Pic(k) of the Week: Big Orange Beer Tank

I like the interplay between light, color, and shadow, in this photo of a beer maturation vessel at the Heavy Seas Brewing Company, in Baltimore, Maryland.

"LT" is an acronym for Lagering Tank. Lagering is the process of storing unfiltered beer, after fermentation has concluded. The beer will be eventually chilled to 0°C for clarification: yeast and proteins will settle out of the liquid. Most yeast is inactive at this point. A lager beer is generally 'lagered' for a longer time than an ale: hence its name.

"BBL" is the abbreviation for beer barrel, which isn't an actual thing; it's a unit of volume measurement. For beer, in the U.S., that's 31 gallons, or 13.78 cases of 24 twelve-ounce bottles.

Notice the black tube at the bottom of the photo. It's a racking hose attached to the zwickel (the sample port) on the door of the tank. The brewery's cellarman will fill (in brewing terminology, 'rack') casks through this tube.

*********************

• When this photo was taken, in 2008, the brewery was known as Clipper City Brewing Company.
  
• Pic(k) of the Week: one in a weekly series of personal photos, usually posted on a Saturday, and often of a 'good fermentable' as subject.