Fining your Beer with Gelatine

Hey All,

You’d get to thinking with all the hazy NEIPAs around that clear beer is a thing of the past. Despite what a lot of people think, there still plenty of amazing beers that are crystal clear: German lagers, British dark mild and even dry Irish stout. As a homebrewer, getting a beer to be clear - I mean, read a newspaper through your beer glass kind of clear - can be one of those things that can be really difficult to achieve. While loads of people (myself included) opt to use products like whirfloc, protofloc or some other similar kettle fining agent, it’s still all too common to end up with a beer with a slight haze. While this isn’t the end of the world, getting a crystal clear beer just like the big boys do can bring a great amount of satisfaction. There are two ways to achieve this, the first is by lagering your beer until it drops perfectly clear. The other is through the use of cold-side fining agents.

While fining with gelatine (in the form of isinglass) has been around for a very long time (since at least the 18th Century), it has recently been popularised by the guys over at Brülosophy, who often refer to it as “powdered time”. Gelatine works by having a slight positive charge, which when added to beer attracts particles (including yeast) which has a slight negative charge. When combined, these particles become heavier and begin to fall out of suspension. While certainly not vegan (although there are vegan-friendly alternatives), gelatine is very cheap, with one box able to last many many brews.

Using gelatine to fine your beer

Fining you beer with gelatine is straightforward and simple.

1. Assuming you have brewed a standard 20-25L batch of beer, ferment the beer as you normally would and allow fermentation to finish.

2. If you can, chill the beer to allow much of the material to drop out naturally. You now have two options, you can either fine in your fermentor, or fine in your keg. If you choose to bottle, fining with gelatine shouldn’t effect your carbonation (however if you are worried you can always add some yeast at bottling).

3. Regardless of the vessel you’ve decided to fine in, you’ll need the following:

   • Powdered gelatine

   • A microwave safe jug/mug

   • Measuring spoon

   • Boiling water

   • Aluminium foil and sanitiser

4. Take 1/2 tsp of powdered gelatine and add it to your jug.

5. Add 100ml of boiling water and stir the gelatine until it has completely dissolved.

6. Allow the gelatine to cool to room temperature. I’d advise that at this point you take some aluminium foil, spray the underside with sanitiser and cover your jug while it cools. This will ensure that the solution remains free of any nasties or contaminants.

7. Once cool, add the solution to the top of you fermentor or keg. If you have a carb cap, or one of those kegland tee-pieces, you can transfer the solution into a clean and sanitised PET bottle. You can then purge the bottle with CO2 and use pressure to transfer through the gas disconnect into your finished beer in your pressure fermentor or keg.

8. Allow the gelatine a day or so to do it’s thing. Again, this works better if you keep the beer cold.

9. Keg or bottle as normal and enjoy fantastically clear beer when it’s done carbonating!