Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

San Diego craft brewers featured in new documentary series

Six-episode PBS program captures our craft past and present

Cinematographer Steven Moyer sets up a shot surrounded by craft beer ingredients.
Cinematographer Steven Moyer sets up a shot surrounded by craft beer ingredients.

"We just hit 100 breweries in San Diego County." Or so several local media personalities inform us during an opening montage of Kings of the Craft, a six-part documentary premiering tonight, Thursday, May 21, on KPBS at 9 p.m. Later in the first episode, that number is revised to 104, with 46 more declared to be on the way. To give an idea how fast things are moving, the October press release announcing the series counted the number at 80. That on top of 1400 bars and restaurants currently serving a craft beer menu. It's a point well made: the astounding growth of craft brewing in San Diego may not yet have peaked.

Kings had its origins as a short student film, made for a documentary class at SDSU, and its dynamic storytelling style reads young. Music runs throughout, and the camerawork is seldom static, even during talking-head interviews with craft industry leaders. The result is a visually rich, well-paced homage to the city's number one beverage concern, and the first half-hour episode spends much of its time allowing local beer professionals to make a lively case for San Diego as being hallowed ground in a global craft movement.

In one notable scene, a wily Greg Koch, co-founder and CEO of Stone Brewing, paints craft beer as a reaction to macro beer companies prioritizing low cost over quality. While he estimated craft beer only captures 10 percent of the overall beer market, he half-jokingly suggests that whenever someone shows up at a craft brewer's tasting room asking for their lightest beer, it's really a cry for help, asking for someone to show them "the glory, the beauty, that is great beer."

Sponsored
Sponsored

The six-week series will feature perspectives hulled from established beer purveyors representing Ballast Point, Karl Strauss and AleSmith, as well as new or not-yet-opened breweries including Abnormal, Toolbox, and North Park Beer Company. Each episode will cover a general concept, ranging from brewery collaborations and diversity to craft beer history.

About 20 local beer concerns participated overall, and Producer Raeanne DuPont says that when word got out about the project, several others asked to be included. When asked whether any of the brewers she interviewed showed any concern about the rapid increase of beer producers in a saturated market, DuPont replied, "Their biggest fear isn't that it's going to get congested…they're more worried that breweries will come in and start brewing bad beer."

DuPont, director Ben Moxley, and editor/cinematographer Steven Moyer showed their original student film to producer Eduardo Castro Fonseca, who brought it to KPBS. The group was able to secure a $30K budget from the station and supplement it with another $30K through Kickstarter. Castro Fonseca points out that "profit is not a word used in documentaries," and all the funds were put into production costs.

Kings of the Craft will air Thursday nights at 9 p.m. on KPBS, and will be available for viewing online following the broadcast.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

San Diego Reader 2024 Music & Arts Issue

Favorite fakers: Baby Bushka, Fleetwood Max, Electric Waste Band, Oceans, Geezer – plus upcoming tribute schedule
Cinematographer Steven Moyer sets up a shot surrounded by craft beer ingredients.
Cinematographer Steven Moyer sets up a shot surrounded by craft beer ingredients.

"We just hit 100 breweries in San Diego County." Or so several local media personalities inform us during an opening montage of Kings of the Craft, a six-part documentary premiering tonight, Thursday, May 21, on KPBS at 9 p.m. Later in the first episode, that number is revised to 104, with 46 more declared to be on the way. To give an idea how fast things are moving, the October press release announcing the series counted the number at 80. That on top of 1400 bars and restaurants currently serving a craft beer menu. It's a point well made: the astounding growth of craft brewing in San Diego may not yet have peaked.

Kings had its origins as a short student film, made for a documentary class at SDSU, and its dynamic storytelling style reads young. Music runs throughout, and the camerawork is seldom static, even during talking-head interviews with craft industry leaders. The result is a visually rich, well-paced homage to the city's number one beverage concern, and the first half-hour episode spends much of its time allowing local beer professionals to make a lively case for San Diego as being hallowed ground in a global craft movement.

In one notable scene, a wily Greg Koch, co-founder and CEO of Stone Brewing, paints craft beer as a reaction to macro beer companies prioritizing low cost over quality. While he estimated craft beer only captures 10 percent of the overall beer market, he half-jokingly suggests that whenever someone shows up at a craft brewer's tasting room asking for their lightest beer, it's really a cry for help, asking for someone to show them "the glory, the beauty, that is great beer."

Sponsored
Sponsored

The six-week series will feature perspectives hulled from established beer purveyors representing Ballast Point, Karl Strauss and AleSmith, as well as new or not-yet-opened breweries including Abnormal, Toolbox, and North Park Beer Company. Each episode will cover a general concept, ranging from brewery collaborations and diversity to craft beer history.

About 20 local beer concerns participated overall, and Producer Raeanne DuPont says that when word got out about the project, several others asked to be included. When asked whether any of the brewers she interviewed showed any concern about the rapid increase of beer producers in a saturated market, DuPont replied, "Their biggest fear isn't that it's going to get congested…they're more worried that breweries will come in and start brewing bad beer."

DuPont, director Ben Moxley, and editor/cinematographer Steven Moyer showed their original student film to producer Eduardo Castro Fonseca, who brought it to KPBS. The group was able to secure a $30K budget from the station and supplement it with another $30K through Kickstarter. Castro Fonseca points out that "profit is not a word used in documentaries," and all the funds were put into production costs.

Kings of the Craft will air Thursday nights at 9 p.m. on KPBS, and will be available for viewing online following the broadcast.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Melissa Etheridge, The Imaginary Amazon

Events April 1-April 3, 2024
Next Article

2024 continues to impress with yellowfin much closer to San Diego than they should be

New rockfish regulations coming this week as opener approaches
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.