MMMM BEER !

A while ago listening to one of my favourite Tom Waits albums, "Mule Variations" the track Whats he building?; essentially a tale of a loner arousing neighbourhood curiosity through strange behaviour in a shed, got me thinking. I don't want to apear disingenuous, but my thought process caused me to reflect on a particularly innovative Dunedin identity and his wonderful product.

For those of you yet to experience it, Emerson's beer is reason enough to brave the cold winters and short summers in this part of the world. Emerging in the early 90s from his flat kitchen experiments, Richard Emerson is stunning the brewing community of New Zealand and keeping its willing dicipiles (like myself) hanging on for the latest seasonal brew. What relevance does this sycophantic blog have to a Natural History filmmaking project I hear you ask? Well, I think there is the potential for a great story here. Aside from the fact that Richard Emerson is almost totally deaf, it is his single minded determination to put flavour back into beer (the natural way) that has my creative juices flowing. Yes, there have been plenty of stories about the archetypal Kiwi Battler, but this is more, Richard Emerson's vision and uncompromising approch to the highly competive Beer industry is fresh and crisp, just like his award winning Pilsner.

Where others might have taken the cash and relocated the brewery to Auckland, Emerson's is proudly Dunedin based and if the latest brews are anything to go by, the trophy cabinet at the new premises in wickliffe street might need to be extended.

From a film perspective, I am curious to tie this story in with some focus on the changing trend of mass consumption towards a more niche oriented marketplace. Furthermore, with a range of beers based on well worn British recipes, Emerson's availability in the U.K. is an interesting case in point as the small Dunedin brewery has barstardised the Ale pedigree by combining extremely fragrent NZ Hops, great southern water overseen with Richard Emerson's hightened sensory capability.

There are many more curious points of interest but I'll leave those to the reaserch stages of the project (if it gets off the ground). While I committed and quite passionate about telling this story, I'm unsure that my filmmaking associates in the Post Graduate Diploma course will be quite as enchanted. Perhaps we will have to discuss my ideas over a few jars of Emerson's Bourbon Porter, weighing in at a hefty 9.2 %