So for the first time i used gelatin in one of my beers. My buddy and I love Ipas so we brewed a DFH 90 AG clone cause it was in and out easy and i didnt have to think about anything when brewing, which is nice on occasion. Brew day and primary went off without a hitch and we then dryhopped our beer. After dryhopping i informed my buddy i wanted to add finings, in this case gelatin, to get this beer as clear as possible. Im wondering if we added the finings in the wrong order? When tasting the prebottle sample it didnt have the aroma i was expecting after dryhopping. Would it be more advisable to add the finings before we dryhop next time? I would expect a lot more hop particulate in the beer this way so it wouldnt be as clear, but its an ipa after all. The primary reason i wanted to add finings was to not get a metric ton of yeast at the bottom of the bottle conditioned beers.
There is a tradeoff to gelatin - it will reduce hop aroma and flavor a bit. One solution is to dry hop a little more than you would have normally when using gelatin after. What I did to experiment on my last one was to crash, then use gelatin, then warm up to 65F and dry hop. In this case you get a bit of hop haze from the dry hopping but get better, longer lasting aroma and flavor IMO because the vast majority of yeast has dropped and therefore absorbed less of the hop character. I think I like this method best.
I tried gelatin a few times, didn’t see much difference. I’m certain it was my fault though. Its been a few months since my last IPA, but the routine I settled on was to cold crash at the end of fermentation. Rack to keg and dry hop while carbing. Enjoy the beer and when it seems to be at peak aroma to the point that any more might be too much, I bottle the remains of the keg. (Might not be helpful to a bottle conditioner)
I have kegs i just havent had a chance to finish my keezer build yet because we have been getting pounded by snow in the NE and all the wood and tools are in my unattached garage. I cant wait to start kegging, bottling can &#@(&^@#*(U&(@$#@!