Jeremy Quaglia (left) and Shane Uriot at Mayflower Brewing Co. “We wanted to do something different that focuses on the real people and the craft that goes into brewing,” Quaglia said.
PLYMOUTH — Atop a metal staircase in a back corner of Mayflower Brewing Co., two men stand at the mouth of a massive silver cylinder of boiling water. One hoists a large canvas sack full of hops into both hands while the other positions himself, and his video camera, to document the pour.
While the small grains descend into the tank, videographer Shane Uriot shouts questions at the brewer, asking how the hops’ flavor factors into the taste of the brewery’s pale ale. Uriot holds his camera steady at the kettle’s opening until the brewer fastens the lid shut. No one yells “cut,” but Uriot looks at the footage and smiles ear to ear.
The film will be part of the documentary-style Web series “American Brewed,” which will air online in seven episodes and feature a different New England-based microbrewery in each 10- to 20-minute segment. With his partner and best friend, Jeremy Quaglia, 25, Uriot, 24, hopes to provide an authentic look into some of the region’s home-grown brews. “There is an honesty in it — in making [a Web series] that showcases the differences in an industry,” says Uriot, a senior film student at Emerson College.
He and Quaglia, who graduated from Emmanuel College in 2012, are no strangers to home brews. Uriot learned to make beer with his grandfather, experimenting with tastes and ingredients at his granddad’s house in Rehoboth. Quaglia co-owns Homestead Hard Cider, a home-brewed cidery based in Attleboro that he started with another friend in his basement.
The craft beer Web docu-series idea came to Uriot in 2010, but the Attleboro native didn’t pay much attention to it for almost four years. In March, over a couple of beers with Quaglia, he decided to show him a notebook full of episode layouts and filming ideas. Quaglia loved the concept and the two got to work. “It wasn’t until recently that I felt I had the means to do the project justice,” Uriot said.
After Quaglia and Uriot hammered out the details of the series, they started pitching to microbreweries across New England.
Quaglia (left) and Uriot film at the Mayflower Brewing Co. in Plymouth for their upcoming “American Brewed’’ Web series.
The duo began production in June, spending two days at every microbrewery, including Foolproof Brewing in Pawtucket, R.I., Newport Storm Brewery in Newport, R.I., and Grey Sail Brewing in Westerly, R.I., along with Blue Hills Brewery in Canton and Wormtown Brewery in Worcester, in addition to Jack’s Abby and Mayflower.
At Mayflower, in a room adjacent to the brewery, Dr. Dre blasts on the sound system while workers fill kegs and manage the bottling. More brewers are working with metal tanks in the main brew room as Uriot documents the process.
One of the brewers brings Quaglia and Uriot two glasses of beer, showing the difference in coloring after fermentation. One of the beers looks topaz while the other has a golden-yellow hue. The brewer explains the difference in taste, noting the distinction between the pale ale’s hoppy notes in each beer.
“This is what it’s all about,” Quaglia says.
“American Brewed” will air in early September without charge at www.americanbrewedtv.com.
Kelly Gifford can be reached at kelly.gifford@globe.com.