Gelatin Finings.

[Greg2013]

First of all i don't really know what finings means exactly just that it has something to do with clearing home brew before bottling etc ?

Anyway if any of ye would care to explain it please i will post ye some because i have like 12 1oz packets of Knox unflavoured gelatin here that were sent from USA for something else and i don't need them now. I will be keeping 4 packets but there is 8 up for grabs

[Tom]

Oh go on then.

The gelatine finings really help clear the yeast out of the brew, without stopping them from working. They're similar to isinglass finings. They work by attracting the yeast cells, and as they clump together they get heavier and fall out of solution. It takes about 24hrs for a 5gallon batch of beer to fall clear.

If you want to use it, make up the pint of gelatine as per the instructions, then mix it into the beer while you move it into secondary. Careful not to splash the beer, mind.

Don't add it to the primary fermenter, as you want the yeast in suspension there, to convert all the sugars. In secondary, most of the fermenting has been done.

When fined, most (but not all) of the yeast sinks to the bottom, so there's usually enough yeast still in suspension to go through to bottling/kegging to help with carbonation of the beer.

If you're kegging your beer, add the finings to the keg with the beer and primer, and the yeast will sink to the bottom much quicker, but still convert the sugar into alcohol and CO2 for you. In my experience the keg, which was usually drinkable after more than a fortnight, came good after nearly a week! Woo!

I use a cheapo plastic keg, not one of them fancy kornies.

Anyway, I think that's how it works. I'm good for gelatine, thanks. I bought some Oetenger (?) bovine gelatine there recently.

[Greg2013]

Thanks Tom thats great info, i will be using it so on future batches

[nigel_c]

Tesco bovine gelatine is not suitable for non horse eaters. 

[newToBrew]

- thread hijack !!! ohhh this is good

finings really help clear the yeast out of the brew, without stopping them from working

...................
mix it into the beer while you move it into secondary
.............

     When fined, most (but not all) of the yeast sinks to the bottom, so there's usually enough yeast still in suspension to go through to bottling/kegging to help with carbonation of the beer


........

If you're kegging your beer, add the finings to the keg with the beer and primer, and the yeast will sink to the bottom much quicker, but still convert

just started kegging so I'm interested in clearing yeast out now ! - I had figured with the keg it would not matter so much dropping out the yeast as I can force carb - but was concerned about bottling the surplus as I had it in my head taht using teh finings would mean  - not enough yeast in suspension for bottle priming

@Tom why do you differentiate between putting it in the Secondary - but then say - if kegging add it to the Keg - I'm guessing these are tust he two options - my thought is that if I fine in secondary it covers both the Keg and the bottled surplus

-- would you not be better to do it in secondary instead of the keg - I'm imagining quiet a clumping in the Keg - and a very yeasty first few pints ? ( I have a corny - with a inner pipe that feeds the beer form the bottom up - maybe your keg is different ?)

[Tom]

I don't tend to keep beer in secondary for much longer than 20 mins, as I've none of them fancy airlock type fermenters, so my beer goes bad almost as soon as it reaches 1010!

Secondary, for me, is a bottling process, where I syphon the beer off the trub and yeast into another container in order that I can be as rough as I like bottling and not worry at all about sucking up gunk.

If I were you, and you want to secondary for a long time (to improve flavour/mature), at the end of fermentation in primary, mix in your finings, syphon off your beer into secondary about a day later, and let it sit there.

Your wort, at full yeast saturation, will have nearly 50million yeast cells per ml of wort. For bottle conditioning you need only 3 million, and kegging even less. Once you get down to those sorts of numbers you can't see the yeast in the beer at all, and the beer looks clear. I don't think you'd notice it in a corny either, though you'll have to ask a corny owner. Even after fining the beer you're almost guaranteed to have enough yeast in suspension to carbonate to your requirements. To make sure the yeast knows it's supposed to be fermenting the priming sugar, leave it somewhere warm for a day first.

To sum up: yes, fining in secondary will do the job rightly for keg and bottle.

I have a cheap-arse young's 5gallon white thing. Does the job.