American Beer Blogger: Emmy Nominee!

My reaction at the news of the Emmy nomination.

Got a call last night from Rudy Vegliante, the producer of American Beer Blogger -- do you remember that? The TV show I did, the Kickstarter funding campaign, the editing, voiceovers, last-minute re-shoots at Stoudt's? And then one little night of airtime on WLVT, which despite lots of calls and support seemed to think we didn't reach their "core audience"...

Well, clearly someone besides Rudy and John and the crew and me liked the show. It's been nominated for a regional Emmy (Mid-Atlantic region) in the Entertainment/Program-Special category, one of three nominees this year. Here's the full list; we're on page 8, category #20.

A nomination may push things along a bit, and maybe, maybe get us another shot at some airtime. If we actually win -- awards are September 22 -- that could get leverage for some more shows. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Congratulations to Rudy, John, and the whole crew, and much thanks to the people at Stoudt's for all their assistance!

American Beer Blogger: the latest

We had the pilot episode of American Beer Blogger in the can Thursday, or so we thought. I went to Green Leaf Studios in Easton, watched the show with the guys, and took a copy home; watched it again, and then watched it again with Cathy and Nora...and, okay, it maybe dragged a leetle bit in spots, but I was reasonably happy with it. Then just before I went for dinner with Cathy -- to Farm and Fisherman in Philly, and it was totally excellent: best damned egg I've ever eaten -- Rudy calls from the studio: PBS saw the pilot, and wanted "more beer in it."

Huh. We'd worked on having it not just be about the beer, because Stoudt's excels at making it about everything: the restaurant, the entertainment, bread baking, cheese making, their Stoudtburg village next door...it's all pretty cool (and the cheese is fricking awesome). But PBS is calling the shots at this point, and I could hardly argue with them wanting more beer in it, so I crammed an email full of as much info as I could get down in five minutes about what makes Stoudt's beers work, and what makes them different, and yeast, and hops, and malt; told Rudy that if he needed it, I could do voiceover work at the studio on Saturday, and ran out the door.

And I wound up doing voiceover this morning. It went well; I did my familiar take on the difference between ales and lagers (a hot jungle vs. a cold pine forest), the different malts in three of Stoudt's ales, and talked some more about hops. Meanwhile, John had re-edited the show, and there was now a LOT more beer in it, including some stuff from the first shooting we did back in May talking to Eddie Stoudt about bitterness in beer which was some of my favorite footage we did, and I was glad to see it back in. I actually like it better now: it's tighter, more focused on beer, and doesn't drag at all. Thanks, PBS.

This Thursday, at 10 PM (Eastern) and again at 10:30 PM, the show will air on WLVT. The station wants to know if people are interested in the show, and the only way to do that is to call them during or shortly after the show at 800.360.0039, or email them after the show. Tell them you liked American Beer Blogger, thank them for running it, and add something different of your own: why you love beer, where you live, your favorite craft brewer, that you're not my cousin, or something like that so they know you're not just reading from a script. Because I only want you to do this if you really like the show. If you don't, for some reason, don't call just to be a good person!


Okay. Here we go. The little beer show that could...no major sponsor, no contest or challenge, no big commercial network, no stars...just beer, the Stoudts, me, and you. Cross your fingers.

American Beer Blogger airs next Thursday!

The American Beer Blogger pilot episode will premiere on March 8th, at 10 PM, on WLVT, the Bethlehem/Lehigh Valley PBS affiliate station. 

It will be an hour-long pledge show, and I'll be appearing live on-air to help with the pledge program (and laugh a lot, probably). 

Don't remember what Carol Stoudt said here, but...

The success of pledging during this and subsequent airings of the show on other PBS stations will be crucial to the continuation of the show. We've been told that what PBS is looking for is the number of pledges during the presentations, not so much the amount of money. At this point, I do not know if they will have a live Webcast of the show; I’m trying to find out, but it looks like they won’t.

So if you're planning on donating to public television this year — or if you want to support craft beer on television — please consider making a pledge during your local affiliate's airing of American Beer Blogger. If your local affiliate isn’t airing it, email them to suggest it! If there are any bars or brewpubs who plan to host viewing parties to support the show (hint, hint), let us know, and we’ll get word of it to your local station, which will help! And if any PBS station manager reads this, and is interested in running American Beer Blogger as a pledge program to catch the motivated, educated, and rapidly growing craft beer community’s attention…drop me a line, and we’ll get you going!

We’re just about ready to roll. Green Leaf told me today the editing is done, they’re just doing the opening and closing credits. We’ve put in the work, now it’s up to you. Watch the show, and if you decide this is the kind of television you’d like to see more of, please consider making a pledge during the show. Feel free to tell them that you’d like to see more American Beer Blogger, too!

American Beer Blogger pilot is funded!

Thanks to all who have pledged for American Beer Blogger: we have reached our $6,000 goal on Kickstarter! If you still want to pledge, please do: anything extra means a better show (maybe some travel expenses...).

We are in the TV business. Very excited right now.

Hey, let's put on a show!

Hello, Faithful Readers! Time to finally let this cat out of the bag. Back in May, I was approached about being involved in a television show on beer. The idea was "American Beer Blogger," and it would be a blogger who went and visited places, talked beer, asked questions, and did things...and I was the blogger. They'd looked at my blog and liked it (as I recall, the guy (John Wright) said he'd looked at the blog and in one screen laughed out loud twice and saw a Star Trek reference, which was good enough for him.)

I thought about it for a while -- it's silly to think about at first, and if you don't believe me, just take a look at my picture -- and said sure, might as well take a shot. So not long afterwards I was up at Stoudt's at 7:30 AM, getting ready to do a day of shooting with Ed, Carol, and Eddie, and the incredibly friendly and engaging (and professional) crew from Green Leaf Productions in Easton. The guy who came up with the idea, Laz Melan (who owns the Pickled Egg bar in Easton), was there too.

We'd discussed some general ideas about what we wanted to do, but really? No script, not even a plan beyond we were going to talk at the bottling line -- not my first choice, but what the hell -- talk to Carol, and have something to eat. We made the rest of it up as we went along, and you know, it came out pretty well. I'm at my best in front of a camera when I'm not trying to do something from memory, so it rolled out pretty naturally.

Well, what then? Then we did a little more stuff, some wind-up stuff (which we later augmented at my Philly Beer Week event at Devil's Den, out of which you may yet see Christine Gumpper on the TV), and wrapped it, and the Green Leaf guys went back to Easton to edit, assuring me that we had some good stuff in the can. And then, except for the Devil's Den stuff, and a little more taping at the recent bourbon thing at Allentown Brew Works...nothing happened.

Well, not quite. They did show me the clip you see above -- hope you've watched it! -- and I thought, damn, that's pretty cool, and so did my family, but I didn't really show it to anyone else. Not sure why, but I didn't.

And then yesterday, about two minutes before Green Leaf's Kickstarter went up, I got an email from them asking if it was okay to put all those rewards that banked on my autograph to motivate people (HA!) up on the proposal. Sure, I said, why not? And away we went, and yesterday was a wild, wild ride.

So I'm coming to you to ask for help; specifically, I'm asking for money. Please pledge to the Kickstarter. The money's not going to me -- it's not really my Kickstarter -- it's going to Green Leaf to fund the full editing and marketing the idea to a channel. There are rewards, sure, and although some of them do get kind of interesting up towards the high end -- I'd like to come do a screening in your hometown! -- do it for beer. Seriously. And here's why.

I promise you that this is going to be the real thing, not infomercial, or silly-scripted, or "oh, look who I just happened upon today!" It's going to be me, calling a brewer, or bar owner, or beer store owner/manager, and setting up a visit -- just like I do all the time -- going to their place and looking around and asking questions and tasting some beers and having some fun -- like I always do. The only thing I may do differently is some of the stuff they had me doing in the teaser: actually working, if only for a little bit, because that's fun, and it's something I'd like to do anyway. But we'll talk beer, we'll get our facts straight, and it won't be boring.


So think about it, and if you have any questions, ask. I'll be updating this as we go, and keeping my fingers crossed. In the meantime, please spread the word!

Wish me luck! And pledge!