I like small town businesses, mom and pop stores, and my local pubs. I experience a feeling of welcome when I enter these places, and I just feel cozy. When I enter Wal-Mart or McDonalds, however, I am treated to a sterile environment, with bright, harsh lights. There is no love in those stores, and everything feels too polished. To me, local stores have more Americana in them than any large conglomerate, and they usually have better service.
Not only do I like the smaller, independent companies, but I also write for a magazine that is independent and off the beaten path, and went to an independent school. This has led me to believe that smaller, independent entities are inherently better than larger ones. Furthermore, I microbrew, and love the taste of real beer, not the horse piss that is put out by the large corporations. Unless I am playing beer pong (i.e. drinking to get wasted), I want a full-flavored, rich beer. Thus, when I had a chance to see Beer Wars, I jumped at it.
Beer Wars is a movie with a very simple scope — let's examine the American beer market, and see what is going on. To do this, the movie follows Anat Baron (the writer and director of the movie, and former general manager of Mike's Hard Lemonade) as she prances around the country. Baron is on a mission, a mission where she desires to prove that the big-time players in the beer market (Anheuser-Busch, Miller, and Coors) are simply bullies beating up on the little guys.
To prove this, Baron heads all over America seeking out opinions and great beer. She visits pubs, microbreweries, and larger companies, all trying to see what is going on. She interviews people, chats it up with owners, and follows around one businesswoman as she tries to sell her beer, Moonshot. Basically, Baron is putting a human face on the companies, and getting us to feel sympathetic toward them.
Baron then moves on to the actual title, and talks about the wars going on inside the beer market. She examines the interactions between the manufacturers, distributors, and bars, and the placement that beer gets on shelves. She looks at mergers, buy-outs, and the parity of the American market. Finally, she looks at the legal side, where Budweiser sends legal letters out to Dogfish Head, all about the name of their Pumpkin Ale. All in all, Baron examines a market the way the SEC and Congress should — they don't and never will, and she explains why.
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