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Bright Beer Tank
Once in the BBT the beer under goes another series of checks for CO2, DO (dissolved oxygen), Colour, Clarity, Bitterness, abv, Original Gravity (OG), Present Gravity (PG), Head retention, Taste. Each beer must meet certain specifications for each of these characteristics for obvious reasons but the one parameter that may not be most obvious is the DO.
Levels of dissolved oxygen in the beer in BBT must be low, less than 0.3 parts per million (ppm).
A great deal of care is taken from the cold conditioning stage onward to prevent the beer coming into contact with air. This involves purging lines and tanks with CO2 or nitrogen and ensuring that the beer is always acting against a back pressure of such inert gasses.
Oxygen will react with various components of beer and produce compounds which will either give beer a stale, off, flavour and aroma, or produce the precursor which will eventually lead to stale, off flavours in bottle. This is particularly critical during pasteurisation where the beer is exposed to high temperatures.
