The American Dream is very much alive in the craft-beer industry in the United States. Across the country, small brewery owners are growing grassroots concepts and producing handcrafted brews that consumers can’t get enough of. Neither can documentary filmmakers.
A new film, Blood, Sweat, and Beer, follows two start-up breweries in the first year of their quest. Much like fellow craft-beer documentarians of the film Crafting A Nation, director and producer Alexis Irvin and crew capture small business owners who are revitalizing run-down areas of cities by creating community gathering places.
First, the film tracks a trio of 23-year-olds as they struggle to start The Brew Gentlemen Beer Company in Braddock, Pennsylvania. “Matt, Asa, and Brandon hope their brewery will help this once-prosperous steel town bounce back from decades of neglect, violence, and population loss,” says Irvin.