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Agriculture is a major component of beer. The glorious photos on social media covering the recent hop harvest should make that abundantly clear.
So when I saw a new documentary pop up, and it had a farming slant to it, I jotted the name down to put on my watch list. (yes, I have a list for everything).
It is alliteratively called Weed & Wine and tracks a weed farm in California and a vineyard in France. They even have a sequel in the works already, maybe it will be Hemp & Hops.
Since the Hard Knocks documentary series has come to HBO streaming ( gonna pass on the dumb Max name ), I have become a fan. And the roster of shows keeps expanding with pre- season and in-season now joined by off-season.
We only follow the team over five episodes and by team, I mean the back of house team. The GM, the owner, the scouts. Players are not far from mind, but they are not the focus. The ultimate episode is the draft which is a bit anti-climactic since the Giants basically got the wide receiver they wanted as well as a defensive free agent they coveted as well.
Future seasons may have more action to them, but this one, though illuminating pales in comparison to the pre-season version.
For beer, you can go two ways. Find any New Jersey beers you can or failing that, New York. Or you can pull out the biggest abv beer that you have on hand and wake up the next morning like you had been hit by a linebacker.
Finally, some streaming beer content and it even name checks my hometown!
And if you want some companion material, head HERE.
I am a sucker for documentaries, especially beverage documentaries such as Fire Water and Grain – Empire Rye where we “meet a group of renegade craft distillers, farmers, entrepreneurs, historians, and policymakers as they band together to celebrate the past, present, and future of Rye Whiskey and what it means to the people of the state that made it famous.”
It doesn’t appear to be “free” streaming from what I can see but you can buy via whichever platform you use.
If you liked that preview then head HERE to check out their Kickstarter page.
First, I want you to head to HERE to watch the trailer for One Pint At a Time.
And then make sure to check the website, like I have to keep tabs on possible future showings in Los Angeles.
One question has popped up a lot recently, what will be the first post-pandemic movie that you will sit in a movie theater and watch.
Well, I have an option for beer fans. Beer City San Diego. You can read more HERE about the documentary. You will get interviews with legends like Peter Zien of AleSmith among others.
If you have watched everything on Netflix, HBO to the Max, D+, and you need something new to watch, well you are in luck because Beer! is available to stream.
Here is the elevator pitch, “There’s no other film like BEER! A Love Story. This full-length feature documentary weaves together the stories of over 30 international protagonists across multiple countries who speak the universal language of beer, the world’s most consumed fermented beverage.”
At first this documentary, this was slow without much Sake information. But then the journeys of the protagonists was revealed and it was really affected me. The writer from Cleveland is my analog, but the UK brewer has nuggets of wisdom, as did the family Sake House with the upstart son and the Fukushima tragedy really struck me. There was one section in Cornwall, where Parker was talking about each year being new that actually rang far more true than any New Years Resolution. And it was really fun to see a North Carolina sake brewery putting their own spin on the beverage.
There is some “how-to brew” segments but that is not the thrust of this movie so you will probably need to augment with some outside reading to catch a fuller idea of what is being done. That is what I am going to do after seeing this.
If you are wondering if ended up on a different blog because of the image above, rest assured, you have not. Farming is obviously and integral part of beer. Beer requires the extensive knowledge of hop and malt farmers to be able to create the myriad of beer styles out there. But most, and I include myself in that most, do not understand a lick about farming and how hard it is and how much harder it may well be.
The Biggest Little Farm does not have hops or malt (maybe later) but it expertly shows the interplay of the land, the animals and the people. Bugs chewing up plants, find an animal that eats that bug and you have a natural solution. The fact that the Apricot Lane farm has been able to succeed is amazing which is kinda sad because we will probably need more farms like this to truly keep farming around in a more sustainable way.
I highly recommend renting (buying) this movie. Maybe find a fresh hop ale to go with it.