Brew Your Own Beer Television

Reality television has become a major media genre over the last dozen years or so.  There seem to be reality television shows for almost every topic that could interest the viewing public, including singing, cooking, modeling, and even rich people social in-fighting.  To be honest, none of these shows interest me, with the possible exception of Top Chef.  But now, there is a reality television show that rewards beer and homebrewing knowledge - enter Brew Your Own Beer (BYOB) TV.

BYOB TV is the brain-child of The Brewing Network and San Francisco-based television station KOFY.  The hosts, Justin Crossley and Jason Petros, organize teams of homebrewers, as they compete against each other in innovative and entertaining challenges.  The BYOB TV teams are:

• Team OGs
• Team Beer Hemorrhage
• Team Golden Thunder
• Team Barley's Angles
• Team Shamrockers
• Team Simcoe
• Team Grain Dead
• Team 2.5 Men

The BYOB TV challenges feature each teams knowledge of craft beer and homebrewing.  Some of my favorite challenges so far include: a race carrying spent grain, a sensory analysis exercise to identify different brewing ingredients, and an engineering competition to design an all-grain system out of junk material.  The winning team receives a trip to the Czech Republic to visit the Pilsner Urquell brewery.

If you are turned off and bored by main-stream by reality television, I urge you to give BYOB TV a try.  It is interesting and fun and available online.

Cheers,

TW