On Beer Wars - Part 1: Rhonda

It was inevitable that I come across this movie.  I wholly credit my wife, who insisted we watch it one boring evening.  Having seen Beerfest more times than I could count, I assumed it'd be similar, not knowing it was a documentary.  5 minutes in I was hooked.  Maybe it was the plight of the craft beer poster boy Sam Calagione, maybe it was the portrayal of AB as evil (I'll definitely get to both later), but no matter what it was, it had me.
I've since seen it a few more times and delved much deeper into the industry, and it still stands tall as a pretty accurate and compelling portrayal of the top heavy beer world.  That being said, what better place to analyze/blather on about it than my very own beer blog :).  I haven't decided how many sections there should be, but as of now it's at least 3, so here's part one: Rhonda.

I won't even try to make a witty intro here.  I am thoroughly confused as to what the hell Rhonda wants from this world.  Why did you leave Boston beer?  As much as I'm not a huge fan of Sam Adams, they're obviously doing something right to be the number one craft brewery in the country.  What did you want to do with your life?  More to the point, why didn't we ever see your brewery and why do you seem to know fairly little about beer?

I have to assume that Anat Baron had the three tier system in her crosshairs when she decided to include Rhonda.  It is an antiquated system that tends to screw the craft brewers and keeps expansion into other states as a luxury that takes a while to accomplish.  But she made that point without a lot of help from Rhonda and it just leaves me wondering what her purpose is?  Hearing her talk about her 150 accounts (most of the local craft breweries here would be stoked to have that many) as if they're small potatoes makes me think she's just trying to grown into a giant without building a foundation.  Seeing her talking to bar owners and liquor store owners makes me wonder what her actual job title is.  She seems to be a one-person business that mysteriously has a brewery putting out her products somehow.

I think my biggest gripe is that she seems to care so much about the business and so little about the actual beer.  Successful brewers (Sam from DFH, Jim from Boston Beer, Jeff and Kim from New Belgium, Greg from Stone, etc.) care so much about the beer than the business side just comes naturally.  They want to share they're interpretation of good beer with the world, and assuming they know what they're doing, it seems to work out alright.  I am not at all surprised that Beer Wars was my first time hearing of Moonshot.

I think the kicker was when she was blatantly whoring herself and her beer to the big 3.  Big beer has a pretty long history of killing good beer, you really want to throw your hard work into that pile?  Again, it just seems like she cares (much) more about the money than the product, which is no way to do things.  Putting her in the same light as real, dedicated brewers is a bit offensive to me.

As I was writing this, I googled Moonshot to see what had happened.  It appears New Century Brewing was warned by the FDA for their inclusion of caffeine much like Four Loko, Joose, etc. and Moonshot is no longer being produced.  Had that been the end of it, I would have had a little pity for Rhonda, but her letter irked me.  She specifically called out the others as being marketed to minors and does her best to distance herself from them, which is, in my opinion, a dick move.  Sorry Rhonda, you've just joined AB on my shit list.  Shouldn't really matter, from the sounds of it you don't make anything I'd want to drink.

That's it for part 1, stay tuned for the rest.  I thought of two more while writing this one, so it'll be at least 5 parts now.  Bottoms up.