Brad Makes Beer

Yeah, man, I'll drive the boot!

Hooper drives the boot!

Feel like I'm on one of those

railroad things, you know?

Me and Vinny, we're headin' to Mississippi.

(wheels creaking) Uh-oh.

Stop me every time.

Bought 'em now, Vinny.

And we're, nope, we ain't goin' nowhere.

(loud creaking)

It's like being stuck in the snow,

you gotta rock it, you know?

Pump it up more.

I'd turn around and drive it forward.

(playful music)

I'm gonna need you to focus, Vinny.

Look at this.

Oh!

Oh, that felt good, like a scratch you've

been trying to get.

So we're here at my buddy Dan Suarez's house

at the Suarez family brewery, up here by Germantown.

Hold on, we'll start over.

Dan, where are we?

[Dan] Livingston.

Ah, Livingston.

There's more into beer than just putting

some grains in some water and something, I mean.

Everyone knows, you know, they just

go to the store or they buy their beer.

But there's a lot that goes into it

and there's a lot of life involved.

Alright, I got one job.

Grains in the bin.

Hey, just in case, how do you turn this machine off?

I got it.

I'm the ammo guy in Saving Private Ryan, you know?

Never gonna run out, bud.

It has some sugar in it now,

but it also has starch and enzymes.

Yeah you taste the starch.

Yeah, exactly.

But it's all that starch gets converted

to sugar by the enzyme.

Food. Yes.

Science. Exactly.

Huh, learn something everyday, Vinny.

I got some German in me, this shit's in my blood.

What, really?

Oh, yeah.

I mean look at me.

I look German, I look a little Dutch.

Yeah.

I could see that, I guess.

So, we just did those 18 bags of malted barley

into the grinder.

Why do we grind it?

Almost every kernel gets split in half.

So then you're exposing the starch inside of the kernel.

It'll be very cloudy and chunky,

and I'll recirculate it, and then

45 minutes later, it's like crystal clear.

Wow. Yeah.

Science.

Wort, Vinny.

W-A-R-T, right Dan?

No, man.

Really?

It's W-O-R-T.

Wart is what you get on your finger.

Oh, yeah.

W-O-R-T.

Hey, why is yeast so important

in the beer making process?

Without yeast, it would just be like

sugary hot tea.

The yeast eats the sugar?

Yes.

And produces alcohol?

Produces alcohol and CO2, but it also

kicks off tons of flavor.

Ooh.

What are we gonna call this?

Little breakfast hooch?

Nah, there's no alcohol.

No, man, it's just sugar!

It's just, like.

Oh!

Pretty nice.

So Dan's pumping the finished wort, clarified,

(makes pumping noise)

through the pipes into the cooking vessel.

Vat?

What do we call that, Dan?

Kettle.

Boil kettle.

Yes, a boil kettle.

And then from there, we're gonna boil it,

add the hops.

What they do is they take fresh hops

and they turn it into a powder

and they pressurize it and make little pellets.

Dan, correct me if I'm wrong, but this is

just as good as using fresh cones?

Yeah, same thing.

Right, see it hitting the liquid?

Dan just got off the phone with the pig farmer.

He's gonna come over around 4pm eastern standard time

and pick up this spelt and grain.

Pigs go nuts over this stuff.

(loud eating noises)

It feels good on your face!

Forget the pigs, send this shit right to the spa!

(moans)

Oh, by no means is that underrated.

Alright, Vinny, quit fooling around.

We got work to do.

Yeah, Dan's wearing glasses and gloves

and he didn't give me any protective gear.

You know.

You know who your friends are.

We're gonna be messing... A scientist!

Messing around, insanity all day.

If you even get this on your skin for a second,

your skin starts turning white,

and it like burns.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

And then, forget it.

If you get this in your eye, it's like.

Jesus Christ.

Don't get that shit on me! I let it drip.

Hey, Brad, stand over here,

I wanna wear gloves and glasses,

and get that goddamn hell liquid in your eyeballs.

So this is where fermentation will take place?

Yeah.

This is where we'll add our yeast

from another conical and then we'll flash chill.

After we boil 'em here we'll flash chill

through this heat exchanger into there

and we'll add our yeast too.

And then hopefully by tomorrow morning, it's...

This is the flash chiller! (dramatic trumpet)

The cold water goes pumped that way,

boiling water gets pumped that way,

and then they exchange heat.

And then we return hot water into that water tank,

and by the wort gets here, it's nice and cool.

Yeah, like, touch to your tongue,

you gotta taste all the ingredients, you know?

Ooh!

Ooh this is tangy! Bitter?

Not too bad!

I mean, that's a nice consistency.

That's beautiful! Nice pale, flossy...

Looks like pancake batter. Creamy.

Now I'm gonna hook up the keg and we're gonna harvest.

Hey, can I have some of that yeast?

This one right here?

Yeah, you can take some.

I'm gonna steal a little yeast for back home.

Back in the BA test kitchen.

Oh yeah, good luck Brad.

How'd that work out?

(laughs) Oh, Jesus Christ.

Nice flick there, Dan.

Yeast is in here, we know this.

We gotta pipe it through, this is our

little side glass.

Oh here we go, Dan's coming.

(applause)

Right into the keg.

Oh yeah.

Nice thick yeast.

Looks good, right?

Yeah, it's coming along.

Alright, we're gonna take this keg

over to the fermentation vessel

where we're gonna pitch the yeast

into the beer, and that's where

all the fermentation happens, all the life force

begins to eat the sugars, create alcohol,

create all that nice depth of flavor

that you get in beer.

You really can't do without the yeast.

The wort is filling the tank from the bottom

and now we're pretty much good to add

this whole can of yeast.

Wort, not to be confused with wart.

As we're pumping the wort in,

this is getting kinda mixed in

as we're pushing it in.

Science, Vin.

You wouldn't understand.

So we got our fermentation vessel

filling up with the yeast, filling up

with our completed wort.

That mixes up in there.

And Vinny, inside here is where

all the fermentation starts to happen.

And once all the fermentation is done,

the yeast settles, the beer stays up top,

yeast is down here.

We'll pipe the beer into another vessel

filled with just the beer.

Whatever yeast didn't settle in the first vessel

will settle in the second.

That's where we'll carbonate it.

From there, we'll pipe it in the bottles and kegs

and start drinking some beer.

Alright, so we came in here not knowing much

about beer other than how to drink it.

And we figured, you know, working with Dan,

we did the grains, we made the wart.

Wort.

Start over, Vinny.

We got the wart going.

(Beep)

There's like a goddamn U in there!

So pretty much what I learned the most

and what my favorite part about

the beer making experience is how much

life force is involved in it.

Without the yeast, there is no beer.

And without beer, there's a lot of unhappy people.

Suarez Family Brewery really hitting

home runs over here, so thanks to them for having us.

And, uh (claps).

Let's go drink some beer.

♫ He's a magic man, mama

♫ Yeah

[Dan] That's the way it's gonna play out.

[Brad] Yeah, pretty much, Dan.

[Dan] Straight down the center.

Look at that, that's like

a goddamn Simpsons episode.

That's like a Duff beer right there, look at that.

Look how good that looks!

[Dan] There you go, sir.