Marshall man to appear on TVs 'Monster Garage'
By JULIA ROBB
Special Projects Editor
George Plumlee's creation might not put out a fire, but it could sure put out a thirst.
Plumlee and his five-man team will be the stars of the Discovery Channel's "Monster Garage" next week as they turn a 60s-era fire truck into a rolling beer brewery.
The episode airs Aug. 9, at 8 p.m.
Plumlee, 23, said his adventure began in May 2003 when he sent an application to Monster Garage explaining why he should be featured on the show something viewers are encouraged to do.
In April 2004, the show's casting director called him and told him that he had been chosen as a team member.
Plumlee is a trained welder and metal fabricator, the latter of whom turn metal into functional objects, such as motorcycles.
Show staffers flew Plumlee to Long Beach, Calif. on Memorial Day, for the all-expenses-paid trip. He and his team worked on the fire truck in an old car dealership for five days, 12 hours a day, beginning June 1.
Monster Garage contestants always do the same thing transform vehicles.
A Ford Explorer was once turned into a garbage truck on the show, a Limousine became a fire truck, a Volkswagon bug became a swamp buggy and a Ford Mustang was turned into a lawnmower, among others.
If teams can transform their assigned vehicles in five days, each team member is given a 52-inch roll-around tool box containing $3,500 in tools.
And of course, they get all that air time.
"Everybody knew their specialty really well," Plumlee said. "We had a brew master from Coors, a brew master from Stone Brewery in San Diego, a beer/winery equipment shop owner from Oregon and a 73-year-old retired shop supervisor from the Fire Department of New York."
In order to transform the truck, Plumlee said his team had to remove everything from the truck's hose bed, create a new floor, remove the water tank, mount three 250-gallon stainless steel tanks and plumb them with water lines.
One of the tanks was for boiling water, one for mash and one to ferment the beverage.
Since it takes two weeks to make beer, Plumlee never got a chance to sample what his creation made, which was probably for the best: "I can't stand beer. I think it's hideous tasting bitter stuff," he said.
But Plumlee said he "had a blast" working on the show. "It was a ton of hard work, but the fun aspect made you not think about it."
Plumlee and other team members were individually interviewed and the cameras were always on when they were working, he said, adding he would be welding and the producer would stop him and ask him to explain, for the camera, what he was doing and why he was doing it.
Show staffers were "real easy, real nice people," he said, including show star Jesse James.
"I thought" James "would be a jerk," Plumlee said, but instead he turned out to be "easy to work with and down to earth."
Plumlee's prize, his tool chest, is already sitting in his living room.
Plumlee, originally from the West Coast, has lived in Marshall for three years. His parents live in Jefferson.