Beer Wars Film: Can I Listen To Your Beer?

++=WTF?
What does a conservative, Nixon-worshipping, religious right/GOP groveller and hand-crafted beer have in common? Less than nothing, I thought, but there MUST be a good reason Ben Stein has attached himself to something WAY cooler than anything he's done in his life.

In the few months since subscribing to the Zealot's newsletter, I've learned more about home brewing in Austin than I did working at Austin Homebrew. And by "more" I mean "not as much," but here's the most recent awesome thing they posted: a new documentary about the American brewing industry, and the craft brewing upstarts that are fundamentally changing everything we know about beer.

Outside of his "Beuller...Beuller..." schtick and his mildly entertaining "Win Ben Stein's Money" trivia show, I have a hard time getting past Ben's incongruous intellectual hypocricy (e.g. tilting at creationist windmills, weeping over Nixon's resignation). It's like discovering a famous astrophysicist is also a Scientologist. "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed?" Dude, you were a presidential speechwritwer. You've published, like, 10 NY Times bestsellers. You're capable of grasping the irony, and you don't need the money.

Despite the creepy shadow Ben throws on the festivities, I can't wait, and I'm thinking of putting a petition together to get the Alamo Drafthouse to show it. The last beer thing I went to there (w/Tim and Caleb) was a funny, drunken travelogue by a bunch of friends on a US brewery tour (American Beer), while we were served beers from the breweries visited as the film progressed. More fun than you can stick a shake at.

These trailers are too dee-lish and new-trish. I salivate in their general direction.