Beer of the Week: Harpoon UFO

John Linn

​Unrepentant beer drinkers, rejoice! Each week, Clean Plate Charlie will select one craft or import beer and give you the lowdown on it: How does it taste? What should you drink it with? Where can you find it? But mostly, it's all about the love of the brew. If you have a beer you'd like featured in Beer of the Week, let us know via a comment.

Yeast are hungry little dudes. They just love to eat. When introduced to a nice, hospitable environment like unfermented beer (AKA wort), the little buggers go crazy and gobble up every last bit of sugar they can. And their ceaseless feasting creates two byproducts: carbon dioxide and alcohol.

It's because of yeast that beer is born. And in beers that are bottle conditioned -- that is, they're put in the bottle with a little bit of sugar and active yeast -- yeast is responsible for carbonation as well. But what happens to the yeast after its done is job?

In most commercial beers -- think Budweiser or Miller -- the yeast is filtered out after fermentation to remove any kind of solids. This creates a very clear, transparent beer and allows for the development of a foamy head. Sometimes the beer is even pasteurized after filtering -- that is, heated to a level that absolutely kills any errant bacteria still floating around the mix. (Pasteurization has some debatable effects on beer flavor and shelf-life, but that's another column.)

In some beers, however, like Harpoon Brewery's UFO, the yeast is not completely filtered out after fermentation. Much of it settles to the bottom of the brewing vessel and doesn't end up in the bottle. But a small amount of the yeast actually stays in the beer. That yeast is responsible for unfiltered beer's hazy appearance and bread-like flavor.

Before you get all freaked out about drinking yeast in your beer, know this: Alcohol actually kills yeast. So by the time you get a bottle of the good stuff, the hungry little dudes are pretty much dead. Also, drinking unfiltered beers is great for you. Yeast is loaded full of B vitamins and protein. It's why people often say that homebrew -- which is largely unfiltered, at least to the level of most commercial brewers -- is so darn good for you. Not to mention tasty. Great unfiltered beers have a flavor you can't get with those ultra-filtered commercial brews (superfine filtering actually removes other good flavors, like hops, too).

Want to give an unfiltered beer a try? Pour a glass of Harpoon's UFO and check out the hazy, golden-white color. That's typical of an unfiltered white, or wheat beer. Take a sip. What you'll taste is a citrusy fruitiness, a distinct malty backbone, and an earthy bite, followed by a nice dry hop finish. It's a refreshing, yet substantial brew that you couldn't duplicate if it was filtered.