If you recall, we were the ones who said definitively that the Discovery show Brewmasters was dead. There were a lot of folks who said we were wrong, but we had it on good authority that the show was done. Now we have it on even better authority.

I just happened to run into Sam Calagione this morning at Eataly in NYC, in (of course) the beer aisle. He was there to announce that the construction of the Dogfish Head brew pub in Eataly is wrapping up and they’ll be up and brewing in the coming weeks. It should be open in early June, so mark that on your calendars. He also helped me pick out an Italian beer after I told him about my problem wrapping my head around them. He suggested a Baladin Nora, which I dutifully purchased.

Sam confirmed that no new footage was going to taped for Brewmasters, and that he hopes the Eataly episode (which has been filmed but not aired) will still air in June when the brewpub is open for business. I hope so too, because I enjoyed the show and want Dogfish’s venture to be a success. At any rate, the show is gone and not coming back after that.

But here’s the thing that REALLY kills me – timing is a bitch. Not two hours after I saw Sam, I was reading Anthony Bourdain’s Twitter feed (@NoRexervations), which had two powerful and slightly cryptic tweets:

Mr. Bourdain tells it like it is and knows a thing or two about how the TV world works, so if he says it, I believe it. I know we’ve had a lot of “big beer” news here lately (maybe too much), but I think this is worth sharing because it’s entirely plausible. While I doubt Sam would have affirmed anything when we spoke, I would have loved to see the look on his face when I asked him about it. Instead the timing was off and I’m left to imagine how that moment would’ve gone.

Anyway, I hope The Atlantic takes Mr. Bourdain’s suggestion seriously and digs into the story, because I bet there’s something juicy there. This certainly calls for an expose, because this (alleged) hurdle will have to be removed if we ever want to see beer on TV again. And if you’re like me, that’s something you definitely want.

Update: Our pals over at BeerNews.org point out that Brewmasters and Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations share the same production company, which puts Mr. Tony in a position to know a think or two about this. Good catch guys!

Rabble Rousing Update: Looks like The Atlantic will be digging into things – Go get ’em!!:

Happy Ending Update (9/26/11): Sam tells us that he’s cooking something up with production company Zero-Point-Zero (the producers of Brew Masters) for the iPad.

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