Alton Brown - Homebrew - You Tube

[Yuri_Rage]

Blue bottles? Seriously?

Yeah, seriously. And if I could find 'em for a decent price, I'd buy 'em.

There are WAY more mistakes to critique than Alton's bottle choice.

...and I won't badmouth the episode too much. That show and a quick read through Papazian got me hooked.

 

[BuffaloSabresBrewer]

I really dont understand the bashing. Not perfect obviously. But were ****ing brewers of course were going to find something wrong to critique! Im actually thinking about following his "recipe" as close as possible and see how it turns out. If I can even find some Goldings! I sure that show inspired many people to try hombrewing and if they had any brains they would do some research and learn some better techniques.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

His recipe makes damn good beer. I've made it twice (altered slightly to avoid boiling the grain, etc...).

 

[BuffaloSabresBrewer]

What degree crystal?

 

[Yuri_Rage]

20L, IIRC.

 

[BuffaloSabresBrewer]

Well thats officially my next brew. Probably gonna have to sub out those goldings but oh well.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

I added about 4 oz wheat and 2 oz chocolate to it, and it really made a nice, malty amber-ish beer. I'm tempted to try it with no modification, just to see what happens.

 

[Brewsmith]

If you listen to what he says in the episode, his facts are mostly right. Most of the problems with the episode are from the video and his actions not really matching with what he says he's doing. The whole "mashing" part is a big case. I think it was mostly due to trying to add a ton of technical brewing information into 22 minutes and make it seem easy enough for anyone to try. Like Yuri has said, just a little nit of reading will get anyone on the right track.

 

[HOOTER]

It just occurred to me that I have two beers bottle conditioning right now, an Alt and a brown. Coincidence? I think not.

 

[Brandon O]

Most of the problems with the episode are from the video and his actions not really matching with what he says he's doing.

That and he doesn't have ****s. I wanna see Giada, she's totally hot.

 

[MN_Jay]

Really though, aside from boiling his steeping grains - there wasn't anything that was too far out there. Most everything else can be attributed to things you learn to perfect your brew. And I did say most everything, I'd never bottle a beer that was still bubbling.

 

[RayInUT]

I'm with Brandon. I want to see Giada homebrew and I don't care what she does as long as she has a low cut shirt on and leans over several times throughout the episode. She can spit in the wort for all I care or add her own special yeast. THat's what Food Network is all about, baby!!!

 

[pavyaz19]

what about putting the ice in the fermenter to cool the wort... is this okay to do? I'd never heard that before and I'm sick of waiting for my wort to cool. The immersion wort chiller I have is really getting annoying; doesn't work quickly enough for me.

 

[CouchFarmer]

It's probably ok, but I wouldn't trust commercial ice to be sterile enough to do it every batch. I'd be willing to try it if you boil the water you're going to freeze and use sanitized containers... I'm going to try this next batch. +1 on the waiting for cooling is a pain.

 

[EvilGnome6]

Blue bottles? Seriously?

Why not? They get stored in a dark box in a dark room to condition. From there they go to a dark fridge to chill. Then you drink it. It's not like homebrew sits out on a store shelf exposed to light for weeks or months.

 

[coryforsenate]

what about putting the ice in the fermenter to cool the wort... is this okay to do? I'd never heard that before and I'm sick of waiting for my wort to cool. The immersion wort chiller I have is really getting annoying; doesn't work quickly enough for me.

Hook 10ft of copper tubing up to your kettle/cooler spigot with some silicone tubing and put it in a bucket of ice water.


I'm not really into immersion chillers. Something about having my cooling wort exposed to the air just irks me, although I'm probably a worry-wort because I work with tuberculosis bacteria.

My setup is silicone tubing hooked up to my boil kettle, which goes to a counterflow chiller, more tubing, hooked up to copper tubing in ice water, and more tubing that runs into my carboy. It cools 5 gallons of boiling wort to 70 degrees in under 10 minutes. The counterflow chiller drops the temperature to slightly warm and the copper tubing in ice water does the rest that faucet temp water can't do.

One of these days I'll remember to take a picture so I can post it on here.

 

[Arkador]

what about putting the ice in the fermenter to cool the wort... is this okay to do? I'd never heard that before and I'm sick of waiting for my wort to cool. The immersion wort chiller I have is really getting annoying; doesn't work quickly enough for me.

I have done it several times, and made acceptable infection free beer every time.

I only used store bought ice once. I have a big stainless bowl i keep in my freezer, and make my own ice with water from a Brita filter. My ice would count for about 1galon of my final volume, and would be topped the rest of the way with water that was at a temprature needed to meet pitching temprature of 70deg.

 

[aeonderdonk]

Just watched it again today. Not the best process but still a good intro to the masses about homebrewing

 

[jkreuze]

I'm with Brandon. I want to see Giada homebrew and I don't care what she does as long as she has a low cut shirt on and leans over several times throughout the episode. She can spit in the wort for all I care or add her own special yeast. THat's what Food Network is all about, baby!!!

You wouldn't see her cleavage though because her oversized head would take up most of the camera angle.

She is very attractive, I agree, but her dome is like Sistene Chapel-sized. I'll take Nigella Lawson over Giada, need a little meat on them bones!

 

[Justibone]

I want to see Giada homebrew ... She can spit in the wort for all I care ...

Extra amylase!!!

 

[Justibone]

what about putting the ice in the fermenter to cool the wort... is this okay to do? I'd never heard that before and I'm sick of waiting for my wort to cool. The immersion wort chiller I have is really getting annoying; doesn't work quickly enough for me.

Pre-chiller.

Run your hose (or an extra copper coil, if you happen to have one) through an ice water bath, either in your second sink, a big pot, or even a rubbermaid-type cooler. If you put a bunch of salt in the ice water, it will work even better, but it might affect your coil if it's sitting in ice water for long or often.

If you want to use only tap water to drop your temp, you will get it down to 90F in an acceptable time frame, but from there it takes forever. A pre-chiller is your answer.

 

[Airborneguy]

THE episode is on right now (Cooking Channel).

My wife randomly put it on and I'm entranced now. Who did his research for him? This show is a disaster!

 

[user 4295]

THE episode is on right now (Cooking Channel).

My wife randomly put it on and I'm entranced now. Who did his research for him? This show is a disaster!

Just watched it again myself! This has been beaten to death. Alton is responsible for inspiring me to brew, and I'm not alone. That being said, he had many things in that episode that were really off the mark. After seeing it for the first time I went online to research homebrewing for myself. I found the MoreBeer forum and there were several discussions on his faulty terminology and methods.

Obviously he wasn't mashing or sparging anything. He was steeping and straining. He also boiled the grains! Yuck! Just to name a few. All the discussions I found helped me to make his recipe, minus the glaring mistakes, and my first brew came out awesome! I'll be forever grateful to Alton for getting me started on this journey!

I've always hoped that Alton would get feedback on all the mistakes he made and decide to do another episode showing the correct methods. Maybe someday!

 

[mikeysab]

We should all email Food Network and ask them to do another home brewing episode. Tell them to read up on HBT first this time.

 

[JollyIsTheRoger]

We should all email Food Network and ask them to do another home brewing episode. Tell them to read up on HBT first this time.

Except good eats isn't airing anymore.