Beer Wars (Review)

The event started off kind of bad because the live feed coming from CA was very choppy. The sound was not synced up and it dropped out a couple of times. It was eventually fixed about 30 minutes into the show.

Overall the creator did a good job on this documentary, though I think the content would better suited to a BMC drinker. I got the impression most of the people in the theatre were craft beer converts and the documentary was essentially preaching to the choir.

Going in I was hoping for more of a discussion about craft beer, but I guess the name really should have given it away. The movie was essentially the David and Goliath story, small versus big. The panel did there best to show that the craft beer movement is more about choice and innovation, but the movie was focused on the good versus bad theme, and this was played on throughout.

The documentary did highlight a few things that people are probably not aware of and should be.

1. The brewing industry giants are one top paying lobbyists in Washington
2. Beer distribution is forced to go through a 3 tier system (Brewer, Distributor, Retailer), which is very important to the big guys (e.g. BMC).

Simple fact is the laws make it hard for small craft brewers to start and survive. Then you have the big guys, who will do there best to takeover your business as soon as they see you gaining any market share.

So in the end I think it was worth it, though maybe not $15 worth it. The panel discussion at the end was cool, but a little short and best stein was not at his best. Not sure why they chose him.

Oh, almost forgot. The best part of the movie was when the video dropped out in the beginning and you heard the “cling, cling, cling” of someone's beer bottle falling to the ground. :)