“Beer Wars” on IMDB
Watch “Beer Wars” on Netflix
Review
A fun and very informative documentary movie on the beer business in all its various facets. It channels a bit of Michael Moore at times when particular absurdities surface (like the beer lobbyist talking about “neo-prohibitionists”), but mostly it’s a very direct yet entertaining revelation of the beer industry from an insider. It’s particularly interesting to hear from the owners of Moonshot Beer and Dogfish Head Brewing, who are prominently featured throughout the documentary.
Commentary
Every day is election day in America, and you vote with your wallet. Every dollar you spend is a vote in favor of doing business one way versus another: when you spend your money, companies take that and they use it to advance their own interests. So when you spend money, you’re basically advocating for more of that kind of business. Buy at McDonald’s instead of a local fast food place (like a taqueria)? Then you’re advocating for more McDonald’s in the world fewer independent fast food places. Do you buy at Walmart instead of a locally-owned independent business? Do you buy RIAA music instead of independent musicians? You get the picture. Every day and every dollar is advocating for a way of life. And that’s just the reality of living in the market economy.
Although I have thought of this in terms of music (hence, The Indie3 Project), restaurants, groceries, and shopping, I never really thought about it in terms of beer. I’m not entirely sure why. This documentary really woke me up.
Like many other industries, the big players have invested in the status quo heavily, and shaped it to be what they want it to be. Like in other industries, they’ve done this through both market means (using their economic weight to shoulder out competition) and political means (shoring up federal legislation from the end of prohibition that excludes small brewers). Of course, when money can be used to buy politicians, then the difference between the commercial market and politics is just one of labels.
“Armchair activists” are probably saying that we can solve the problem by electing new politicians to change these laws—as soon as you can get politicians in office who are willing to take on non-popular and esoteric regulations in the face of powerful and well-funded lobbyists, let me know. Until then, we have to solve this problem through consumers changing the market. And that means spending money in counter-dominant ways: spending money locally, and spending it on underdogs.
Part of the shock from this movie was realizing how many brands and styles of beer that I thought were small labels really aren’t. In particular, I was deeply saddened to find out that Leinenkugel is Miller and Rolling Rock is Anheuser-Busch. You Pabst drinkers? That’s Miller-Coors. Which of the “big three” you buy is really moot these days, because Miller, Coors, and Anheuser-Busch are all owned by a single Belgian company. So much for any of those brands being patriotic: these “American beers” aren’t.
I’m going back to Big Boss Brewing’s Angry Angel.
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