Eye Candy #317 - "Beer Wars"

Beer Wars:  A recent documentary by Anat Baron about the struggle of independent breweries to survive in a market dominated by 3 extremely large competitors, not the least of which is Anheuser-Busch (now InBev).  It’s a very one-sided look at the business and if you work for A-B, this is not the movie for you.  Baron focuses on two different parties in the film: the owners/operators of the Dogfish Head Brewery in Delaware run by Sam Calagione and upstart marketer Rhonda Kallman, who is struggling to sell her caffeine-laced beer Moon Shot on a regional, much less a national level.  And in the other corner, the Big 3, but Anheuser-Busch is easily painted in the most sinister light, with an advertising budget of some $300 million a year.  It does a good job detailing the unforeseen consolidation of the beer industry that has made it difficult for smaller breweries to find distributorship because of antiquated laws that protect more established brewers and their good ol’ boy distribution networks that freeze out competitors by refusing to carry their products at all.  A-B, as portrayed in the film, will do anything in its power from introducing identical products to suing over words used in beer titles to planning shelf space in grocery stores that highlight the placement of their product over others.  Also interesting to note the sheer number of brands that A-B under it now (over 80), including some you probably weren’t aware of (like Boddington’s Ale or Hoegaarden?  That‘s A-B).  So it has sullied my impression of Anheuser-Busch as all that was good in American brewing and reinforced indeed that they are most of what is bad - anti-competition, politically-connected, and over-marketed.  It’s time to go find me a craft beer.   However, as a film, it really depends on how much or little you can stand Anat Baron, who inserts herself readily into the picture.   You have seen better documentaries than this.  Woodchuck sez, “For aficionados.”