You are unlikely to find a recent documentary as sweet-natured and good-hearted as Brewmance, a paean to home/craft brewing and American entrepreneurialism. 

Home and craft brewing, according to Sam Adams founder Jim Koch, is a “uniquely American experience.” In the 1950s, the country was obsessed with conveniences such as TV dinners as a response to the more rustic, relatively unsophisticated American experience before World War II, according to Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head Brewery. “Commodification and homogenization was sexy. People wanted to get away from the rustic breads that made them feel like an immigrant to the white bread that made them fit into suburbia and they could feel like everybody else.” This meant that beer flattened to become a light lager that every brewery made, and what the beginning home brewers were rebelling against. It took decades for the rest of the country to catch up.

This is the type of information you are going to get from Christo Brock’s movie. As well as an informative and easy to follow explanation of how beer is made, it provides a more expansive history of home and craft brewing as we follow two groups of home brewers who are opening upscale storefront locations in Southern California.

These two startups are the beating heart of the film as we watch their travails and triumphs. They could not be more different. Liberation Brewing Company is headed by hipsters who are so hip that one was once a trombone player for the band Reel Big Fish for 20 years. The other is a father/son team. They are Christian and believe they are following the dictates of their faith by sharing their beer. The mix of these personalities are compelling to watch. Even if there is very little conflict—although there is one possible legal entanglement—the force of friendship and family bonds comes through and becomes something to admire and maybe even emulate.

Though there is a slight discussion of how craft brewing has recently become more competitive, this is very much a feel-good film about camaraderie and the American can-do spirit. It makes you feel good and very, very thirsty.