Clarifying beer will definitely make for a cleaner tasting beer. It definitely matters for appearance too. Not so much from an "I like clear beer" standpoint, but because many folks won't even try a cloudy homebrew because to them it looks infected or substandard (with the possible exception of hefe's or other wheat beers, for which the cloudiness is purposeful). And, of those that do try a cloudy beer, many will have a more negative opinion of it, than if it was clear. If you are the only person drinking your beer, this isn't really much of a problem. However, if you will have a good many people trying your beer, having a clear-ish beer is pretty important IMHO.

Cheers
Dave

Ok, so I went to try the gelatin finings for the first time. It said to mix 1/2 tsp with 1 cup warm water. So I took distilled water and brought it to a boil and let it sit for 10 minutes. Then I added the finings and the smell was putrid. It smelt like sewage. This was my first batch of a lighter shade of beer and I wanted to do a little something extra to clarify it but after 10 minutes of trying to will myself into adding it to my secondary I just couldn't do it. Is the smell normal? Doesn't it hold to the beer if it is? It definately isn't a sanitation problem so don't even speculate that. I'm a HAACP certified Executive Chef and I know sanitation and as a chef I just couldn't bring myself to use a product that smelt like human excrement. Help me please!!!

On a side note the lager is coming along great, not my favorite but the guys at work will enjoy their flavorless hogwash!!

I'm sorry I did not respond to your question until now. It has been a very long time since I used gelatin and I just don't know the answer. I suspect that is probably the case with others on the forum. I mean, this is a busy time of year with the Holidays approaching far too rapidly.

If I had the time I might search the homebrew digest archives (http://www.hbd.org) but, of course, you could do that as well.

Certifications aside, sanitzation problems do not really sound like a probable cause of the smell. Perhaps the gelatin was bad.

Based on the smell it sounds like you were wise not to add it to your beer. I seem to recall gelatin smelled kind of funky but not putrid.


- Scott