Cue Bette Midler
Yesterday, I was on filter duty, assigned the unenviable task of filtering a 120 barrel fermenter of Winter Stout. Not just any Winter Stout, but a Stout that had only been crashed (dropped in temperature down to an ideal 31 degrees Fahrenheit) two days ago. Due to the large volume, this beer had only come down to 39 degrees, which by our standards is far too hot to filter. [Aside 1) Being a native Houstonian, it's difficult for me to articulate that 39 is by any means hot, but it means that there will be a ton of yeast that must be filtered out that hasn't fallen out of suspension yet; Aside 2) beers claiming to be 'cold-filtered' really means that they are filtered. Any brewery that regularly filters "hot" is wasting time, resources, and energy.] I knew that it would be a fool's errand to assume that I could go through 120 barrels without crashing the filter (building up too much pressure and forcing a reset), but I stuck to the plan, filtered the Stout slowly, and managed to get 22 barrels filtered before a crash was necessary. Bev was late shift filter guy, and came in right when I was about to crash. My advice to him was, "Don't kill yourself and work a 15 hour day. Try to get 60 barrels filtered, and I'll finish up in the morning when the beer is a little bit colder and therefore easier to filter." I went to bed assuming I'd still have at least 60 barrels to filter this morning. I went in today at 4 AM and found a note from Bev saying that not 60, but the full 120 barrels was filtered yesterday, due to an incredibly slow filter run (the slower you go, the less pressure you build up), producing an abundance of DE (filtering agent) and yeast on the filtering cloths. My first assumption was that the beer would be cloudy, it was not. I shone a flashlight through it and, despite being a dark beer, it was remarkably bright. My second assumption was the beer would be under-carbonated (a fixable dilemma) since carbonation causes resistance against the filter; the beer was well carbonated, as several in-glass demonstrations by Vince and myself confirmed (the bottled Stout was tasty). Due to Bev's deft and patient efforts, the consumer will have wonderful, carbonated Winter Stout on the shelves in whatever store they might purchase it from, hopefully filling the void of Christmas Ale as it flies off the shelf. This morning, I still had the task of cleaning the filter, which was packed with DE/yeast cakes reminiscent of hard clay, a shitload of hard clay, but was saved the hassle of setting up and running the filter again. Bev, you truly are the filtering wind beneath my wings.