"Americans drink a lot of beer—$97,000,000,000 worth last year. That's 6,500,000,000 gallons of beer. Most of that beer comes from a handful of multinational corporations."

That is indeed a lot of beer. As one person in the film says, "Americans love beer. It's like mother, God, and apple pie." To be honest, I don't drink my fair share, but when I do have beer, I want it to be a good beer, so I gravitate towards craft beers, which is what this film champions.

Craft beers are the ones that come from small to midsized breweries—some local, some regional, some even nationally distributed. These beers make up only a small part of the market share. Anheuser-Busch accounts for half of all the beer sold in the U.S. Add to that Coors and Miller, and that takes care of 78% of the market. But there are now 1600 brewers in the U.S. (In 1978 there were only forty-five.) Hundreds of small brewers have a passion about creating beer that treats beer more as art form than as business.

That tension between art and business is what is central to Beer Wars. Filmmaker Anat Baron has spent time in the brewing industry, and sees the struggle between large and smaller breweries as a David and Goliath story. She understands both sides of the conflict. A non-drinker (she's allergic to alcohol), she has worked as General Manager for Mike's Hard Lemonade. She has fought to get placement for her product on shelves. She understands the bottom line. But she also understands the desire of people to put out a product that they perceive as better than what is offered by the large corporate breweries.

The tension is best described by Jim Koch of Boston Beer Company: "Creativity shouldn't stop just because these industries have become these mass, industrial, consolidated, inter-galactic companies. There needs to be lunatics like me that have that same passion. That's where the truly wonderful parts of human civilization come from—these lunatics at the fringe."

While beer is the focal point of the film, it could have been almost any industry. It is the struggle of the entrepreneur against the established corporate giants. The large companies have money for advertising. They have powerful lobbying groups to get protective laws (for example the three-tiered distribution system for beer in the U.S.). They can throw their weight around with retailers. New companies and new ideas have a difficult time getting their feet in the door. (Take a look at the beer section at your store and see how much room is set aside for craft beers.) Even if they have some success, the bigger companies may buy them out or copy their product. (Examples: Anheuser-Busch bought out Rolling Rock and closed the Latrobe, PA brewery, and both Anheuser-Busch and Coors now make Belgian white ales.)

Baron summarizes this toward the end of the film: "Is it just about beer? Does it really matter who's behind what we drink, what we eat, what we watch? What has the American dream become? Is it still about the freedom to pursue your passion or has it become only about success and power? When is big big enough?"

Baron was able use her experience and contacts in the business to show many sides of the brewing industry. We meet the lobbyists (the beer lobby is larger than the gun and tobacco lobbies combined). We see craft beer makers and home beer makers. We hear from the CEOs of Miller and Coors (but only a VP from A-B). While in some ways the Big Three may seem like the villain in this, they certainly get a fair share of screen time and have valid points of view about the industry. Rather than David and Goliath, I think the battle is much more a celebration of the entrepreneurial spirit that is an important part of our economy—as well as a celebration of good beer.

One of the DVD special features is a panel discussion with some of the participants in the film moderated by Ben Stein. The discussion provides a bit more focus on the economics and role of market capitalism in the industry.