Fining

When fining with isinglass, you add when chill haze is present. Then wait, what 2 days for results?

I normally just leave my beers in the basement for a day where it is cold, then pitch in the isenglass and I normally wait for at least two weeks there in the secondary. That’s just me, I know there are other people that do it other ways but this has worked for me.

If you use isinglass, gel solution or any of these other products (I saw something called KC Finings at the LHBS the other day), it’s good to wait until the beer is cold because the finings can then drag the haze (and the proteins and tannins that are causing the haze) down to the bottom of the vessel. I’m bat-shit crazy about clarity so I typically hit my beers with gel solution when they go to secondary (and are room temp) and then when they’re cold and kegged but not yet carbed, I hit it with gel solution again because haze has usually formed by that time. It can take a few days to notice the difference and there are variables based on yeast strain, how much schputz is still in solution, beer style, etc. These products work well when used properly. Cheers.

So I have a caribou slobber in the secondary as of yesterday, The temp is around 64. I plan on leaving it in the secondary for at least the next two weeks. Is it ok to pitch the isinglass at this temp?

Thanks,
Noob

Ken,

I have been using your method and have pulled some really clear beers. One this I have noticed recently is when I gel room temp then cold then dry hop in the keg, the dry hop bag also gets dragged to the bottom and I am pulling pints that are full of hops from the bag sitting next to the dip tube. Any experience getting around this?

I usually dry hop in the keg and whe I do not gel, the bag floats, when I gel it sinks?

Blake: You can gel at room temp and it WILL drag a lot of stuff to the bottom of the fermenter but you may still haze when the beer gets cold. Finings seem to work better on cold beer and you’ll know if it worked because the first few pulls on the keg (if you’re kegging) will be really cruddy… then the beer should flow clear.

Mainemike: One trick for dry-hopping in the keg is to place the hops (pellets or leaf both work… I like pellets) in a muslin bag or whatever kind of hop bag you have and tie a piece of thread to the bag, drop the bag into the keg and let the thread come up through the hatch… the lid will still seal properly. This will keep the bag from sinking. In my experience, once the hops get wet and heavy, the bag will be submerged and have full contact with the beer but the thread will keep it from going all the way to the bottom. I have even placed sanitized marbles in the bag with the hops to ensure it will sink. Also, if the kegs sits around awhile and the dry hopping becomes too much… just open the keg and pull the bag out by the thread.

Cheers Beerheads.

“Finings seem to work better on cold beer and you’ll know if it worked because the first few pulls on the keg (if you’re kegging) will be really cruddy… then the beer should flow clear.”

Ken,
So if you aren’t kegging and you are using finings you should be able to pull carbonation still in the bottles? I thought if you used finings for clarifying it pulled the yeast also to the bottom and carbonation was less likely?

Still trying to figure these out. Thanks for you help.

Rob

[quote=“Robbyboatz”]“Finings seem to work better on cold beer and you’ll know if it worked because the first few pulls on the keg (if you’re kegging) will be really cruddy… then the beer should flow clear.”

Ken,
So if you aren’t kegging and you are using finings you should be able to pull carbonation still in the bottles? I thought if you used finings for clarifying it pulled the yeast also to the bottom and carbonation was less likely?

Still trying to figure these out. Thanks for you help.

Rob[/quote]
If you used gel in a cold secondary (for example), the gel will do a great job dropping a lot of crud down to the bottom of the vessel and you could rack that beer to your bottling bucket leaving all the schputz behind. You should have very clear beer. But there should still be plenty of yeast there to naturally carb the beer in the bottle, no problem. I’ve mentioned this before but I’ve had lagers sitting at 35° for 6-8 weeks and looked crystal clear and there was still enough yeast around to bottle-carb. Cheers.

Thanks for the input. :cheers: