Micro-Brews, Vol. 1: A Video Tour Of the Mid-West

George Washington was one. Thomas Jefferson was another. Presidents? Well, yeah...but I'm talking about people who made their own brewski--George and Tom were founding fathers of America's home beer brewers. Since it was re-legalized in 1979, home beer brewing has become quite a popular diversion, and with the deregulation has come legions of specialized micro-breweries to challenge the sovereignty of the major brewers. Adopting stricter brewing standards, such as the German "Rheinheitsgebot" (which roughly translates to: "malt, hops, yeast, and water only; no additives, no preservatives, no excuses"), the seven micro-breweries featured in Vol. 1 of the Micro-Brews series, share one other similarity: they all gave the filmmakers free beer. Unfortunately, the distributor did not follow suit and send samples to the reviewers, which might have helped during those long interview segments where brewmasters describe in excruciating detail the life cycle of beer. Stopping at sites in Kansas, Iowa, Milwaukee, Illinois, and Kentucky, Micro-Brews covers the history of each brewery, shows the beers produced, tours the premises, and every time finds someone who will tell the story of how beer is made. All the talk about lauter tuns, bunging the tanks, and something called "croyzening" made me extremely grateful that beer doesn't come with a written test. A true connoisseur or anyone more than three sheets to the wind might find Micro-Brews interesting, but for most this is too technical and too repetitive. Suggestion for Vol. 2: no beer for the video editor. An optional purchase. (R. Pitman)