Brewery

Unfiltered: A Matter of Clarity

I figure anyone reading this blog probably knows we recently underwent an expansion, which involved re-learning to brew on newer/bigger/fancier equipment.  One of our most prized purchases was our centrifuge, which replaced our diatomaceous earth filter.  With our old filter, all of our beer came out crystal clear (or “bright”, which I spell as “brite” when discussing beer clarity).  With our new centrifuge, we can choose to make the beer as brite as we wish – it has the functionality to allow some amount of haze through if we choose to. Now you might well ask us why we would want to let haze through) if you were so inclined), and the answer is… Flavor? Aroma? Maybe?  

There is a lot of chatter between brewers, and brewers and drinkers, that various hazes contain flavors that you might want expressed in the finished product.  At high levels, those hazes may even add to a richer mouthfeel, which might be a cool thing.  Or not.  There is some amount of science backing some of the claims of the hazy-beer-tastes-better crowd, but some of it looks to me like serious voodoo bullshit.  But hey, we have the ability now to play around with various levels of clarity, so play we will, at least until we decide what we like, what you guys like (or what sales will let us get away with).

So anyway, if you grab our beer and it isn’t as… crystalline as you are used to – that’s us, trying to figure out this whole flavor/haze thing.  We are tasting all the time and once we are happy we will pick a direction.  Sorry to make you our guinea pigs – I hope you enjoy the ride!