99 Bottles toasts small Wisconsin breweries

As the subject of independent documentary, craft beer seems wholly appropriate. After all, it's all about the little guy doing it better. In the film 99 Bottles, director Jason Williams and producers David Oplinger and Greg Popple visit 16 craft breweries around southeastern Wisconsin to explore the culture behind Wisconsin's favorite, if unofficial, beverage. Ahead of the film's Thursday-Sunday run at the Orpheum, Decider sat down with Oplinger and discussed the importance of craft beer, the noble work of the brewmaster, and some crazy-ass brews.

Decider: So...you like beer?
David Oplinger: I do like beer. I like beer even more now than I did before. My opinions and tastes in beer were completely blown wide open by this project. I had no idea there was so much beer. There is so much beer in the U.S. There's so much beer in the state—there's so much beer in this city! Everyone thinks of Pabst, Miller; the big ones.
D: Other than that obvious love of beer, what prompted the film?
DO: Well, I work with two other filmmakers. We've done other things, but this is the first documentary that we've done. You know, I've seen so many documentaries on beer, and at first I thought, no, don't make me do it. But really, no one's done anything on the little guys. Miller has millions of dollars to spend on advertising, but the small breweries are word-of-mouth. Everything from New Glarus on down, it's all about word-of-mouth. And they do such good work, that just by word-of-mouth they've been able to take away a share from the big guys. So much that now the big guys are making craft-style beer. The whole purpose of that is to get back this market share that they've lost. It's not that what little sliver of money they don't get is important, it's the growth rate. The small breweries went from one percent eight years ago to six percent of the total market. And it's growing.
D: Do you have any idea why?
DO: Yeah. It's not crap. People like good beer, but they might not know it. These kind of people, they're brewmasters. They're everything. They are the brewery. Miller's got hundreds and hundreds of people involved in the process. They do a good job, it's just that it's commercial. When people start looking around for the differences between a six-pack of Miller and a six-pack of Sprecher, and they find out it's two bucks, and they realize that six-pack of Miller is not nearly the same quality...they can choose between something watered-down or something that's good. People like good beer.
D: Does beer still make Milwaukee famous?
DO: The funny thing is, the biggest breweries from back in the day—the Schlitzes, the Pabsts, the Gettlemans—they're still around in some sense—if nothing else, in spirit. That's the far-off carrot that draws people here. But there's a much more vibrant culture, a growing culture, and you can look at the idea that Milwaukee, and even Wisconsin, is famous for beer, and say, "This is still alive and well." Some of the breweries in Wisconsin have won gold medals in world brewery competitions. Up against German breweries, in their own style. They bested them, because they're that good.
D: Which breweries?
DO: Well, some of them are Sand Creek, New Glarus, Delafield Brewhaus. They're really, really good at what they do. And most of these guys, you can't get their beer outside of their place. Even New Glarus, you can't get it outside the state. Not even Illinois. So the thing is, it's a signature of Wisconsin. People look at the Packers, and Miller, and say, "Okay, these are the great things." But really, there's a lot more to it.
D: What does, "Beer—a pork chop in every glass" mean?
DO: [Laughs.] It's an old saying. You know, light beer is kind of a new thing. But the way beer used to be made is it was a really thick drink. It dates back even to early Egypt; they would feed the lower class this kind of beer that was basically bread in water. So it started out being very, very thick. And even if you look back at old pictures from breweries, and pubs, you'll see these guys with steins of this dark, really dark beer. And they would say, you know, this is a meal. A pork chop, in your glass. Also, it confuses people.
D: Who's got the best beer?
DO: Well, it depends on the kind of mood you're in. What do you like? The people who create this product have a massive range that they can pull from, and fortunately I like to try it all. At the Grumpy Troll in Mount Horeb, they have this lambic, that we got to taste before it was even done, which means it was like a sour apple on crack. It was really, really bitter, but it was really good. Tyranena has a coffee beer, and you'll only need one or two pints of this because it's so thick. But really, each of the breweries tend to have a style. Some of the breweries, it's all about the water. You can taste the water in every beer, and it's just really good. I think it would be easier to pick out the beers I didn't like than choose the ones I liked the most.
D: Who's got the strangest brew?
DO: The Great Dane in Madison has a chili beer that tastes like you're eating a taco. It's like you're eating cayenne pepper, where your gums get tingly, but it's refreshing. I don't know why. It makes no sense, but it's awesome. I love it.
D: Is tasting beer like tasting wine or coffee?
DO: Are there rules? That's something we asked every brewery, and every brewery had an answer. We got some great answers for it. Beer is not like wine, because there's a lot more to it. There are a lot more factors involved in what makes a beer a beer. You can put such a variety of things in it, and change it up, that it outpaces wine far and away. You can't compare them. One thing is you need to drink a full beer. It's not a sipping thing. There are flavors that hit the top all the way to the bottom, and it's after you've had it for a bit that you taste it all. But there is an etiquette to it, and it's not what you think.
D: Tell me about your favorite brewery experiences.
DO: The best tour, in my personal, humble opinion, is still Lakefront. As far as attitude, and reception, I can't separate them out like that. We had a lot of fun at the Ale Asylum in Madison. But every one was great. Even New Glarus gave us the time of day.
D: What does it take to be a brewmaster?
DO: You know, we asked that of every single person. It's one of the last industries where you can be the president and the janitor in the same fell swoop. You can be the brewmaster and the mop boy. And it takes a knowledge of everything and the willingness to do it, because it's hard work. Hard. A lot harder than you would expect, and they don't make money. They really don't make money. They do it because they love it, and that's beautiful to see. Where else do you get that? I didn't see one brewer who was downtrodden, or kind of grumpy and crusty, or anything like that. They love what they do, and it shows. The biggest discovery was that free beer is not free. A lot goes into it.
D: Why is beer so good?
DO: I think it has to do with the education that people have acquired for it. If you remember your first beer, it was probably horrible. I remember mine—it was warm, probably Milwaukee's Best or something like that, and a hot summer night, and it was terrible, and I swore beer off forever. You see how long that stuck. But, it's not like any other drink. You can drink a soda or tea, and you might feel a little content, but beer can actually make you feel happy. Beer will ease you into your evening, and there are so many different flavors, that anyone can find a beer they like. If you don't like beer, you're just having the wrong one.