DARK HORSE NATION
A&E, Wednesdays at 8pm

Seeems there are two prerequisites for working at Dark Horse Brewery in Marshall, Michigan.

One, you need to have a beard. And a neatly, trimmed beard just won’t cut it. You need one of those big, scraggly, long ‘‘I could get cast in an American Civil War documentary’’ type of beard. Even if you’re the brewer, which means you have to wear one of those weird hairnets on your chin.

The other thing you need is the ability to put up with the whims of a boos who says ‘‘We should do this’’. Which really means, ‘‘Hey, I thought up this thing. Now you go and do it for me.’’ And then sometimes it later means, ‘‘You know that thing I said we should do? I changed my mind, let’s do this other thing instead’’.

These are two of the things I’ve concluded through watching several episodes of this new half-hour TV series. And it’s an enjoyable TV series too, largely because of two of the four main players – brewer Wiggs and handyman Cabe.

Those are the two that get the brunt of boss man Aaron’s requests to do stuff – which so far has included making a bacon beer with real bacon, building a portable hut they can tow over the ice and go ice fishing, make a float for the town’s Christmas parade, cut down some lumber, saw it into pieces and rebuilt the brewpub facade.

With most of these tasks, most of the brewery staff seem to get roped in – even the brewers, which seems an odd thing to do. Wouldn’t you want the brewers to be, you know, brewing beer?

The guy I really admire is Cabe, who has the ability to make just about anything and everything. If a part used in the brewery breaks he gets the job of making a new one. He’s also the one building that ice-fishing hut, the Christmas parade float and the brewpub facade.

And he regularly curses Aaron’s whims on camera. It’s great to watch.