Brew Masters on Discovery w/ Sam Calagione

Boo to Thursday nights. There is way too much other stuff to watch on Thurs. My dvr can only record 2 shows at once. Hopefully it'll be on at like 11pm on a diff. night as well cause I won't be watching it on Thursdays.

 

Agreed. Depending on the time.

 

Really. It's like I'm watching Fox or something.

 

What are you talking about, Fox is excellent at identifying great shows and not giving them unworkable showing schedules. *Cough* Family Guy *Cough* Futurama.

 

i didn't see the episode, but did Sam run into any FDA issues with putting out a product that has been made with his spit?

 

It didn't come up in the show. But since the chewing was "pre-boil" he did mention that any bacteria was obviously killed off.

 

I watch Sunny in Philly, Outsourced, and Brewmasters

-=Jason=-

 

or just left it on monday... I liked it there.

oh well.. at least with discovery you can almost guarantee that it will be on like three more times later that night.. and the next day.

 

Fortunately community is available on-demand and on hulu, so that makes my DVR scheduling easier.

 

I wondered this about their timeline. On the show, Sam has repeatedly given a timeline of about 2 weeks, give or take. I always thought there was some kind of filtering process that sped their process up. Is that really the answer, more yeast? If that's the answer, then why don't we just build bigger starters so we could have our beers ready quicker? 8 days seems very quick to let fermentation finish and yeast to clean up after themselves. I'm drinking a 6 pack of Raison d'etre right now, and the first thing I thought after tasting this was "This could use another couple of weeks in primary". This is after watching the show and knowing what their timeline was, but it just has a taste that seems like it needs to be cleaned up a little bit. True, it's clear as glass, and has a great taste, but it just has that initial burn to it. Maybe more time in primary wouldn't help that burn, but it just seemed like something went wrong somewhere.

 

Ever been on a distillery tour? The use open fermentors and invite everyone to get right up to it, I'd imagine all sorts of junk gets in there. At Maker's Mark they let you dip your finger in for a taste.

 

I think this show is going to be great for the craft brew market. I've had so many friends in the last two weeks ask me if I had any DFH for them to try. (living in Oklahoma the answer unfortunately is always no...) But I was able to talk to them about how Sam is a big believer in supporting local craft brewers and introduced them to some awesome beers they would have never tried before. I really think it's going to help our local liquor stores here in OK that carry craft beer, as we can't really pick up anything in the supermarket other than Bud...

 

Yeah, we can't get it here in New Mexico either. I find it in Colorado now and then, even though I know it's a quality beer I still have a hard time forking over $12 for a 4 pack. I'm headed to CO this weekend. Hopefully I'll find some DFH. I want to try their Punkin Ale after watching the show. Only beers of theirs I've had are their 60 min IPA and Raison D'etre

 

Totally agree. Anyone know how many episodes were filmed and if there's any word on filming a second season? I'd like to see the ratings/viewers, but given the wide distribution and audience on Discovery, if I was a betting man (and I am), I would bet that 10,000 BMC drinkers are converted to "craft curious" with each new episode.

Hope it runs forever!

 

I am glad they moved it to Thursdays. 10pm on Sunday was no good for me, and I have only been able to catch clips of it on their site. I must say, the beer hip-hop is more than a little amusing.

 

Consider this post a bash of those who are bashing the bashers.

 

Per episode? LOL... Man I wish we had a way to answer that bet because I'd put my entire career's earnings on it.

 

Haha! That was a priceless scene. It made me laugh. This show is great, I've enjoyed every episode and I'm glad they don't edit out stuff going wrong like the bottle fillers. TV is too edited and everything seems perfect, it's nice to see them showing that hey we're human and make mistakes. Seems like they just keep on truckin' and don't let it get to them though.

 

My guess - and this is only an educated guess - is that proper pitch cell counts are more of a range and, as the volume of beer increases, so does the range. So, a professional brewery can pitch anywhere from (and these numbers are totally made up and not anywhere near correct) 200 to 400 trillion yeast cells whereas the home brewer should only pitch 200 to 225 billion yeast cells.

Pitching 400 trillion yeast cells as opposed to 200 trillion may have a massive impact on how quickly the beer is finished. There may be less of an impact between 225 billion and 200 billion. So, on the home brewing scale, it isn't really possible to pitch enough yeast to have an impact on how quickly the beer is ready without drastically over pitching and negatively affecting the ester profile and such.

Just a guess, though. It could also be much more practical. Perhaps the yeast cake simply becomes too thick when using a sufficiently large pitch unless you have a conical to remove it. Someone much more learned in brewing science could help clear this up.

 

I've heard it said that even with starters, most homebrew is under-pitched, and the difference with commercial breweries lies in the pressures reached by large fermenting vessels and the fact that they pitch the proper amount of yeast.

Plus, you always have to remember that they have their systems' performance down to a science, much more fine-tuned than any of us. They know what works best as far as temps, volumes, time, etc.

 

I too have read it's more about the pressures created in their large volume fermenters vs the quantity of yeast. Unfortunately that's not something we're going to reproduce in a bucket

 

Ya, the tall fermentors exert around 6 - 8 PSI of hydrostatic pressure on the yeast near the bottom of the tank. Though, most breweries don't apply much top pressure during active fermentation. They rely on hydrostatic pressure alone.

A reasonable amount (4 - 12 PSI) of top pressure = lower esters, allowing the fermentation temperature to be increased by 2 - 4 F without adversely affecting the beer flavor. Increasing the temperature leads to reduced fermentation times and increased production volume.

FWIW, a homebrewer can easily duplicate the effects of top pressure in a sanke/corny keg...

 

I'm not quite ready to accept the "its because homebrewers don't use enough yeast" theory.

From www.mrmalty.com:

"You might ask why not pitch as much yeast as possible? There is also an upper limit to how much yeast you should add. Logsdon [Founder/Owner of Wyeast Laboratories] says, “I try to stay within 20% of my ideal pitch rate and I prefer to slightly under pitch rather than over pitch. This causes more cell growth, more esters, and better yeast health. Over pitching causes other problems with beer flavor, such as a lack of esters. Changes in the flavor profile are noticeable when the pitch rates are as little as 20% over the recommended amount.”

 

Pitching rates that I have read are optimal for homebrewers in texts (Designing Great Beers, Ray Daniels is awesome, here I paraphrase) range at 200-400 billion cells for 5 gallons. The problem with that is that with commercially avqailable homebrewers yeasts, getting a starter that big would have to be in gallons and thats not really practical. Reduced, acceptable rates are closer to 10-20 billion MINIMUM. All this is for "normal" gravity.. say 1.050.
So to reiterate my previous point, commercial breweries have access to better toys for brewing. Including yeast. It is far easier for them to obtain proper pitching rates that will ferments in days vs weeks that we as homebrewers experience.
A lot of the things at their disposal are easily (depending on your dedication and technical aptitude) reproduced in the home setting. Sometimes they are just less practical and don't make that much of a difference. I.E.: waiting 4-6 weeks for total fermentation vs 1-2 weeks. As it is now, my pipeline is bigger than I can possibly want to drink, even with the help of a few friends. And I'm no big timer.

 

Yeast? I thought this was a Sam bashing thread??

 

I just watched the second episode with the "spit beer" after seeing the first and third episodes. The show is better entertainment than some of the other garbage on TV and there is some humor to it. I would have enjoyed more of the technical/application side of brewing, but it's a show I can watch and my wife enjoys it.

 

A WL yeast vial comes with approx 100 billion cells and a 1L starter on a stir plate has 200 billion according to mrmalty.

 

A typical pack of dry yeast has 300 billion cells.

 

Those responsible for bashing the bashers, have themselves been bashed.

 

Yeah, my bad, I think I kind of did a threadjack. Nothing gets brewers off topic like yeast pitch rates.

 

Yeah dry yeast is pretty high in count typically. Wyeast activators claim 100 billion and white labs claims 70-140 billion cells.
... so now this makes me think why make a starter for lower-end gravity beers?

haha... what, me? distracted? lol

 

The rest of this thread will be completed in a different style at great expense and at the last minute.

 

The Characters and incidents portrayed in this thread and the names used are fictitious and any similarity to the names, characters, or history of any person is entirely accidental and unintentional.

Signed SAM CALAGIONE

 

I like that blue moon commercial during the show (blue moon painting).

 

Well here is my take on the series. It has shown just how much of a green eyed SOB I can be. I am so jealous of Sam. I want his job! Sure it's not all roses but it is not too difficult to see that he absolutely loves his job. I know I would love his job. The series gives hope that if you want something bad enough, are willing to make the sacrifices and are willing to work hard enough, you can make your dreams come true.

 

I don't. As long as your sanitation is sound, a little extra lag time means nothing.

 

I'm TVless. Anybody know if this is online somewhere? I love Sam C. and DFH beer. I'd like to see him and his "spit beer".

 

Look Here

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/brew-masters-online-stream-207536/