Here’s my situation: I kegged a beer about two weeks ago. I dropped a hopbag of a couple oz’s of dry-hops into the keg about one week ago. It is amazing how sublime it smells (and tastes) now. However, it is as murky as a yeasty weizen. I need to enter it into a walk-in competition, as an “IPA,” on Sunday (two days from now).
I want to clear out the yeasty murkiness with gelatin, but I am afraid it will “strip” away the dry-hop aroma. The aroma is at a perfect level now, and I don’t wish to lose any of it.
Is stripping the aroma via gelatin-use a valid concern?
I’m actually trying to find a definitive answer to the same question right now, and the entire internet seems to be split 50/50 as to whether one can actually perceive the difference. I personally think that even if there is a ‘difference’, it is probably related to way less yeast being suspended in the beer than actually precipitating out a discernible amount of hop oils. I think on future batches I will clarify and cold crash prior to dry hopping to minimize yeast (as it changes the way hops are perceived), but maximize hop.
It certainly stands to reason that hop oils will bind to/coat yeast cells, which will then be precipitated out by a clarifier. I’ve read from some that it seems to ‘round out’ the hop flavor/aroma, etc., but I suppose this could also just be the absence of a great deal of the suspended yeast affecting the flavor (which it will).
IPAs shouldn’t get dinged too bad though for being cloudy (its actually within the BJCP style guidelines), so if it tastes/smells sublime now, why mess with it?
Another alternative is to bottle it for the competition now, and stick those bottles in the coldest fridge you can find without freezing them, and that will precipitate out a lot of the sediment.
I have used gelatin on an IPA, and it completely stripped the hop aroma. The beer was still ok, but I had to dry hop it again in the keg which added more haze anyway. :cheers:
Maybe I didn’t use enough gelatin. I just tried this with a super yeasty IIPA, and not only did the beer not clear (first time this has happened when using gelatin…maybe I didn’t use enough?), but the hop aroma still seems to be there.
