How Beer Saved the World is a Discovery Channel documentary about the many important events and technological advances that would never be if it weren't for beer. "Documentary" is a generous word in this case; it's more of a series of narrated facts with tons of b-roll footage cut throughout.
If there's any real story to be gleamed from this film, it's that beer is the greatest invention in the history of the world. I would tend to agree.
Some of the information presented in this documentary was very interesting, even if the presentation was lacking. I probably would have enjoyed learning these facts just as much if I had read them in an article or blog post.
The facts here range from "duh" to "holy crap, I never thought of that." There's even a little "that has to be complete bullshit." Just because it's on the Discovery Channel it doesn't mean that scientific or historical fact is of the highest order. If you've seen Mermaids: The Body Found or Megalodon, you know what I'm talking about.
Some of the more obvious information from this film is, first, that beer was a driving force in the first Agricultural Revolution. Many of the early innovations in agriculture, such as the plow and irrigation, were brought about by early humans' taste for beer. Beer was also a huge part of the development of math, book keeping, land surveying and even the written language.
An "okay I call bullshit" moment comes when Discovery claims that beer was a catalyst in the American Revolution. They call the tavern an early form of Twitter or Facebook, a place where information was exchanged. Discovery makes the claim that the American Revolution was planned in taverns and the Boston Tea Party wouldn't have happened if the Sons of Liberty hadn't been downing a few pints beforehand.
A notable disappointment is the lack of craft beer in this film. Most of the beer that is shown is of the Miller or Anheuser variety. They do show Leinenkugel, but that stuff is for people who don't really like beer anyway.
Overall, this doc is very skippable, but there are still worse ways to spend 45 minutes. Watch it if you're truly interested, but you should take everything in it with a huge grain of salt (or barley).
Drink pairing for this post: Red Hook Long Hammer IPA
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