Back in ye olde 1994, around the time craft beer came into my life, I was enamored by the film ‘Pulp Fiction’ which planted in my head the concept of enjoying a beer while taking in a movie. For 16 years, this idea sat on a shelf in the back of my mind until I moved to Portland and found I could do just that at multiple independent film houses. Last Thursday, it was taken to a new level when Craig Noble premiered ‘CRAFT,’ his touring craft beer documentary which pairs his own Farmhouse Ale with a look at the history and growth of craft beer in North America.

For over a decade, Noble has been creating gonzo style documentaries where he participates in the subject matter he’s filming. In creating ‘CRAFT,’ he became an apprentice at a Canada’s first certified organic farm brewery in British Columbia (Crannóg Ales), studied at the American Brewers Guild school in Vermont and also earned his cicerone certification. The result of all this is a 100 minute documentary on the history of brewing in North America, a delicious Farmhouse Ale he brewed 39 batches of to perfect and the forthcoming Postmark Brewing, a Vancouver BC microbrewery set to open in June this year.

The beauty of this project is Noble’s idea to send out the recipe to a regional craft brewer near most locations where the film will be screened, each a craft beer town featured in the film. For the Portland premier, Coalition Brewing, open to collaboration and community homebrewers, created Noble’s recipe which was on tap at the Hollywood Theater for the screening. His complex, rich and citrusy Farmhouse Ale paired well with his film’s focus on how North American artisan brewers have taken old-world styles and made them their own.

The film will be screened at 8pm this evening at Banger’s Sausage House and Beer Garden in Austin Texas, with his recipe brewed by Hops and Grain Brewing. It will continue to be screened through Thursday at Denver’s Sie Filmcenter, along with his brew, this time crafted by Fort Collins Funkwerks Brewery under the name Cameo. The tour continues to Oakland on Thursday, San Diego on Monday the 14^th(due to California’s liquor laws, the Farmhouse Ale won’t be served), then in June at eight East Coast locations featured in the film.

For those in Portland, there are a number of locations were you can find the CRAFT Farmhouse Ale on tap:

Hollywood Theater
Moon and Sixpence
Grain and Gristle
Coalition Brewing
Belmont Station
Bailey’s Taproom
Horse Brass
Hawthorne Hophouse

Check out the ‘CRAFT’ trailer:
{vimeo}85570974{/vimeo}