Hello, I’m wondering if anyone uses Biofine or Gelatin to drop out the yeast or if that is counterintuitive with beers that have oats in them. Which leads to my next question… what beer styles is Biofine meant for?
Any brew you want to see clear-er through…
I haven’t used oats for many years so I won’t say if it helps clear out the portions left behind from oats…
Sneezles61
What do you want to accomplish? If it’s solely clarity you’re spinning your wheels.
As @sneezles61 points out you can use them on any style that you want to be clearer. Biofine is vegan friendly whereas gelatin is often not.
I have used both for clarifying beer. I prefer gelatin as its cheap and quite honestly I think its more effective when used properly. Proper use is detailed in this link. How to Use Gelatin to Clarify Your Beer - Keg Outlet
I have to say when I started out using gelatin I did it wrong and it did not appear to be as effective. I also went a little hog wild on its use and used on an imperial stout. I shined a spot light through the dark beer but darned if I could see much of a difference and could not taste a difference from previous imperial stout. As others have said you use it on styles calling for a clear beer. For example, I use it on Kolsch and tripel. I recall seeing an experiment done on gelatin for an IPA and if I recall there was some differences in flavor detected, but no clear preference of one over the other. I believe the author of experiment had a slight preference for not using gelatin. Hope my memory is correct.
I personally would not use either clarifying agent on an oatmeal stout as it is a dark beer. This is based on my experience with the impact on the imperial stout which granted is an extrapolation to oatmeal stout.
While you did not ask, never use gelatin to clarify a white wine. It strips flavor out of it…based on a masters thesis work done on white wine clarification.
I don’t use that stuff just some irish moss in the boil
The yeast drops out on its own. If you have an issue just use a high flocculation strain and it’ll really drop fast. As you already imply the benefits of the mouthfeel from the oats is lost as well with flocculating “magnets” like gelatin and the like.
