Product Details

• Format: NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: A&E Home Video
• DVD Release Date: June 27, 2006
• Run Time: 50 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000FBFYYG
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #133,095 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Beer has been brewed in America ever since the Puritans arrived and this documentary from the History Channel aims to chart the history and evolution behind a product that has become a big business over the years.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DOCUMENTARIES/MISC. Rating: NR UPC: 733961758108 Manufacturer No: AAE-75810

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Brewed in America: An Unpleasant Aftertaste, July 7, 2009

By 

Bryan Carey "Bryan Carey" (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Empires of Industry - Brewed in America (History Channel) (DVD)

Brewing has a rich history in the United States and the History Channel's Empires of Industry: Brewed in America attempts to educate the viewer on the history of brewing in the USA, along with the men, the events, and the social changes that have shaped the industry over the past 200+ years. Similar to other History Channel Empires of Industry documentaries, Brewed in America wants you, the viewer, to come away with a better understanding of the topic at hand.

This DVD aims to expand one's knowledge of the brewing industry and it generally succeeds in this area. It offers some lesser- known facts like the pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock because their beer supply was running low, along with some better- known facts, like the rise of Anheuser- Busch and its flagship Budweiser as the best selling brand of beer. This DVD offers a quick overview of the important individuals and events that shaped the brewing industry with an emphasis on the big three: Miller, Anheuser- Busch, and Coors. The majority of this educational documentary is, in fact, a history of these three large breweries with a little bit of information about Yuengling and others thrown in to make the DVD seem a little better rounded.

The historic overview of this documentary is good, but I have some problems with this DVD that prevent me from rating it any better than average. The most glaring problem is the lack of coverage given to the craft brewing industry. At the end of the documentary, there is a brief mention of the resurgence of small breweries and there is some talk about a return to localized brewing. But the coverage ends right there. None of the well- known American microbreweries or craft breweries is mentioned by name. I realize that this documentary is only fifty minutes in length, but at the very least, it should provide some coverage of Samuel Adams. Given the influence and success of this brewery, how can any documentary about brewing in America fail to mention this company? To ignore a company with this much influence is inexcusable.

Several individuals speak in this historical DVD, including a few university professors and some well- known names from famous brewing families, such as William Coors and August Pabst. Each of these men is ready offer his perspective on the history and present- day state of the brewing industry. I like the division of speaking opportunities between historians and industry pioneers/experts because it offers a balanced perspective. However, once again, there is little input from any of America's craft brewing experts, with the exception of Richard Yuengling. There is also one humorous and very telling moment in the documentary when August Pabst is talking about the future of the industry and says that Anheuser- Busch, Miller, Coors, and Strohs are the only companies that will be important to the beer industry in the years to come. The mention of Strohs is quite funny, but what is most telling is that he doesn't mention any craft brewers. He obviously knows about these companies. I surmise that his failure to mention them is because he is annoyed by them, resents the competition, and doesn't want to give the craft brewing industry any credit or free press.

Empires of Industry: Brewed in America is an acceptable DVD and it does offer a good history lesson about brewing in America from the early days up to about 1970. Once it reaches the modern era, the DVD falls flat and leaves the viewer confused and frustrated. Only a handful of breweries get any mention at all and the craft brewing renaissance of the past twenty- five years is ignored completely. The educational aspects are good, but the documentary is incomplete overall.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars History of the Business of National Beer Brands in the USA, December 4, 2009

By 

CGScammell (Cochise County, AZ) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Empires of Industry - Brewed in America (History Channel) (DVD)

This would be a better title for this interesting but short (45 minutes) documentary. Even the narrator, Dan Chandler, sounds like a man taken from an old 1950s beer commercial. It's heavy on the business and marketing aspect of our leading national beer brands.

History Channel makes documentaries that conveniently fall into hour-long broadcasts, so most of them run 50 minutes on DVD. This is a shame as this documentary offered a lot of information, but simply not enough time. So much information was left out. (See my last three paragraphs) What I would like to see is either the History Channel (or PBS) make a four or six-hour production delving into the details of American beer: History, production, distribution and laws. Alcohol was a common item in our history and oftentimes beer was healthier to drink than contaminated creek water. Even children were drinking beer to avoid bad water or milk.

Although this starts out with a very broad synopsis of beer's history, the history of American beer starts at around 2:00 minutes into this video. By 10:00 minutes it goes into the business history of the Big Three: Miller (Milwaukee), Coors (Goulden, CO) and Anheuser-Busch (St Louis) and how a competitive spirit developed among the German-run brewers. Expansion was hastened with the building of the transcontinental railroad and the discovery of pasteurization. Although Yuengling, Pabst, Schlitz are also mentioned, they don't get the attention as the previously-mentioned brands get. Descendants of the original beer barons and a few college professors are interviewed for this production.

What isn't mentioned at all is what kind of ingredients are in the national brands. Our national brands contain more than just barley, malt,hops and yeast. Miller, Coors and Anheuser-Busch now use rice and corn fillers (aka adjuncts) to cut down on costs but which adds a sweetness to the national brands. A German brewer would cringe at the added chemicals.

As one reviewer already mentioned, there's little reference to micro-brewing. That new industry is mentioned at the 37:00 minute, and only by saying that they control a mere 20% of the total beer sales in this country. this number is slowly growing as more Americans discover the more natural taste of micro-brewed beer.

This video was made in 1997, and the micro-brew industry was just then picking up nationally as more states made it legal to open microbreweries. What isn't mentioned in this video is that the Big Three had lobbied heavily to Congress and politicians to prevent microbreweries from sprouting as that meant loss of potential profits for them. The cost to open up a new microbrewery or even a brewpub is for many small business owners cost-prohibitive. Some states make it so difficult and costly to get that beer license if a restaurant is involved as well.

Now many of the smaller microbrweries are being bought up by the Big Three. The microbreweries can retain their own brewing recipes but now stocks are shared. And in beer stores the microbeers are stocked next to their big sisters as part of the agreement between national brand and local brand.

The Pacific Northwest is famous for brewing our best beers as that region grows all the ingredients for making natural beer. Montana, Idaho, Oregon and Washington are laden with hops and barley fields; buying one's beer at the local brewpub, especially in Montana where growlers (glass jugs) are popular. There the microbrewing business has exploded and nearly every town in that state hosts a decent brewpub.

None of the information in the last three paragraphs is mentioned in this video, so overall this short production falls a bit flat of being highly recommendable. At the end of of the video as the "Special thanks to" category strolls up the screen one sees that a lot of money was given by the national brands to make this production.

I bought this video via a subvendor here on Amazon so I only paid 1/4 of what the listed price here is, so I am not complaining. But for $23 or so I would expect a much more detailed production.

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, October 3, 2010

By 

J. CALDERON (MEXICO CITY) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Empires of Industry - Brewed in America (History Channel) (DVD)

Good film about the history of beer in Amercia and a particular brand as the title says but I was expecting for an other kind of documentary, I mean, something more technical about the industrial process of producing beer.