TV REVIEWS : A Six-Part Global Search for the Perfect Beer

This is the most parched series ever to splash across the TV screen--”The Beer Hunter,” a six-part journey through the world in search of the perfect beer. And all we can do is watch.

The quest begins tonight at 7:30, with a repeat Saturday morning at 11:30, on Discovery cable.

Star quaffer is Michael Jackson. Not the singing, dancing, twirling Michael Jackson, not the big talker on KABC. This is a British journalist who found his calling in the assessment (and the consumption) of fine brews.

He makes a significant point of departure between wine snobs and beer snobs: In wine tasting you check the color, the bouquet, sip it, slosh it around your mouth, then spit it out; beer tasters likewise check in with all the senses--but then swallow the sample.

If such samplings of this profession is any clue, they swallow a lot. This is not a job for Cheryl Tiegs; the bearded, invariably smiling Jackson looks like a beer hunter, a hearty, robust man of some dimension who appears to be taking his challenge seriously and often. The fun here is empathic, watching him salivate over fine meals and exquisite beers.

Tonight’s swilling involves “The Burgundies of Belgium,” followed next week by “California Pilgrimage” (mostly the Anchor Steam Brewery in San Francisco), followed by Bavaria, Britain, Czechoslovkia (Pilsner) and Holland.

There’s no reference to those beers that old football players burble about on TV during the games. I think they spit those out.