The Good Beer Show

by Matt Dunn

"You got peanut butter in my chocolate!"

"Well YOU got chocolate in my peanut butter!"

This is an oft referred to little nugget of 1980s advertising trivia on The Good Beer Show, a podcast produced at the Heorot in Muncie, Indiana. But it's not referring to the glory of a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. Rather, Jeffrey T Meyer, creator and host of the show, is talking about the 75 minute IPA.

Dogfish Head Brewing Company from Lewes Delaware is quite famous for their line of continually hopped American style IPAs, the 60, 90 and 120 minute, but JeffreyT, being the creative iconoclastic well-irrigated provident he is, discovered that a half-and-half of 60 and 90 minute, i.e. a 75 minute, is really quite tasty.

JeffreyT and his Nova. Not only does he drink good beers, but he drives nice cars as well.

If you haven't been paying attention to the latest news of the interweb, you may not be familiar with podcasting. Let me help nudge you into the 21st century. A podcast is an audio program that is often produced at little cost and made available on the internet to anyone. Typically, one subscribes (for free) to these programs via Apple's iTunes or some similar software that automatically downloads the shows you're subscribed to and puts them on your iPOD or other MP3 player so you can listen at work, in your car or at the movie your significant other dragged you to.

The award winning Good Beer Show is dedicated to two things: good beer and local music. JeffreyT and his crew of 3-10 Heorot regulars (depending on who shows up) usually taste two beers an episode and give their general impressions. They also feature local Muncie or Indy music and typically have members of the bands sit in on the tastings and talk about their music on the show.

Here's a picture of some of the cast and crew of the Good Beer Show taken at the Indy microbrew fest, from left to right: Jenny, JeffreyT, KB and Traci.

And the content isn't the only cool thing about the show. The style in which the show is recorded, "off the cuff", makes for some interesting listening. There's lots of background clatter and conversation that makes for a very rich and complex context that surrounds and supports the 'primary' conversation. You can listen to the same episode three or four times and always find something new. It's actually rather voyeuristic.

And it seems people are noticing. Just two weeks ago the Good Beer Show won a prestigious PodcastConnect People's Choice Award in the Food and Drink category. That's pretty cool.

What's also pretty cool is that I got a chance to participate on the show at the end of July. I got to try to play my music (I'm trying to be a musician as well as a beer writer and a juggling mime), talk about beer and generally sound kind of weird. Who actually likes the sound of their own voice on a recording?

Anyway, it was a blast. Here is a link to an audio file of an interview I had with JeffreyT about his show. Check it out (just to let you know, some bad words are dropped).

Here's a link to the episode I had the great pleasure of being a part of- also some rough language here.

And here are some links to a couple episodes that I found to be particularly enjoyable: #24 and #31. Check 'em out yo!