‘Iowa City Beer Mafia’ Movie to be Filmed in Galena, Dubuque

For those who love movies about the beer industry, and are fans of local Midwestern lore, a new production is about to start shooting next month in cities across Illinois and Iowa. To top it all off, it's a story that's never been committed to film.

A new film, called Death of a Brewer, revolving around the "Iowa City beer mafia" is set to begin shooting in August in various cities, including Quincy, IL; Galena, IL; Iowa City, and Dubuque. The Gazette caught up with Doug Alberhasky, the film's producer and third-generation owner of John's Grocery in Iowa City, who billed the film as "a love story and espionage."

READ MORE: Cyclone vs. Hawkeye Beer: The Story Behind Two Strange Dubuque Brews

The script for the film is based on a book by Coralville author S.C. "Steve" Sherman called Beer Money: A Tale of the Iowa City Beer Mafia. The book tells the story of the 1880s battle that occurred between three Iowa City brewers, with a swath of immigrant customers and Temperance campaigners hellbent on banning alcohol in the United States in the background.

Alberhasky told The Gazette that roughly half of the film will be shot in Iowa City, specifically at the Old Capitol, the Black Angel monument at Oakland Cemetery, as well as the "beer caves" where the local brewers aged their lagers many generations ago.

The film is to be directed by Mokotsi Rukundo, who also wrote the film as well. Rukundo lives in Iowa City, and was only 10-years-old when his family emigrated from Swaziland. He told The Gazette that he met Sherman, the author of Beer Money, as an extra while shooting a crime-drama in Iowa City.

Death of a Brewer has a $2 million budget; comparatively minimal to the price-tags of major motion pictures. The producers are counting on saving a great deal of money by shooting many scenes at the original locations in the Midwest, rather than having to pay money to reconstruct replicas that do not carry the same historical weight.

Following a run on the film festival circuit, coupled with a limited theatrical release, Death of a Brewer will be screened at craft breweries and taprooms nationwide, per The Gazette:

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The film industry has these different outlets for films. We’re going to go those typical routes, however this film is different. [Beer] is an actually tangible product people experience in their lives - Mokotsi Rukundo, per The Gazette

Find out more about the production of Death of a Brewer, on The Gazette's website.