However, as has been the case throughout modern craft beer’s history, the pendulum swung quickly in response to these beers. Stone’s Ruination line, for example, played on the idea that its massive bitterness levels would “ruin” a palate (in a good way, of course).Īll of these beers were uniformly filtered and were a crystal clear bright orange color with an immense, frothy head of tan or beige bubbles. The single most notable style parameter for American IPAs and Double IPAs throughout their history has been that lip-smacking snap of bitterness that occurs due to an immense IBU quotient as well as an often hearty malt bill to balance out the heavily hopped style.Īggressive, powerful West Coast IPAs from such breweries as Stone, Russian River, AleSmith, Elysian and others are all notable for their massively bitter flavor profile. Perhaps the singular word that expresses the greatest difference between filtered and unfiltered beers is “soft.” Nowhere is that softness more apparent in unfiltered beers than the strikingly different approaches taken to American IPAs in recent years. Perhaps the oldest example of an unfiltered beer still produced today is Kellerbier, like this example from Sünner Brauerei. Another well-crafted Kellerbier example is Summit Brewing Co.'s 30th Anniversary Keller Pils, which was one of our highest-rated beers of 2016. Grevensteiner pours with a very minimal foam stand and has a soft, malty mouthfeel eschewing bitterness in favor of a “complex flavor that is first dominated by caramel with a slight undertone of honey, roasted almonds, and fresh fruity flavors of green apple,” according to the brewery. Veltins’ Grevensteiner Original, which is now available stateside in cans, was one of the first modern iterations of this style. Perhaps the oldest example of an unfiltered beer still produced today is Kellerbier (or Zwickel Lager), which means “cellar beer” because it was stored in cool cellars or caves during maturation.īrauerei C. Sure, those lagers are technically demanding to brew and are certainly thirst-quenching, but by filtering beers heavily, complexity of both flavor and aroma are lost in favor of appearance – a shallow reason to deaden a beer’s sensory impact. Crystal clear pilsners and lagers won the beauty contest in the early days of American craft brewing, as the striking image of a light yellow, champagne-like pils is still perhaps the most evocative beer image to the masses. Unfiltered beers used to be incorrectly thought of as dirty or unfinished. Nothing gets beer geeks and connoisseurs riled up these days like a strikingly hazy New England IPA, such as Foundation Brewing Co.'s Epiphany Maine IPA. Cold filtering is another option: lower temperatures during filtration cause proteins to lump together, making them easier to remove. In a lager beer, gravity filters the beer with many particulates falling to the base of a bright tank. If a beer is lautered ‒ a process in which the mash is separated into the clear liquid wort and the residual grain ‒ the grain bed serves as its own filtering agent. One common filter is finings, which can sometimes include swim bladders of fish as a filtering agent.
For example, beer can be filtered by passing through a caked or powdered substance in order to filter out any brewing particulates that occur. So what exactly is an unfiltered beer and why are these styles among the most popular in the world right now?įiltration can be performed through various methods depending on beer style.
Hazy IPAs are not the only beers that qualify as unfiltered, as the venerable Kellerbier style, as well as various Witbiers, Berliner Weisses and other sour offerings are also unfiltered. Many a skeptic has been won over with a whiff of that insanely fruity aromatic punch. There’s something about the opaque, orange-yellow liquid that sends craft beer enthusiasts into a tizzy. Nothing gets beer geeks and connoisseurs riled up these days like a strikingly hazy New England IPA.