what the h... for?

[ga flatwoods]

A fellow artisan called me yesterday to come over as he had something to show and ask me about. When I got there he progressed to telling me that he had over oaked his brew to the point of looking like overly dark tea. However he had not cut it yet so there was room for the color to lighten still. Anyway he wanted it cleared up to appear crystalline clear in short order so he decided to add a pack of gelatin to each carboy. What he showed me had no transparency remaining and looked like prune juice. He justified it by suggesting that it works with wine so why not? Now I thought I had heard about most things one could do but never this. Gelatine does afine job of fining wine but whiskey with no residual sugars or pectins? He did say that instead of floating on top like wines, the gelatin went straight to the bottom and he had to stir it up. If he had been making Willie Nelsons Whiskey River, he damn sure got the river part right!
As I had no advise based on experience to offer, I subject this delimina to the panel for discussion.
I feel like it will get better myself but am curious nonetheless....Opinions welcome.....
GA Flatwoods

[Dnderhead]

gelatin is not just dumped in to wine.. and removes tannins.(bitter)
any of the "clearing agents" does not work instantly in wine and i have no idea what they do in distilled product.

[ga flatwoods]

Thanks dnderhead. Anyone else?
Ga Flatwoods

[Schmicter]

Gelatin is generally only used in red wines to remove some tannins and pectin. It is not alcohol soluble and only absorbs water and water soluble colors/flavors so if the oak color/flavor is derived because of its solubility in alcohol, gelatin won't do anything for it. Oh...except probably sink and lie in lumps on the bottom.

[Dnderhead]

id say best bet will be carbon.

[bcboyz86]

If gelatin absorbs water only and not alcohol...does it do a little bit of distilling in a way? By soaking up water and gelling up, it would raise the ABV in the likker... then you could filter out the clumps without running the kikker through carbon and stripping the flavor, right?

[Dnderhead]

"If gelatin absorbs water only and not alcohol...does it do a little bit of distilling in a way?"

disagree,,it works by a "electrostatic" charge. diferant "clearing agent" have either positive or negative charge .and attract the opposite particles that is suspended in "wine" then when they fall out they drag down suspended particles with them.

as for adsorbing water you need to look up "drying agents" these are used to make "dry" alcohol. that is used to mix with gasoline or other chemical proses by removing that elusive last 5% of water.

the last I seen they were using cracked corn.or using corn to remove water from the distillate ,then they can use the corn as feed stock for the next batch.thus saves drying .

[bcboyz86]

Oh. I didn't know that's how it worked. Thought it just sucked up water and make solids. Perhaps that woulda been covered in my consumable chemistry class, and woulda learned that myself had I not missed it while I was making rum :/ I shouldbe a more studious person...

[ga flatwoods]

Finally a follow-up. Running through carbon helped some but not much. Going back to "wine school" and some outside the box thinking, I suggested refrigeration for an extended time. By golly it worked!! the gelatin and all of its "cloudy capture" settled to the bottom and crevices of the jars. It even appears to have pulled some fusels as there was an oily film that had to be washed outof the jars. The cleared was pulled off of the settlement as one would yeast lees and then refiltered. There was some loss of product and a little on the flavor but not a significant amount. All in all, it was a PITA butat least it did not end up having to be redistiled and reaged! I may start refrigerating my own directly off the keg or chips!
Good lesson learnt!
GA Flatwoods

[bcboyz86]

Yea, fridging will clear up a lot, freezer works well too...and usually a little faster. When I toss my Carmel in with my rum I wait till its all dissolved. Then toss in the freezer for a day or two and it settles out the whole jar really well. I usually filter it through a coffee filter a couple times to filter out the junk and it works awesome! Definitely recommend it if its cloudy stuff...