterings, four if you count pouring into the glass. At every stage there is trub left over and it's pretty clear by the time i get to taste it. What do other brewers think? Is it important? I don't want to be missing out on anything. Regards, Rob Lane

How many brews have you put down.


Finnings is more an advanced method used.

You dont need finnings untill you have sorted your system and methods out.

Finnings wont help make a better beer untill you have everything else sorted first.

 

[slcmorro]

Finings* Stu, ffs.