Bottle Conditioned
Journey to the Pajottenland region of Belgium and learn the process, history, and tradition behind lambic beer—rare, sour, delicious—following three of its most revered creators as their beloved creation roars back into restaurants and pubs around the world.
Director Jerry Franck and Producer Courtney Marsh scheduled to attend.
This film is sponsored by Doug Ing.
In some ways, the history of beer is the history of human civilization. Some of humankind's earliest written history are laws dealing with the regulation and consumption of beer. Some of humankind's earliest religions were prayers to the god of beer and recipes for creating the holy beverage. The Great Pyramids of Egypt were built by people paid in daily rations of liquid bread. Over the centuries, the production of beer has been sanitized, mechanized, corporatized, and homogenized to the point where you can buy a brand name beer brewed in the Midwest U.S. and the same brand brewed in Eastern Europe and you could not tell the difference between them. Some may say that all the soul has been brewed out in the process. This needn't always be the case, though. Beer can be as complex and mysterious and reliant on location, season, and chance as wines. Pre-industrial lambic-style beer was fermented by chance, flavored by what was in the local air and water. It was aged, conditioned, and blended by hand. A recent resurgence in the popularity of lambic-style beers has created opportunities for the few remaining breweries to modernize, expand, educate, and preserve the history of their craft. But what will the impact be on the beer itself, and will the soul of the beer be carried on into the future generations of brewers? Take a big sip of this documentary and find out.
—James Akita
- Director: Jerry Franck
- Principal Cast: Jean Van Roy, Jean-Pierre Van Roy, Armand Debelder, Werner Van Obberghen, Raf Souvereyns
- Country: USA
- Year: 2023
- Running Time: 82 min.
- Producer: Jerry Franck, Courtney Marsh
- Screenplay: Courtney Marsh, Jerry Franck
- Cinematographers: Mario Contini
- Editors: Jerry Franck, Natalie Ancona
- Music: Robbie Teehan
- Website: Official Film Website
- Filmography: Debut Feature Film
- Language: Dutch, English, French
- Has Subtitles: Yes