I haven't brewed privately, but worked in a small local brewery for a while. Lots of lifting and carrying heavy bags and sooo much cleaning, but fun and interesting to try.
Yeast is making two kinds of beer right now. They're fermenting in the living room. I just added extra hops during the ferment of an IPA before watching this video. It was cool to see beer made with proper equipment. 😅
I've got to say that even more than the rest of the series, this one really shows off how good you are at summarising knowledge. The number of times I was "I think I understand what he's saying...." only for you to clarify it perfectly was really noticeable. Great work conveying what's going on to the layman as it were. 😀
As a food scientist, i really appreciate episodes like this where you can see the importance of hygiene and knowing your process and product. I love how you caught on on how well controlled everything is, and that there's a lot of science behind making a consistently good beer. If you do get a chance to see a bottling plant at work, make sure to check it out because it looks really impressive. Yes, this is where the product gets made, but you can't see much happening, during filling and labelling you see a lot of incredibly finely choreographed movement.
I gotta say some things about Ben. Firstly he;s a pretty good teacher, dude was patient as hell and was able to explain it all very clearly and concisely while allowing you to actively do things as you learn, and he sounds like Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe).
Matt, you've never driven a forklift until you've driven one with 72 inch forks trying to lift standard pallets... and put the blades through the wall on the other side. At an old job, my boss got tired of us forking the walls between us and the neighbors and chewed us out one day. Not five minutes later, he hops on the forklift to pick up a skid in order to place it on a delivery truck... and forked the walls. We all got one free stab at the walls after that.
I had lots of neat little aha! moments in here. “But if they use the same water for sterilizing and brewing won’t that mean the chemicals end up in the beer” … “Ohhhh it’s sterilized via temperature not chemicals!”
We damn well better get at least a short on you tasting the pint of beer you helped make! :) I absolutely love the show, like others said, there's something inherently magical about seeing a grown man channel his inner child, AND inner nerd. Especially when you clearly share that energy with the craftsmen you visit, though that just might be the simple fact of working with people who Love what they do. :)
Those hoses looking new is no accident, they have to be replaced regularly, as they also get sterilised in boiling water, so they do degrade. That is why every part is stainless steel, and you strip it all apart so that all the dead spaces get cleaned as well, so as to not trap anything that might contaminate the beer.
We need a follow up episode where you taste the beer and Ben tells us more about low alcohol beer and how that is different (significantly so I would imagine) from stronger beer that has been converted to lower (or no) alcohol. I have a weird taste in beers, I like the really strong Belgian type AND then some low to ultra-low alcohol. Alcohol free is seldom that good, but 0.5 to 2-3 % can be lovely. I fear the hype about alcohol free is killing many nice brews :-(.
Is alcohol free this much of an hype in some places? There is like two big bear maker who makes them and all the other just store brand ones. I have yet to see any small brewer make/sell anything alcohol free.
Ben is great. Extremely knowledgeable and passionate about his craft. Love to see young people keeping old crafts alive. But I’m a bit disappointed you didn’t try the beer you made. I know that would have meant to wait a few weeks but it would have been a great ending to the video.
I really can't imagine a video more comprehensively answering every question I had about beer. This entire series has been great, but Matt as interviewer was especially spot on - and credit to Ben for explaining things well. Nailed it.
As a German, I can say: there's a lot of choices for beer, and Kölsch has to be my least favorite. But opinions are different, Flens was even worse. :D
> It's like when you're at the zoo... And you see the animals taking care of their motions. > It is animal feed. > I was meaning it looks like poo. @ 16:40 Oh god I haven't laughed this much in quite some time!
Great video Matt! I look forward to catching up on the series. Ps it was great seeing you today at makers Central, thank you so much for giving us the time and being so kind. Cheers J
I used to sub contract (IT) to a very large Brewery company in Burton. It was really interesting to see all of the equipment being used by Small Beer is literally smaller versions of the equipment said larger brewer uses in their breweries (with the exception of the kettles, which were beautiful copper kettles). I am thoroughly looking forward to the future video titled "Matt Gray is Trying a Pint of His Small Beer."
So glad you've made another one of these! Its one of my favorite series right now! Really hoping it goes big so you can keep making them! You deserve to.
Great stuff, this is the best explanation of beer making that I have seen. What makes you so good at this kind of thing Matt, is that you are genuinely interested, you're not afraid to ask the 'stupid' questions, and you will keep asking things until you understand fully.
ohh, I'd also thought malts were totally different from "other grains", but they're just processed! The part about the hops was also really interesting, they're almost like tea leaves... I thought I don't like beers that are "hoppy" because they're bitter, but maybe now I can look for ones that have more of the hops added to the cooled concoction and see if they suit me better. Floral and citrusy are adjectives right up my alley 😄
Find out the IBU, International Bitterness Units, of the beers. High IBU will have more boiled hops, a low IBU "dry hopped" beer will have less bitterness but more of the hop flavors.
Being a brewer looks like a fun job. Apart from all the physical labour and valve turning involved in the big industrial process, there are a lot of things in there that I as a chemistry student am very familiar with.
One of the best videos I've seen for a very long time (possibly helped by drinking a beer whilst watching how they make beer!) so thank you Matt! Matt's super inquisitive nature and Ben's outstanding ability to explain something complicated in simple terms (seriously, I cannot understate how good Ben was in this video!) made this a real treat to watch, thanks again.
11:00 It's very fun to watch a professional switch from "showing you my job" to "hold on doing my job now" mode. One of Destin's Coast Guard videos also comes to mind, obviously a lot more abrupt. 12:30 Insert "you're not very good at negotiating are you" clip from National Treasure 😂
I love this guys explanation of what beer is and how it’s made. He made it super accurate and simple. A kolsch is basically a German style that’s like a lager as an ale. 😮
Just a little appreciation note for the editing/music/animation in this video! All makes for a very nice watch, never mind the subject content and very charismatic people on-screen! :3
I knew how to, (theoretically), make beer, but i heaven't seen it in action yet! This video learned me a lot about the process. Thank you Matt, (and your team), for producing, and Ben and 'Small beer' for sharing your knowledge!
I'm always wary about assuming someone's online persona lines up with how they really are off-camera, but either Matt is a surprisingly convincing actor or they're just genuinely one of the most delightful people I've seen ...now if only I could maintain anything close to that level of bubbly enthusiasm 😅
Love your videos, Matt. Perhaps as many, I've discovered you through Tom Scott (first, by seeing his videos a couple of years back, then viewing some (actually, quite a lot of the) Park Bench episodes, listening in to Tech Difficulties... Best of luck with what you do and wish to see more. All the best & greetings from LT. P.S. NordVPN/NordSecurity / Surfshark & others should definitely sponsor your content more frequently. You deserve viewership of millions! :)
oooh, I think this might be the first video you've done that is a topic I actually know about! Brewing beer is fun. Designing beers is also fun. Many years ago I designed a Hefeweizen called Badger. We used locally sourced honey in the boil and ferment to give it a little extra. Was super proud of that brew. Got a lot of comments from neighbors and friends who tried it. Biggest batch I ever made was 5 gallons. For a time my room mate and I were looking into opening a microbrewery, but unfortunately that didn't ever go anywhere :(
21:39 Holy crap I have never seen a White Labs yeast pouch so big! They make some fantastic yeast strains. Their tasting rooms in Asheville and San Diego are great, they will do the same beer with 3 different yeasts to show off the flavor differences. Also they have some of the best pizza I have ever had. :)
Ha! They really make small beer! I actually did start drinking mostly low alcohol beer, as a colleague and I found ourselves being close to being drunks (alcoholics have more money and maybe style). So we investigated alternatives. We still enjoy a drink or five on occasion.
This was lovely to see, thanks :) Hope to see a follow-up sample session! FYI: the subtitles talk of 'molting' rather than 'malting', which (I thought) are two different things. ;)
The quality of everything I've just seen is outstanding! And your excitement is contagious, with every minute watched I got more excited for the next steps!
Here for the beer content! And the Matt Grey enthusiasm for the subject. Nicely explained process. Hope there is a follow up video tasting the beer made. Cheers and enjoy the beer #Disco
Some fun facts about brewing raw materials- Barley is really well suited for malting due to the structure and enzyme content allowing for starches to be quickly broken down to fermentable sugars, the husk material is also really useful for filtration. This is one of the reasons why malted barley tends to make up the lion's share of grist composition. Cereal grains like malt barley also provide other nutrients for yeast like amino acids and phosphates, and flavour compounds such as maillard reaction products from malting and boiling. Some other cereal grains used in brewing include wheat, rye, maize, rice and sorghum. Ale yeast "Saccharomyces cerevisiae" is the same yeast used in baking and winemaking (as well as sake, cider, mead etc.), although a different assortment of strains with behaviours and characteristics more favourable to their applications are used for other activities. In some vessel shapes, ale yeast will rise to the top in fermentation, as opposed to sink to the bottom which lager yeast would do- nowadays cylindroconical vessels are widely used in which both yeasts drop to the bottom. Lager yeast "Saccharomyces pastorianus" is a different species from ale yeast, as it is a hybrid of ale yeast and another species. One of the different characteristics of lager yeast is it prefers lower temperatures. Water profile in brewing is important, amongst other things the content can impact pH, enzyme and yeast performance, different ratios of ions/minerals- sulphate to chloride for example can heavily impact beer flavour. Several historic places for brewing have distinct water profiles, which were preferable for certain beer styles. Today we can replicate those water profiles anywhere. Hop cones are actually fruits, and the hop plant is in the same phylogenetic family as Cannabis. Female plants are the only ones to bear fruit, and hop bines for harvest are widely grown from root cuttings. Hops provide an antibacterial effect in addition to their flavour/aroma and bittering properties. Before hops were used widely, a mixture of herbs and spices called gruit was used which included things like mugwort and sweet gale.
Wow, I think this is the best one yet, Matt. Loved all the details shared by Ben; not only does he have all this knowledge he was able to communicated it really well. I knew everyone used to drink beer because it was safer but hadn't heard the term "Small beer" before.
I started out college as a chemical engineering major. I finished college in a different engineering field but I think probably half of my friends who stayed in the program applied their ChemE problem-solving skills to home-brew their own alcohol lol. This was a great insight into how it’s done for real!
I thought I already knew quite a bit about making beer, but this proved me wrong! Have you ever tried brewing your own?
Hi Matt. Amazing and interesting video as always!
I was wondering why the numbers at 6:20 were blurred out?
Cheers from Denmark!
Trade secrets!
I haven't brewed privately, but worked in a small local brewery for a while.
Lots of lifting and carrying heavy bags and sooo much cleaning, but fun and interesting to try.
Closest I've come is playing brewcrafters
Yeast is making two kinds of beer right now. They're fermenting in the living room.
I just added extra hops during the ferment of an IPA before watching this video.
It was cool to see beer made with proper equipment. 😅
That brewery is so thorough that the only infectious agent they didn't control for was Matt's enthusiasm
21:45 The real question is, _Does It Soft Serve?_
My kids and I loved that series!
Might not if the alcohol stops it freezing? EDIT: The wort might though!
I love the total little kid energy you bring to everything you try in this series - your excitement is infectious
I see what you did there, matt. Outstanding in their field
What field was Matt out standing it? I thought he was inside at a Brewery.
I groaned out loud when he said that...
Matt looked incredibly pleased with himself for that.
Came into the comments to say this. Glad someone beat me to it!
12:11 I love how Matt thanked everyone he's worked with who are outstanding in their field, whilst he was out, standing in a field 😁
I came here looking for someone else who noticed. No way that was accidental
Matt is a master at threading the needle of being goofy, asking the right questions, and being really appreciative of people doing their thing.
I've got to say that even more than the rest of the series, this one really shows off how good you are at summarising knowledge. The number of times I was "I think I understand what he's saying...." only for you to clarify it perfectly was really noticeable. Great work conveying what's going on to the layman as it were. 😀
As a food scientist, i really appreciate episodes like this where you can see the importance of hygiene and knowing your process and product. I love how you caught on on how well controlled everything is, and that there's a lot of science behind making a consistently good beer. If you do get a chance to see a bottling plant at work, make sure to check it out because it looks really impressive. Yes, this is where the product gets made, but you can't see much happening, during filling and labelling you see a lot of incredibly finely choreographed movement.
"The cleaning is never done!"
80% of brewing beer is washing the dishes.
I gotta say some things about Ben. Firstly he;s a pretty good teacher, dude was patient as hell and was able to explain it all very clearly and concisely while allowing you to actively do things as you learn, and he sounds like Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe).
To hear Ben, he starts talking at 0:56 btw!
Matt, you've never driven a forklift until you've driven one with 72 inch forks trying to lift standard pallets... and put the blades through the wall on the other side. At an old job, my boss got tired of us forking the walls between us and the neighbors and chewed us out one day. Not five minutes later, he hops on the forklift to pick up a skid in order to place it on a delivery truck... and forked the walls. We all got one free stab at the walls after that.
He's never driven a forklift to begin with 😅
Or when you have to flip pallets of raw cardboard by throwing them
It's clear that there was a lot of forklift explanation that got cut for time; I've given enough forklift training to know. Matt did pretty well, too.
I had lots of neat little aha! moments in here. “But if they use the same water for sterilizing and brewing won’t that mean the chemicals end up in the beer” … “Ohhhh it’s sterilized via temperature not chemicals!”
I guess they do this because it is more sustainable and you can assure that no residues of chemicals can end up in the beer.
i had this with the spray bottle like "but wont that get into the beer" "oh wait its just alcohol and water"
We damn well better get at least a short on you tasting the pint of beer you helped make! :)
I absolutely love the show, like others said, there's something inherently magical about seeing a grown man channel his inner child, AND inner nerd. Especially when you clearly share that energy with the craftsmen you visit, though that just might be the simple fact of working with people who Love what they do. :)
lol the short is already up :D
Those hoses looking new is no accident, they have to be replaced regularly, as they also get sterilised in boiling water, so they do degrade. That is why every part is stainless steel, and you strip it all apart so that all the dead spaces get cleaned as well, so as to not trap anything that might contaminate the beer.
We need a follow up episode where you taste the beer and Ben tells us more about low alcohol beer and how that is different (significantly so I would imagine) from stronger beer that has been converted to lower (or no) alcohol.
I have a weird taste in beers, I like the really strong Belgian type AND then some low to ultra-low alcohol. Alcohol free is seldom that good, but 0.5 to 2-3 % can be lovely. I fear the hype about alcohol free is killing many nice brews :-(.
One of the clips coming to my Patreon is a beer tasting! Though there's still a few weeks left before this Kölsch is ready.
Is alcohol free this much of an hype in some places? There is like two big bear maker who makes them and all the other just store brand ones.
I have yet to see any small brewer make/sell anything alcohol free.
Matt drives a Fork lift was enough fun. Loved this
He hopped on so confidently and to me he looked like he's done it before
@@P3x310 And then 7:00 happens and it's pretty clear he hasn't 😅
Yes, I did just watch a 23 minute video about a foodstuff I can't even drink.
Great video Matt!
As a fellow non-drinker, it still fascinates me how complex the world of alcoholic drinks is.
Good to know I'm not alone 😊
Ben seemed well in his element, both as brewer and teacher!
That dude was the perfect sidekick.. so enthusiastic but also explaining everything well, good energy.. amazing :)
One of those sidekicks who's actually the one running the show, naturally. :)
And knowing exactly what he can confidently tell Matt to do without breaking anything
So does this mean we will get more Matt Gray Is Trying? I've been absolutely LOVING this series.
Ben is great. Extremely knowledgeable and passionate about his craft. Love to see young people keeping old crafts alive. But I’m a bit disappointed you didn’t try the beer you made. I know that would have meant to wait a few weeks but it would have been a great ending to the video.
It's still got a few weeks left conditioning, I'm going to go back and give it a try!
I NEED a 'Full of Anxiety' t-shirt! 😂
"The lightning rod comes later." 😂😂😂
My brain added "It's alive! It's alive! It's alive! It's alive!" to my internal sound track.
I really can't imagine a video more comprehensively answering every question I had about beer. This entire series has been great, but Matt as interviewer was especially spot on - and credit to Ben for explaining things well. Nailed it.
I find it genuinly heartwarming that everyone who participates in these videos is just such a delight to watch.
6:19 Gotta keep the Copper Strike proprietary temperatures a secret!
Is it possible that he censored the number that comes before 70?
@@KingKool2099 Nope, see the reading next to it. (Also he mentioned it is a trade secret in one of the comments under the pinned comment)
@@cpasr8065 Aw, that woulda been funny.
The wholesomeness alone of Matt having fun is worth the tip!
Nice! Loved you going "Whee!" on the forklift. And Kölsch beer is surprisingly alright 😅
As a German, I can say: there's a lot of choices for beer, and Kölsch has to be my least favorite. But opinions are different, Flens was even worse. :D
> It's like when you're at the zoo... And you see the animals taking care of their motions.
> It is animal feed.
> I was meaning it looks like poo.
@ 16:40
Oh god I haven't laughed this much in quite some time!
Great video Matt! I look forward to catching up on the series. Ps it was great seeing you today at makers Central, thank you so much for giving us the time and being so kind. Cheers J
I used to sub contract (IT) to a very large Brewery company in Burton. It was really interesting to see all of the equipment being used by Small Beer is literally smaller versions of the equipment said larger brewer uses in their breweries (with the exception of the kettles, which were beautiful copper kettles).
I am thoroughly looking forward to the future video titled "Matt Gray is Trying a Pint of His Small Beer."
"are they salt with a capital S or other chemicals?" is such a Matt Gray-y question though! /pos
So glad you've made another one of these! Its one of my favorite series right now! Really hoping it goes big so you can keep making them! You deserve to.
Fantastic seeing people who are absolute experts in their craft.
Great stuff, this is the best explanation of beer making that I have seen. What makes you so good at this kind of thing Matt, is that you are genuinely interested, you're not afraid to ask the 'stupid' questions, and you will keep asking things until you understand fully.
I don't know what's more fun, the look inside the proverbial kitchen with these videos, or Matt's cheerful vibes while he's there. 😊
Very nice that Matt grey was out - standing in a field for promoting his patreon and the outstanding people in their fields that he meets
Matt Gray driving a forklift and making beer! Did all my dreams just come true?
ohh, I'd also thought malts were totally different from "other grains", but they're just processed! The part about the hops was also really interesting, they're almost like tea leaves... I thought I don't like beers that are "hoppy" because they're bitter, but maybe now I can look for ones that have more of the hops added to the cooled concoction and see if they suit me better. Floral and citrusy are adjectives right up my alley 😄
Find out the IBU, International Bitterness Units, of the beers. High IBU will have more boiled hops, a low IBU "dry hopped" beer will have less bitterness but more of the hop flavors.
Do not be alarmed, we are in the presence of certified forklift driver Matt Gray
Being a brewer looks like a fun job. Apart from all the physical labour and valve turning involved in the big industrial process, there are a lot of things in there that I as a chemistry student am very familiar with.
It’s a testament to both Ben’s explanation and your questions and video production that makes me feel like it could brew beer now. Very nice video :)
The mutual enthusiasm in this is lovely, really enjoyed!
Your enthusiasm is amazing, gods I love that full smile all the time :) Also, you had a wonderful person to show you around :)
Thanks Matt. I probably owe you more for all of the entertainment you have provided over the years but it's a start.
One of the best videos I've seen for a very long time (possibly helped by drinking a beer whilst watching how they make beer!) so thank you Matt!
Matt's super inquisitive nature and Ben's outstanding ability to explain something complicated in simple terms (seriously, I cannot understate how good Ben was in this video!) made this a real treat to watch, thanks again.
The graphics are so helpful here! Such a well made video
11:00 It's very fun to watch a professional switch from "showing you my job" to "hold on doing my job now" mode. One of Destin's Coast Guard videos also comes to mind, obviously a lot more abrupt.
12:30 Insert "you're not very good at negotiating are you" clip from National Treasure 😂
Kudos to Ben for explaining how different beers are made.
Oh awesome stuff, it's always fun watching these videos.
Matt never passes up an offer to taste whatever they are working with. Such enthusiasm and curiosity!
12:09 "...outstanding in their field." as you stand in a field 🤣🤣🤣
I absolutely love this series! I feel like Matt is the right person to present this type of content
Great video as always. Great to see the enthusiasm and love of the topic from you and the experts in every video
What a phenomenal guest he was! I don’t even like alcohol and I was glued to my screen and taking notes!
Ben was very knowledgeable, its great listening to someone talking with skill and enthusiasm.
I love this guys explanation of what beer is and how it’s made. He made it super accurate and simple. A kolsch is basically a German style that’s like a lager as an ale. 😮
The small Beer guy is hypeeeeeer xD zagzagzag! I love him!
me watching this while drinking a store brand beer: hmm yes, the malt is very important
Just a little appreciation note for the editing/music/animation in this video! All makes for a very nice watch, never mind the subject content and very charismatic people on-screen! :3
I knew how to, (theoretically), make beer, but i heaven't seen it in action yet!
This video learned me a lot about the process.
Thank you Matt, (and your team), for producing, and Ben and 'Small beer' for sharing your knowledge!
As I heard from Scott Manley (space youtuber): "Wine will happen by accident. Beer however needs to be crafted."
I'm always wary about assuming someone's online persona lines up with how they really are off-camera, but either Matt is a surprisingly convincing actor or they're just genuinely one of the most delightful people I've seen
...now if only I could maintain anything close to that level of bubbly enthusiasm 😅
As someone who also enjoys beer, this is delightful! It's so fun to see your excitement and interest!
Incredible how some parts of the process are so similar to coffee brewing!
My partner and I absolutely love "matt grey is trying"!!! such a good style of video ! !
Ben is very clear with the explanations! Fascinating stuff
Love your videos, Matt. Perhaps as many, I've discovered you through Tom Scott (first, by seeing his videos a couple of years back, then viewing some (actually, quite a lot of the) Park Bench episodes, listening in to Tech Difficulties...
Best of luck with what you do and wish to see more. All the best & greetings from LT.
P.S. NordVPN/NordSecurity / Surfshark & others should definitely sponsor your content more frequently. You deserve viewership of millions! :)
I love this series so much :D
Thanks for all you do.
Indeed, you've got to illustrate the _pint_ before you start
This looks a lot like how my brothers' brewery works!
Even down to the slogan "brewing is mostly cleaning" 😂
It was so good that you could lend a hand. I guess in the case of small beer, many hands make light wort.
I am now only going to refer to sodium chloride as "Salt with a capitol S" xD
The best bit about this series is Matt's infectious energy.
oooh, I think this might be the first video you've done that is a topic I actually know about!
Brewing beer is fun. Designing beers is also fun. Many years ago I designed a Hefeweizen called Badger. We used locally sourced honey in the boil and ferment to give it a little extra. Was super proud of that brew. Got a lot of comments from neighbors and friends who tried it. Biggest batch I ever made was 5 gallons. For a time my room mate and I were looking into opening a microbrewery, but unfortunately that didn't ever go anywhere :(
21:39 Holy crap I have never seen a White Labs yeast pouch so big! They make some fantastic yeast strains. Their tasting rooms in Asheville and San Diego are great, they will do the same beer with 3 different yeasts to show off the flavor differences.
Also they have some of the best pizza I have ever had. :)
This is such an amazing series. I never knew just how much effort goes into this shit!
It is a crime that these videos are not getting millions of view...
Oh this is awesome! I love love love hearing about the behind the scenes and this seems like exactly something you'd do!
i don't drink but its still super cool to see how much effort goes into this and how so many things can change the flavor / characteristics
Ben seems like a great instructor! Props!
i love Ben! he's so hyper!
Ha! They really make small beer!
I actually did start drinking mostly low alcohol beer, as a colleague and I found ourselves being close to being drunks (alcoholics have more money and maybe style). So we investigated alternatives. We still enjoy a drink or five on occasion.
This was lovely to see, thanks :) Hope to see a follow-up sample session!
FYI: the subtitles talk of 'molting' rather than 'malting', which (I thought) are two different things. ;)
It always baffles me that anyone worked out that creating that stinky process with so many variables actually creates a pleasant drink.
A great student and a brilliant teacher. Thoroughly enjoyed this.
As a homebrewer, I always enjoy seeing different scales of brewing and different styles being made.
The quality of everything I've just seen is outstanding! And your excitement is contagious, with every minute watched I got more excited for the next steps!
Here for the beer content! And the Matt Grey enthusiasm for the subject. Nicely explained process. Hope there is a follow up video tasting the beer made. Cheers and enjoy the beer #Disco
It's crazy how many new words I've learnt today! who knew brewing was so complex
Holy hell I've never clicked on one of your videos faster 😂 you should try brewing mead next, it tastes better anyway
I've been on like 5 brewery tours but this was still a very interesting video.
Some fun facts about brewing raw materials-
Barley is really well suited for malting due to the structure and enzyme content allowing for starches to be quickly broken down to fermentable sugars, the husk material is also really useful for filtration. This is one of the reasons why malted barley tends to make up the lion's share of grist composition.
Cereal grains like malt barley also provide other nutrients for yeast like amino acids and phosphates, and flavour compounds such as maillard reaction products from malting and boiling. Some other cereal grains used in brewing include wheat, rye, maize, rice and sorghum.
Ale yeast "Saccharomyces cerevisiae" is the same yeast used in baking and winemaking (as well as sake, cider, mead etc.), although a different assortment of strains with behaviours and characteristics more favourable to their applications are used for other activities.
In some vessel shapes, ale yeast will rise to the top in fermentation, as opposed to sink to the bottom which lager yeast would do- nowadays cylindroconical vessels are widely used in which both yeasts drop to the bottom.
Lager yeast "Saccharomyces pastorianus" is a different species from ale yeast, as it is a hybrid of ale yeast and another species. One of the different characteristics of lager yeast is it prefers lower temperatures.
Water profile in brewing is important, amongst other things the content can impact pH, enzyme and yeast performance, different ratios of ions/minerals- sulphate to chloride for example can heavily impact beer flavour.
Several historic places for brewing have distinct water profiles, which were preferable for certain beer styles. Today we can replicate those water profiles anywhere.
Hop cones are actually fruits, and the hop plant is in the same phylogenetic family as Cannabis. Female plants are the only ones to bear fruit, and hop bines for harvest are widely grown from root cuttings.
Hops provide an antibacterial effect in addition to their flavour/aroma and bittering properties.
Before hops were used widely, a mixture of herbs and spices called gruit was used which included things like mugwort and sweet gale.
Wow, I think this is the best one yet, Matt. Loved all the details shared by Ben; not only does he have all this knowledge he was able to communicated it really well. I knew everyone used to drink beer because it was safer but hadn't heard the term "Small beer" before.
I wish you would get more views and then also sponsors, because this series is just so so fun and entertaining and I am learning stuff! I just love it
I started out college as a chemical engineering major. I finished college in a different engineering field but I think probably half of my friends who stayed in the program applied their ChemE problem-solving skills to home-brew their own alcohol lol. This was a great insight into how it’s done for real!
ChemE is wild to me as a chemistry student. I'll stick to my gram-scale lab work for now, I feel safer there...
Matt Gray is Trying: Becoming Forklift Certified ✨
ben has jokes! this was great
Getting massive Maddie Moate "Do you know" vibes from this series. Love it so much!