Beer Hunter CD-ROM

by Tom Altenbach

I was lucky enough to leave the Draught Board Christmas Party with a new Beer Hunter CD. Some generous Draughtee burst the gift price guideline by wrapping up this nifty $40 list production from the Discovery Channel. Although Discovery produced the Beer Hunter television series, this CD is entirely different. It’s primary focus is on a tasting guide to American craft beer, trimmed with action video on the history and art of brewing.

The CD begins with an introductory video of MJ, then the main menu pops up for the viewer’s use in exploring the world of beer. Clicking on the History of Beer brings up a slide show narrated by MJ and set to soothing barley-wine sipping music. Next we move to video presentations of brewing ingredients, the process, the phenomenon of microbrewing, and our favorite topic - homebrewing. Each topic lasts several minutes, with MJ doing some intro. video, then live action video that makes your mouth water. As MJ narrates the action, the script is available to read as a sidebar. Michael is clearly enamored with U.S. beer. "The American brewing scene is the most dynamic in the world", he proclaims. "American brewing is diversified, while Germany’s is still suffering from consolidation and blandification." Now there’s a zinger for the fatherland.

The Field Guide section contains the essence of the Beer Hunter. Brief written descriptions with examples are provided for almost all the major beer styles. These can be perused at the user’s convenience while listening to background noise from a friendly pub, clinking glasses and chatter. MJ introduces each geographical region of the U.S. and describes general patterns in microbrewing unique to each region. Not to be outdone by David Letterman, Michael has his Top 24 List, composed of his favorite U.S. craft brews. For each he provides audio tasting perceptions, while the label is displayed in video. On a sidebar are more tasting notes and some technical parameters for that beer and the brewery. I won’t list the full 24, but here are some of my favorites that also made MJ’s list: Anchor Liberty, Steam, and Old Foghorn (he’s clearly a Fritz Maytag fan); Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and Bigfoot; Rubicon Winter Wheat Wine (defining a new style); Gordon Biersch Export Lager; and Sprecher Black Bavarian (from Milwaukee).

The rest of the Field Guide includes tasting notes and label pictures for about 100 other microbrews across the U.S. A text editing feature allows you to include your own tasting notes too. Finally a section on Resources includes a rather dry listing of beer organizations, events, publications, and homebrew shops. A built-in search engine lets you look up whatever style, region, topic, or label you want (except for alt beer). I found the Beer Hunter to be easy to install on my multimedia PC (Pentium / Windows95). It requires a 486 processor with 8 MB RAM, 2X CD, and either DOS or Windows 3.1, and at least a full pint of brew for true interactivity. It could also use the warning: "The spillage of beer while viewing this CD could be hazardous to your keyboard!"

The Beer Hunter is entertaining, informative, accurate, and concise. I’d especially recommend it as a gift for beginning brewers and recent converts to craft beer. It would also be great as a demonstration at homebrew shops, club meetings, and beer tasting events. Once you launch this program you won’t want to quit, especially since the exit command requires you to look at over 1-minute worth of production credits (belch). For more promotional stuff, visit the Beer Hunter web site at <http:// realbeer.com/discovery/beerhunter.html>.