review for American Beer on AllMovie

A grand tour of 38 of America's best breweries in a 40-day road trip is a wonderful premise for a documentary, and thankfully, American Beer does not disappoint. While it may seem a bit like the kind of gonzo experiment à la Super Size Me -- and it is, in its own right -- the pic delivers in humorous human stories gathered from each of the destinations. It's no secret that corporate conglomeration controls the beer marketplace, but what drives people to set out on their own to literally create new brews for their customers to enjoy in the face of daunting financial competition? What's even more important is how they do so. The brave group of goofballs embarking on the trip encounters everything from the largest independent brewery in the U.S. all the way to probably the most bootleg setup in the basement of an old jail. Brews wildly vary from one place to another as well, with watermelon beer, berry beer, chocolate beer, and plenty of others to get your mouth watering or your finicky taste buds gagging. Either way, you'll be sure to think about microbrews in a different way from here on out, plus there's some sort of evil glee in seeing the group hung-over, overweight, and low on dough to pay for this inspired trip, because one thing is for sure -- he who brews beer drinks a lot of beer. So bust open your favorite stout, lager, home brew, or what have you and raise your mug to the American dream of brewing your own beer for all to enjoy.