This past weekend GK Visual and SaraBozich.com released Brewed in the Burg, a documentary now available online at Vimeo. This film debuted during Harrisburg Beer Week to resounding praise.

I caught it then but now that it is online, I wanted to take the time to really digest the film. It was an opportunity to pick up on all the nuance and ideas kicked around by the Who’s Who of the Harrisburg-area craft beer industry. It is an impressive line up of interviews:

• Chris and John Trogner, Troegs Brewing Company
• Ryan DeLutis, Brewery at Hershey
• Adam Sturges, The Sturges Speakeasy
• Derek Markel, homebrewer
• Tim Myers, homebrewer
• Albert Kominski, Pizza Boy Brewing Company
• Terry Hawbaker, Pizza Boy Brewing Company; Intangible Ales
• Karl Larson, Regional Harrisburg Area Brewers
• Bart Kaminski, Hop Hedz Gear
• Jess Horn, Wilsbach Distributors
• Megan Moore, Victory Brewing
• Zach Ziegler, Molly Pitcher Brewing Company
• Kevin J. Spicer, Market Cross Pub and Brewery
• David Black, Harrisburg Regional Chamber and CREDC
• Adam Dellinger, Sunny Brae Hops
• Patty Kim, 103rd District
• Kris and Albert de Bock, Regional Harrisburg Area Brewers
• Kurt Wewer, The Garlic Poet; Grain + Verse Bottlehouse
• Beau Faulkner, BangTap
• Tierney Pomone, Chelsie Markel, and Colleen Nguyen, Stouts and Stilettos
• Artie Tafoya, Appalachian Brewing Company
• Alan Miller, Millbock Brewing Company
• Theo and Brandalynn Armstrong, Zeroday Brewing Company

So I hunted down the freshest local beer I could find to enjoy while watching. I found the perfect beer. It was a Crowler of Pizza Boy’s Murren River IPA; a super fresh batch tapped just two days prior (7/12/15).
The Murren River was piney and dank in the nose. Heady as hell, this straw colored American IPA is excellent from start to finish. Well bodied with a great clean mouth feel it providing a firm head that laced the glass perfectly. Murren River had a slight sweetness that was cut with balanced piney and citrus hops. The finish is of orange and a subtle hint of earth and grass. It came with a long dry finish that belies the easy drinking tones. This beer clocks in like a Cruiserweight with 7.6% ABV but drinks well below its weight class.

I loved this beer and it merges perfectly with a important quality of craft beer discussed within Brewed in the Burg. Right in the middle, it discusses the importance of freshness. This is the obvious and unassailable advantage of drinking local craft beer. It is impossible to get a beer as fresh as I did today any other way. This matters. It tastes better and you are getting the beer exactly as the brewer intended.

The other themes discussed are true of any craft beer community: supporting local business, fraternity between brewers, friendships cultivated among beer drinkers and a love for great beer.

The way this film is true to Harrisburg is the people on which it focuses. It could get easily lost that this documentary is about just craft beer brewed in Harrisburg. What Sara and GK Visual have done is weave a story about local brewers, small businessmen and women, beer drinkers and people that write about it or just enjoy drinking it. These are salt of the earth people that are doing extraordinary things in an extraordinary industry. Stick around and watch the outtakes… This was a great reminder that these are just hardworking people; many of them making good on a dream.

Craft beer becomes a conduit for telling their story. That is the take away from Brewed in the Burg. The slickly shot and edited documentary is about the people that make the local craft beer industry possible.

Please check out the video at http://vimeo.com/gkvisual/brewedintheburg and use the tip jar. Brewed in the Burg is a movie worth a couple of your bucks. This doc will give you an understanding of how a sublime Intangible Ale, a crisp Sunshine Pils or whatever you are nursing at ZerØday got into your glass. Through people’s hard work and dedication to the craft of brewing beer.