What a Day

I take back every questioning word about "Beer Season" I previously wrote. The demand for our beers has noticeably increased since the weather turned into warm days. So much so that we're bottling two days a week now. Today was supposed to be the second day and final day of bottling for the week, but things didn't quite work out. After bottling 375 cases of Amber and Nut Brown yesterday, we were planning to do some Pale Ale and more Nut Brown. Well, directions got a bit jumbled and the tank we wanted to filter into this morning wasn't available until 9 a.m. That's far too late to filter and then try to bottle. So, bottling got pushed back until tomorrow. Now here's where things get interesting. We get the filter going and it flys, only taking about 40 minutes. Pale Ale filters usually take about an hour for a 30 BBL batch, due to the amount of sediment from yeast drop out and dry hopping. Maybe we just got lucky today? No such luck. While I was carbonating the beer, I pulled a pint out of the sample port and noticed that it was really cloudy. My first thoughts were a chill or protein haze. OCBC Head Brewer Jim Strelau quickly dismissed the chill haze theory and put his money on the protein. What's the solution? Re-filter the beer. I quickly start cleaning the tank that the Pale Ale originally came out of earlier this morning. While doing that, I prep the serving tank for the transfer and start getting the filter set up. We use a plate/frame filter that takes 40 pads. With the transfer going (it takes about 30 minutes) I begin the hot loop on the filter. The hot loop heat sanitizes the pads, which is important. Following the hot loop, we cool down the pads by running cold water through filter. You don't want to put 34 degree beer through hot pads. As soon as the transfer finishes, I set up the filter and begin to send it directly back into the serving tank. The filter starts off good, only at about 2 bars on the pressure gauge. Almost an hour later, the filter has finished and I take a sample out of the tank. It still looks a little hazy, but it's much better than it was before. Thankfully, the double filtration has not robbed the beer of its aroma or body. The following day, we take another sample out of the tank and the beer looks good. Jim gives it the final OK and we are finally ready to bottle it. We cranked out 150 cases on Thursday. Some things surrounding this still remain a bit of mystery. We are certain that there was far more yeast still in suspension in the beer than we normally have. Our records show that yeast was dropped off the tank at various stages of the beer's life. We'll be keeping a close eye on the next batch.