When to call primary done and other questions

[Nosybear]

Never used gelatin, always have very clear beer running. I do a 90 minute, aggressive boil, use whirlfloc and either cold crash or hold for a week or so in the keg at 35 or so and transfer to a second keg for serving. Timing is very yeast dependent, but most beers are clear pretty quickly. Yes, if I need something clear asap for a competition or something, I'd use gelatin, but I'f just never found it necessary.

I'll generally use it on my German lagers, which are supposed to be clear enough you can read the Suddeutsche Zeitung through the 1 liter mug. For most others, I don't bother. It'll clear them up! But three to four months' lagering does pretty well, too - I do that for my Oktoberfest.

 

[J A]

I'll generally use it on my German lagers, which are supposed to be clear enough you can read the Suddeutsche Zeitung through the 1 liter mug.

My lagers or Cream Ale are usually running pretty much crystal clear within 3-4 weeks, but my Kolsch takes longer. The Kolsch yeast I use is actually relatively flocculant, but it definitely takes a little while to drop by itself. that one could benefit from gelatin.

 

[Hawkbox]

It's not difficult and produces a result I like, so I just make it part of the process.

 

[Korpi Brewery]

If you’re kegging, you don’t have to be as careful about packaging to early, the way you’d be concerned about bottle bombs. That said, when your hydrometer gives to the same reading 3 days in a row, it’s done fermenting.

I don’t cold crash, so I can’t help you there.

By the way, you’re doing all the things I did when I started, pressing on the lid, etc. be careful with that. If you press too hard, you’ll suck airlock water into your brew when you let go.

Similar learning curve here. We filled our airlock with vodka (as per some literature) and placed it on our carboy lid. We decided to transfer the carboy to another location within our carage. Ended up sucking all the vodka from the airlock to the beer.

 

[easypickin]

The primary bucket has been sitting in the keezer since last night. Took a look today and there are still some hop particles floating at the top. It's in a bucket so it's hard to tell, but still looks pretty cloudy (probably the same as last night when I took a sample).

Dissolve gelatin in water or just sprinkle it in dry? Stir?

Seems like it needs to be mixed at least a little, but not enough to disturb the trub too much.

 

[Hawkbox]

Put a quarter/third packet of the unflavoured Knox gelatin in about 125ml (1/2 cup) of water and heat it to 160F in your microwave while stirring. Do it in about 10 second intervals,anything over 155 and under 170 is pretty much fine. Then just pour it in and give it a day or two.

That's how I learned to do it anyway.

 

[GFHomebrew]

yep you can add it either to primary or keg. ive been just adding it to keg as im transfering lately with bright results.

 

[thunderwagn]

1/2 to 1 tsp gelatin to 1/4 c water 150f to dissolve gelatin. Add directly to crashing vessel.

 

[jeffpn]

Add directly to crashing vessel.

Crashing vessel? Are you talking about my wife’s car??

 

[J A]

Ended up sucking all the vodka from the airlock to the beer.

That's why I use vodka instead of sanitizer...I keep a jug of cheap stuff around for cleaning and sanitizing. I always top up a couple of times during Cold-crash to be sure that no outside air is getting it and if it does, it bubbled through an actual antiseptic. Star-San , etc isn't going to hurt things but the notion of willingly adding several ounces of it to the beer just doesn't seem necessary when there's an easy alternative. A couple of ounces of vodka won't make any significant change...it takes a whole pint of 80 proof in 5 gallons to raise the ABV by 1%.

 

[Korpi Brewery]

Crashing vessel? Are you talking about my wife’s car??

Harsh... but it's funny 'cause it's true. =)

 

[dankbrewing@gmail.com]

So, it would seem like your are done with primary fermentation when the activity stops and your gravity drops and stabilizes. However, the beer benefits from another week or two of just sitting there. The yeasties are cleaning up and making your beer better. Most of your beers with tend to clear a bit and darken, but not all. I almost never use a secondary for my beers. I throw the dry hops directly into the fermentor and I have pretty much given up on the gelatin addition, although it is easy and it does seem to clear a bit better. Like Thunderwagn, I think there is not much harm in the hazy beer. Transfer to the keg and pressurize. I do use a dip tube screen in my corny's to keep the hop material that does make it into the keg from clogging up the works. Most beers will clear in the keg in a couple weeks anyway. if you do elect to dry hop in the keg, make sure that you vent the keg after a day or two on the hops. Otherwise you may end up with substantial grass/cucumber taste. Not sure why.

 

[easypickin]

I ended up cooling the primary bucket for 24hrs, racked to the keg and then added dissolved gelatin. I was trying to get this ready in time for the homebrew club meeting, so I set the pressure on 30psi and shook the keg a bit for several minutes.

I only had ~24hrs to let it sit before the meeting... The first few pints definitely had the most visible debris. After a few more days and a number of pints down, I'm not seeing hop bits any more, but it's definitely hazy. I just realized I left the cooler temp at 32F, so maybe that's contributing. And I'm not letting a pint sit long enough to warm up to see if it clears...

Thanks for all the expert guidance. I really do appreciate it. Cheers!

 

[Hawkbox]

I'd hardly call anything I suggested expert, but some of this stuff works.