BBC2 - Inside the Factory

[prog99]

Enjoyed that, thanks for the heads up. The technology is impressive from start to finish, especially the gps controlled combine.

Folks reactions here are hardly surprising. My main hobby i mountaineering and the reactions are similar when a tv program comes out featuring climbing.
Its a mass produced product that they have to consistently get right no matter how bland it is. Even Greg expressed his surprise at how little hops went into it! I couldn't find anything on their website about ingredients although Ocado says it contains wheat.

GW is mildly irritating but for presenter to the masses is probably a good choice. The brewer from the place is london was excellent and a real star in front of the camera.

Anyone else notice that the products tasted outside the factory weren't (from what I could see) carling at any point?

 

[Nicks90]

i rewound the prog to the bit about hops and did a dirty calculation and it worked out at approx 5gm of hop pellets per 20l batch....
however there was a lot that wasnt shown regarding ingredients and not surprising - its a commercial enterprise - but it was entertaining to watch and the canning process was awesome.

as for what makes a lager - lets not get hung up on the technicalities of what was traditionally a 'lager". If it uses lager yeast and brewed at low temps, its a lager. still tastes like pish compared to a decent ale!

 

[Rodj]

why bother trying when you can just make fancy adverts of birds flying and sell millions of pints

This reminds me of something I was taught in a business class of some sort I had to attend many years ago. Question: What sort of company is Coca Cola?
Wrong answer: Everyone, including me, answered that it's a soft-drink manufacturing company.
Correct answer: It's a marketing company. Based on its accounts, Coca Cola spent more money marketing a fizzy brown drink than it spent manufacturing a fizzy brown drink. Therefore, it's a marketing company which happens to manufacture the stuff it markets.
Somewhere therewithin is a lesson for all of us.

 

[RichieBeer]

The brewer from the place is london was excellent and a real star in front of the camera.

Completely agree. Jaega Wise is her name from Wild Card brewery. Funnily enough I was just reading about her the other day in John Finch's Beer Craft book. She was also featured in Camra's Beer magazine recently too. Just the sort of personality the industry needs.

 

[prog99]

Completely agree. Jaega Wise is her name from Wild Card brewery. Funnily enough I was just reading about her the other day in John Finch's Beer Craft book. She was also featured in Camra's Beer magazine recently too. Just the sort of personality the industry needs.

And theres a taproom too. Beers look interesting however I'm rarely in London nowadays otherwise I'd be up for a visit.

 

[BrewRubha]

To be fair, the programme is part of a series on factory production and not on how to make good beer. We all know that Carling, and most other factory produced beers, taste like cat urine but the premise was to show how stuff is mass produced. If the point of the series was to show the difference between mass production and craft production I would have stopped watching after a few minutes....nearly did when realised presenter was GW. Try pitching a programme on Craft Beer and watch the Commissioning Editor's eyes glaze over!

 

[stz]

Big breweries will mill grain to flour. They filter the mash.

 

[marshbrewer]

To be fair, the programme is part of a series on factory production and not on how to make good beer.

Good point that, and it's why the program left me a bit disappointed, because in almost 100% sure Carling is high abv brewed then liquored back to sale abv, hop extract added ( thus the apparently tiny amount of actual hops) and so on, but this wasn't shown. It would have been interesting to see the full process.

 

[SteveWTBD]

Carling is high abv brewed then liquored back to sale abv, hop extract added ( thus the apparently tiny amount of actual hops) and so on, but this wasn't shown.

I don't think Carling make any bones about the fact that they brew to v high abv then water it down. I was told this to be the case by someone fairly senior in Carling some years back.

Having said all this, the Carling Black Label adverts used to be brilliant! It's cheap and many people just want something to quench their thirst. Serve it cold enough and it is hard to taste anything at all.

 

[prog99]

This (unsurprisingly) has been discussed in other beer forums. Again and again the brew strong and water down came up along with adding hop oils etc. Tennants was also mentioned in this respect with the brewery very open about it if you go on a tour.
I actually wonder how drinkable the 10% un watered down product would be.

 

[kelper]

Most single malt whisky is brewed at high strength and then cut with the water used in brewing, so it seems an OK practice to me. It's like gin, I'm quite happy with the regular Gordon's at 37.5%. I just put more in! The only time I buy higher proof gin is to make a humdinger of a dirty Martini. (glass and ingredients in the fridge, no ice and the juice from muddled olives- superb!

 

[prog99]

Most single malt whisky is brewed at high strength and then cut with the water used in brewing, so it seems an OK practice to me. It's like gin, I'm quite happy with the regular Gordon's at 37.5%. I just put more in! The only time I buy higher proof gin is to make a humdinger of a dirty Martini. (glass and ingredients in the fridge, no ice and the juice from muddled olives- superb!

With whisky its consistency they are after (they colour it too). But are very open about it and its a pretty skilled job to ensure its the same batch after batch.

 

[Alex.mc]

I caught the program up the other night with my wife. After chuckling a bit at the hopping rate, we were nonetheless impressed by the sheer scale of operation! I listened to a podcast a while back by an American brewer who'd spent a lifetime in commercial brewing, having worked with the hugest corporations down to the smaller guys too. His point of view was that macro beer is fulfilling a market, and they do it very well indeed. We may call it crap beer but we're looking to our own high standards of taste and choice. Operations-wise, these big companies perform an incredible job! However, one has to set that aside I guess from the more political/business oriented actions that the sheer spending power of these corporations often indulge in.

 

[Druncan]

I used to do the average quanity (weights & measures) inspections in S&N, Vaux, Castle Eden and Federation breweries in the North East. I loved the scale of it all and the fact that despite the volume the brewers and chemists really knew their stuff. Particularly the Federation, great place, great people. Just so sad the breweries and expertise that should have been passed on has almost gone to other areas. One exception being Brewlab in Sunderland

But, fantastic that loads of small breweries are doing well and producing such wonderful products for those who have tastebuds and an real appreciation of good brews!

 

[nottsbl]

With whisky its consistency they are after (they colour it too). But are very open about it and its a pretty skilled job to ensure its the same batch after batch.

Its the same with all mass produced alcohol, - wine too: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/may/15/has-wine-gone-bad-organic-biodynamic-natural-wine (i.e. all of the "best " most expensive wines are mixed and chemically adulterated - which is why you don't get "good" and "poor" vintage years anymore - they are all blended to give the same bland standard product - and that includes the most expensive french wines). Read this article, its interesting!