Dogfish Head founder Sam Calagione is one of the more charismatic and colorful characters the craft beer industry has. The Discovery Channel clearly believes he is as they’ve tabbed him to host Brew Masters, their new show about craft beer which – I’m taking this from the press release – “follows Sam and his partners in suds as they travel the country and the world sourcing exotic ingredients and discovering ancient techniques to produce beers of astounding originality.” I don’t know if this show, premiering November 21, will be a hit or if it will even be good but I can’t imagine that it won’t be interesting to some degree, especially for the beer geeks.

Of course, I didn’t know about any of this when I took this shot at the pre-party for Extreme Beer Fest back in February. This shot, with the blur of Calagione still there, happened because he’s so very expressive when he talks and even using the flash, I couldn’t get a still shot of him. I won’t complain because I think this one turned out better this way.

This photo was taken on February 18, 2010.