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Mike Newman

Mike Newman

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Happy Saturday Everyone!!!

I have been looking for a homebrewing podcast that isn’t so regional. There are lots of podcasts out there but I have found that they talk about their local brewing scene as opposed to general homebrewing. Which leads me to my question...

What podcasts do you listen to???
 
I prefer video podcasts that I can watch on my phone while on the treadmill at the gym. They are far and few between but Basic Brewing Video and Beersmith are pretty good.
 
I can't stand a lot of the brewing podcasts especially on the Brewing Network. The hosts typically act like 13 year old boys making dick jokes and talking about the need for strippers, "boobs", etc. These podcasts highlight a lot of what's wrong in the brewing industry TBH.

Brulosophy is a good podcast from this respect but the content gets a little dull.
 
aprichman said:
I can't stand a lot of the brewing podcasts especially on the Brewing Network. The hosts typically act like 13 year old boys making dick jokes and talking about the need for strippers, "boobs", etc. These podcasts highlight a lot of what's wrong in the brewing industry TBH.

Brulosophy is a good podcast from this respect but the content gets a little dull.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I added a bunch of podcasts to my phone over the last few weeks, and I wound up unsubscribing to most of them. In a lot of cases, I would be 5 minutes into the podcast and they'd still be joking around about their weekend, their last vacation, etc, with no mention of homebrewing.
 
Vidcasts (I know, you said podcasts, but I like vidcasts more) are hit and miss for me. When I started homebrewing BrewingTV's first run with Mike, Jake, and Chip had wrapped up, but I think Chop&Brew hadn't really got going yet. Those were/are some good videos.

I've been watching the BeerSmith vidcasts for a while and most of those that I end up watching are good, but sometimes those topics seem odd to me. I think there is a whole episode about chilling wort. I know chilling wort quickly is important for getting proteins to settle out and allow the brewer to get the wort in the fermenter quickly so that it can be inoculated ASAP before any other microbe becomes dominant. There are several devices that are intended to help chill beer quickly that anyone who has thumbed through a homebrew shop catalog is familiar with. I can't imagine that a couple people talking about chilling wort for an hour would be entertaining.

Lately I've found the basicbrewing youtube channel has some interesting videos. Lots of odd ingredients being used. I've seen several videos where they're using too much sugar for my liking, and I don't think I've seen them drink a beer and go "Oh, we messed this up, this is awful". I know that this is mostly because if a beer is bad that it wont become a subject of a video, but when they experiment with ingredients as much as they do eventually I would think they'd have something go wrong. But I do like their videos because they try some wacky stuff that I just don't get around to. They even made a sour ale in the insta-pot recently.

I'm not a huge fan of CraigTube. He has made a few videos I've liked, but it feels like he decided a long time ago that his target audience was new brewers, and so he explains everything like he is talking to someone who doesn't know the first thing about homebrewing. Or at least, that is how it appeared to me when I was watching them several months ago. Maybe his recent stuff is getting better?
 
Kent88 said:
Vidcasts (I know, you said podcasts, but I like vidcasts more) are hit and miss for me. When I started homebrewing BrewingTV's first run with Mike, Jake, and Chip had wrapped up, but I think Chop&Brew hadn't really got going yet. Those were/are some good videos.

I've been watching the BeerSmith vidcasts for a while and most of those that I end up watching are good, but sometimes those topics seem odd to me. I think there is a whole episode about chilling wort. I know chilling wort quickly is important for getting proteins to settle out and allow the brewer to get the wort in the fermenter quickly so that it can be inoculated ASAP before any other microbe becomes dominant. There are several devices that are intended to help chill beer quickly that anyone who has thumbed through a homebrew shop catalog is familiar with. I can't imagine that a couple people talking about chilling wort for an hour would be entertaining.

Lately I've found the basicbrewing youtube channel has some interesting videos. Lots of odd ingredients being used. I've seen several videos where they're using too much sugar for my liking, and I don't think I've seen them drink a beer and go "Oh, we messed this up, this is awful". I know that this is mostly because if a beer is bad that it wont become a subject of a video, but when they experiment with ingredients as much as they do eventually I would think they'd have something go wrong. But I do like their videos because they try some wacky stuff that I just don't get around to. They even made a sour ale in the insta-pot recently.

I'm not a huge fan of CraigTube. He has made a few videos I've liked, but it feels like he decided a long time ago that his target audience was new brewers, and so he explains everything like he is talking to someone who doesn't know the first thing about homebrewing. Or at least, that is how it appeared to me when I was watching them several months ago. Maybe his recent stuff is getting better?
Click to expand...

I used to watch Craig a lot. Then all of his videos turned in to "see this can of Cooper's? It can make good beer too and I'm tired of people saying it can't". Which is fine, but it's definitely made me lose interest. There's nothing exciting about it anymore. His target audience is new brewers like you said and people exclusively trying to make their own alcohol to save money.

Also on your basic brewing comment, I agree. It also seems like all of their beers finish extremely sweet. I don't remember what beer it was, but it had a fg in the 1.020's and was only 2.7% abv. I remember seeing this a couple times in their videos. But I enjoy watching the videos a lot.
 
aprichman said:
I can't stand a lot of the brewing podcasts especially on the Brewing Network. The hosts typically act like 13 year old boys making dick jokes and talking about the need for strippers, "boobs", etc.
Click to expand...

I typically skip the first 5-10 minutes of TBN episodes. Some of them are just too handy for me to ignore. Like the episodes in my signature, those are darn helpful. Worth overlooking the opening, off-topic chit-chat.

I kind of want to ask what you have against boobs, but I feel like that is just asking to derail the conversation and bring in a mod to close it down.

Hi mods! Hope you're having a nice day :)
 
Kent88 said:
Vidcasts (I know, you said podcasts, but I like vidcasts more) are hit and miss for me. When I started homebrewing BrewingTV's first run with Mike, Jake, and Chip had wrapped up, but I think Chop&Brew hadn't really got going yet. Those were/are some good videos.

I've been watching the BeerSmith vidcasts for a while and most of those that I end up watching are good, but sometimes those topics seem odd to me. I think there is a whole episode about chilling wort. I know chilling wort quickly is important for getting proteins to settle out and allow the brewer to get the wort in the fermenter quickly so that it can be inoculated ASAP before any other microbe becomes dominant. There are several devices that are intended to help chill beer quickly that anyone who has thumbed through a homebrew shop catalog is familiar with. I can't imagine that a couple people talking about chilling wort for an hour would be entertaining.

Lately I've found the basicbrewing youtube channel has some interesting videos. Lots of odd ingredients being used. I've seen several videos where they're using too much sugar for my liking, and I don't think I've seen them drink a beer and go "Oh, we messed this up, this is awful". I know that this is mostly because if a beer is bad that it wont become a subject of a video, but when they experiment with ingredients as much as they do eventually I would think they'd have something go wrong. But I do like their videos because they try some wacky stuff that I just don't get around to. They even made a sour ale in the insta-pot recently.

I'm not a huge fan of CraigTube. He has made a few videos I've liked, but it feels like he decided a long time ago that his target audience was new brewers, and so he explains everything like he is talking to someone who doesn't know the first thing about homebrewing. Or at least, that is how it appeared to me when I was watching them several months ago. Maybe his recent stuff is getting better?
Click to expand...

I dove down a deep rabbit hole on YouTube and kept coming back to basic brewing. Craigtube was kinda lame
 
Mike Newman said:
Craigtube was kinda lame
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say he is lame, I just don't think I am in his target audience. I'd have a beer with the guy. If nothing else it sounds like I'd get a chance to see if hopped malt extract kits have progressed any over the past few years. If I had anything on hand that I was particularly proud of, I'd bring some with, just in case hopped malt extracts haven't improved.
 
My commute is more than an hour, and over the years I've gone through most of the Brewing Network, Beersmith, Basic Brewing and Experimental Brewing Podcasts. That's a lot of material, and some of it it better than others, but I feel I've learned a lot by doing this. So what podcasts are for you depends on what you are looking for. Jamil's podcasts on the Brewing network contain lots of nuggets of useful information.
With Basic Brewing you can pick and choose more closely what you are interested in.
Your best bet is to go to the archives of the various podcasts and pick out topics that seem valuable and go from there.
 
The only one I listen to is Basic Brewing radio. James and Steve work well together (as long as you don't mind "dad" jokes) and their interviews are usually pretty informative. I've tried other podcasts but Basic Brewing was the only one from which I didn't unsubscribe.
 
I've listened to all of them periodically... these are my opinions only.

Dr. Homebrew - fun to hear judges review homebrew. Would love to send them a bottle. Entertaining and good info.
Homebrew Bound - I wouldn't call these guys pro's, but they are fun to listen to and it's enjoyable to hear them work through the entire catalog of beer styles. They sample a commercial variety, make up a recipe, brew it, and then samples their's for style. If it misses, they make it again.
Brulosophy - Too damn many commercials. Overrated. And I don't enjoy the guy they have doing 'chemistry'. I truly hate his neighbor buds who he has do reviews occasionally. Not funny. Course, I never really like Beavis and Butthead either. If it was trimmed down to just the experiments (and edited) I would listen to it a lot more.
Experimental Homebrewing - Good solid show. Lot's of commercials but they are consistent so you can skip them without too much trouble.
Basic Brewing - Great show. Short, concise, informative, and none of the high school humor some of these shows have.
Beersmith Radio - as above. Good, short, concise, informative and professionally done. Sometimes their experts seems lacking - eg water chemistry.
Homebrew Happy Hour - targeted toward beginners. I enjoyed it more in the past.
Come and Brew It - It can be a chore to listen to at times. Too many people. Too many bad jokes.
 
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aprichman said:
I can't stand a lot of the brewing podcasts especially on the Brewing Network. The hosts typically act like 13 year old boys making dick jokes and talking about the need for strippers, "boobs", etc. These podcasts highlight a lot of what's wrong in the brewing industry TBH.
Click to expand...

glad i'm not the only one that feels that way. total bro down and not my thing.

love denny and drew's experimental brew podcast. also like brulosophy.
 
Javaslinger said:
I've listened to all of them periodically... these are my opinions only.

Dr. Homebrew - fun to hear judges review homebrew. Would love to send them a bottle. Entertaining and good info.
Homebrew Bound - I wouldn't call these guys pro's, but they are fun to listen to and it's enjoyable to hear them work through the entire catalog of beer styles. They sample a commercial variety, make up a recipe, brew it, and then samples their's for style. If it misses, they make it again.
Brulosophy - Too damn many commercials. Overrated. And I don't enjoy the guy they have doing 'chemistry'. I truly hate his neighbor buds who he has do reviews occasionally. Not funny. Course, I never really like Beavis and Butthead either. If it was trimmed down to just the experiments (and edited) I would listen to it a lot more.
Experimental Homebrewing - Good solid show. Lot's of commercials but they are consistent so you can skip them without too much trouble.
Basic Brewing - Great show. Short, concise, informative, and none of the high school humor some of these shows have.
Beersmith Radio - as above. Good, short, concise, informative and professionally done. Sometimes their experts seems lacking - eg water chemistry.
Homebrew Happy Hour - targeted toward beginners. I enjoyed it more in the past.
Come and Brew It - It can be a chore to listen to at times. Too many people. Too many bad jokes.
Click to expand...

Good summary. Thanks.
 
I can't stand a lot of the brewing podcasts especially on the Brewing Network. The hosts typically act like 13 year old boys making dick jokes and talking about the need for strippers, "boobs", etc. These podcasts highlight a lot of what's wrong in the brewing industry TBH.
Click to expand...

Agreed, but if you go back into the archives, the shows used to be much more beer-focused and a lot less banter and 13-year old BS. For the new episodes, I always skip at least the first 10-15 minutes before they get to the content, but they still provide a lot of good info. I learned an awful lot about brewing from these shows.
 
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Started listening to Brew Strong with Jamil and John Palmer. Pretty good content, but good lord it's at least 50% commercials... Not too hard to skip it all though.
 
Javaslinger said:
Started listening to Brew Strong with Jamil and John Palmer. Pretty good content, but good lord it's at least 50% commercials... Not too hard to skip it all though.
Click to expand...

Haven't listened to a recent Brew Strong. From what I remember, they're about 60 to 75 minutes, and they typically take 2 or 3 commercial breaks, can't remember if they're typically 5 or 10 minute breaks.

So I guess you are probably not far off with it being half commercials.
 
For whatever reason I can't get into podcasts and I usually find stuff on YouTube that i can just listen to and not have to worry about watching.

I thought that the comment anout the breing network was spot on, I listened to 1 episode and deleted the channel, there is way too much info out there to waste my time listening to them banter back and forth about nothing.

Brew-dudes on youtube is one of my favorites, really good info and solid knowledge. There smash beer series was really good.
 
Javaslinger said:
Brulosophy - Too damn many commercials. Overrated. And I don't enjoy the guy they have doing 'chemistry'. I truly hate his neighbor buds who he has do reviews occasionally. Not funny. Course, I never really like Beavis and Butthead either. If it was trimmed down to just the experiments (and edited) I would listen to it a lot more.
Click to expand...

Man this hits the nail on the head. I’m on a road trip and decided to download a few episodes ... I couldn’t make it through a single episode.

First of all the topic was “Decanting Yeast” - it took 15 damn minutes of commercials and other stuff before we actually got to the topic. And once we did get to the topic it was full of anecdotal info. No data. No testing.

Someone would have to convince my why I should go back.
 
I listen to only a few brewing podcast but also listen to many other podcast. Unfortunately I do spend more time in my car than I like so podcast help pass the time and I also listen when I'm brewing. Brewing podcast are mainly BN shows and have been catching up on Bruelosophy since the beginning.

I had to actually look back at the BN Session show to see how long I've been listening: Episode 15 Sep. 18, 2005 was my first live show, caught up with past episodes right after that and have heard every show since, though only by podcast after they switched live shows from Sunday to Monday.

In the last almost 15 years the BN has evolved. The Session no longer focuses on homebrewing going towards the craft beer industry as a whole. The content is not directed towards the new/inexperienced home brewer though you can pick up many nuggets as an experienced home brewer. Those who have been listening get the many "in jokes". I feel the show is good for understanding the craft beer industry and a little home brewer info. You can always fast forward through the opening and ending segments to get the info as a home brewer. The show isn't for everyone and that's okay.

Over time they have added other shows: brew strong, the jamil show (style focused), can you brew it, brewing with style, dr homebrew among others that do focus on the home brewer, and recently the hop and brew school has been really good. So plenty of home brewer content.

As far as the Bruelosophy podcast, I'm still back in the 30's for episodes and get some good info, at least for thought. As with any podcast you can FF through parts you don't care for. So far I like hearing the background info for the experiments and I have been influenced to try or change some of my brewing processes, at least to test out some different things, so it has value to me.

I do have many Beersmith podcast to catch up on. I have started many others and have some that just didn't appeal to me and some I will binge catch up with at some point. This thread has given me some more to check out though, thanks everyone. My biggest issue I really got into serial podcast a few years ago and spend much of my podcast time with them.
 

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