The wild wacky world of beer and brewing is replete with innocuous terms that appear meaningless for the average consumer.  Lager vs. Ale or Pilsner vs. Urine for example.  There is one, however that to my understanding has not been covered yet, so I will pull one from the archive…

This is my review of Carlsburg Unfiltered

We’re heard the old commercial for Miller Genuine Draft.  It includes the phrase “cold filtered”, which is pretty much meaningless given the product being peddled.  Filtering beer is a similar process to filtering any other liquid:

There are two basic types of filtration: depth and surface. Depth filtration, also called powder filtration, uses a convoluted labyrinth of channels in the filter media to trap particles. The media can be diatomaceous earth (DE), Perlite, or other porous media.

Adjust for beer accordingly

Depth filtration works similar to a pool filter.  Where the pump simply pulls water from the pool to a tank filled with either sand or diatomaceous earth (DE).  The filter media creates a path that is smaller than the dissolved solid the user desires to not be in the water.  The pump puts pressure on the water through the filter media, which gets trapped in the tank on top of the filter media.  The result is clean water flowing back into the pool.

Surface filtration uses a thin film material with pores smaller than the particles to be removed. Particles remain on the surface of the filter while clarified liquid flows through. If the pores are of a defined size (for instance, up to 5 μm), filtration is said to be “absolute” to the pore size. Membrane and cross-flow filtration are examples.

This is more like reverse-osmosis.  It produces a cleaner end product but as one might expect is a more cost intensive process.

In both circumstances the desired substances to be removed from the beer include hops, dead yeast and other microbes that in high enough concentration can result in unpalatable beer.  In the case of commercially produced pilsners, a crystal clear appearance is also highly desired by both the brewer and consumer.  So why then do so many seem to obsess over unfiltered beer?

Some will say filtering removes too much from the finished product, leaving it with a “sterile” flavor.  Others will go on and on about “mouthfeel” when the words “texture” and “body” have an almost identical meaning and does not bring connotations related to fellatio.  There are even specific styles that happen to be unfiltered by tradition, Hefeweizen and Belgian Abbey ales for example, where some would prefer not to be made any other way.

In the above example, I had at a fine dining establishment in Northern Ireland and I pretty much had Guinness with every meal for about a week so I wanted something different.  I can’t really say it went well with my braised duck but it was rather nice on it’s own.  I recommend it over regular Carlsburg, which in of itself is nothing to write home about.  Carlsburg Unfiltered: 3.2/5