I’ve read here on the forums that if you use gelatin to clear your beer in secondary, that you have to re-introduce some yeast to your bottling bucket.
I’ve made a 5gal batch of an all-grain hoppy IPA but I don’t have a wort chiller. For now, I drop the temp after the boil in my cold garage at night before I put into fermenter. The beer turns out fine but has a thick haze. My latest batch is currently dry hopping in secondary and I’ve decided to use gelatin for a few days before I bottle. I’ve learned that clarification works best when using gelatin and cold crashing but I don’t have a way to cold crash a 6.5g glass carboy (no room in the fridge). I’m worried that the gelatin will drop all the yeast and there won’t be enough for bottle conditioning.
How much yeast do I need to add to my 5gal bottling bucket?
some yeast take a long time to drop and some yeast drop fast, there all a little different .as far as gelation , I have never used it but I would not be worried about dropping out 100% using it. unless you plan to leave it sit for months in cold crash state.
now if you do add yeast I myself would rehydrate 1/2-1 tsp. in a cup of water at 80 for temp then put that in the bottling bucket with the priming sugar and rack on top.
It may be more of a function of the hops here… Just try some Irish Moss or Whirlfloc if you want clear beer, but gelatin will fine your beer, too, if you aren’t happy. All beer gets clear with time - even wheat beers.
Very true. I’ve found that very hoppy beers take longer to clear than less hoppy beers, but beer will clear fine without using finings like gelatin. If you want to use the gelatin, there is no problem with adding a bit more yeast at bottling time - a quarter teaspoon of dry yeast or better yet a teaspoon of slurry from the bottom of your primary will work. I doubt it is necessary, but as some here will say, it’s cheap insurance.
Thx for the replies! I do use Irish moss during end of boil, my main problem is that I don’t have a wort chiller so to get fermentation temp after the boil is about 12 hours. It’s starting to get warm outside so I will definitely need to purchase a wort chiller.
When adding the quarter teaspoon of dry yeast to the bottling bucket, do I need to wait some time for the yeast to disperse?
I cold crash and use gelatin on everything, and the only time that I’ve reyeasted have been on my lagers that have been sitting at 30-40* for a couple months.
Haven’t had a problem with carbonation.
Now, I could be wrong here, but it’s been my understanding that you won’t get good benefit from using gelatin unless you chill 1st. The reason being that the cold crash will start to precipitate the chillhaze proteins and the gelatin grabs and settles them. This past winter, coldcrashing has been easy- just move it out to my cold garage. But from now on I’ll be using a swamp cooler bucket with frozen soda bottles. I cold crash for 24-48 hours, then add gelatin and let it sit for another 48 before bottling.
