Truth and Beauty Bombs

so I just bottled a belgian pale ale and it was super cloudy. I used gelatin a couple days ago to try to clear it but it didn't seem to do anything.

I used safbrew T-58 yeast, and it was in the primary fermenter for two weeks. The final gravity was 1.010 and it was definitely done fermenting. I think the problem is that this yeast just doesn't flocculate well.

Next time I'm going to wait longer, and use more gelatin. I think I'm just going to say screw it and make a hefeweizen next though.

Did you put it in secondary? Secondary helps with clarifying a lot. And maybe try irish moss? A tablespoon in the last 5 minutes of the boil usually does a good job of clarifying.

irish moss wouldn't do anything because it's definitely yeast that caused the haze. it's already starting to settle in the bottles and leave a lot of sediment.

as far as secondary goes, I didn't use one because most of what I've read says that it's not necessary, and that a long primary is just as good, and maybe even better.

I think the problem is just that I wasn't patient enough. I'm surprised the gelatin didn't seem to do anything though. I think next time I'll just leave it in the primary for at last three weeks, and if I do decide to use gelatin, I'll use a full teaspoon instead of half a teaspoon.

I'm still going to do a hefeweizen next though.

Gelatin in beer? Does it thicken it (and why would you want to thicken it?)

it's way too dilute to turn into beer jello. it's supposed to attract all the little particles and make them glom together so they fall out of suspension. I guess traditionally people used isinglass, which is made from fish bladders, to do the same thing. Anyway on the homebrewing forums I looked at, it seems like tons of people have been hugely successful using gelatin, but I wasn't at all. It may just be that I wasn't patient enough though, since I only waited about two days after using it.


anyway update on my beer, it carbed up super fast, and all the yeast has dropped out, and the beer is very clear. There's a whole lot of sediment but it's stuck to the bottom of the bottles like glue. I don't know if that's because of the gelatin, or if it's just this strain of yeast.

I opened a little 8 oz bottle yesterday to taste it, and it was pretty good. It's pretty dry, and when it's cold the hops are pretty much all you can taste. As it warms up you can smell a little banana and pear, but the taste is still mostly hops with a little bit of breadynes and pepperyness. overall it didn't have as much of a belgian character as I would like. in the future I might use a proper liquid belgian yeast strain, but this one is decent and super cheap. The flavor will also almost definitely improve with time so it's probably too early to really tell.

I dunno man, it seems like no matter how long I have something in primary, there's always a bunch more sediment that falls out in secondary. Wouldn't hurt to try it out at least.

update dudes, I did a brown ale and I tried the gelatin again. This time I used a full teaspoon, and let it sit in the fermenter for about four days after adding it. a week after bottling it's carbed up. There's still some sediment on the bottom of the bottles, but it's less than before, and I can pour the whole beer out without getting any in the glass. There's also no chill haze. I'm pretty happy with this beer looks wise. It tastes decent too.

I just yesterday got around to finishing up the welding for my still. I just need to do a leak test and then I'll be making some bourbon!

sweet

are you going to age it in a barrel or in glass with wood cubes/chips?

I need to start another brew. Next up is going to be an ultra bitter victorian

glass jars with wood. Barrels are expensive as crap. Not to mention that I would have to ferment and distill something like 50 gallons of mash just to fill a 5-gallon barrel.

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