Was Alton Brown Right? Good Eats

[SpanishCastleAle]

I did not know that MrShake, thanks for correcting. Having seen him handle a knife and a saute pan I NEVER would have thought he was a 'chef' of any sort. But then again, Chef Emiril Lagasse handled knives/pans in a laughably 'inexperienced' way when I used to watch his show.

But I know why that can be. Many chefs sit it an office and write stuff out for the actual cooks to prepare and do very little actual cooking. I was one of those cooks for many years and when I see some of these guys on the Food Channel I always think that most Waffle House cooks could cook circles around these guys.

Imagine a guy who went to Brewing School in Germany...yet had only brewed a handful of times. Similar to that...lotsa knowledge but very little firsthand experience and next to zero technique. At least that's how it appears to me.

 

[SmugMug]

Think Chef Martin Yan can show us how to make sake?? I loved his show. Whatever happened to him?

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

The Good Eats Beer Show

Hello! I am doing research to make my first attempt at brewing beer. I came across this episode of Good Eats (link above) and was hoping to get some feedback from other brewers. His equipment looks brand new, so I doubt he's a well seasoned brewer.

Anything he might have done wrong? Any idea how he could have improved? Most importantly, how would his beer taste?

The video is about 20 min long, if anyone could watch it and comment I'd appreciate it.

He did exactly 1 thing right and 1 thing wrong.

The 1 thing right he did is attempt address the simplicity of making beer at home.

The 1 thing wrong he did is air this episode.

 

[Edcculus]

And Mr. Beer doesn't overly simplify home beer making... I'd say Alton Brown's methods are leaps and bounds better than Mr. Beer.

As experienced homebrewers, we know that kit & kilo, Mr. Beer, Craigtube or Alton's Amber Waves episode are not the best way to make beer. To many, this is the first exposure to brewing. While his methods are a little flawed, he has never professed to be an avid homebrewer. Aside from his mistakes on dry hopping, most of the techniques are probably from dated books and recipes. Papazian's book contains all kinds of stuff I'd never do to my beer.

 

[danorocks17]

i love good eats, how did i ever miss this episode??

 

[MrShake]

I would tell a person to add specialty grains to a nylon mess bag, steep the grains in 155 degree water for 30 minutes, remove and let drain. Bring water to a boil. Add malt extract. Add hops and time for 60 minutes. After 60 minutes, take pot and cool in an ice bath. Add to fermentor and top off to 5 gallons. Stir for 5 minutes to mix and add oxygen. Add yeast. Put on airlock. It doesn't have to be complicated.

Why in the hell would you tell a first time brewer to boil his grain and use store bought ice

Do you boil your grains?

Nope, I don't boil my grains, why? Because I NOW know better. Have I... yep, and made a GREAT beer doing it.

You keep missing the point. A new brewer is going to successfully brew a good beer using EXACTLY the technique Alton Brown does. Then, if they are interested, they will get better, learn, improve and begin to brew beers they love, that interest them, and use the techniques they want to use.

 

[danorocks17]

just got done watching that.....use it for one thing, enthusiasm. there were so many things wrong with that i can't even go into them

 

[mad_scientist]

I can't get over how everyone says "he did it wrong". Did he get beer? Then he did it right. Every single brewer does the same thing (make beer) using different techniques, are we all wrong?

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

I can't get over how everyone says "he did it wrong". Did he get beer? Then he did it right. Every single brewer does the same thing (make beer) using different techniques, are we all wrong?

Unless you do it my way, your way is wrong.

 

[pen25]

I would tell a person to add specialty grains to a nylon mess bag, steep the grains in 155 degree water for 30 minutes, remove and let drain. Bring water to a boil. Add malt extract. Add hops and time for 60 minutes. After 60 minutes, take pot and cool in an ice bath. Add to fermentor and top off to 5 gallons. Stir for 5 minutes to mix and add oxygen. Add yeast. Put on airlock. It doesn't have to be complicated.

Why in the hell would you tell a first time brewer to boil his grain and use store bought ice

Do you boil your grains?

but you forgot to tell them to remove from flame and stir until fully integrated to prevent scorching of the extract. i do believe us uses a strainer and colendar which would have brought in o2 to the wort

 

[purechaos]

.

If I was asked on the street how to start homebrewing, I'm not going to tell them to:

Go out and buy 2 <edit> Kegs <edit>and a 10 gallon Rubbermaid cooler, drill 2 holds in each keg, install valves in both kegs and cooler, and thermometers/sight glasses in both kegs. Then go out and buy 2 turkey fryer kits and 2 tanks of propane. Throw away the pots. The purchase 50 feet of copper refrigerator tubing and the proper fittings and bend around a corny keg (buy some of those as well) Then bring water to 166 degrees in 1 keggle, add that water to your pre-heated cooler MLT, check temp, adjust if necessary. Wait 1 hour, drain into 2nd keggle. Put the rest of the sparge water into the MLT and drain it. Then bring to boil, add hops in 15 minute intervals for a total of 60 minutes. Cool using your chiller to less than 80 degrees, drain to fermenter, add yeast. Then cover fermenter and wait for at least 2 weeks. If the gravity reading is stable for 3 days (do I need to explain gravity? oh, buy a hydrometer) then rack to a keg. Place keg in kegerator or keezer (did you buy or build one of those yet?) and force carb until ready. Then serve beer, allow to come to temp based on style before consuming

thats how i did it :rockin:

 

[iammatt]

I just don't understand all the hate towards the episode. It's a mildly educational TV show on FOOD network. The jest of brewing is simplified, shown, and executed. Sure it's not done by the "correct serious business brewing procedure" but for an entertaining Cooking show on Food Network you're not going to get better, or the average "Joe/Jill Sixpack" wouldn't watch.

So with that being said, we all have one mission: to make beer, brew on!

 

[Ceedubya]

I would have drank that beer...... and enjoyed it

 

[ColbyPants]

I would have drank that beer...... and enjoyed it

Exactly. And this is exactly the thing that got me into home brewing in the first place. Watched this episode, got the bug, did some online searching and away I went.

 

[gointomexico]

I think you could make great beer like this. I liked this show because he showed that beer isn't hard to make. I don't think he did anything wrong, but I wouldn't boiled my grain. I'm assuming so long as his PH of the wort was over 5, he wouldn't extract tannins, or something like that. Shoot, grain bags are cheap, and he already had a strainer, just fish them out.

Oxygenation of wort isn't strictly necessary when your OG is under 1.060. WPL says you don't need to use a starter with 5 gal of beer, because the WPL vial (which I'm guessing is what he used) has over 1 billion active cells. Also, under pitching provides more ester production, which is usually desired in an ale beer.

 

[Ceedubya]

I re-watched the entire episode since it was posted here, and was planning on putting together a whole pro vs cons list, but thought that would be a bit much sooooo...

Cons: made several mistakes, but nothing worse than I have seen or heard from some others.

Pros: Got many people excited about homebrewing (I think I counted 3 on this thread alone).

all in all, I'd say thats a win.

Could you teach someone to brew your way in 20 minutes? I didn't think so

 

[CiscoKid]

I think what concerns people is that by showing Joe Sixpack some simple yet flawed method to make off-flavored beer, it has the potential to turn people off to the hobby and to reinforce the prevailing stereotype that homebrew tastes like crap. (By the way, fusel hooch also apparently makes you exhale with a loud "AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" after taking a long pull, as evidenced by the Craigtube videos.)

Instead for the rest of his life, he has to listen to Mrs. Sixpack laugh at him in front of their friends (this part is best imagined with a New Jersey accent), "Oh! And let me tell you about the time Joe here tried to make 'beer.' Isn't that what you called it honey? Beer, Ha! He saw this video on the food network and suddenly he's Emeril Lagasse..."

But you're right, there's only so much they could do in a 20 minute episode. If it got more people interested in the hobby, maybe it's not as bad as everyone thinks.

 

[SmugMug]

I bet his was still better than anything I ever made with a Mr. Beer kit. Best result I ever got from one of those was a carbonated bottle of high fusel water. Made for interesting belches, but that was about it. AB's beer looked good to me.

 

[MrShake]

I think what concerns people is that by showing Joe Sixpack some simple yet flawed method to make off-flavored beer, it has the potential to turn people off to the hobby and to reinforce the prevailing stereotype that homebrew tastes like crap. (By the way, fusel hooch also apparently makes you exhale with a loud "AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" after taking a long pull, as evidenced by the Craigtube videos.)

Instead for the rest of his life, he has to listen to Mrs. Sixpack laugh at him in front of their friends (this part is best imagined with a New Jersey accent), "Oh! And let me tell you about the time Joe here tried to make 'beer.' Isn't that what you called it honey? Beer, Ha! He saw this video on the food network and suddenly he's Emeril Lagasse..."

But you're right, there's only so much they could do in a 20 minute episode. If it got more people interested in the hobby, maybe it's not as bad as everyone thinks.

Your entire argument is flawed!! Alton's recpie will not produce "Off Flavored" beer... in fact, it produces a very drinkable, easy to make beer. So, why would Mr Sixpack not like it?

 

[CiscoKid]

Your entire argument is flawed!!

Yes, my argument is horribly flawed. How do I possibly live with my bad self?

Silly me for thinking it is foolish to advocate people boil their grains for all that yummy, yummy tannin extraction.

 

[davesrose]

Here we go with the flames again Meh....obviously you're not going to get award winning beer if you follow this episode's tips for some generic ale. But, hey, I've seen a lot worst from intro kits. In fact, my first beer kit was some non-descript "dark ale" kit that looking back, was probably even worst then what this would produce.

Sure, I do all grain and have a much better system then what this episode suggested.....but the truth is you're not going to get terrible beer (it's still going to be better then some comercial beers). About the only thing that made me wince was when AB left his specialty grains in when doing the hop boil. For those few people that watch his show, and then want to actually try brewing, they'll then learn about the better methods of brewing through experience.

 

[conpewter]

Didn't he do a shorter boil as well? At least that might limit the amount of tannins extracted. Also with all the sugar etc, it may have had a low enough PH that also limited the tannin extraction (see decoction mashing...) Still not something I'd advocate, and I winced when he did it, but.... maybe not as bad as we think.

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

I finally watched it. True there are lots of errors but I agree he made beer that was prob fine. Other than boiling the grains and the ice, the thing that made me 'wince' (exaggeration) was that he immediately put the water-filled airlock on a fermenting bucket full of 87* F wort. Recipe for suck-back in many cases.

It also looked like his method of adding the LME could potentially cause some scorching. IIRC he just poured it in without stirring while on high heat.

lol bacteria puppets.

 

[giligson]

Most of the "hate" about this episode is that he didn't consult one of us.

Seriously though there are a couple of simple snippets of information that could have been easily changed to more likely produce better results.

 

[craigd]

Out of curiosity, anybody here make it exactly as he suggests and do a tasting? Lots of discussion of what it "will" produce but how bad is it? Real question - not a flame...

 

[Shooter]

Out of curiosity, anybody here make it exactly as he suggests and do a tasting? Lots of discussion of what it "will" produce but how bad is it? Real question - not a flame...

There was a post on another forum I saw a while back where someone tried to replicate his recipe. In the end, the guy ended up changing it quite a bit and justifying how it was still an accurate representation of AB's beer. I don't think a true test has been done. Hmmmmm, I'm still pretty much a noob, but maybe I'll consider it. Not like he's doing anything requiring any specialized equipment...

 

[davesrose]

It might be interesting to follow these directions to see how drinkable the beer is. I don't think the methodology is that bad....if I were to complain, I think it's more the science that he tries to cover. After watching the episode again, I'd say the main things he confuses is with mashing. Specialty grains he says he tries to keep at 155 for 30 mins to mash....even though when you really mash, you then sparge the wort out to boil. Then once he pours his malt extract, he cautions about boil over "because there's a lot of starches".....most of what he's using are already mashed extracts....so this whole thing about enzymes is not really pertaining to his extract recipe.

 

[Edcculus]

I was contemplating following his instructions exactly, just to see what would happen. The only thing I'd change is that I'd use Starsan, and not shove everything into my fermentation bucket. Thats just a recipe for scratches in my bucket.

 

[MrShake]

Yes, my argument is horribly flawed. How do I possibly live with my bad self?

Silly me for thinking it is foolish to advocate people boil their grains for all that yummy, yummy tannin extraction.

Which may or may not happen at all, or even at detectable levels... leave it alone man and stop the hating.

 

[chefmike]

Wow... the idea has been presented that maybe somebody could try and follow the instructions and see what happens instead of running around thumping the keyboard screaming about how wrong it all is?!

I predict that someone will try it and it will work just fine, making decent beer. Then the thread will continue with people saying it will never work and cannot possible make beer.

At least, that is how it has gone in a few other threads.

And much as this is a good starting point for exploring brewing, I find AB's show to be a great resource of cooking techniques and tips that will fuel an appetite for more advanced applications.

He teaches solid technique with achievable results that are accessible to a beginner. Will an experienced chef, cook or brewer disagree with aspects of the show? Of course! More than anything, I think the show is hysterical. I appreciate his humor immensely.