this past spring i stopped to grab a drink downtown with my… errr… friend. the cocktail menu sucked so i perused the tap handles in desperation. if they let me down plan C was to inspect the wine list. i saw the usual suspects… sam adams was the only micro brew in the bank, and i almost asked for it until i saw something new. a well designed logo — clean, easy to read, and dark. perfect i thought, no need for wine, i’ve found a beer i’ve never heard of. oh, bartender i beckoned, i’ll take an AMERICAN ALE. the words rolled off my tongue in an off handed, confident way. i felt kinda cool saying it even. relieved i had made the right choice i turned to look at my friend, whose gaze was waiting for mine. he was kind of smirking in that bemused way he has of almost patronizing you but not really. something was up, and i wasn’t looking forward to finding out what. i was silent as i waited for him to speak… he said, you do know that’s budweiser don’t you, with a very serious face. wow, i had just committed a severe infraction in our world of educated coolness. i was a sucka. embarrassed, i wanted to crawl under the bar. sheepishly i said, it is? my friend said yeh without even a smirk this time. his eyes were saying: you’re an idiot but maybe we can still hang out. then he cracked that smile finally and said, you thought you were all cool ordering it too, didn’t you? i admitted that i had and we both chuckled, knowing that he’d called my bluff. it was then that i wanted to crawl under the bar and take a keg handle to gouge my eyes out with, or, just the hearts of every anheuser-busch employee alive for tricking me. but so goes another day at the office for corporate america. i was just one more innocent citizen who’d been deceived. for christ’s sake america, anheuser-busch is a BRASILIAN and BELGIAN owned company. budweiser’s AMERICAN ALE isn’t even american anymore!

the movie BEER WARS quite literally documents a war about beer, and small business in america, and how both are under attack from huge, multinational, government influenced, greedy corporations. this movie had me entertained, informed and inspired from the beginning. it spoke to me on a very personal level as i myself am an entrepreneur fighting the same battle on a different field.

“Beer Wars is a true “David and Goliath story” – small, independent brewers who are shunning the status quo and creating innovative new beers as they challenge the corporate brewery behemoths. The story follows two of these intrepid entrepreneurs – Sam Calagione and Rhonda Kallman – battling the might and tactics of corporate America. Witness their struggle to achieve their American Dream in an industry dominated by powerful corporations unwilling to cede an inch.”

i’ve always shunned flavorless pale lager, but after seeing BEER WARS i’d rather drink piss than drink anything from the spouts of the big three: miller/coors/anheuser-busch. so peeps… support human-owned business and stop buying those fucking imposter micro brews from anheuser-busch — or green valley brewing — as they like to refer to themselves on their fake micro brew label. spend the extra few bucks and buy the real micro brew. watch BEER WARS here.