Park Slope Food Coop's Plow to Plate Movie Series Presents: "Beer Wars" in February

Park Slope is a beer-lover’s neighborhood.  Establishments like the , , , the Park Slope Food Coop, or even  or bodegas have selections of high-end craft beer that even the snobbiest of beer snobs could tip their hat to.

But it wasn’t always this way. Shopping in the 1970s or 1980s, Slopers may have been limited to Coors, Budweiser or Miller.

The documentary “Beer Wars,” which will be screened at the Park Slope Food Coop on Tuesday, Feb. 14 at 7 p.m., chronicles the recent history of beer in the United States, the rise of microbreweries and the response to competition by the three large breweries that dominate the market. 

Ironically, its director, Anat Baron, former head of Mike's Hard Lemonade, is allergic to alcohol. For this reason Baron’s film is less an appreciation of the taste of a good beer than it is a riveting case study—told by an industry insider—of an oligopolistic, competitive, $97 billion dollar industry controlled by large multinational corporations.

“Beer Wars” is the story of the craft brewing renaissance and focuses on the tales of two entrepreneurs: Rhonda Kallman, whose caffeinated beer, Moonshot (subsequently banned by the FDA), desperately needs an investor; and Dogfish Head founder, Sam Calagione, as he navigates the expansion of his microbrewery without compromising his principles. 

Their artisanal beers are a tiny fraction of the market—the vast majority of the 6,550,000,000 gallons of beer consumed annually in the United States remains the light, indistinguishable lagers produced by Anheuser-Busch, Miller, and Coors Brewing Company.

However, this tiny corner of the market is where the greatest growth and profits lie.

“Beer Wars” shows how the Big Three deploy every means at their disposal to defend their traditional turf and pursue new opportunities.

The documentary explores some of the empires’ strategies: spending $1.5 billion on advertising and sponsorships to develop brand identities, developing a “beer lobby” to support the status quo distribution system that favors the largest producers, muscling out smaller rivals for retail shelf space, brand acquisitions and extensions, competitive pricing and mergers. 

At the end of the day, Miller and Coors join forces to compete against Anheuser-Busch, which was swallowed up by its European competitor InBev.

The Supreme Court has ruled that corporations are people. Baron’s film tells a different story. While Coors, with its after-hours gym and Miller with its employee pub, come across in a relatively positive light, the same cannot be said about Anheuser-Busch, except for the Budweiser Clydesdales horses.

For the most part, Anheuser-Busch is depicted as a faceless entity lacking personality, but with an insatiable drive to grow at all costs and employ all available tactics to dominate the market and crush its competitors. In sharp contrast, Rhonda Kallman and Sam Calagione are all too human. 

Like other alternative producers and pioneers who are described as “freaky,” “radical,” “folk artists,” and “outside the status quo,” they are creative and passionate about their product and also worried about their debt, business plans, time spent on the road and in bars away from family and whether Dogfish Head’s expansion plans leave room for the planned bocce court. 

There is a scene in the documentary that sums up how personal microbreweries really are:

Calagione is sitting in his office being interviewed and the phone rings. He picks up. On the other end of the line is a consumer the founder has never met or spoken to before. The beer drinker got Calagione’s office line from a Dogfish Head beer bottle (his number is printed on each one) and they chat.

Try reaching the king of the King of Beers at 1-800-DIAL-BUD…“Beer Wars” reminds us that there is a big difference. 

Watch "Beer Wars" on Tuesday, Feb. 14th, 7 p.m.

Park Slope Food Coop, 782 Union St, 2nd Floor

Refreshments will be served.