My biggest critique would be the inordinate amount of screen time Rhonda Kallman got. I’m not even sure why she was in the film. She certainly has nothing to do with the craftbrewing industry anymore. Todd Alstrom of BeerAdvocate.com hit the nail on the head when he remarked that the caffeinated beer she is trying to sell (God knows who came up with the recipe or who actually brews it) is simply a marketing gimmick being pimped to twenty-somethings as a party beer. It’s a slap in the face of real craft brewers, if you ask me. Maybe Baron sees Kallman as herself, 20 years ago. A woman struggling to succeed in a man’s world. Funny how they both sell/sold a sh*tty, not-really-beer product.

The live question and answer period after the film was fairly useless as well. Why Ben Stein was the moderator, I’ll never know, but there were very few questions asked of the panel, the answers to which gave any real insight into the craftbrewing industry. At least not to knowledgeable beer fans like us.

I guess I don’t really know what the point of the film was or to whom it was being made. Yes, the megaswill brewers are big and evil. Yes, craft brewers like Sam Calagione and Greg Koch do what they do for the love of making good beer. But Baron’s audience already knows this. Who is she trying to convince? She preaching to the choir.

Maybe I didn’t enjoy the film all that much after all.

I think you understand my point – that Sam isn’t the only voice in the craft beer movement. But in this movie he was the primary voice, wasn’t he? Why? Dick Yuengling is a great guy who puts his family first, but we didn’t get to hear his story. I think it would have been more interesting to hear about how Yuengling has managed not to get crushed by A-B after all these years and has actually thrived than to hear Sam’s tired story for the millionth time. Maybe when Dick Yuengling starts rapping part-time (thanks for the reminder, BM) people like Anat will start sharing the love.

As for everyone bippin about Sam, I love the guy. Sue me. He makes great beer, has a great personality and I think he’s a great voice for the craft beer movement. Not saying the only voice, far from it, but I think he fit the film well.

PS DFH beers cost double the average craft? Let’s see here, a sampling of our shelves, Sam Adams: $32.50, Yards: $28.99, Troegs: $30.99, Magic Hat: $31.99, Bells: $37.99, Founders: $38.99, Oskar Blues: $32.99, Rogue: $43.99, Stone: $38.99, even Otter Creek commands $33.99.
Dogfish Head: $36.99 A bit more than most our local beers but HARDLY double the price. And considering Raison weighs in at 8% and rings in at $36.99, that’s a pretty damn good deal.

To Tom – engage your gas mask because I am about to blow some more smoke! I will be the first to admit that I am very biased. I work for Sam. Most of the things you commented on are true! Sam is cool, he is a rebel, he was on a surf board, he was featured in the New Yorker and yeah, maybe sometimes his crazy old beat up truck doesn’t start. But dude, you need to know the man, the man who puts his family first, the man who considers everyone of us on his payroll part of his Dogfish family, the man who knows everyone in the brewery by their first name, the man who keeps no secrets about his business encouraging homebrewers to follow their dreams, the man who is always open to suggestions and ideas, the man who will stop whatever he is doing to listen or answer a question when we have one, the man who believes in his product, his company and the people behind it. Yes Tom, I probably am his biggest fan but thats because he shows up at work just like the rest of us and takes an active part in his brewing business. Sam is not a shirt and tie behind a closed door, he’s jeans and sometimes flip flops in a tiny cubicle just like everyone else in the office. In the midst of everything that was going on the night of the movie, Sam slid in a “props to Big Mama – me!” He didn’t have to but he did” I will never forget my three seconds of fame!

Dogfish is an experience, it’s a whole package. I invite you to come and join us for a tour and tasting. And yes, Dogfish is slightly more expensive than your traditional beers but I quote from a line in a Pain Relievaz song “Aw Snap, it just occurred to me, shoulda bought QUALITY instead of buying quanity!” So there my friend is what Dogfish is about, quality.

For me, Anat’s portrayal of Rhonda was merely indicative of Rhonda’s struggle to promote her product. I felt sorry for her but if she is that passionate in her beliefs then who are we to judge her? I hope she succeeds. As far as Ben Stein – I thought he was hilarious. Everyone has skeletons in their closets, so what. I don’t really think it would have mattered who hosted the live panel discussion, someone somewhere would have found something wrong with them too.

Anat, you did a wonderful job. There wasn’t a person in our theater who didn’t laugh, clap or shout out at some point in the movie. I loved it and I thank you for your efforts! You have certainly given us all something to talk about!

Wtf were you thinking settling for Ben Stein?

Yes, I mentioned above that his humor did make up for his lack of prep and specific knowledge about the industry, and getting some smiles and mileage out of the answers as the moderator was his specific task, but that guy has some overtly dangerous views on several political and ethical subjects. At the very least, even his followers/supporters would acknowledge that he has no qualms about being controversial, and that is nothing but a detriment and distraction to your film.

I wonder if you could have gone to any local college or university, and contracted any experienced moderator for a few hours of their time, and walked away with less baggage then Stein’s presence loaded on your shoulders. For that matter, logistics of the live production aside, I would have expected you, Anat, to take the reins for the debate, catch us up with the group since filming, and lead everyone into several topics that you are now intimately familiar with.

Jason

First, the negatives:

Seriously, dump the Moonshot part. Making her marketing blitz (and surgical enhancements- Seriously? Gratuitous tank top shots?) such a big part of the movie was a discredit to the rest of the brewers and businesses and personalities you could have focused on. I wish nothing bad for Rhonda, but I have no sympathy for her, either, because she is trying to cash in on a trend that has nothing to do with the art of craft-brewing. I guarantee that crap, or more specifically, any particular brand of caffeinated beer, will be short-lived on store shelves. To be honest, I couldn’t even tell you what brewery contracts Moonshot for her, and I don’t care, nor am I curious enough to find out. The thing that kept popping into my head was POGs. Remember those? People paid tons of money to rent storefronts for that trend, and they disappeared overnight with no sympathy from me towards the business men who were just cashing in.

The footage, unfortunately, was often obviously dated, and this was just a bit distracting. This would have been fine, if all the footage was at least from the same year, and we could assume that you had sought distribution for the final product since then. But it appeared to span a range of several years, and there was no followup footage to catch us up on the intervening years. I will assume that this is because you were working alone or with a crew of 1 or 2, and of course it takes time for you to crisscross the country to visit every story. I hate to say it, but even travel shows can work with crews of 4 or 5, do their editing and post on the fly, and have things on the air to a waiting network in a month. A suggestion would be to have contract videographers at the 5 or 6 major locations supply establishing and followup footage, and then all you have to do is seamlessly interweave it into the story with current voiceovers and statistics, with the viewer never the wiser that the bulk of the location interviews with you in the shot took place several years ago.

My initial impression of the film was that it was going to be a too-light overview of things, due mainly to the “cute” touches of the animated little Anat, you getting honked at in traffic, the unsuspecting street interviews, etc. I can’t fault you for those touches, because you can, of course, choose any style you want for your filmmaking. You had to appeal somehow to the mainstream audience, but I don’t think this documentary will ever appeal to the mainstream, just by the nature of the subject. I would have preferred the humor as only the icing on the cake on top of a deep, hard-hitting investigation of how the Big 3 do things, with a side of touching profiles of the little guys’ struggles. My background is only that of a lapsed home-brewer who wants to get into the industry, but the choir of 150 you were preaching to in the seats around me was predominantly beer geeks. All I know is that I have made several long trips to New Belgium for birthdays and special occasions, just because of my love for a truly artisanal brew and the company who has accomplished so much, so I can only imagine how much more edge and hard-hitting, fact-finding and poignant journalism the true geeks and industry types around me would have preferred.

When it comes down to it, I wish you and the professionals you profiled would or could have come up with more positive suggestions on how to steer the industry in a profitable direction, where the quality craft brewers (regionals, micro-breweries and brewpubs alike) get the recognition they deserve for their innovation and quality and artistry, and can at least stay afloat amidst the tides of the Big 3 marketing blitz. Seeing point after point at how the Big 3 have all the advantage in the system, while offering no constructive suggestions how we can change things except to “support our local brews”, was frustrating. Damn it, your film left me with no other outlet than to go home and drink a micro, not that that’s a bad thing!

Now for the positives:

Thank you for delving as deep as you did into the stats and stories in your argument that the Big 3 are holding the little guys down. It was great that you touched on the 3 Tier System, and how the little guys have no chance of overcoming it, even though most of them are happy with just staying in business, with hopes of maybe growing to regional status. That was a major strength of the stories like Dogfish, and I would have loved an even deeper look at more breweries and businesses. Seeing “hometown” heroes like New Belgium Brewery and Applejack Liquors was great, and I wonder how many other towns and cities have businesses like them, who give a crap about what they are producing and selling, and I would have loved to see the personalities and emotions of a few more people behind those scenes.

The live debate at the end was really great. Even though Ben Stein seemed a tiny bit unprepared for exactly how the show was scripted to run, he was a great choice as moderator, and his humor made up for the lack of specific knowledge in the industry. I think the live debate served well to catch us up on some of the stories, and that, by itself, almost made up for the dated nature of some of the main production. It ran too short, and I would have loved if Charlie Papazian and the Beer Advocate representation could have had a bigger part in the main film. Their viewpoints would have had more clout in the debate, because it would have been more clear how much of an influence they had in the initial and current direction of the craft brew industry. I wondered if all the non-beer-geeks around me had to explain to their spouses who Charlie is and how so many owe him so much for getting things started in the 70’s and ramping up the excitement for the last several years with the GABF, and how much of an influence organizations like the Beer Advocate have on where this thing is headed.

Unfortunately, around half of my theater’s audience left as soon as the main production’s credits ran, so I think there was not enough advertisement beforehand that a live debate would follow. For that matter, I am not in a homebrew club, and never saw any advance advertisement about this film. Only because Denver’s Westword, a local liberal pulp rag, comes out on Thursdays, and because I am on their email list, did I notice their quick blurb about this screening.

The satellite distribution that you worked out with the theater chains was awesome. I knew they did that for corporations, but seeing it done and making it a truly one-night-only event, in combination with the live debate, really concentrated and solidified your audience for you. Of course, it seems that there were technical glitches in a few cities, and I had very quiet initial sound levels at my screening, but it was overall a very impressive way of getting your message to your niche audience.

Good luck, and thanks, Anat. The O’dells 5-Barrel Pale that I had when I got home was easily the tastiest beer I have had in a while, as good as any cold micro after an afternoon in the hot sun. You reminded me that beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy, so more power to you doing God’s work. I hope only that the choir gets bigger and bigger for you with future screenings and DVD sales.

Jason