Documentary Mini-Series Captures Successes and Challenges of Startup Craft Brewery Swimming Against the Tide
PRESS RELEASE / September 18, 2026 (Arlington, MA) – Arlington filmmaker Andy Takats has just released the ninth mini-episode of What Goes Into That Pint Glass?, a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the Arlington Brewing Company. The series explores what it takes to build a brewery and taproom and to serve up a pint of fresh, high-quality craft beer. It is broadcast on Arlington Community Media TV (ACMi) and is available on ACMi’s YouTube channel. The latest episode brings the story to the current day, with more to come as the story continues.
The brewery journey began during the Covid-19 epidemic when robotics engineer Tom Allen of Arlington saw an opportunity to change his career and bring something new to his hometown. The documentary series follows Allen and his growing team over 6 years of successes, challenges, and pivots, amidst the backdrop of the historically dry town of Arlington, a plateauing craft brewery industry, and an ever-shifting global economic environment.
Shot in a verité documentary style blended with sit-down interviews, the series reveals what it takes to brew great beer, to create a new business that’s welcomed by the community, and to find and develop the right taproom space, all while working with town, state, and national regulations and managing personal challenges. Viewers meet: Allen’s family, his business partner and extended team, his lawyers, architects, investors, future taproom neighbors, Arlington town management, among others.
The series is developed with the support of Arlington Community Media, and is funded in part by a grant from the Arlington Commission for Arts and Culture, a local agency which is supported by Mass Cultural Council a state agency.
The series can be viewed on the ACMi YouTube channel: https://acmi.tv/programs/public/what-goes-into-that-pint-glass/
The Filmmaker
Andy Takats is a 30+-year resident of Arlington. Takats has produced promotional videos for My Life My Choice, Survivor Network North Carolina, and the Germaine Lawrence School (a residential program for teenage girls formerly located in Arlington Heights). He has screened short documentaries in the Providence Latin American Film Festival (2019) and Roxbury Film Festival (2025), winning an Honorable Mention – Best Documentary in the latter.
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