Beer on the telly is a rare thing so I had to watch Beer Masters, even if it was only on Amazon Prime. It's a master chef/bake off style home brewing competition, in which five pairs of competitors have to home brew five different beers, the best from each round going through to the final.
Beer Twitter did get a bit twitchy about it, but as a home brewer turned master brewer I could see things from the amateur and professional side and thought it was all good fun. There did seem to be a marked difference in the ability of the home brewing pairs, with some making pretty fundamental errors. And the gap between hobby and commercial brewing was also evident at times: with my professional head on I wouldn't have brew a Bretted sour beer if asked to make an accessible session beer!
But the competition romped along entertainingly enough, Jaega Wise does a good job as the resident expert and James Blunt may lack the gurning ability of Gregg Wallace or the wittiness of Sue Perkins but he came across as a competent presenter. There was a lack of real tension in the programme though. As brewing takes time each pair had to go home to brew every beer so there wasn't the ticking clock adding time pressure to the proceedings, except in one episode where the additional task they're given with each challenge was actually to cook a meal.
The involvement of Global brewing giant ABInBev also loomed over the programme. Each episode one of their breweries is visited to discuss different beer styles and staff from there are involved in the judging.
And I thought I was the only Nestorbrewer |
(Arrived from Boak & Bailey's link)
ReplyDeleteAs a consumer, not a brewer, I mainly enjoyed it, the two british lads clearly hoping to be the next Hairy Bikers and the Dutch couple in particular.
What I did struggle with was the lack of technical info. Trying to explain what a refractometer is to my wife sent me scurrying to google and the judges talking about off flavours without explaining why/how they were happening was frustrating, would've liked more on that side of it...
That's interesting, as a technical person myself I thought more technical stuff would bore non-technical people.
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