A foreign company most likely owns the brewery that produces your favorite “American” beer. Bud? Yep. Coors? Yep. Miller? You can see where this is going.
“Almost all our beer now comes from Budweiser, Miller and Coors — it’s as if all we knew about food we learned from McDonald’s,” Sam Adams brewmaster Jim Koch says in “Beer Wars.” The less than 90-minute film documents independent brewers’ attempts to get their craft beers to consumers as powerful corporations compete for limited shelf space.
“Beer Wars” premieres in 440 theaters across the country 8 p.m. Thursday. No additional screenings or show times are scheduled.
Immediately following Thursday’s premiere, “Beer Wars” audiences can watch independent brewers and beer industry experts, live from L.A., further explore the reasons why distributors (necessary by law) may hurt independent breweries and why you don’t have the beer options you may think you do. Actor/pundit Ben Stein will moderate the discussion.
Two corporations, MillerCoors, owned by a South African company, and Anheuser-Busch InBev, based in Belgium, control 80 percent of the beer made in the United States, said Anat Baron, “Beer Wars” director and producer. “Some people say well that’s capitalism, survival of the fittest. But wait a minute. Is this country not about freedom of choice? What if people want beers other than these and can’t get them?”
A TV-movie producer allergic to alcohol, Baron first learned what beer industry giants do to drive out smaller players when she worked as general manager of Mike’s Hard Lemonade from 2002 to 2004.
“One thing a lot of people don’t understand is unlike other products, beer must be displayed on a certain shelf for a variety of reasons and laws,” she said. “That shelf isn’t expanding, so something old has to come off of it for something new to be placed on it.”
That’s where “category killers” come in, a concept familiar to Rhonda Kallman.
In “Beer Wars,” Kallman, the chief executive officer of New Century Brewing Co., tries to distribute her caffeinated beer MoonShot.
“Anheuser-Busch copied her product and took over the route of distribution,” Baron said. “When someone creates a new product, they come in with an inferior product to try to kill the category.”
“Beer Wars” may not resonate with people who don’t drink beer, said Charlie Papazian, president of the Brewers Association. “But I think the 95 million beer drinkers in the U.S. would care about the film. They want choice — to individualize their lives in the context of their drink, and these small craft breweries significantly contribute to their local economies.”
On average, according to the “Beer Wars” Web site, every American now lives within 10 miles of a brewery.
If you go
Beer Wars Live
Where: AMC Mazza Gallerie 7, 5300 Wisconsin Ave., D.C.
When: 8 p.m. Thursday
Tickets: $15
Info: beerwarsmovie.com
