Topic Archives: Brew Masters
Remember When Dogfish Had To Find A Spigot In A Haystack?
Remember the episode of Brewmasters on the Discovery Channel when Dogfish Head lost a bottling spigot in the beer? The brewery had to search through pallets of packaged bottles to find the missing tip.
So what did the brewery take away from the incident? If they had what they have now, it probably never would have happened. Asset Management software from Asset Point.
Asset management software allows maintenance crews to establish a maintenance schedule for manufacturing equipment using a variety of parameters, such as date, hours used, electricity consumed, or miles accumulated.
Knowing the state of your equipment is half the battle to efficiency. It prevents downtime, and equipment failures, like the spigot incident.
“We used spreadsheets and whiteboards. We weren’t even scheduling,” he says. “[Asset management software has] allowed us to plan our work a week at a time, so we know what everyone’s doing. It also allows us to track our emergency type work, so we can see the machines causing us the most grief and make some modifications.”
[CNBC]
Dogfish’s New Ancient Ale Ta Henket Shipping
The newest Dogfish Head Ancient Ale to hit be bottled will be arriving quite soon. Ta Henket ships this month. The press release gives you the rundown.
Ta Henket, the latest addition to Dogfish Head’s line of Ancient Ales, rolls out this month. Inspired by a trip to the Great Pyramids, Dogfish Head Founder & President Sam Calagione created Ta Henket with ingredients and traditions outlined in Egyptian hieroglyphics. “It was like a Rosetta Stone visit,” he says. “That’s the first depiction of the brewing process, the birthplace of our vocation.” This earthy liquid time capsule is brewed with an ancient form of wheat and loaves of hearth-baked bread, and it’s flavored with chamomile and dom-palm fruit. The spiciness comes from zatar, a mixture of herbs found at a Cairo street market.
To ferment Ta Henket, Sam and friends traveled to a date grove near the pyramids, set out baited petri dishes and captured a native Egyptian yeast strain. “It was the strangest picnic I’ve ever been on,” he said”
This 4.5% ABV Ancient Ale goes well with grilled fish, pork chops, roasted vegetables and feta cheese. Ta Henket is available in 750ml bottles and on draft and will be distributed throughout Dogfish Head’s national network.
More on Ta Henket. You can grab the Ancient Ales episode of Brewmasters on Itunes for a mere $1.99
Dogfish To Bottle Ta Henket, Featured On Brewmasters
In more history meets beer, Dogfish Head is planning to bottle Ta Henket. This “wheat ale” has only been available on draft before.
Ta Henket is brewed with Za’ atar (a blend of herbs, sesame seeds, & salt,) Doum Fruit (a sacred fruit found in tombs of pharoahs) and Chamomile. Of course this beer wouldn’t be complete without some free range Eqyptian yeast.
Ta Henket was featured on Episode 5 of the ill fated Brewmasters show that aired on Discovery Channel.
Working with our archeologist friend Dr. Pat McGovern, this beer was created to incorporate the ancient ingredients and techniques described in Egyptian hieroglyphics. It was brewed to 11.4Plato with Emmer (an ancient form of wheat) and loaves of hearth baked bread and flavored with dom-palm fruit, chamomile, and zatar. Fermentation was carried out by a native Egyptian saccharomyces yeast strain captured by Sam and Floris during a recent trip to Egypt.
Availability: 750ml bottles, Draft
Arrival: TBA
4.5% ABV
VID: Sam Calagione Talks About Birreria, Selling Out
Birreria, a part of Eataly opens in New York City in May. It is the subject of the 6th and final episode of Brew Masters. Sam Calagione was present at a media preview in NYC, talking about the opening and recent beer buisness developments. <The Feast>
View more videos at: http://www.thefeast.com.
RIP Brew Masters. Beer Gets Chippy
Beer is awfully dramatic lately. Label lawsuits, name lawsuits, beer buying other beer, and the beer geeks lament. Fine. Well over a month ago, a rumor of the untimely demise of Brew Masters on Discovery Channel featuring Dogfish Head was circulated. I reached out to Discovery Channel, whom in turned called me back telling me that the show WAS NOT CANCELLED. They were merely taking a breath, checking direction, yadda, yadda, yadda.
Here’s today. A blog dubbed Beer & Whiskey Brothers stated it was cancelled, & maintained it was cancelled all along. One of the same blogs writers bumped into Sam from Dogfish and asked the question – what’s up with Brew Masters. Long story short, basically done he replied.
Ok. Here’s where it gets hairy. Discovery states low viewership. However there is something more complicated at work here. Money. Big Money. We all saw the Blue Moon commericals during the first Brew Masters show. Of course, that’s not considered “craft beer.” Beer geeks came out in droves on Beer Advocate forums complaining and questioning why the commercial was placed there. Sam of Dogfish Head even responded saying that the commercial annoyed him too.
Wrapping up the the issue, it seems like SAB Miller is a huge advertiser with Discovery. It’s either the millions of dollars in advertising and the commericals stay, or Brew Masters. Money wins. Drinking isn’t easy. Read the whole story <Beer & Whiskey Brothers>
VID: Ska Brewing’s “Brew Minions” A Brew Master Parody
Ska Brewing (Durango, CO) just did this pretty hilarious (yet slightly long) parody of the Brew Masters show on Discovery Channel. Have a few minutes for entertainment? Check this out. Even though the end of the video isn’t a guy “rating” the beer, it speaks to the same “rating” mentality. haha.
Brew Minions, A Parody from David Thibodeau on Vimeo.
DURANGO, COLO., (Mar. 6, 2011) –It’s different colors, it has alcohol, it’s beer… but for Dave Thibodeau and his co-minions at Ska Brewing Co., (the very first craft brewery to copy Oskar Blues by canning), beer is a passion, a business, and a personal quest to make delicious craft beer and stay employed at the same time. “Brew Minions”, viewable at http://www.vimeo.com/20604077 , is a parody of the Discovery Channel’s recent series “Brew Masters”, featuring Sam Calagione and Dogfish Head Brewery.
Brew Minions follows Dave and his team as they flawlessly execute a project to make a 30th Anniversary beer for the long-running NYC Ska band The Toasters. Along the way they cross high mountain passes and travel almost across town, pioneer techniques to produce beers (and short films) of questionable originality, and ignore advice from Sam himself, who makes a cameo, but was otherwise not harmed in the making of this video.
From Rainbo Bread to bagels to bits of British bees, Dave is constantly pushing his team and himself to keep going, even though it’s not clear that anyone, including the Toasters, wants them to. The imagination of the Ska Brewing team is matched only by their obliviousness, which they wear like a badge. Attending beer conferences with Sam, glamorous product launches with rock stars, ripping off ideas and making toast, it’s all in a days work for Brew Minions.
“It’s easy to make fun of ourselves,” said Dave Thibodeau, Ska Co-Founder and President. “It’s hard to make a video that makes fun of us though, even a short one. It was supposed to be short. And it’s expensive. If anyone thinks this is funny they owe us.”
“Brew Minions” was written, directed and produced by Ska Brewing Co. and Marc Snider / Exposure Productions in Durango, Colorado. The post-credit video was produced by Red Tettemer and Partners.
About Ska Brewing
Based in Durango, Colorado, Ska Brewing was founded in 1995 and now produces over a dozen award-winning beers including the Pinstripe Red Ale, True Blonde Ale and Steel Toe Stout. Three Ska beers are now widely available in cans: ESB Special Ale, True Blonde, and Modus Hoperandi IPA. For information, music and a good time, visit www.skabrewing.com. Chat us up and get the latest news at http://facebook.com/skabrew and http://twitter.com/skabrewing
Brew Masters Hits Itunes!
I have no earthly idea when this actually occured – but Discovery Channel’s “Brew Masters” is now available on Itunes. The initial run of the show entails 6 episodes – 5 of which are now available on Itunes for $1.99 an episode. All 6 episodes will set you back a whopping $9.95.
The 6th episode of Brew Masters is still currently in the works, with a few setbacks due to weather in New York City. Episode 6 features a segment about Sam Calgione of Dogfish Head’s newest collaboration Eataly, an 8,000 square foot brewery and restaurant in NYC, opening in the spring.
A simple Itunes search will yield the episodes you seek… Happy watching!
