Beer Wars Baby!!

As many of you here in the U.S. are aware, the one time showing of the movie "Beer Wars" took place last night. The movie is a project that was put together by Anat Baron, the person behind Mike's Hard Lemonade's rise to "popularity". She set out to make a film about the business side of the beer industry. After three years of shooting and interviews with people from both the craft beer segment and the "big 3" the movie was finally released to select theaters around the country.

As I walked into the theater in Delray Beach, FL, I was greeted with the friendly faces of essentially the beer industry of South Florida. That might be a bit of an exaggeration, but certainly all of the 10-15 people in the room were players in the beer world of Palm Beach County. I was a bit surprised that more people did not come to see the film, but I guess I shouldn't have been considering the lack of promotion for it. Not once did I see a commercial on T.V for the movie. Even the theater I was at did not display that the movie was playing! So, the only people who attended the showing were bound to be beer geeks who heard of the movie through their (our) many beer-centric web sites. The only thing that was truly surprising was that no one brought any beer to the show!

Anyway back to the movie itself. "Beer Wars" sets out to show the battle that is being fought for the minds and wallets of the beer drinkers in this country. The film shows the power that companies such as Anhueser-Busch, Molson-Coors, and Miller wield in a market that has really only begun to open up to companies outside of those big 3. It also follows the stories of craft brewer Sam Calagione and "upstart" businesswomen Rhonda Kallman. Sam is the head of Dogfish Head brewery in Milton, Delaware. Currently the largest craft brewery in the United States. Rhonda is the former CFO of the Boston Beer Company who has since 2001 gone off in search of making a name for herself by marketing several products including the one focused on in the film, Moonshot. Moonshot is a light beer with added caffeine. As Todd Alstrom of BeerAdvocate said "Moonshot is not craft beer it is crap beer." I spoke to several people last night after the viewing who felt that the storyline of Rhonda going from bar to bar trying to sell her product was the worst part of the movie. For me, it was an essential part of the point that the film was trying to make. While the battle between the large conglomerate breweries and the smaller craft breweries is a focal point, the real battle is much deeper. As illustrated by Sam Calagione as well as Greg Koch of Stone Brewing Co., the craft brewer at heart is doing what he loves by making good beer that he enjoys drinking. Of course you can't over look the business side of it, but people like those two have decided to make a career out of doing what they love to do. On the flip side is someone like Rhonda. While I don't know her and have no ill will toward her, she is not in it for the beer. She is marketing a brand for the purpose of making money. Not there's anything wrong with that, to quote Jerry Seinfeld, but that shows what the real battle is. It isn't necessarily between big breweries and small, because as was pointed out in the movie, even Budweiser began as one man and a single batch of beer. The real battle is for our hearts and minds. Do we do things for the enjoyment and experience or do we do them for results and profit?

Well that ends my pseudo-philosophical diatribe. In the end the movie was very enjoyable in my opinion. It was fun and interesting to see regardless of your level of beer knowledge. Hopefully it will make its way to DVD in the near future. So, as I finish off my Palo Santo Marron, courtesy of Sam Calagione, I say to everyone reading this, drink what you like as long as you like it for the right reasons.

Cheers,

Joey Beers