Got another question for you Ferris: is it possible to do gelatin fining with beer at room temperature? The Vole Porter is on Day 9 now and early indications are that primary fermentation is finally done, or close to done. There is no more gurgling from the airlock, not even if I press on the lid, and while it was still bubbling a tiny bit yesterday there was no residual sweet smell of wort, just beer. I'll check with my hydrometer once I open the lid and I'll have a peek at the krausen while I'm at it.
I'm planning to do the kegging and bottling in a couple of days, so would now be the right time to add the gelatin solution, or would I be better off not bothering if I can't cold-crash the primary fermentation vessel? Not got anywhere big enough or cold enough to keep the fermentation bin for a couple of days. Would I be better off adding the gelatin with the priming sugar and then just pouring very carefully to avoid sediment?
Big thanks for all your advice once again!
I’m trying not to post too much in here because it looks a bit like I’m policing the thread and I’m just a longtime backroom hooch maker rather than an expert. Though I’ll respond to direct questions of course!
Yes, sounds like you are approaching done. Alcohol production is a logarithmic curve, so it’ll still keep going and yeast will clean up residual sugar but it definitely sounds like 6 days was optimistic! Krausen is fascinating stuff, but don’t be put off by it if it looks a bit grim. I’ve done kettle sours that have some “interesting” pellicles in the Krausen and the beer is still completely fine. There aren’t any organisms that grow in beer that are harmful to humans, and once the alcohol level is over a few percent (a day or less depending on yeast) it’s hard for anything untoward to take route in your wort anyway. You’ve made a nice environment for yeast to grow, other microbes don’t usually stand a chance.
Don’t bother gelatin fining for a stout/porter, you won’t notice the difference. Cold crashing is also not required for a dark beer (and secretly I think it is gubbins anyway). They’re both methods of clarifying your beer, and if you have to pick a fining method, gelatin every time. Way easier, way less equipment, way more effective. You could add gelatin in now that most of the fermentation is done if you like, it doesn’t matter really and I’ve never found a cold crash to be effective vs just adding gelatin and leaving a day but YMMV.
Also, don’t push on the lid if you can help it. It’s super tempting (ooh, bubbles!) but it causes the air pressure to flow back down the airlock and you can get starsan and oxygen in your brew (assuming you have starsan sanitized water in your airlock?). It’s not a huge deal, but is best avoided. Star san is safe to drink once diluted, but a bit acidic. Oxygenated beer ages differently and less nicely, and entirely oxygenated fermentation creates methyl alcohol which you don’t really want (though obviously all beer has it in trace amounts because it’s not really possible to remove). You don’t need to worry about that though, we’re taking trace amounts here.
You mentioned kegging - assuming that’s just a turn of phrase as you’ll likely be bottling? Kegging is awesome but I’ve never had the space to do it. You put the flat beer in a keg, connect a CO2 tank set to 30PSI and leave it for 2 days. Done! Carbonated beer. Bottling is more of a faff as you need to convince the yeast to create CO2 for you to get yer fizz. You’re right to try and leave the yeasty residue behind as much as possible. I add the amount of priming sugar I want to a pint of water, tip that into a second brewing vessel/bucket thing with a spigot on it, then use a bottling wand to transfer as much liquid as possible into that (while leaving the yeast behind*) and give it a decent stir. The aim is to leave as much sediment behind as possible, distribute the priming sugar as evenly as possible (or just add it directly to the bottle if you like) and reduce the amount of oxygen getting into the beer. Once done, I fill bottles one by one from the spigot as the beer is now primed and ready to go. Do it on your kitchen counter with the spigot over the open door of your dishwasher and you won’t have any mess to clean up after.
Apologies for the wall of text. You’ll always refine your process and kick yourself for something you did/didn’t do, but to be honest the malt, hops, yeast and temperature/fermentation time determine like 95%+ of what you are making in my experience. You can make small changes via your production process, but nothing major really.
Much too long fuck it post
*You’ll be amazed how much yeast as been created - I have a recipe to make it into marmite if you are interested. You can also save some in a jar in the fridge and use it again. It’ll keep for a week or so I think? Maybe longer if you give it some sugar at room temperature the day you want to brew again. Eventually it’ll mutate/evolve and you’ll have your own house strain more suited to whatever you brew (like the Belgians did, previously mentioned), though I’ve never gone that far.
