[4dogbrewer]

I have never noticed anything in my clear beer from using gelatin. Yes, I do smell it when I am hydrating it in a cup of boiled and cooled water. But when I heat it back up to 150 F, I have never noticed a smell.

[BrewBama]

My beers are crystal clear without gelatin. I use Whirlfloc in the boil. That’s it. To me gelatin is a tool used on the occasional beer that doesn’t clear on it own.

+1. After using it routinely, I rarely use it now. Proper mash pH, BtB ,Whirlfoc, flocculant yeast, cold temps, and time = (99%) crystal clear beer.

My grandson uses it to make gummie bears. I don’t recall noticing a taste or smell in beers of the past or his gummies bears.

Homebrew beer can taste soapy if it was left in primary fermentation long enough for the fatty acids to break down inside the trub, the pH is too high or the sulfates too low in the brewing water, or your taste buds react to hops in a strange way.

[Cliffs]

My beers are crystal clear without gelatin. I use Whirlfloc in the boil. That’s it. To me gelatin is a tool used on the occasional beer that doesn’t clear on it own.

+1. After using it routinely, I rarely use it now. Proper mash pH, BtB ,Whirlfoc, flocculant yeast, cold temps, and time = (99%) crystal clear beer.

My grandson uses it to make gummie bears. I don’t recall noticing a taste or smell in beers of the past or his gummies bears.

Homebrew beer can taste soapy if it was left in primary fermentation long enough for the fatty acids to break down inside the trub, the pH is too high or the sulfates too low in the brewing water, or your taste buds react to hops in a strange way.

ditto. From my experience, clear beer is made in the mash tun. After a couple weeks my beers are crystal clear without any cold side tinkering.

[Village Taphouse]

I have never noticed anything in my clear beer from using gelatin. Yes, I do smell it when I am hydrating it in a cup of boiled and cooled water. But when I heat it back up to 150 F, I have never noticed a smell.

Right.  Whipping up a batch of gel solution has a smell to it and it's not great.  But that flavor or aroma *NEVER* comes through in the final beer.  Ever.  I have absolutely had batches where it was the 6th, 7th, 8th use of a slurry and there was an off-flavor where the beer just wasn't as clean as it should be.  Probably not a contamination issue... the beer was clear and generally good but the yeast had maybe mutated a bit and it's a sign that it's time to retire the yeast. 

[Bel Air Brewing]

Okay...

Sitting here (literally) sampling 3 beers, two with Diamond slurry, one with 2124. All have gelatin.

Two beers are a Premium Czech Pils, one is a 5D, German Pilsner.

No off flavor is detected in the Czech beer, with Diamond / 2124.

There might (might) be a subtle hint of an off flavor (soap) in the 5D. But the beer is good. Perhaps it's the hops? I will soon find out as we have several beers entered in the AHA-NHC. I am getting prepared for a royal hammering by the judges!

The Diamond drops clear, real fast. But brilliant crystal clear clarity is my goal, thus the use of gelatin.

The Wyeast 2124 does not flocculate well at all. Not even at 31 F. After a week in the keg, added the dreaded gelatin. It is now clearing, but not yet brilliant.

And again, there is a possibility that this is my imagination. Or...I have a hyper sensitivity for some sort of hop off flavor. Not sure...

[Village Taphouse]

It's been mentioned here before that buying and storing bulk hops is not for the squeamish.  If the hops don't smell AWESOME on brewday, your results on beer-drinking day may not be what you want.  I have wrongfully used questionable hops in the past.  All of my hops are now vacuum-sealed and they only come from good hop sources like Hop Heaven, Yakima Chief and Yakima Valley and I closely inspect them on brewday.  No more repackaged hops from homebrew supply places.  I have been burned numerous times by old or mishandled hops.  There were batches years ago where the beer tasted kind of like dirt.  The beer was bland and flavorless and I remember asking others about it because it had happened to them.  The conclusion was that the hops had no mojo when they were used.  No bright and fresh hop punch, no herbal, no spicy, no nothing.  Never again.  Not sure if this is your issue but when troubleshooting an issue you always realize how many variables there are.  We brew and brew and brew and just go through our routine and sometimes things don't work out.  Did I recently change the gap on my mill?  Did I switch sanitizers or water filter cartridges?  Did I use a new ingredient or product?  Did I forget to check my mash pH?  Did I use old hops or a malt I have never tried before?  Been there.  It's frustrating.   

[Cliffs]

Okay...

Sitting here (literally) sampling 3 beers, two with Diamond slurry, one with 2124. All have gelatin.

Two beers are a Premium Czech Pils, one is a 5D, German Pilsner.

No off flavor is detected in the Czech beer, with Diamond / 2124.

There might (might) be a subtle hint of an off flavor (soap) in the 5D. But the beer is good. Perhaps it's the hops? I will soon find out as we have several beers entered in the AHA-NHC. I am getting prepared for a royal hammering by the judges!

The Diamond drops clear, real fast. But brilliant crystal clear clarity is my goal, thus the use of gelatin.

The Wyeast 2124 does not flocculate well at all. Not even at 31 F. After a week in the keg, added the dreaded gelatin. It is now clearing, but not yet brilliant.

And again, there is a possibility that this is my imagination. Or...I have a hyper sensitivity for some sort of hop off flavor. Not sure...

I've never had the necessity for gelatin to achieve this, as long as I stick to sound brewing processes and hotside use of BTB and whirloc

[Village Taphouse]

I've never had the necessity for gelatin to achieve this, as long as I stick to sound brewing processes and hotside use of BTB and whirloc

I always shake my fists at the sky when I hear this because I know there are people who get naturally clear beer and those who have to work at it.  I always assume that there are variables that we don't know about whether it's the water, the pH of the mash, the pH of the boil, the pH at pitching, boil rate, etc.  I make a lot of clear beer but it always involves a gel solution when the beer is cold and in the keg and prior to carbing.  Occasionally I have a stubborn batch and nothing about the batch process stands out as unusual except for maybe a brand of malt I have never used before.  I know some people who use naturally soft source water and they're usually mentioning getting clear beer easily.  My water has 138ppm of bicarb that must be neutralized with lactic acid prior to mashing.  But I always use this source water and usually get clear beer so I don't know what the issue is but I do know that "sound brewing practices" probably doesn't cover all the variables.  The "simplification" I have started using thanks to BrewBama has been better with clarity and that process takes some of the guesswork out of pH at the various points in the process so I always look at "pH management" as one of the areas that could cause haziness.  It's also possible that we're all using different equipment, water, methods, etc. and some of us probably just get lucky in what we're doing. 

[Bel Air Brewing]

Update:

Sampling two Munich Helles beers, both with Diamond yeast and gelatin, one is absolutely wonderful, and one is...not as good. Soapy? Maybe. One of these was entered in the NHC. It will be interesting to get the score sheet.

See this thread, "From Worst To First'.

https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=38140.0

My beers will clear during aging. But it is not desirable to wait 2 months for the beer to naturally clear. Yes, I have had beers that were brilliant clear, without gelatin. But most of the time gelatin is used to speed up the clearing process.

And we are now into filtration. Big time!

[Village Taphouse]

Update:

Sampling two Munich Helles beers, both with Diamond yeast and gelatin, one is absolutely wonderful, and one is...not as good. Soapy? Maybe. One of these was entered in the NHC. It will be interesting to get the score sheet.

See this thread, "From Worst To First'.

https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=38140.0

My beers will clear during aging. But it is not desirable to wait 2 months for the beer to naturally clear. Yes, I have had beers that were brilliant clear, without gelatin. But most of the time gelatin is used to speed up the clearing process.

And we are now into filtration. Big time!

You know how cilantro is mentioned as one of those things that people love or hate and those who hate it say that it tastes like soap?  I wonder if this is a tastebud issue.  I say that because my wife would drink my beers and ordinarily enjoy them but occasionally she would comment that one tasted unusual.  When I asked her to describe the flavor, her response was always "soapy".  I don't understand it when someone says a beer tastes soapy.  I have never thought that any beer I brought to my lips was soapy.  My family, friends, kids, neighbors who have all drank my beer have never mentioned soapy.  I assume it's not something like "some cleanser ended up in the bottom of the fermenter or keg and I failed to rinse it out properly" kind of thing.  Otherwise I can't see where a flavor like that can come from.  Another thing:  What we eat and our current health status can dictate what we taste too.  If you're sick, on meds, etc. you can taste all kinds of weird things.  I also get weird flavors if I switch from one beer to the next.  But if I drink that second beer I had yesterday as my first beer today, it's fantastic.  Obviously if you have a flaw that shows itself repeatedly then you have a flaw. 

[Cliffs]

Update:

Sampling two Munich Helles beers, both with Diamond yeast and gelatin, one is absolutely wonderful, and one is...not as good. Soapy? Maybe. One of these was entered in the NHC. It will be interesting to get the score sheet.

See this thread, "From Worst To First'.

https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=38140.0

My beers will clear during aging. But it is not desirable to wait 2 months for the beer to naturally clear. Yes, I have had beers that were brilliant clear, without gelatin. But most of the time gelatin is used to speed up the clearing process.

And we are now into filtration. Big time!
[/quote

I've gotten soapy off flavors from bad hops. I've also isolated some wild sacch type yeasts that definitely created soapy flavors

[Richard]

Update:

Sampling two Munich Helles beers, both with Diamond yeast and gelatin, one is absolutely wonderful, and one is...not as good. Soapy? Maybe. One of these was entered in the NHC. It will be interesting to get the score sheet.

See this thread, "From Worst To First'.

https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=38140.0

My beers will clear during aging. But it is not desirable to wait 2 months for the beer to naturally clear. Yes, I have had beers that were brilliant clear, without gelatin. But most of the time gelatin is used to speed up the clearing process.

And we are now into filtration. Big time!

You know how cilantro is mentioned as one of those things that people love or hate and those who hate it say that it tastes like soap?  I wonder if this is a tastebud issue.  I say that because my wife would drink my beers and ordinarily enjoy them but occasionally she would comment that one tasted unusual.  When I asked her to describe the flavor, her response was always "soapy".  I don't understand it when someone says a beer tastes soapy.  I have never thought that any beer I brought to my lips was soapy.  My family, friends, kids, neighbors who have all drank my beer have never mentioned soapy.  I assume it's not something like "some cleanser ended up in the bottom of the fermenter or keg and I failed to rinse it out properly" kind of thing.  Otherwise I can't see where a flavor like that can come from.  Another thing:  What we eat and our current health status can dictate what we taste too.  If you're sick, on meds, etc. you can taste all kinds of weird things.  I also get weird flavors if I switch from one beer to the next.  But if I drink that second beer I had yesterday as my first beer today, it's fantastic.  Obviously if you have a flaw that shows itself repeatedly then you have a flaw.

Yes! Our tasting ability is context-sensitive and not absolute. I once had someone say that my amber ale was the worst beer she had ever tasted. When she asked for it again the next week I asked her to explain why and she said that the first taste had come just after she had brushed her teeth, and the minty flavors reacted badly with the beer. When she had it later with a clean palate she liked it.

[Village Taphouse]

Yes! Our tasting ability is context-sensitive and not absolute. I once had someone say that my amber ale was the worst beer she had ever tasted. When she asked for it again the next week I asked her to explain why and she said that the first taste had come just after she had brushed her teeth, and the minty flavors reacted badly with the beer. When she had it later with a clean palate she liked it.

Oh yeah, toothpaste and beer do not coexist well so I no longer brush my teeth.     If I find myself faced with a beer after just brushing my teeth, I try to get some pretzels or peanuts in me first and THEN go for the beer.  I had a beer that I thought had a smidge of diacetyl in it.  But for the rest of the keg I was trying to taste it and it wasn't there.  Tastebuds?  Maybe.  The diacetyl was very faint and on the next beers it was gone or below the threshold?  Maybe.  It's an imperfect world. 

[Bel Air Brewing]

Update:

Sampling two Munich Helles beers, both with Diamond yeast and gelatin, one is absolutely wonderful, and one is...not as good. Soapy? Maybe. One of these was entered in the NHC. It will be interesting to get the score sheet.

See this thread, "From Worst To First'.

https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=38140.0

My beers will clear during aging. But it is not desirable to wait 2 months for the beer to naturally clear. Yes, I have had beers that were brilliant clear, without gelatin. But most of the time gelatin is used to speed up the clearing process.

And we are now into filtration. Big time!

You know how cilantro is mentioned as one of those things that people love or hate and those who hate it say that it tastes like soap?  I wonder if this is a tastebud issue.  I say that because my wife would drink my beers and ordinarily enjoy them but occasionally she would comment that one tasted unusual.  When I asked her to describe the flavor, her response was always "soapy".  I don't understand it when someone says a beer tastes soapy.  I have never thought that any beer I brought to my lips was soapy.  My family, friends, kids, neighbors who have all drank my beer have never mentioned soapy.  I assume it's not something like "some cleanser ended up in the bottom of the fermenter or keg and I failed to rinse it out properly" kind of thing.  Otherwise I can't see where a flavor like that can come from.  Another thing:  What we eat and our current health status can dictate what we taste too.  If you're sick, on meds, etc. you can taste all kinds of weird things.  I also get weird flavors if I switch from one beer to the next.  But if I drink that second beer I had yesterday as my first beer today, it's fantastic.  Obviously if you have a flaw that shows itself repeatedly then you have a flaw.

I agree. This "soap" taste is in some beers, but not all. But the Helles sampled earlier today...terrible.
Don't think it's a yeast issue, as the same yeast in later beers is fine.

But it could be me, and my taste. My brewing friend and neighbor has never mentioned any thing about a soap flavor. And he has two of my kegs on tap at his house now.

[fredthecat]

no