Beer Wars - the movie

[TapItGood]

Ha Ha...I brew that beer, douche bag J/K. Yeah that is some aweful beer, if it wasn't for all the fire men who drink it I doubt they would still be around.

[Brandt]

My fiancee is from the Knoxville area, so I feel your pain. The whole of TN does not get much beer at all. In your shoes with that price gouging I would certainly go for the local (believe me I buy local first over Stone too. Four Peaks Raj IPA ftw ). Her county was dry until 5 years ago. .....

but then there are still the other archaic laws (like the three tier system I wish they'd go into more). Consumer choice my ass. Ask people in Knoxville - Am I right Brandt?

There are still plenty of dry counties in my area. I live a mile from Blount county, which just passed a law allowing sales of packaged liquor about 5 years ago. Two years ago, my best option for "good" beer in a bottle was guiness or Rogue Dead guy. Now when I go to the grocery, I can choose from Magic Hat #9, Avery IPA, Boddingtons (yeah I know AB owns them), and a couple of good locals from North Carolina (Duck Rabbit). That's about it. And theyre all fucking expensive. Rogue is $12 everything else is $10. Selection is awful here. Everything else falls under the catagory and jurisdiction of liquor, which comes with it's own set of even more restrictive laws. The average price I pay for a single bottle of craft beer is $4 at lquor stores.

However, if you go to Nashville, the selection blows my mind, and everything is considerably cheaper there. I used to live in Swanannoa NC where they had some incredibly restrictive laws, such as no sales on Sundays, and no beer over 5%. They've since passed new liquor laws, and now that's where I go to buy beer (in addition to DC, and Pittsburgh). Lower sales tax too.

The manager of one of the two stores in town with a decent beer selection complains about the distributors and the three tier system all the time. He shows me a huge list of beers he could get, if only the single person in our area that he is legally allowed to do business with, would carry those beers. So, yeah,... I wanted to hear more about Anat'a take on the three tier system too. From what I've seen, it really does keep the consumer from buying what they want, and fattens the wallets of the distributors who sell Bud.

[Charlie]

I saw it in Lake Charles. My kids and I were half of the people in the theater.

Major screwup when it started. No sound. Then we got the sound for some other movie. Finally it got fixed.

The subject matter was pretty interesting. The Dogfish story was fairly well developed. Nice mention of Yuengling, but not much substance. The three tier setup is strange, but the implication that the majors use it to drive out competition was not well developed. Rhonda's story was sort-of tragic, but rather predictable. Caffeine in beer? No thanks.

I would watch it again if it came on TV. The kids were bored to tears.

Charlie

[Rudeboy]

After listening to Anat Baron on the show a few weeks back I watched the movie and was pleasantly suprised.

One of the things that I liked the most was the focusing on Rhonda and Sam(mostly because it reinforces my preconcived notions) But it was because of the sub-text that I don't think Anat was going for.

Rhonda was savvy in Beer Marketing and knew a lot of big wigs and could get meetings with them but wasn't a brewer and was just trying to market a gimick that she didn't brew and wanted to make a billion bucks.

Sam knew nothing of the beer industry (when he started) but was passoinate about his beer and was a hands on brewer brewing beers that went against the "marketers" type.

And the winner is.

See brew good beer, your doing the Lord's work.

Rudeboy

Also what ever happened to Moon Shot. The principle photography seems to have been shot in '05. Is Moon Shot still around? Hopefully it's dead and Rhonda is doing something useful with her life.

[Jaeger48]

New Century Brewing is still around but mainly trying to market Edison beer. I don't see anything about Moonshot now but it's all about this "premium light beer".

Rhonda Kallman is a sad story in beer, it seems like she lies to herself more than the public.

[calpete]

After hearing Anat on the Session twice, I decided to give her film a shot, now that it's available through Netflix. But I have to say, I didn't much like it. It was worth my time watching, but not much else.

Rudeboy nails it:

One of the things that I liked the most was the focusing on Rhonda and Sam(mostly because it reinforces my preconcived notions) But it was because of the sub-text that I don't think Anat was going for.

Rhonda was savvy in Beer Marketing and knew a lot of big wigs and could get meetings with them but wasn't a brewer and was just trying to market a gimick that she didn't brew and wanted to make a billion bucks.

Sam knew nothing of the beer industry (when he started) but was passoinate about his beer and was a hands on brewer brewing beers that went against the "marketers" type.

Because Anat clearly sympathizes with Rhonda's story, as a fellow struggling entrepreneur who worked in the beer industry but really isn't a beer person (and certainly not a brewer), Rhonda ends up ruining the film rather than making it. Anat tried to turn this into a story about the "little guys" being bullied around by big, bad corporate America, which is actually a pretty difficult story to tell, since so many of Anat's examples (Stone, New Belgium, Boston Beer, Papazian, Dogfish Head, Beer Advocate) are actually phenomenal success stories of passionate innovators, while it's the cynical A-B's of the world who struggle to grow and find themselves swept up in global mega-mergers.

It becomes even more obvious that Anat missed the true story when viewing the extras on the DVD, both the deleted scenes (which would have been some of the best parts of the film had they not been cut) and the Q&A session after the premier. Anat and Rhonda and Maureen Ogle and Ben Stein and those douchebags with the beer wholesalers just don't get it. It IS about the beer. It IS about what's in the glass, not what's on the glass (or bottle or can or tap handle). It IS about having a passion for one's art, one's craft, one's product. It is NOT about marketing gimmickry or even about a byzantine landscape of laws and lobbyists that makes entrepreneurship far more difficult than it should be. Sorry, Rhonda, but as vital as you were to Boston Beer's early success, helping Jim sell his beer in a very unwelcoming marketplace, the reality is that the true value of that company lies in the quality of its products, not in the creativity and tenacity of its salesforce.

The "beer industry" lost sight of that central reality some time ago. True beer people--brewers and beer advocates--are re-enlightening us. Anat could have made a brilliant film if told from this artisinal, "Slow Food" angle; instead, she comes up short trying to be the Michael Moore of beer.

[Charlie]

The "beer industry" lost sight of that central reality some time ago. True beer people--brewers and beer advocates--are re-enlightening us. Anat could have made a brilliant film if told from this artisinal, "Slow Food" angle; instead, she comes up short trying to be the Michael Moore of beer.

Amen Bro! I wanted to see a movie about beer. There were some interesting bits, but it wasn't at all what I expected. Anat threw me right out the gate when she said she was allergic to alcohol. That's pretty darn strange; unless she's an alien her own cells make ethanol as part of the respiratory cycle!

The club is coming over Saturday eve and we're gonna denature some protein and watch the (Netflix) DVD. I'm looking forward to seeing the cut scenes and panel discussion (we missed the panel at the theater because we were asleep by then).

Charlie

[Baumgartner]

Rudeboy nails it:
One of the things that I liked the most was the focusing on Rhonda and Sam(mostly because it reinforces my preconcived notions) But it was because of the sub-text that I don't think Anat was going for.

Anet's first interview mentioned how she has the last interview with Micheal Jackson before parkinsons set in.

During anets second interview i asked through the chat room "When can we see the Micheal Jackson interview?" after a bunch of dodging she admits we can't see it unless she makes enough off of "beer wars". Sorry i dont see that movie making her rich.

she has no idea where the real meet of the story is for the BN audience. I would pay for the UNCUT 1.5 hr Micheal Jackson session, NOT BEER WARS