Using gelatin for clarity...

I take a small glass of about 3 oz water, heat in the microwave for a minute or two until boiling, then pull out the glass of water, add a pack of unflavored gelatin, stir several minutes with a sanitized spoon to dissolve, cool slightly and pour it in. After about 24-48 hours, the beer should clear considerably. If you wait an extra couple days, the sediment will become more compact and might even gel up. Go for it.

 

BYO columnist Terry Foster recommends adding gelatin to the bottling bucket (1 tsp / 5G).

Sprinkle gelatin onto a small volume (1/2 cup; 120 ml) of cold water ... rest a few minutes ... stir to mix ... then nuke for 20-30 sec (do not boil!).

My beer is more clear after taking Foster's advice.

 

I use this technique with good results:
http://www.bertusbrewery.com/2012/06/how-to-clear-your-beer-with-gelatin.html

For me it takes closer to a week before I get super-clear beer.

 

When I used it, I added to the fermenter. It seemed somewhat effective at clearing the beer and also may have helped removing undesirable tannins in one of my batches. Herbmeowing's idea (well, Terry Foster's idea) of adding at bottling never occurred to me - sounds like something I might have explored. I would generally make about half a cup. Boil the water to sanitize, let it cool to the appropriate temp to dissolve gelatin, add to beer. Allow a week or so for settling

 

I use the Bertus method as well but 'gel' in the fermentor instead of the keg. I cold crash for a day, all the gelatin, wait 48hrs and keg. After settling in the keg for a week, it's commercial clarity. Rather impressive, in fact.

FWIW, I've heard do NOT boil the water with the gelatin. Indications are, it will indeed create jello beer in the bottle of your bottles/kegs. But I've never tried it. Maybe we can get Brulosopher to try it.

 

So I nuked water for about a minute to get it near boiling and added half a packet of gelatin after. Seems like I should have added the gelatin first but will I get the same results?

 

Yes, yes you will.

 

No question gelatin is an inexpensive and effective method to clarify; however ... one package / 5G is much more than needed to get the desired result.

Pitch one level teaspoon at packaging time and the beer will be so bright ... you'll be needing sunglasses when time comes to down the hatch.

 

I'm thinking of using gelatin in my next batch. My concern is that doing so will filter out the remaining yeast that is needed to carbonate the beer once bottled. What am I missing?

 

I gelatinize all my brews . . . never had a problem with bottle carbing. You only need ~1 million cells/ml of beer to get the job done. Your beer can be perfectly clear and still exceed the 1m/ml rate.

 

Exactamundo. There's still enough yeast to carbonate, even if the beer looks clear.