Beer Pioneers™ is an upcoming documentary film series, produced by filmmaker Jay Sheveck, that reveals the candid and personal stories of the people behind the global revival of craft brewing (the return to traditional brewing and serving methods, and the use of classic ingredients in beer).

Through rare and intimate interviews with the very pioneers themselves, the struggles, failures and successes behind some of the earliest—and some nearly forgotten—beer brands, micro-breweries and historic events of the 1960s and 1970s are re-told. The series' narrative explores the evolution of craft brewing, real ale, microbreweries, amateur “home” brewing, and consumer-led beer campaigns, from the counterculture’s grassroots beer renaissance to a growing rebellion of revolutionaries during the 1980s. It also examines the maturing of a new artisan beer culture, focused on the craft itself, who have championed the rally against the monolithic corporate breweries, and spread worldwide thousands of small, traditional breweries in the new century—bringing “craft” to the masses.

Filmed over 25 years between 1994 and 2019, Beer Pioneers™ speaks with hundreds of legendary pioneers of beer, and takes the viewer on unique journeys to the most historic and iconic of beer locales. Featured are some of the earliest trailblazers in the industry (Fritz Maytag, Michael Jackson, Michael Hardman, Jack McAuliffe, Fred Eckhardt, Phil Sexton, and Frank Appleton), the earliest pioneering breweries (Anchor Brewing, Traquair House, Litchborough, New Albion, Sail & Anchor, and Horseshoe Bay), the first consumer-led movements (Campaign for Real Ale and Society for the Preservation of Beers from the Wood), the earliest home brewing organizations (Durden Park Beer Circle, American Homebrewers Association, and Maltose Falcons Home Brewing Society), the grandfathers of all festivals (Great British Beer Festival, Munich Oktoberfest, Great Canadian Beer Festival, and Great American Beer Festival), and even a modern-day reincarnation (Northampton Brewing Company). The series is filled with excursions to nano-breweries, brew-on-premises, brewery restaurants, brew pubs, brewers guilds, brewery architects, and trips through hop fields, malt houses, yeast laboratories and beer hotels.

Come meet the pioneers in this in-depth documentary, and take a journey back to the earliest days of beer’s flavorful revival, from its grassroots renaissance to today’s Craft Brewing Revolution...

LATEST PROJECT UPDATE: The theatrical documentary will debut in 2021 (a Los Angeles premier), and shortly thereafter, to be released in episodic-form. The complete six-part episodic series will be viewable via digital streaming.