Fat_Bastard
Well-Known Member
A local micro brewery held a pro-am home brew contest near me.I entered it naturally,an amber ale and moose drool clone I make all the time.
Some how a production company got wind of the contest and sent an e-mail to our local clubs mailing list asking for volunteers to do a documentary on home brewing.I answered them,sent pics of my system and me.They called me and asked a bunch of questions and were real excited about my set up.Thats all they could talk about really,thats what got me in the show.
I thought they wanted to learn about home brewing and film some one doing a complete brew day.Turns out they really are doing a "reality" type show formatted kinda like bbq pit masters.3 home brewers competing against each other inside the real competition.who ever scored the most points with their entry would be the winner.
obviously these folks have no clue about home brewing and bjcp competitions and how they work.I tried explaining things to them about brewing to a style not what ever tastes good etc.They didn't seem concerned so I figured "what the hell" how often do you get a chance to do a tv show?
They came out on a Saturday and filmed me. instead of just filming me do a home brew from start to finish like I thought they would.They were just after quick clips of me doing various things,and sound bites where I was fed alot of the lines.we only got through the mash and sparge stage before they had me change clothes and pretend to be bottling the beer for competition.They left after that,and I finshed the brew alone.
Things didn't go well at first.My scale took a **** and I had to pretend to weigh my grain.fortunately I know that my container when full is 5 lbs,my recipe called for 9.75,so I eyeballed it.
at one point I dropped my thermometer and it quit working.They got real excited about that and asked how big of a disaster it was.I told them not a big one but I did need it to check my mash bed temp and to know the temp of my wort when cooling it.They had me redrop it and film it and had me send my out for a new one,they filmed her delivering it.(exciting tv)
They kept asking me "what could go bad here,is this critical?" while I was milling my grain and mashing in the grain.I told them worst thing that could happen is I get bad efficiency or a stuck mash because I recirculate.not sure why they kept asking it,looking for drama?
They were here for 4 hours and on a normal brew day I would have been done and cooling my wort.I either had to wait for them to set up to do anything or redo what I just did so they could get it on film.hell we spent 10 minutes on me lighting a friggen burner
I am not very articulate and I have a hard time getting what I am thinking out of my lips coherently,especially when nervous.I was real nervous.I know I made some mistakes with regards to technical aspects of brewing and rambled a bit before I got to the answer I should have.sometimes I probably didn't get technical enough or give a more complete answer.
My worries are these folks aren't smart enough or care enough to catch my mistakes and edit them out.All the home brewers watching are certainly going to catch them and thin k "what a ****ing idiot!" "he doesn't know ****"
Oh,one more thing.When my scale broke,I let a few f-bombs and mfers out.They liked it and "encouraged" me to keep it up.I guess I will be the foul mouthed ******* on the show.
The following Saturday was the "competition". the judging was done on Friday night by all bjcp certified judges.The brewery would announce the winners at 7pm as to not conflict with firestones anniversary party.
I had to be at the brewery at noon with the 2 other contestants for the show.They shot footage of us showing up,meeting each other,tasting each others brews and chatting.did a lot of talking head interviews.They shot the winner of the tv show portion,I finished in second place.
The real competition awards ceremony happened after that. out of 129 entries, I managed to win BOS and runner up in BOS! That's first and second place! I never would have imagined winning.I'm still in shock.
I screwed up the tv show,the producer was scrambling pretty good trying to figure out how to explain the loser of the show winning the real competition with a beer he didn't mention or film being made.
so... that's it so far.My winning was not in their plans.It will be interesting to see how they cut the show.
sorry about the wall of text
edit: I won a lifetime membership to front sight in Nevada and I will be brewing my recipe on the brewery 20 bbl system.The beer will be sold in the tap room and the money will go to charity.
Some how a production company got wind of the contest and sent an e-mail to our local clubs mailing list asking for volunteers to do a documentary on home brewing.I answered them,sent pics of my system and me.They called me and asked a bunch of questions and were real excited about my set up.Thats all they could talk about really,thats what got me in the show.
I thought they wanted to learn about home brewing and film some one doing a complete brew day.Turns out they really are doing a "reality" type show formatted kinda like bbq pit masters.3 home brewers competing against each other inside the real competition.who ever scored the most points with their entry would be the winner.
obviously these folks have no clue about home brewing and bjcp competitions and how they work.I tried explaining things to them about brewing to a style not what ever tastes good etc.They didn't seem concerned so I figured "what the hell" how often do you get a chance to do a tv show?
They came out on a Saturday and filmed me. instead of just filming me do a home brew from start to finish like I thought they would.They were just after quick clips of me doing various things,and sound bites where I was fed alot of the lines.we only got through the mash and sparge stage before they had me change clothes and pretend to be bottling the beer for competition.They left after that,and I finshed the brew alone.
Things didn't go well at first.My scale took a **** and I had to pretend to weigh my grain.fortunately I know that my container when full is 5 lbs,my recipe called for 9.75,so I eyeballed it.
at one point I dropped my thermometer and it quit working.They got real excited about that and asked how big of a disaster it was.I told them not a big one but I did need it to check my mash bed temp and to know the temp of my wort when cooling it.They had me redrop it and film it and had me send my out for a new one,they filmed her delivering it.(exciting tv)
They kept asking me "what could go bad here,is this critical?" while I was milling my grain and mashing in the grain.I told them worst thing that could happen is I get bad efficiency or a stuck mash because I recirculate.not sure why they kept asking it,looking for drama?
They were here for 4 hours and on a normal brew day I would have been done and cooling my wort.I either had to wait for them to set up to do anything or redo what I just did so they could get it on film.hell we spent 10 minutes on me lighting a friggen burner
I am not very articulate and I have a hard time getting what I am thinking out of my lips coherently,especially when nervous.I was real nervous.I know I made some mistakes with regards to technical aspects of brewing and rambled a bit before I got to the answer I should have.sometimes I probably didn't get technical enough or give a more complete answer.
My worries are these folks aren't smart enough or care enough to catch my mistakes and edit them out.All the home brewers watching are certainly going to catch them and thin k "what a ****ing idiot!" "he doesn't know ****"
Oh,one more thing.When my scale broke,I let a few f-bombs and mfers out.They liked it and "encouraged" me to keep it up.I guess I will be the foul mouthed ******* on the show.
The following Saturday was the "competition". the judging was done on Friday night by all bjcp certified judges.The brewery would announce the winners at 7pm as to not conflict with firestones anniversary party.
I had to be at the brewery at noon with the 2 other contestants for the show.They shot footage of us showing up,meeting each other,tasting each others brews and chatting.did a lot of talking head interviews.They shot the winner of the tv show portion,I finished in second place.
The real competition awards ceremony happened after that. out of 129 entries, I managed to win BOS and runner up in BOS! That's first and second place! I never would have imagined winning.I'm still in shock.
I screwed up the tv show,the producer was scrambling pretty good trying to figure out how to explain the loser of the show winning the real competition with a beer he didn't mention or film being made.
so... that's it so far.My winning was not in their plans.It will be interesting to see how they cut the show.
sorry about the wall of text
edit: I won a lifetime membership to front sight in Nevada and I will be brewing my recipe on the brewery 20 bbl system.The beer will be sold in the tap room and the money will go to charity.
, share and learn.
