Greg Zeschuk talks The Beer Diaries, craft beer passion

Greg Zeschuk, the video game developer superstar turned craft beer connoisseur, has been busy since launching his web series, The Beer Diaries, earlier this month. Zeschuk has already posted three more quality episodes that focus on Austin, Texas, craft brewers — Thirsty Planet, Jester King and, most recently, Austin Beerworks (the episode shared above). Being fans of The Beer Diaries and advocates for craft brewers, we wondered: How does a cool craft brewery get featured on The Beer Diaries? We caught up with Zeschuk to ask him about his new web series project and passion for craft brewing.

Craft Brewing Business: What aspects of a brewer’s beer or business gets you excited to feature them on the show?

Zeschuk: One of the reasons we created The Beer Diaries was to showcase the passion and commitment to quality of the craft brewers we had met. It was pretty clear that these people were serious entrepreneurs, but they also had a huge passion for what they were making. It’s also pretty interesting documenting the growth of the craft beer scene and showing the importance of local craft brewers in driving the business.

Craft Brewing Business: How can a craft brewer get featured on an episode of The Beer Diaries?

Zeschuk: We’re somewhat in “don’t call us, we’ll call you” mode, though we certainly do like to get contact from folks that are interested in being interviewed. Really, we’ve got a logistical challenge where there are just so many great craft brewers and interesting stories to be told and we’ve only got one crew. So it’s a bit difficult to specifically pick out individual breweries to showcase. Our method thus far has been to pick a geographic location, Austin being the first, and then talk to as many people as possible in that location. There really isn’t anything brewers need to do before being interviewed; we just need a bit of their time and our crew can show up, do the interview,  capture some footage of the brewery and we’re all set! If folks do want to talk to us, they can either ping us on Twitter @BeerDiariesTV or email us at [email protected].

Craft Brewing Business: You’re touring Austin, Texas, right now, but what other markets are you planning to hit this year?

Zeschuk: We’re planning on heading to Colorado next. We’re likely going to take it city by city. We’re just in the planning stages right now and will be heading there to do some location scouting (i.e. drinking beer in cool places); then will be shooting in the next month or so. We’re also going to contact local experts in the various cities and towns to help serve as beer guides so we make sure we hit not only the biggest and well known breweries, but also some of the hot up and comers. If someone wants to be a local beer guide, use the same contact info as above!

Head on over to The Beer Dairies website for more details, video and craft beer goodness.