Double Keg Monday

Had a great Monday evening last week moving the raspberry wheat beer from the secondary fermenter to the kegs.  The batches produced about 2.5 to 3 gallons each.  When I kegged last month I tried the patient approach for carbonation (lower pressure for a week to 10 days), which I decided took too much time.  This time I'm setting the kegs at a higher pressure (28 psi) and I'm going to check them every day until the carbonation starts to take.  Hopefully, this will result in quicker carbonation without getting over carbonated.

I kegged this batch after two weeks in the secondary fermenter.  After the first week I decided to try a new clarifying step.  I had heard about the using gelatin as a clarifying agent for some time and had never tried it.  The method I read about required 1 teaspoon of knox gelatin added to 1 cup of water.  I let the cup sit for about 20 minutes to allow the gelatin to react with the water.  I then heated the mixture until it cleared up and added that mixture to each carboy (I made two separate gelatin mixtures at 1 cup each).  I needed to swirl the carboy a little bit in order for the gelatin/water mixture to blend in with the fermenting beer.  It seemed to really help the beer settle down and clear up, but the wheat yeast batch seemed to respond better than the champagne yeast batch.  In the photo below you can see some "weirdness" floating on top of the beer.  Not sure if this is trub or something else.

Kegging Raspberry Wheat - Champagne Yeast 7/29/13

Kegging Raspberry Wheat - Wheat Yeast 7/29/2013

The beer was kegged on 7/29, but has not yet carbonated.  I was out of town for a few days and ran out of CO2.  It figures that happens when you have plenty of time to carb some beer!  Anyways, I filled up my CO2 today and now the carbonation should be completing in the next couple of days.  I'll post pictures of the finished product once its ready.