Brew Dogs...

I saw two. Very interesting recipes!

I think its a decent show, that with some improvement could be a good show. You can tell its fairly low budget.
I like the history of breweries part, and of course, the brewing itself, but I could do without the rest of the filler crap.
On the last episode, I felt they spent way too much time on the food pairings segment, and the whole tea shop thing was weird. Also, the time spent trying to convert BMC people to craft beer is boring filler, IMO.

All in all, its a decent show, but rarely keeps my attention for the full hour.

GrogNerd said:

maybe the SCIENCE! members of HBT can explain open fermentation, because I sure can't. yeast are still magical little critters to me.

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Wasn't there something weird about the yeast they used that allowed them to do this?

I missed the first 10-15 min of this episode, but didn't the yeast actually produce a protective crust over the beer instead of a krauzen that settled?

Like I said...I missed the beginning, but I do remember the part where they actually had to poke through a crust to get to the liquid beer.

I like the show, but they are highly disgusting. Putting some one elses hops in their nose, the hat on the wort, putting their fingers in the wort. I did like the fog catching and the steam serving of the beer. But if I had a brewery, they would NOT be invited to come.

geek_chaser said:

I like the show, but they are highly disgusting. Putting some one elses hops in their nose, the hat on the wort, putting their fingers in the wort. I did like the fog catching and the steam serving of the beer. But if I had a brewery, they would NOT be invited to come.

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My thoughts exactly - I did not like that guy doing that stuff at all.

He shoves hops in his nose like a little kid, then blows them on the floor, and thinks it's funny? He takes his shoes off and stands bare foot in the fermenter. Drops his nasty hat on top of the krausen. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

I understand they want to be "entertaining", but seriously show some respect - ESPECIALLY at one of the most respected breweries in the United States, and in front of it's head brewer. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

I like watching the show, but that stuff made me cringe.

Which brewery did they do those crazy things? So I will avoid that one.

Crito said:

Which brewery did they do those crazy things? So I will avoid that one.

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Anchor

Crito said:

Which brewery did they do those crazy things? So I will avoid that one.

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The last episode was at Anchor.
They were at 21st amend for a minute as well, but no debauchery was allowed there.

One other thing about the hop cones up dudes nose. He appeared to blow them out right back into an open bag of hops.

Note to self. Steer clear of anchor beer for 12+ months.

After the SF episode, how many people are now thinking about making their own whiskey barrel open fermenter?

would you really suggest brewing a bitter or a mild with the creator of Arrogant Bastard?

My main complaint about the show is the lack of air time the "engineer" gets. This guy probably has a lot to offer but unless you are getting a youtube video from the guy directly, I doubt the show will actually ever show him working on their cool brew setup.

Speaking of this setup: did anyone notice the cool recirculating "diffuser" they used to trickle the wort onto the grain bed from the HERMS? It looked like a bend stainless pipe clamped to the side of the kettle with a lower and upper disc attached to the outlet. This would force the wort to hit the top disc and deflect back to the bottom disc which spread out the wort to trickle on top of the grain bed. I would love to build one of these.

eltorrente said:

My thoughts exactly - I did not like that guy doing that stuff at all.

He shoves hops in his nose like a little kid, then blows them on the floor, and thinks it's funny? He takes his shoes off and stands bare foot in the fermenter. Drops his nasty hat on top of the krausen. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

I understand they want to be "entertaining", but seriously show some respect - ESPECIALLY at one of the most respected breweries in the United States, and in front of it's head brewer. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

I like watching the show, but that stuff made me cringe.

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The worst part was watching everyone drink his feet/hat/finger beer.

geek_chaser said:

The worst part was watching everyone inhale his feet/hat/finger/nose beer.

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there ya go

You guys need to lighten up. You have no idea what was done after said "disgusting" acts. It's an entertaining show, that highlights not only craft beer, but homebrewing as well.

Schemy said:

You guys need to lighten up. You have no idea what was done after said "disgusting" acts. It's an entertaining show, that highlights not only craft beer, but homebrewing as well.

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I am light

and mostly just mocking. I mock. that's what I do.

my very first batch ever, I spit a mouthful of wort back into the bucket after starting a siphon.

turned out to be a pretty good beer, if I remember correctly

reporter: are you a mod? or a rocker?
John Lennon: I'm a mocker

Did not have a problem with any of it, because it is a TV show so you don't know what was done after the cameras were rolling. Was the oak barrel sanitized after he stood in it? Most likely. Was there something in there he was standing on that we could not see due to editing? Maybe.

Hat on the krausen...no problem with that because it was a thick layer and they were drawing the beer from UNDER it.

The worst sin was taking beers from people, drinking some, bringing it to a chef who also drank some, then returning the beer to people who had to drink the same beer. Or did they? Could their beers have been replaced through the magic of TV? Most likely!

jdauria said:

Did not have a problem with any of it, because it is a TV show so you don't know what was done after the cameras were rolling. Was the oak barrel sanitized after he stood in it? Most likely. Was there something in there he was standing on that we could not see due to editing? Maybe.

Hat on the krausen...no problem with that because it was a thick layer and they were drawing the beer from UNDER it.

The worst sin was taking beers from people, drinking some, bringing it to a chef who also drank some, then returning the beer to people who had to drink the same beer. Or did they? Could their beers have been replaced through the magic of TV? Most likely!

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good points, especially the last.

if you're going to take my beer, you better leave one

I have watched both the San Diego and San Francisco episodes, and have found things I like and things I don't. The great thing is that I can FF thru what I don't like (beer and food pairings). I was also a bit put off by the hops in the nose, hat on the brew. However, I had other more practical questions like, "How did they keep bacteria from getting into the San Fran Fog Brew while fermenting on the room w/o any protection?" I've got about 20 brews in a year under my belt, so not as familiar as others, but it just seemed to go against everything I learned on the fermentation.

Schemy said:

You guys need to lighten up. You have no idea what was done after said "disgusting" acts. It's an entertaining show, that highlights not only craft beer, but homebrewing as well.

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Yes, that's true and I considered that. However, why even pretend to do that stuff?

Maybe they could have pretended to spit in the beer, or pissed in the fermenter. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't.. the magic of TV.. would that be funny? I wouldn't find it amusing, myself.

I like the show, actually - I just didn't like seeing someone take his shoes off and stand in the fermenter and shove a couple ounces of hops up his nose and blow it out in Anchor's hop room.

Creating drama for the sake of TV is one thing.... They have to keep people entertained. The dogfish series did that. Dogfish still kept their brewing standards top notch.

None of us are protesting the show. We are just saying parts could be improved.

Myself, I'd like to see it be more of an informative believe it or not show, like River Monsters, rather than a cram hops up your nose & eat raw compressed tea leaves show like mtv jackass.

Grannyknot said:

None of us are protesting the show. We are just saying parts could be improved.

Myself, I'd like to see it be more of an informative believe it or not show, like River Monsters, rather than a cram hops up your nose & eat raw compressed tea leaves show like mtv jackass.

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I agree, an entertaining and informative show would be better.

WissaBrewGuy said:

Speaking of this setup: did anyone notice the cool recirculating "diffuser" they used to trickle the wort onto the grain bed from the HERMS? It looked like a bend stainless pipe clamped to the side of the kettle with a lower and upper disc attached to the outlet. This would force the wort to hit the top disc and deflect back to the bottom disc which spread out the wort to trickle on top of the grain bed. I would love to build one of these.

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This is actually something you can buy. It's a sparge arm assembly. They sell them at Morebeer, and probably other places as well. I have to agree though, the rigs they are brewing on are nice.

high5apparatus said:

After the SF episode, how many people are now thinking about making their own whiskey barrel open fermenter?

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Not going to lie the thought crossed my mind

Thanks JJL! I had no idea. I was kind of hoping that the engineer in the show built this in a "moment of genius." Oh well... the Ultimate Sparge Arm from MoreBeer it is.

Unfortunately, you can't use this sparge arm on a keggle without some modification.

I do like how innovative they are.

Just watched last nights episode... the Philly episode. Pretty good.

Using the guests credit card to reserve the float was hilarious.

just watched the first segment from Philly

the beauty shop craft beer virgin part was funny too

so far the ingredients aren't so weird, except for the DNA-coded Declaration of Independence.

ScotBrew said:

I'm born and bred in Scotland so I think it's why I'm more attracted to it than I should be! It's a pretty decent program and I've got it DVR'd so I'll watch the complete season. I'm watching it more for the cities and breweries that they're going to visit though.

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Did anyone else read this in a Scottish accent?

zmanzorro said:

Did anyone else read this in a Scottish accent?

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not until you asked about it, then I had to reread it with one

then it sounded like Jackie Stewart

..so that sparge arm there using.. Pretty sweet.. U think their engineer made it or did i miss it out there somewhere in a shop?

So far I like it...

The Philly episode was entertaining but the "best brewery" and "best beer bar" lists were offensive. Barcade is like brewing on a train, it's cool to say you've done it but it was wildly unsuccessful and you wouldn't try again. Choosing Iron Hill as one of the top 5 breweries is like calling burger king the best local burger joint.

Disclaimer: the burger king comment is a ridiculous exaggeration.

GrogNerd said:

not until you asked about it, then I had to reread it with one

then it sounded like Jackie Stewart

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I read everything in a Scottish accent?

Wasn't impressed with the Iron Hill or Barcade choices either...

mkringii said:

..so that sparge arm there using.. Pretty sweet.. U think their engineer made it or did i miss it out there somewhere in a shop?

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Morebeer.com

ScotBrew said:

I read everything in a Scottish accent?

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I think what zmanzorro meant was that when you said you were from Scotland, he started reading your post like you were talking to him, instead of just reading what you wrote, and presuming you had a Scottish accent.

which I didn't the first time I read it, but then went back and re-read it and the Scottish accent in my head is Jackie Stewart.

I watched the Philadelphia episode yesterday, and it was pretty good.

They didn't do any "gross" stuff, and they went to Victory brewery.

This was the first show that I really wanted to drink the beer that they brewed up. It looked like a nice recipe. They made a beer for 4th of July that used ingredients that they would have used in the 1770's, so they used grain, stone-ground corn, and molasses. Looked like a recipe I'd like to brew up sometime.

I didn't like the disrespect to the declaration.

I didn't like that they left two of the best two breweries off of their top five list Troegs and. Victory and included breweries that aren't even close in terms of quality and scale. Iron Hill, Sly fox? They both make good beer for sure but don't deseve to be on the top 5 list. Otherwise I liked it. Leave it up to Philly to screw up a publicity opportunity for their craft beer market.

They left off the oldest pub in the city of the top 5 too.

Although my childhood town of fishtown was represented And with my current town of downingtown.