Noob to finings

[glen006]

Hi,

I have recently returned for another go at brewing after a couple of failed attempts, and have heard finings drastically reduce the amount of sediment in your beer.

After fermentation is complete, I plan to put the tub in the beer fridge for 2-3 days before kegging, and was wondering whether I should add the finings before or after cooling?

Cheers, Glen

 

[Alex.Tas]

Can't answer your question, but I would suggest a bit closer to a week in the fridge.

 

[iralosavic]

There are so many write ups and discussions about this written by individuals with far more experience than me. I'd recommend searching. Gelatin (pigs feet, right?) (you can buy plain stuff in the supermarket) can be used to accelerate natural yeast floccuation (dropping out of solution), polyclar (plastic dust essentially) can be used to reduce chill haze.

 

[iralosavic]

If I remember rightly Thirstyboy provided a few good posts explaining the function of both including whether or not to chill first. I filter, so I've forgotten.

 

[givemeamash]

are you doing ag or kits?

 

[amcqueen]

Hi,

I have recently returned for another go at brewing after a couple of failed attempts, and have heard finings drastically reduce the amount of sediment in your beer.

After fermentation is complete, I plan to put the tub in the beer fridge for 2-3 days before kegging, and was wondering whether I should add the finings before or after cooling?

Cheers, Glen

If by tub you mean fermenter the this will make the trub settle to the bottom and clear it out.

You can use gelatin in the keg to clear out your beer when you rack it from the primary. I generally use about 1teaspoon to about 100mls of near boiling water. This clears the kegged beer quicker than normal wait times in a keg.

If you want to add your finings in the fermenter whilst cold crashing it should be ok too, but I think adding the gelatin to the keg is a much better option and one less step to decrease infection.

My 2 cents

 

[wbosher]

Why not try cooling to close to zero degrees, with no fining, first? That's all I do since I got a beer fridge and stc-1000. Once fermentation complete, raise to 20 for a couple of days for the yeast to clean up after itself, then drop to zero for a few days to a week. Crystal clear beer with very little sediment in the bottles, about 1mm.

 

[pommiebloke]

I never use finings personally. Just primary for at least a month, cold crash in a second fridge if really necessary and my beer is crystal clear.

 

[NewtownClown]

As stated, Time works wonders.
Breweries often don't have that option, for they have pay the excise (tax) on the beer before it's even sold, plus fermenter/bright tank space, storage etc. Finings and/or filtering are used to speed things up and to create greater stability/shelf life.
Even beer that is best "fresh" such as UK casked Real Ales mostly have finings added to the cask at filling.

Many homebrewers also may not have the luxury of time or a fridge/space to cold crash a fermenter or keg


If it is yeast you wish to clear, just add the gelatine when you keg then put it in the fridge. Add it to the keg before you rack the beer to ensure a good mix. The first pint may pour "muddy" but be clear after that.

If chill haze is your problem, I like polyclar PVPP, you can chill the beer in your "tub" for a couple of days, as cold as you can, add the polyclar wait another 2-3 days and rack then beer off the trub into your keg. or, as I do, rack to your keg, chill, add polyclar, wait 30 mins then filter from keg to keg.

 

[Bribie G]

Gelatine works well in the fermenting vessel, then rack it off into bottles or keg. Gelatine actually in the bottles or kegs doesn't work too well as it settles to a "fluffy" layer which can easily get stirred up.

Gelatine: made from cow hide, not pigs feet.

Polyclar: you have probably eaten a bit of the active ingredient as it's used as a filler in some pills, being neutral to the body, and they even did trials using it as a synthetic blood plasma, patients reportedly didn't get as much chill haze as the control group.