Using Isinglass... or gelatin.

I want to use isinglass to help clarify a dry-hopped beer before I keg it and force carbonate it.
Anyone have experience using it, or gelatin to clear up their beer.
Any tips? Do I have to "crash cool" the beer after adding it to the secondary fermenter?
Thanks for any advice you can offer.

I use gelatin, so cannot attest to the other one. What you do is the following: rack to secondary and cold crash for three days. I keep my beer near freezing, and in three days it is nice and cloudy. For five gallons, take a baggie, like knoxx or measure out the same mass, put it into a couple of cups of water, stir well, and bring to boil while stirring to prevent clumping. Once it boils, close the lid and let boil for a minute or two to sterilize. Then just pour it into your almost freezing beer. Don't worry about the temperature difference because the volumes are very different. That's it! Keep it like that for seven days and bottle. Your beer will be clear as glass. I even tried this with a saison and got a clear saison lol.

I haven't used either product, but everything I've read indicates that gelatin should be steeped in very water, but that you shouldn't ever actually let it reach a boil because it will break down.

And I assure you it's all lies. Anyone who has ever cooked with gelatin will tell you that it still solidifies after you boil it.

I can confirm that. Gelatin can be boiled like mad, and it will still congeal, when chilled.

As I understand it boiling doesn't prevent the gelatin from congealing, it denatures the proteins that make it an effective fining agent. The point here isnt just to make at the bottom of the beer jello, it's to clear the beer.

But like I said, I haven't used it, a simple cold crash generally works well enough to keep me happy with my beer's clarity with the exception of some occasional chill haze which I can't be botherd to worry about too much.

Lol! Let me put it that way: Do you know how gelatin is made? It is made by boiling the hell out of animal bones and connective tissue. Boiling it some more won't do anything to it. If the heat denatured it, it would become something like egg drop soup.
Now, from my experience, it works like a charm.

I'd like to work on getting a clearer beer, but I can't keg yet, so I need some yeast in there to bottle condition. Can I still use gelatin to clear, or will it grab the yeast out as well?

You can cold crash, add gelatin, keep it like that for a week or two, and you'll still have enough yeast in suspension to bottle carbonate. Your beer will just be clearer.

I got a pack of gelatin from brooklyn homebrew. Do I use the entire pack for a 5 gallon batch?

I intended to boil the water, then let it cool a bit, add gelatin, sit for a while, then add to homebrew as i crash cool. Hope that's right.

Please write back if you know how much to use.