[Village Taphouse]

I made an Amarillo & Citra Pale Ale and then added 2 more ounces of Amarillo and an ounce of Citra as dry hops 6 days ago.  I just racked it to a clean, sanitized and O2-purged keg and it's getting cold now and I plan to start carbing it tomorrow morning.  Some brewers have mentioned that a gel solution in the keg can strip late/dry-hopped beers of their hop flavor and aroma while others have said that they end up with clear pale ale with good late hop character when they have used gel.  I admit that adding a gel solution to a cold keg of not-yet-carbed beer has a REALLY nice impact on clarity and I also admit that I'm a clear-beer fan.  Gel it or not?

[chumley]

Not.

[HoosierBrew]

I never used to use gelatin on hoppy beers, but I do now.  I figure if Pliny and Dirt Wolf can be clear and hoppy at the same time, then mine can too. There might be a slight drop off in aroma, but I use enough hops it's not an issue. IIRC Marshall found little to no effect on 'gelatined' hoppy beers in his Xbmnt.

[brewinhard]

Go for it!  I use it with all my hoppy beers and as Hoosier stated, I usually account for any "negligible" drop off in flavor/aroma by adding more hops (although I have never experienced any ill effects from gelatin regarding aroma concerns). 

[norcaljp]

I haven't personally noticed any difference. I've never done a side by side comparison, however. Whatever difference there is, I haven't been able to notice it between successive batches. Unless I want a cloudy beer, I always use gelatin.

[Village Taphouse]

Okay, I'm getting a vibe that I anticipated and that I wanted.  I do want to gel it because the 3 ounces of dry hop pellets hazed the beer up pretty good.  When I was transferring it, the beer actually looked pretty good but it always looks okay going through the tubing.  So I think I'll probably gel it.  Beers that get dry hopped (and thus... get hazed up) and beers like German Pils, Helles, Czech Pils, etc. would get gelled in the keg too.  If you use the gel solution on cold beer you can really drag some schputz down to the bottom of the keg and yes... your first two pints might be heavily-sedimented but after that the beer will run clear.  Thanks Beerheads.

[Stevie]

I don't mind haze in hoppy beers. It shouldn't be cloudy, but I don't need to see through it.

[tommymorris]

I have used gelatin on hoppy beers many times. I don't think there is any loss of aroma or flavor.

[Village Taphouse]

I don't mind haze in hoppy beers. It shouldn't be cloudy, but I don't need to see through it.

Steve:  I agree with that.  On a hoppy pale ale with a good amount of late-hop character, I would allow some haze.  I don't like sludge but haze is okay.

[Village Taphouse]

I have used gelatin on hoppy beers many times. I don't think there is any loss of aroma or flavor.

Tommy:  Good to know.  I think I have heard more and more about this and I'm sticking to it.  Cheers.

[majorvices]

I don't fine hoppy beers after they have been dry hopped. You will lose aroma and flavor. big commercial breweries are most likely fining before they dry hop or centrifuging/filtering or both or all three. There was a great article in New Brewer about how New Belgium dry hops beers and their method involved centrifuging the yeast out before dry hopping, then centrifuging the hops out. Probably none of us own a centrifuge (YET!) I personally prefer to drop as much yeast out as possible and then add hops to a "brink". then purge the brink with Co2, then let beer flow into hops and then push hops back into beer. This helps to massively reduce o2 pick up, which is what destroys hoppy flavored beer. That, and yeast. As the yeast drop out of suspension they drag crucial hop aroma and flavor down with them. So fine FIRST, then dry hop.

[klickitat jim]

I'll probably be frowned on for this. Your post said pale ale, so I'm assuming not IPA. Now that I only do a 60 min bittering, and all the rest go in whirlpool at 170 for 30, I get way plenty of aroma. At least as much aroma as SNPA or Mirror Pond or Liberty. I use no dry hops. I crash to 30 in the primary and gel fine. Beer comes out brilliant with plenty of aroma.

But its your beer. Don't fear the haze, but you don't have to have haze to have plenty of aroma for an APA. By the way, my nose isn't good. So if hop aroma is in abundance to me,,, it's plenty

[Village Taphouse]

I don't fine hoppy beers after they have been dry hopped. You will lose aroma and flavor. big commercial breweries are most likely fining before they dry hop or centrifuging/filtering or both or all three. There was a great article in New Brewer about how New Belgium dry hops beers and their method involved centrifuging the yeast out before dry hopping, then centrifuging the hops out. Probably none of us own a centrifuge (YET!) I personally prefer to drop as much yeast out as possible and then add hops to a "brink". then purge the brink with Co2, then let beer flow into hops and then push hops back into beer. This helps to massively reduce o2 pick up, which is what destroys hoppy flavored beer. That, and yeast. As the yeast drop out of suspension they drag crucial hop aroma and flavor down with them. So fine FIRST, then dry hop.

I would add this:  The pale ale sat in secondary for a couple of weeks and it was racked onto a gel solution so the beer was VERY clear when I added the dry hops.  I would guess that the vast majority of yeast was out of the way.  But after I added the hops I noticed that the beer was hazing up which is why I thought about the gel.  I don't pretend to know if "hop goodness" that is added by dry hopping is something that survives an addition of gel solution or not... I honestly don't know.  I would also add that I'm not the type of brewer that requires bodacious hop character.  Using 8 ounces of high-alpha pellets in 5 gallons of beer is usually plenty of hopitude for me.  The Exbeeriment that suggested that gel solution does not strip out late-hop character was interesting and it confirmed some hope that I could get hops and clarity in the same beer.  Cheers.

[narcout]

I understand that it's just personal preference, but since you asked: I think gelatin is disgusting, and I would not put it in my beer.

[Stevie]

I understand that it's just personal preference, but since you asked: I think gelatin is disgusting, and I would not put it in my beer.

Why?