Brewmasters - mixed feelings

I've watched all 3 episodes of the new Discovery Channel show "Brewmasters," which airs on Sundays and Mondays @ 10:00pm. Let me just say, I have some mixed feelings on the show.

First, I would be kidding myself if I didn't say that the premise is somewhat of a let-down. Part of what makes craft beer so interesting is the variety of stories behind the breweries. Dogfish Head actually started on a 10gal SABCO BrewMagic system in 1995. One of their first beers (Punkin' Ale) was actually a homebrew that won at that years Punkin' Chunkin' food contest (being from Delaware, of course Sam would have gone to early Punkin' Chunkin' competitions). I was hoping that the show would be traveling to different breweries and getting to hear those kinds of interesting stories. The struggles, the victories, the one or two crazy beers.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not a huge fan of DFH beers, but they're not awful beers. I like the Punkin' Ale. I like the 90 IPA. But, the beers aren't "Oh My God, WOW!" Sam Calagione seems to be a fun, off-the-wall kind of guy. I guess I'm just not that interested in the DFH brewery, specifically.

However, the show does something that I think is good - namely, educates the public on the Craft Beer Movement. It's a movement that has been building a strong following, one consumer at a time, over the past 25 to 30 years. With the mainstreaming of one of the more mainstream craft breweries, hopefully people move away from the Big Two (AB-InBev, and MC) and get back to local product (and that's what nanobrewers are all about). It's one of the reasons why I avoid stocking anything that traces back to the Big Two (for instance, Blue Moon is an MC brand).

I guess what I'm saying is, the beer geek in me wishes that they spent more time talking about why crystal 60 or 120 gives more body. The 2 billion yeast cells thing from the pilot is laughable (pro-tip: I pitch hundreds of times more than that for my 10 gallon batches).

The craft beer advocate in me wants to hear about the other 1400+ craft breweries that exist - their stories and their beers.

So, I'm disappointed on that front.

On the positive side though, I might now be able to talk about my latest brew with someone and have them be interested in trying it without their first reaction being "Oh, this must be terrible." I might be able to offer them some of the craft beers I keep handy without a "Oh, there's no bud? Nevermind."

So, there you have it. Mixed feelings.