Seriously? Brewing beer is natural, making a video of it is just plain asinine. Might have been novel at one time but now that there’s 20 million results for “all grain brewing”… With people screaming “Watch how I brew my beer…” - what is the expected response? A couple of originals made headway, “Craigtube”, “Terpsichorean Kid”, “SJPorr” (check out the SJPorr Challenge) but most of the stuff just screams why?
Do you watch beer brewing videos on YouTube? Why? Who do you watch?
Anymore? I never did. Except for that guy who gets naked in the basement and rubs himself with lotion before making a starter to avoid dust. That’s just good comedy.
I still rewatch the old Brewing TV episodes on occasion. Other than that, not much at all.
Basic Brewing Video is the only one I watch regularly. I watch Chop & Brew and Don O on occasion, but it’s mostly out of nostalgia for BTV.
You could very easily say the same about most creative efforts. It takes a certain something special - an “it” so to speak - to bust through the “usual”. Most of the time that comes down to the creator/host.
I watched one on using the Grainfather the other week, and discovered that I’ve been setting it up incorrectly.
Agreed. The Basic Brewing hosts are mildly amusing and of course the old BTV hosts Dawson, etc… had a certain flair as do the others mentioned. Guess it all just becomes mundane after a while no matter how much effort the hosts put in. Perhaps due to an increase in knowledge on my part. Now a live Exbeeriment channel might be amusing, for a while. Of course no one ever admits their beer is bad, kinda like those cooking shows on PBS where they taste what they’ve made at the end and say, “Boy OH Boy is that good! I’ve never had better! The secret to my beer was mashing at 275 degrees kelvin while standing on my head.”
Some of the homemade “how-to” videos have been useful to me for learning new processes, particularly when there is a wide variety of advice on how to do it right or it’s a hard process to visualize if you’ve never seen anyone do it. I often speed up the video to get through them faster or to hone in on a particular point. What these amateurs lack in video production skills they make up for in goodhearted willingness to share (love the kegging video where the guy is clearly in his pajamas… my kind of brew day! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFor3QCWCuo ).
I also enjoy Basic Brewing Video, which is professionally well-done and feels like what it is, a good cooking show where the emphasis is on the dynamic between the hosts.
I never really watched the homebrewing videos. I have watched a few how-to videos on using or modifying pieces of equipment because sometimes written descriptions are not clear or do not address a question in a way seeing sometimes resolves. That’s maybe three or four videos over seven years.
I have a few friends who have recently gotten into homebrewing or are thinking about getting into it. They all watched dozens of videos and read several blogs, trying to soak up as much info as possible. Somebody is definitely watching them.
Sometimes people just like making videos/writing blogs/etc. for their own enjoyment. I mean, why do I keep blogging about homebrewing? There are better written blogs and a number of older blogs. I like to think I help people out from time to time but it’s mostly just for my own recordkeeping and enjoyment.
Me too, miss that show, wish they would’ve kept it going even without Northern Brewer as their sponsor. I also watch Chop & Brew. It’s not really about the brewing per se, but just the vibe of the show, like Brewing TV, those guys were great together.
I do watch chop & brew (And Don O) as well. To me though, Don has the closest thing to the old brewing TV, just plain old beer videos, no frills, no put on airs or appearances. Just honest brewing.
I watch Chop n Brew on occasion and like it. Loved brewing TV (as said) as much for the camraderie as for the actual brewing content. Don O put out some good videos that I used to watch as well.
Its entirely possible that some of the YouTube video posters do it just for fun and are seeking no response. As to why watch them? My top ten reasons are #10 killing time, 9-2 ditto, #1 Sheer boredom.
The youtube video that I got the most from was Drew’s Brewing on the Ones.
Most entertaining, reviews from Beer Geek Nation
Man, that guy is a goof. I’ve laughed out loud at a few of his reviews - his knowledge is pretty suspect, to be nice. He’s all about his IPAs and RIS, though. 
He can really rattle off all the aromas and flavors though. I’m lucky to detect maybe 5 things in the aroma of a hearty beer. He instantly gets like 30
brewbeeranddrinkit
Beer Geek Nation
Summit Brewing Company
Chop & Brew
Beersmith Podcasts
MicrobeWorld - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6CMghyf3ag
There are all kinds of things on youtube, being able to sift through the crap to find what you are looking for is what the internet is literally all about. When the pen was invented, people wrote all kinds of useless crap. When recording was invented, people made tapes of useless crap. When the internet was released to the public, it was filled with useless crap. At the end of the day, some peoples crap, is another mans treasure. Facebook… enough said.
These are just as good as reading forum IMO. Plus I am a visual learner. Sometimes reading for concept and ingraining the concept with seeing the action helps me a lot. FWIW why do you blog about beer? Why? What do you read? What is the point? Knowledge, conversations, sense of community and shared interests, all kinds of good stuff out there. Not your cup of tea, Meh drink a beer! Cheers fellow brew-geeks!
Why on earth would you be so offended by people sharing their craft? Sorry I’m just really shocked that you would call it asinine. Most people, like myself, watch these videos as part of a community. Most of us aren’t looking to learn how to brew, so much as seeing how others brew, what they brew, why they brew, and just the shared community.
There is actually a large brew-tubing community of people that send each other beers to get an opinion on their work, the exact same thing we’ve been doing here.
I’ll watch Chop n Brew every once in a while.
I learned to brew from Brewer TV when they turned me on to Don O Videos because he said he learned from Denny.