Beer History and Django Unchained

That's funny, I was thinking the same thing about the beer color. But I thought that golden beer a) looked beautiful on the big screen, and b) was a really effective scene for portraying Dr. Shulz as a homesick German. Walz was great in this movie, and is an incredible actor. But what I really want to know is if that was real beer or some type of prop beer. Cause if it was fake, Walz deserves an oscar just for that familiar, genuine look of enjoyment he had when he was pouring and then sipping on that beer.

 

The way I read the OP, they were simply drinking beer from a keg, not brewing it. (Also, re: "in the desert" - doesn't the film take place in Mississippi?)

One of the earliest lager brewers (some claim the first) in the US was Lemp of St. Louis, who used a 12 barrel kettle (still preserved in a Missouri museum - pic below) in the 1840's, so it would be likely he had wooden fermentation and lagering tanks at least that large. a drawing of the early brewery shows large horizontal lagering casks as tall as doorways. Lemp's brewery used a "natural cave" for a storehouse.

It is possible that a rich plantation owner could have had kegs of beer shipped down the Mississippi from the brewery in St. Louis.

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Beer is housed in flip-top bottles in Rio Bravo, which I know is one of QT's favorite movies, so using that in this movie may've been more of a cinematic homage than an attempt at historical accuracy.

 

Ah, i dont know anything about this movie other than that the previews make it look like a western.

 

You sneaked the beer into the theater? Is this legal?

 

Obviously not, but BAs will go to the extremes to enjoy beer in every setting.

 

But the point is where ever they were, they were merely drinking the beer, not brewing it, correct? Again, in theory, beer from St. Louis (or elsewhere) could have been shipped to Texas (even by rail? - don't know TX railroad history). Also, Texas' first recorded brewery was founded in San Antonio in 1855.

 

This article has some pretty in depth information of early brewing in Texas.

 

I was sitting the theater thinking the same thing about the "flip top". At which point my date told me "Chill, it doesn't really matter." At this point I decided she would no longer be my date...which would explain why I can spend so much time on BA.

 

It was only a joke, brah.

 

Best answer ever on these forums.

 

That is what I thought as I watched the film. QT is not a historical nut of real history but he is a nut for classic film. I enjoyed the movie and the beer scenes had me asking the same question and then realizing it is probably not accurate but inspired by classic films.

 

I think the first scene with the beer on the hand pump was indeed somewhere in Texas. I saw this post before watching the movie and smiled as King Schultz served up some tasty looking brew (regardless of its historical accuracy).

 

I once had a beer while waking to the theater! Haha