An Industry Insider Film Review of Beer! A Love Story
Editor’s note: Our thanks to industry insider Pete Slosberg (of Pete’s Wicked Ale fame) for his take on another documentary film about beer.
Beer! A Love Story, is a beautifully shot documentary film, by Friedrich Moser, an Austrian filmmaker. But watching the film made me scratch my head and ask if the film's title should have instead been: “Beer, An Independent Brewery Love Story.” I’ll get into the politics in a minute, but my overall take is that the film jumps around a lot when it comes to the viewers' level of beer knowledge. Sometimes it is for beer geeks and sometimes for beer novices. It would have benefited from a consistent point of view about beer itself. That said, there were some amazing tidbits like the promulgating of ancient forms of barley in Italy to experiment with; pre- hop experimentation with herbs and spices in Austria; and how slight problems in fermentation could lead to creating a new beer character: unexpected and desirable.
Skimming the Surface
Christoph Bichler meets Frezi and Peter Bouckaert at the hop fields of Perrault Farm in Yakima.
The film had funding from the Austrian and Belgian governments, so a lot of the film takes place in those countries. The film's main protagonist is Christoph Bichler, The Head of Brewing at Brewery Bierol in Austria. At the beginning of the movie, he talks about his initial beer, Mountain Pale Ale, winning Best of Show in 2014 at a beer event in Vienna. Spoiler alert, the end of the movie shows him winning Best Beer in Austria. In between, he is one of many people shown going to beer locations around the US and Europe. The locations provide a brief background on what goes into beer making, but some examples are downright simplistic, a la homebrewing 101, and others are really esoteric such as the use of Brettanomyces yeast at the Monastery Orval in Belgium. Selective stories don't tell the whole "Love Story", only a tease. More stories would make the movie a lot more appealing.
Are Independent Breweries Really Better?
The politics of the movie bothered me. From the beginning scene of the movie, through the middle, and certainly at the end, the theme of brewery independence (e.g. a smaller brewery being owned by a larger brewery, but not identifying itself as being owned) comes through distinctively. Sure, brewery independence can give the brewer more flexibility to be creative, but not necessarily so. Also, big corporations can do some not-so-nice things, which really do appall me. Our brewing company was attacked by a major international brewing company three times. In each case, we were in the right so there is no love lost between me and them. Some independent breweries can also have bad actors. The current #MeToo movement in craft beer has had several famous people including CEOs and world-famous brewers be accused of misogyny and/or sexual harassment and several have stepped down. Size and levels of independence do not necessarily tell the whole story. There are good and bad characters at any level.
The Best of the Love Story
This political statement of independence of breweries took away from a great "love story." Some scenes were quite captivating such as the Boon brewery in Belgium, which makes Lambic beer. This is a historical method of brewing that is spontaneously fermented by wild yeast floating on dust particles above the river Senne. The Senne River is famous for having the most incredible wild yeast and bacteria floating in the air above it in the world. Or Rodenbach Brewery which ages sour beer in gigantic foeders (beer storage/aging tanks) with 500-year-old wood. Or, The Great Thirst, a pub in Belgium, that is only open during church hours on Sundays or religious holidays and serves only sour beer. These scenes, I thought were perfect to highlight A Love Story.
Peter Bouckaert: Breakout Star
Peter Boukhaert and Rudy Ghequire tasting beer still under fermentation from the feeder
To me, the star of the movie is Peter Bouckaert, currently an owner and brewer at Purpose Brewing and formerly at New Belgium Brewing and Rodenbach Brewery. He is truly a beer artist with great enthusiasm for the fun and creativity for beer that can be found while bicycling to being on the brewdeck and in the fermentation cellars with different wood barrels for aging. The highlight of the movie was Peter saying that "beer has only three ingredients: knowledge, experience and creativity."
Who’s the Audience Anyway?
Beer! A Love Story is a hodgepodge of scenes and stories that, at times, portray great love for beer and some beautiful video footage, but at other times wanders into the extraneous filler. Educationally, it is all over the map and doesn't target any specific level of beer knowledge and as such, doesn't fill in many of the blanks about beer and the brewing process.
If the director had focused more on the love of beer and less on the politics of beer, it would really have been more compelling. Christoph's story, upon which the movie follows, does not elevate him to be a sympathetic hero that the viewer can get behind. He is just a vehicle.
In the movie from 1970, "Love Story" with Ryan O'Neal and Aly MacGraw the tag line was "Love means never having to say you're sorry." In Beer! A Love Story, the tagline appears to be "Love beer, but sorry, it must only be beer from independent brewers."