Beer Wars

"Beer is the equivalent of the adult teddy bear..." - Beer Wars

I watched Beer Wars, an enjoyable ride through beer history. Director Anat Baron chronicles the development of brewing in the US, culminating with the domination of the beer market but the "big three" beer brands, Anheuser Busch, Miller, and Coors - who are essentially all brewing the same light pale lagers, which even their most loyal drinkers could not differentiate in a blind taste test. The big brewers have become marketing machines rather than breweries. And of course now it's pretty much all InBev.

It also made me want to go to the Great American Beer Festival!

Here is the Beer Wars Trailer

Fun movie factoids from Beer Wars

• 85 % beer made in the US is light German lager
• 1948 - down to 45 breweries in the US. According to the Brewers Association, 1,595 breweries operated for some or all of 2009, the highest total since before Prohibition.
• The big three breweries spent 1.5 billion dollars on marketing in 2009
  
• independent brewers make 5% of the beer sold in America
  

With the continued growth of craft brewing, finally, American beer drinkers are getting access to good beer from what we can actually call craft breweries. It's probably all cyclical, but we are honored to be participating in what we see as a very important beer movement.