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Some For The Road
Beer lovers traverse North Carolina making a documentary about the state's 26 breweries and their products
Journal Photo by Lauren Carroll
Evan Bradford (from left), Rusty Sutton and John Mellett prepare to sample the beers made at Foothills Brewing.
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Published: August 2, 2008
Updated: 08/01/2008 08:45 pm
Seven friends. One van, one band. Twenty-six breweries in nine days.
That's the premise of Drunken State, and no, it's not a reality show on television.
It's the documentary that a group of beer lovers from Asheville and Chapel Hill hope will come out of their summer vacation that is part road trip, part band tour and part pub crawl that stretches across North Carolina and stops at every brewery in the state.
The group started its trip July 18. On July 21, it stopped in Winston-Salem to visit Foothills Brewing Company, where John Mallett was particularly smitten by the brewery's ketchup (it's laced with Foothills' brews). "It's a lot better than Heinz and Hunt's," he said. "Everyone loved the hoppy IPA (India Pale Ale) when we got there. We're all big fans of hoppy beers," he added.
Last week, Mallett spoke on a shaky cell phone connection from the inside of a van filled with cameras, band gear and the rest of the film crew -- Steve Oliva, Curt and Will Arledge, Evan Bradford, Rusty Sutton and Chris Waite-Jones. En route to Carolina Brewing Company in Holly Springs, the guys were rowdier than usual, he said, because a Durham brewery had been generous with samples. For the record, yes, each day they switch off as the designated driver. "Will's the unlucky fellow today," Mallett said.
Interest in craft brewing has spread across the state, but no North Carolina city is such a Mecca for beer nerds as Asheville, where there are six brewing companies and seven breweries.
Conveniently, that's where four of the group's seven members live and most of them grew up. One, Curt Arledge, is the director of programming at the local public- access television station, URTV.
The station has lent the group equipment and Arledge has trained his friends on how to use it. They trade off roles, acting as camera and soundmen as they make stops. On this trip, they plan to film about 100 hours and will edit it into a film of about 90 minutes. "None of us are professionals but we know enough to make a decent documentary," Arledge said.
They plan to distribute their movie themselves and hope to have it in beer and wine stores and breweries in time for Christmas.
The friends, all in their early 20s (and all legal drinkers), started planning their road-trip-as-art this spring, an idea planted after they watched the 2004 film American Beer. The film's premise? Five guys, a minivan, 38 breweries in 40 days … sound familiar? "We kind of thought we could do a regional version of it," Arledge said.
They added a twist, though -- the beer movie's journey is at least partially financed by a simultaneous tour of Rat Jackson, some of the friends' rock band. They write songs about girls and parties … and beer.
"I was raised in a wine culture," said Mallett, whose parents own The Weinhaus, a wine and beer store in Asheville. "I think there's more room for experimentation in beer than there is in wine. Personally, I think it's easier to hang out with my friends and drink a pint than open a bottle of wine."
As they have traveled across the state, Arledge says, they've found a wide variety of beer and breweries -- from Heinzelmannchen Brewery, a small brewery in Sylva founded by a German immigrant, to Red Oak Brewery's gleaming new brewery off Interstate 40 outside of Greensboro.
"Each place is determined to fill a niche in an area," Arledge said. "I guess the common theme is people making really quality beer as opposed to the big macro breweries.
"We've got people doing German-style, session beers (low alcohol), high-gravity (high alcohol) Belgian brews, English ales and IPAs and things like that.
"At this point, in any point of North Carolina, you can buy a quality beer that is local."
■ Laura Giovanelli can be reached at 727-7302 or at lgiovanelli@wsjournal.com.
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