I'll begin by saying that this documentary was filmed in 2002, and released in 2004. At the time there were something like 1,000 breweries and they toured 38. I have 38 breweries in a 30 mile radius from me now. In fact, I saw a documentary made in 2007 that toured nearly as many breweries in North Carolina alone. That being said, this is more a historical document than anything else, though from a cursory search of breweries they traveled to, ALL seem to be still open today. Many that they toured are still the landmark craft breweries in the USA today, such as Allagash, Brooklyn Brewery, Dogfishhead, New Belgium, Sierra Nevada, Anchor, and others.
A lot of the information in the film itself is what I now take for granted to be basic information about beer, seemingly spoon-fed to an audience that probably knew little about beer besides Budweiser and Coors at the time. However, I was impressed about the information provided in the deleted scenes, and many were in-depth interviews with brewery owners, and a few provided hints as to odd fermentation styles that those breweries did. I still am curious about "open fermentation" as a homebrewer.
Though the information is a bit dated, I have to give the filmmakers a hand for decent production values on an admittedly shoe string budget. Fully deserving an 8/10 for its ambitious premise and providing me a bit of information I did not already know, oh and a historical document of the growing American craft brewery revolution.
A lot of the information in the film itself is what I now take for granted to be basic information about beer, seemingly spoon-fed to an audience that probably knew little about beer besides Budweiser and Coors at the time. However, I was impressed about the information provided in the deleted scenes, and many were in-depth interviews with brewery owners, and a few provided hints as to odd fermentation styles that those breweries did. I still am curious about "open fermentation" as a homebrewer.
Though the information is a bit dated, I have to give the filmmakers a hand for decent production values on an admittedly shoe string budget. Fully deserving an 8/10 for its ambitious premise and providing me a bit of information I did not already know, oh and a historical document of the growing American craft brewery revolution.