BYOB TV - Upcoming Finale

Back in May, I wrote a review of Brew Your Own Beer Television (BYOB TV), a reality TV production of The Brewing Network and San Francisco-based television station KOFY.  The show seeks to find the "best brewer in the Bay" through exposing its contestant teams to series of brewing and beer-related challenges.  The winner of the show will receive a paid trip to the Pilsner Urquell brewery in the Czech republic.

The show is an obvious draw for me because it is about homebrewing.  But, as the episodes have aired, it is apparent that BYOB TV could appeal to a much larger audience.  The challenges combine brewing knowledge and general geekiness with humor, visual appeal, and larger topics tangentially associated with beer.  One of the challenges involved cooking beer with food and then pairing the resulting dishes with another beer.  This contest was structured like many popular Food Network shows and involved an expert consultant and a panel of chef judges.  Add in the random challenge twists introduced by the "Director of Difficulty" and BYOB TV has the makings of a quality reality TV program in its own right.  Some of this is due to the production team working on the show, but most of the show's success is a direct result of the creativity of the show's creators and writers, Justin Crossley and Jason Petros.  Just think what they could have done with a more substantial budget.

The BYOB TV finale airs this coming weekend.  I will not reveal anything that has happened in the later half of the show, in case you have not seen the episodes yet, but there are a number of humorous twists, including some traditional German costumes.  If you have not given BYOB TV a look yet, take a moment and watch some of the episodes, as all of them are available online.  I think you will be glad you did.

Cheers,

TW