I haven’t used gelatin in ipas yet due to fear of reducing hop flavor etc. However thinking about trying it after more research. Could anyone comment on which method below they recommend for a process?
Dry hop after fermented completely in primary, then cold crash, add gelatin and keg - so no keg hops but dry hopping occurs at a warmer temperature
After fermented completely, cold crash and add gelatin, then dry hop in keg at serving temperature - this way all yeast is removed prior to dry hopping
I’ve done it both ways but have always gotten more hop character with dry hopping warm, pre-cold crash/pre-fining. In my experience, dry hopping at warmer temps will extract more hoppiness than at cooler temps, and fining doesn’t strip out as much hoppiness as many believe. The net result is that I’ve gotten more hop goodness from option 1. Happy hopping!
I feel like I do notice a noticeable difference when I do it. I have always done it option #1. I have cut back on doing it because of that reason. That being said, on a side note, it helped redeem a beer I made this past summer (Sculpin clone) that had way too much onion flavor (I think from the Amarillo). I actually put it in the keg itself because I was desperate and it absolutely changed it and stripped it of that onion flavor. A minor beer miracle!
Thanks for the advice. I think I am going to actually try both methods together. So I’ll dry hop in primary at warmer temps, then crash with gelatin and then plan to dry hop in the keg at cooler temps as well. Figure the dry hopping in the keg will help replace anything the gelatin strips out.