Discovery Cancels Brewmasters

I watched all five episodes over the weekend (on demand).
Overall, I enjoyed them:
-A peek into where some of their "wild" beers come from.
-Some of the issues they face on a daily basis-yeast monitoring, stuck fermentation, bottling issues, batch not up to snuff, etc. (Similar issues that we as homebrewers may face, but on a much larger scale).
-Also interesting to see them dump a batch, and the retail cost associated with that decision, and the hit everyone takes on profit-sharing. (I have never dumped a batch, but I have choked one or two down. But at the same time, my reputation is not out in the public over a bad batch.)
-Sam is an enthusiastic, energetic guy-looks like he loves his job (and that makes him lucky).

A couple of years ago, I was at Victory, and overheard a few brewers from DFH were there. I ended up talking to one guy, (thinking how cool to be a "pro" brewer) and asked him several questions like--
-Do you homebrew as well, since that is what you do for a job?
-Do you always do all-grain at home?
-What is your home set up like?

Later, I overheard him tell his friend "I hate homebrewers, they think they know everything".

I thought, what a deek (or even an EAC).
Watching the show, I remembered/recognized the dude as head brewer Bryan. He seems like a cool, laid back guy on the show, but maybe I met him on a bad day.

I hope they do a second season.
It's not too technical about brewing (for general viewers), but gives us a glimpse of large scale brewing. (It also looks like a fun place to work).

To be fair, he probably talks to a lot of homebrewers, and again, to be fair, he probably knows a lot more about brewing then most of them. The vast majority of homebrewers never learn the detailed science, and I'm sure a fair portion of pro brewers learn at least a bit of it.

Then again, there's not a whole ton of difference between brewing at home and brewing at a brewery, except for some of the equipment and methods, but mostly no. And some of the most respected brewers in the industry started out as homebrewers, so hating homebrewers is somewhat ****** IMO.

I'm wondering if he hates homebrewers discussions more than the average Joe discussions, and what would the average Joe talk about anyway...

I'll miss the show, but I have a feeling it did wonders for DFH. My local fine beer store just told me to buy whatever DFH that I might want, because he is not going to be getting anytime soon. He said the brewery has a high demand and he will not be able to get it for awhile.

As far as the show (I know it's the beer geek in my saying this) but I wished they focused more on the brewing, business management, marketing, and less on the other stuff.

drinking made easy is the dumbest show i've ever seen.

and why is it when a travel/food/drinking show comes to milwaukee they go to AJ Bombers? That bar has been around for just over a year, and it sucks. how about going to an established milwaukee tavern??

I never watched a single episode.

Homercidal said:

I'm wondering if he hates homebrewers discussions more than the average Joe discussions, and what would the average Joe talk about anyway...

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I gotta be honest, it depends on the individual. It can sometimes be frustrating to have a casual conversation with a n00b when you're an expert in that field, because some n00bs *think* they know a lot more than they actually do. It grates on my nerves to hear people state fundamental facts that are completely wrong and then put on blinders you when you try to politely improve their understanding. People like that don't want to talk to you to learn more or even have a conversation so much as just validate their own opinions.

pezcraig said:

This is a group consensus (7 to 10 people that agreed-believe it or not)...
The problem is the show was called Brewmasters. Where were all the other players? This show was an hour long commercial for Dogfish. If it would have been 22 mins that would have rocked, but 1 hour too long.

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I cannot agree more. It's also gotta be is tough to try to "introduce" the general beer drinking public to craft beer, or more precisely to DFH products, when the sticker price can be pretty steep for their stuff. People who are accustomed to purchasing BMC products might find DFH a wee bit over priced, then translating that into beer snobery, then in turn tuning out the show.

ScubaSuds said:

I just recently caught a show on History chnl that is somewhat like that Drinking Made Easy kinda different, the characters are a little strange and not as funny as I think they think they are, but the different drinks are interesting, as well as the places they go. Not exactly beer only, but beer is a main character. Only caught a couple of episodes, but apparently this is season 2.

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That show is 'very' lame.. Watched half of one episode of brewmasters and fell asleep.. both shows were a waste of time...

They should just expand the Art Mann series to include brew pubs as a regular feature... maybe 'Brewpub tuesday".. That guy would find a way to make it interesting with unusual characters... (and an occasional boob flash here and there.. )

Yeah, the spin off thing is weak.. DIY used to have lots of episodes of yard crashers and man cave, but now it's almost all renovation reality type stuff.. or real estate... Discovery hardly ever shows monster garage anymore, and American Chopper has turned into a public display of the destruction of a family.. (Is money really worth televising all your dirty laundry like that?)

ESPN is 90% 'poker'.. (When the hell did poker become a sport anyways?)... TLC, Discovery, and 90% of the other learning and special interest channels are selling half their time to infomercials..

It's getting really bad... It seems they keep adding more channels, increasing the price, and lowering the quality and quantity of content... more and more, I'm turning back to 'reading'...

j1laskey said:

I cannot agree more. It's also gotta be is tough to try to "introduce" the general beer drinking public to craft beer, or more precisely to DFH products, when the sticker price can be pretty steep for their stuff. People who are accustomed to purchasing BMC products might find DFH a wee bit over priced, then translating that into beer snobery, then in turn tuning out the show.

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Holy crap was in the store yesterday looking at buying a six pack of IPA.
Stone IPA $9
Lagunita IPA $9
Sierra Nevada Torpedo $9
DFH 60min $11 ?????

And it's my least favorite of the the bunch to boot.

motobrewer said:

drinking made easy is the dumbest show i've ever seen.

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Hey, I agree with moto! Stop the presses!

Three Sheets was a really good show. Too bad Zane couldn't have styled Drinking Made Easy a bit more after that show. Instead it seems very quickly put together without much if any planning and kind of fails to deliver. I still watch it if I've got nothing else to do, but I'd much rather it had been a new season of Three Sheets.

Disciple78 said:

I'll miss the show, but I have a feeling it did wonders for DFH. My local fine beer store just told me to buy whatever DFH that I might want, because he is not going to be getting anytime soon. He said the brewery has a high demand and he will not be able to get it for awhile.

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Yeah. My favorite liquor store is having the same problem, DFH flies off the shelves. They got six bottles of *****'s Brew and it was gone in less than an hour (with some help from me). Since then they have had trouble keeping anything in stock besides the 60 and 90 minute IPAs.

KingBrianI said:

Three Sheets was a really good show. Too bad Zane couldn't have styled Drinking Made Easy a bit more after that show. Instead it seems very quickly put together without much if any planning and kind of fails to deliver. I still watch it if I've got nothing else to do, but I'd much rather it had been a new season of Three Sheets.

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I 2nd that, but ive never seen drinking made easy, three sheets was pretty good

weirdboy said:

Holy crap was in the store yesterday looking at buying a six pack of IPA.
Stone IPA $9
Lagunita IPA $9
Sierra Nevada Torpedo $9
DFH 60min $11 ?????

And it's my least favorite of the the bunch to boot.

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hahaha, what?

Local IPA $9
Local IPA $9
Local IPA $9
IPA from the other side of the freaking country $11

hm....i'm no business major, but.....

r8rphan said:

It's getting really bad... It seems they keep adding more channels, increasing the price, and lowering the quality and quantity of content... more and more, I'm turning back to 'reading'...

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with hulu, it makes it a harder case to keep the cable.

r8rphan said:

Hey, I agree with moto! Stop the presses!

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lol

That show was the Point Break/21 Jump Street of beer shows. With a little Spicoli sprinked in for bittering.

End Transmission.

motobrewer said:

hahaha, what?

Local ipa $9
local ipa $9
local ipa $9
ipa from the other side of the freaking country $11

hm....i'm no business major, but.....

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:d

Not sure if this has been released yet, but a buddy of mine went on a tour at the DFH brewery last weekend. They said that they have already filmed 6 new episodes of Brewmasters. There must be some truth to it if they are telling people at the tours.

While I'll certainly watch another season, for a show called Brewmasters I think they should have went with someone else this time around. Jetting off to Egypt to capture wild yeast is pretty cool, but I would be just as interested (if not moreso) to see how a newer micro/nano/brewpub makes it through the growing pains.

gr8shandini said:

While I'll certainly watch another season, for a show called Brewmasters I think they should have went with someone else this time around. Jetting off to Egypt to capture wild yeast is pretty cool, but I would be just as interested (if not moreso) to see how a newer micro/nano/brewpub makes it through the growing pains.

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+1 Almost any show about brewing is interesting to me. At least worthy of the DVR so I can skim thru the bla parts. DFH has had enough press off the first season. It would be nice to see another brewery in the mix and see glimpse in their behind the scenes action.

However, if they are doing another season I am still happy about it. Any press on craft brews is good. Sometimes people need to be spoon fed for their own good. Kind of like how Dana White pushed the UFC into everyones living rooms by starting the Ultimate Fighter on Spike.

brew2enjoy said:

Not sure if this has been released yet, but a buddy of mine went on a tour at the DFH brewery last weekend. They said that they have already filmed 6 new episodes of Brewmasters. There must be some truth to it if they are telling people at the tours.

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I wonder if they were referencing the six episodes already filmed. The hype machine has died off and I assume if the show was going to go on another six episode run they would be promoting the crap out of it. I'm not saying your buddy is lying, but maybe something was lost in translation. Until Discovery comes out and says there are six new episodes I think this show has reached its conclusion.

Meh. I tried to watch it, but after the 10th time seeing that stupid "yeast takes in sugar and converts it to alcohol and CO2" graphic, I was done. The best part of the show was the real-world problems that come with running a business, the beer part was boring.

I think they missed the mark on their demographic, beer-geeks don't want to sit through dumbed-down beer information and non-beer geeks prolly won't watch the show.

NorCalAngler said:

I wonder if they were referencing the six episodes already filmed. The hype machine has died off and I assume if the show was going to go on another six episode run they would be promoting the crap out of it. I'm not saying your buddy is lying, but maybe something was lost in translation. Until Discovery comes out and says there are six new episodes I think this show has reached its conclusion.

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I know what you mean. i am just going off of what I was told by someone else and he definately could have mis-understood. I am going to drive over there one day soon and check out the new tasting room they just put in. Maybe I'll ask the questions while I'm there.

NorCalAngler said:

I wonder if they were referencing the six episodes already filmed. The hype machine has died off and I assume if the show was going to go on another six episode run they would be promoting the crap out of it. I'm not saying your buddy is lying, but maybe something was lost in translation. Until Discovery comes out and says there are six new episodes I think this show has reached its conclusion.

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I wonder if they were referencing completing the 6th episode. The one about the partnership with the Italians and opening the rooftop outdoor restaurant/brewpub in New York, which no one thought to mention that there is such thing as winter in New York, and an outdoor rooftop brewpub would only be able to be open for a limited amount of time. They wanted to film the opening, but then they realized they couldn't open in the winter. Maybe they went ahead and finished the episode.

When I first saw the Title, before the show aired, I was thinking "Oh, cool, maybe it'll focus on different breweries across the country. Maybe a different documentary style show for each episode. Why else would they call it Brewmasters?

Ah well, it was a better thing to watch than almost everything else, Including that ****ty remake of Top Gear.

Drinking Made Easy is supposed to be ridiculous and if you approach it from that perspective, its not a bad show. It's not as good as Three Sheets but still entertaining. I think people are getting a bit snooty with their alcohol based TV watching. I like Brewmasters too but let's be honest, there are only so many historic beers, so many times you can watch animations on the brewing process and so many times you can stand hearing Sam say "Off-Centered" anything.

IMHO you can't compare the two. Brewmasters is going to be much more appealing to people in this forum due to its documentary approach, but for those who want to learn a thing or two and get a laugh from people acting like fools, Drinking Made Easy/Three Sheets will appeal to a broad spectrum of viewers. After all, Three sheets has managed to to survive for 5+ seasons, so they must be doing something right.

KingBrianI said:

Three Sheets was a really good show.

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We all have different tastes, I guess. I thought that show was AWFUL. Zane seems to be an idiot. Him getting tanked seemed to take precedence over any real info about the beverage. He seemed to think he was really funny and clever - I did not. I also hated all of the goofy sound effects and related garbage.

Give me The Thirsty Traveler over that any day.


As for Brewmasters, I enjoyed it. I really don't think the show would work with too many other breweries. You need a charismatic person like Sam to make it work.

Are these 2 other shows also on Discovery? I looked them up on google, and didn't see what channel it was on, but it was the same host for both?

chapa said:

Are these 2 other shows also on Discovery? I looked them up on google, and didn't see what channel it was on, but it was the same host for both?

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No, you'll need to search your provider for them. I have FIOS and Drinking Made Easy comes on HDNet while Three Sheets used to be on the fine living network, but I'm not sure where it is now. I suggest everyone track down these shows and give them a try.

I really don't see how you can say the shows are aweful Howie--even given people's "different tastes" and all. Three sheets travels around the world to experience local drinking customs so at a minimum I'd think you would find that interesting. Drinking made easy travels the US and (along with great humor) covers info about each city relating to drinking and beer. Even more to the point, they almost always have a segment that covers something about the brewing process which is great exposure for home brewing. What other show is doing this and appeals to a mainstream audience? The only one I can think of is Brewmasters and it may be too narrow...guess time will tell.

Let's hope not!

Oh Look, Pleepleus... DRINK!

-TK

Howie said:

We all have different tastes, I guess. I thought that show was AWFUL. Zane seems to be an idiot. Him getting tanked seemed to take precedence over any real info about the beverage. He seemed to think he was really funny and clever - I did not. I also hated all of the goofy sound effects and related garbage.

Give me The Thirsty Traveler over that any day.


As for Brewmasters, I enjoyed it. I really don't think the show would work with too many other breweries. You need a charismatic person like Sam to make it work.

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Yes we all do have different tastes but AWFUL is a bit harsh. You could just as easily pick apart Brewmasters. I could completely skip the spit episode. It was just gross. Plus Sam's whole "rapper" thing. It wasn't very clever and definitely not funny. It was more awkward and nerdy. Like, I said they're two different styles of shows and you can learn and be entertained by both.

I think it would be cool if they focused on a new brewery each season for Brew Masters. They did a 6 episode season for Dogfish, they could do a 2nd 6 episode season on Stone, Sierra Nevada, etc. Keep things fresh.

febbrewro said:

I think it would be cool if they focused on a new brewery each season for Brew Masters. They did a 6 episode season for Dogfish, they could do a 2nd 6 episode season on Stone, Sierra Nevada, etc. Keep things fresh.

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That would be really cool if they did that, I was also one of the people who thought before the show aired that thats what it was going to be, not a 6 show DFH commercial. I watched it, but was never really that impressed with the substance (or lack of )of the show. Thats not to say I didnt find parts or tidbits of the show interesting.

I was wondering why it wasn't showing up in the recorded list anymore. Well I hope it comes back.

I liked Brewmasters, I think Sam is great - he's got a really winning persona.

But the show has been too Dogfish-centric. It just seems to be one long infomercial for DFH. That needs to change.

fastricky said:

I liked Brewmasters, I think Sam is great - he's got a really winning persona.

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The biggest thing I didn't like about the show was Sam.

He's comes off as kind of a hipster dufus.

Its entertainment people! If we wanted something else that would please a lot of people here it would be John Palmer giving a lecture and zero rapping....

This was aimed at beer drinking people interested in brewing, not serious brewers that would pick holes in it every bit of the way.

I wonder if actual physicists do the same thing whilst watching The Big Bang Theory??

fastricky said:

I liked Brewmasters, I think Sam is great - he's got a really winning persona.

But the show has been too Dogfish-centric. It just seems to be one long infomercial for DFH. That needs to change.

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Well, the show is about Dogfish Head.

I thought they did a good job with the show. I didn't get the infomercial vibe. It was half about Sam investigating new beers to brew, which I found very interesting. Not only were the locations cool, but you got to see the thought process behind some new beers.

I also enjoyed the other part of the show where they documented the day-to-day workings of the brewery. Again, don't see how it was much of an infomercial when they seem to be dumping a batch of beer every other episode. I liked the fact that these incidents weren't sugar coated. Sometimes you screw up.

As an aside, I really wish I went into biology in college now. Working as the "yeast keeper" for a brewery is the coolest job ever for a beer loving science geek!

tknice said:

Oh Look, Pleepleus... DRINK!

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I absolutely loved Three Sheets. I bought all of the seasons on DVD that were available. They just started re-airing it again on SPIKETV! I am hoping for another Three Sheets marathon for St. Patrick's Day.

I hope Sam and DFH profit off the show, I would love to see a microbrewery really strike a chord with the general public. I think if we can crack the door a little bit with curious beer drinkers it could make a world of difference.

That said, I hated the show. It was boring. I could see it being successful in the following types of formats:

1. Appealing to connoisseurs by exploring brewing from the perspective of a broad number of brewers, different parts of the world and different types of beer. Perhaps begin to cultivate the next ambassador of beer (like Michael Jackson was) and really shed light on the vast depth and diversity there is to beer.

2. Doing more of a "reality TV" format that visits home brewers across the U.S., talks about their setups, what they like to brew, what got them interested, etc. I think I could do about 30 minutes exploring one person, though.

3. Doing a contest format - sort of like a Top Chef for beer.

Basically, all three ideas inject either personality or some form of tension or exploration of technique that can make TV interesting. Brewmasters lacks all of those and I hope it is canceled before people begin to think that "out of the ordinary beers" are not accessible or interesting.

I enjoyed Brewmasters but I can see why it wasn't everyone's cup of tea too.

I also remember hearing about a homebrewer reality show in the vein of "Top Chef" called "Red White & Brewed" where homebrewers would compete to become the brewmaster of a new microbrewery that was opening.

I "liked" their page of Facebook hoping for updates but it seems to have stalled a bit and I am not really expecting it to ever come to fruition...

http://www.redwhitebrewed.com/

http://www.facebook.com/redwhitebrewed?ref=ts