Stories of hope. Stories of optimism. Stories of wisdom. You get it in spades throughout this film.
Recently released on Netflix, Crafting a Nation focuses on several craft breweries in various parts of the country. Texas is represented with much of the topic of conversation being the archaic laws choking craft brewery growth in the state. Much of this is eloquently explained in great detail by Scott Metzger of Freetail Brewing Company in San Antonio. As a former adjunct professor at the University of Texas in San Antonio, hardly anybody is as well-equipped to discuss the positive economic impact in Texas through changes in brewing laws.
Fortunately, since the filming of this movie in 2013, some lawmakers have started to listen and have eased (ever so slightly) restrictions on craft breweries and brewpubs. This has led to the tremendous amount of growth the state has seen in brewery openings and craft beer consumption. The craft beer market in Texas is still in its infancy, but we’ll discuss that in another article.
The film visits places like Denver, St. Louis, Boston, Texas, California, and more. Well-established and known breweries like Schlafly, Dogfish Head, Sierra Nevada, and Samuel Adams are all featured at some point. However, much of the story focuses on the planning, struggle, and ultimately triumphant opening of Black Shirt Brewing in Denver. It highlights the difficulty that many breweries face in getting funding via bank loans, the myriad of problems with permitting and build out that often plague breweries, and the struggle of both financial and emotional strain the process can invoke.
Ultimately, the film was very enjoyable with editing being top notch. It was, however, a bit heavy handed with the music when focusing on struggle and triumph. Overall, if you ever wanted to know how craft beer became what it is today in a small, 104 minute bubble, this is definitely a way to do it. You become invested in seeing Black Shirt Brewing succeed and you become interested in knowing how a brewery owner like Sam Calagione can stress over a $300,000 loan he was trying to gain several years ago to being completely at ease with a $52 million expansion of his brewery.
Take some time out to watch this film if for no other reason, to see Texas represented. As we mentioned, Scott from Freetail is in it, but so are others from Jester King, NXNW, Hops & Grain, and Austin Beerworks. Grab a cold Texas craft beer, some popcorn, and pull up this movie on Netflix to understand why we enjoyed this film so much.