"Beer Wars" - A BOCK-umentary

Last night my friend, Nate, and I attended the live premiere of Beer Wars, a documentary focusing on the beer industry in America that in the last 20 years since the legalization of home-brewing has become a struggle for a multi-billion dollar business between the big, established mega-brewers (Anheuser-Busch, Miller, Coors) and the nearly 1,500 craft breweries sprinkled across the country.


Overall, it was a good film, but not great. Beer Wars does a good job of exposing the mega-brewers for what they really are - big businesses driven by the almighty bottom-line dollar with the sacrifice of quality of product, individuality and even sometimes, ethics. However, the underdog heroes of the film, the independent brewers, are not given nearly enough focus, in my opinion. The director admits that this documentary took almost three years to make, yet to me it almost looked like a rushed production that is a good idea and an interesting topic, but could have been so much more. Here's why:


- Only about a half dozen craft brewers are even included in the film. Of those only a couple are really focused on: Dogfish Head Brewing out of Delaware (an excellent success story/work ethic) and some caffeine-infused beer called Moon Shot - they never mentioned where it is brewed, but instead focus on one woman's struggle to introduce it into the already crowded market of New York and Boston. New Belgium Brewing of Colorado and Stone Brewing in California also have brief "cameos."


- Of the few craft brewers mentioned, all were fairly regionalized with most of the focus staying on the East Coast. Zero mention of some of the great southern craft brewing success stories such as Shiner, Sweetwater, Terrapin, Bluegrass, Yazoo and Highland.


- Advertising for this movie was almost non-existent. I feel lucky to have found out about it myself and it was purely by accident while surfing on the Internet. It was promoted by Fathom Events (http://www.fathomevents.com/) which uses movie theatres nationwide to broadcast opera, concerts, comedy, plays and in this case, documentaries usually in a live format. I have Fathom bookmarked on my computer because I like the idea of using movie theatres for more than just Hollywood films and it was while browsing their event list that I came across Beer Wars. Even local Yazoo Brewery owner/brew master, Linus Hall, mentioned to me in his blog ( http://www.yazoobrew.blogspot.com/) that little effort was made by the film's producers to work with craft brewers to spread the word about it. In fact, Yazoo had already made conflicting plans for last night before they even heard about the film's premiere broadcast, thus negating any chance to perhaps have a pre- and post-screening party. Even the theatre in L.A. where the live pre- and post-film broadcasts were being held was not full?

- The cost for the movie was a staggering $15. That's way too much to get anyone but real beer enthusiasts off their couch and into a movie theatre (a movie theatre which doesn't serve beer - see my next knock against this movie) and those people already know most of the points being made in the film anyway. I mean for Pete's sake, my wife and I are going to the Nashville Film Festival's world premiere of William Shatner's Gonzo Ballet tonight with Capt. Kirk himself scheduled to be in attendance and those tickets were only $11 each.

- Broadcasting in theatres that don't even sell beer made no real sense either. Another point Linus from Yazoo made on his blog was that such a film really belongs in an art-house theatre such as the Belcourt here in Nashville (which serves beer). I couldn't agree more. Nate and I made up for this fact by stopping by the nearby Music City Bar and Grill (a decent little bar trapped in the Tourist Hell that is Opryland/Music Valley Drive) before and after the movie and had a few Fat Tire pints (from Colorado's New Belgium Brewing). Linus, if you read this, see if you can't talk those guys into serving Yazoo. They serve a ton of tourists looking for "local beer" according to the bartender we talked to.


- The "live" introduction and follow-up round table discussion hosted by Ben Stein (who seemed very unprepared and not even a fan of craft brewing) were very brief and fairly unorganized. I mean I know it's live, but you are broadcasting nationwide with months to prepare...so have your shit together already!

Despite all the flaws, I did enjoy the movie. I wouldn't run right out and buy it when it comes out on DVD and I probably would only recommend it to other beer lovers, but I did learn a thing or two from it:

- like the fact that when Anheuser-Busch bought out Rolling Rock several years back they closed the Rolling Rock Brewery and continued production in their own brewery...they paid for the facilities but only wanted the name....disgusting.

And that although there are nearly 1,500 Lilliputian craft breweries in the U.S., combined they only make up 5 to 6 percent of the market share dominated by the Gulliver-sized mass producers.

And I did get a few laughs from it:

Two of the funniest parts of the film (that probably weren't meant to be) was the fact that the director doesn't drink beer (she's allergic to alcohol...WTF?), but got her start in the business by successfully hawking Mike's Hard Lemonade....OK? The other was the "brew master" at Anheuser-Busch promoting some new rip-off craft-style of beer they were brewing and he just dumps it in a glass with a huge head on it....hilarious....way to show your love for your product, dude.