Iowa author works on beer mafia movie

A piece of Iowa City history from the late 1880s is beoming a movie, thanks to an Iowa author with Grinnell ties.

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S.C. Sherman, of North Liberty, a 1988 graduate of Grinnell High School, recently shot a proof of concept/sizzle short promo movie in Iowa City for the script “Death of a Brewer,.”

The movie is based on Sherman’s novel, “Beer Money, A Tale of the Iowa City Beer Mafia,” released in 2020.

Sherman is working with Doug Alberhasky, owner of John’s Grocery in Iowa City, and Mokotsi Rukundo, an Iowa City native and Los Angeles screenwriter, to produce the movie.

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Rukundo wrote the script.

“He loves Iowa and this great Iowa story is the perfect fit for him,” said Sherman.

The lead actor for the promo was Andy Dispensa, also from Los Angeles, who has starred in episodes of “N.C.I.S. Hawaii” and “The Chosen.”

Other parts of the movie promo were played by local favorites, including Sherman himself.

“We will be using local actors when we can and most definitely for the extras, but we will be using professional actors in the movie,” Sherman said. “Some of which will be Hollywood famous in nature, but I can’t drop any names as of yet.”

Sherman, Alberhasky and Rukundo are currently in the process of adding private investors to the producer side of the project and are working with the State of Iowa on funding options.

“We hope to be shooting the movie in Iowa next summer,” noted Sherman.

“Beer Money” is Sherman’s seventh novel and was born out of a tour he took several years ago of the beer caves 30-feet under the only remaining brewery building in Iowa City at the corner of Linn and Market Streets.

“It was an amazing tour and brought to life a story lost to history that I’d never heard of before,” said Sherman. “It’s a story about German and Czech immigrants and three great breweries on the Northside of Iowa City.

“Their way of life clashed with the Women’s Christian Temperance Union,” said Sherman, “and a dramatic tale unfolded into the Beer Riots of 1884 and the men known in Iowa City as the Beer Mafia. I became obsessed and researched the story from that point on.”

The book follows the brewers of Iowa City from 1881 to 1884. The movie will follow the same time, but focuses more on 1884.

Sherman spent several months researching for the book. “I used the State Historical Society and many other sources to learn all I could to portray an entertaining and accurate look at the past,” Sherman said.

“Beer Money” came out in 2020, and Sherman had a planned launch party at the Big Grove Brewery in Iowa City in the spring of that year.

“It was literally the night before the Governor shut the state down for Covid,” he said. “Talk about poor timing.”

Sherman said he did not set out to make a movie of his book when writing it, but when he writes, he sees stories in his head like a movie.

“It is very exciting to see the book become a script and now to see my characters come to life on the big screen,” said Sherman. “It a story that needs to be told, to be known and remembered.

“It’s an immigrant story, it’s a story of the American Dream and the occasional nightmare that goes with that as people groups clash in the great melting pot.”

The end goal, Sherman said, is to produce the next great Iowa film.

“Iowa doesn’t have a lot of films about Iowa or filmed in Iowa,” said Sherman. “Field of Dreams” is the most widely known Iowa film, and it was decades ago.

“Our film will bring a great story of our state to worldwide attention,” said Sherman. “Our modern breweries are built upon this legacy of the past, and our story will be both entertaining and enlightening for both Iowan’s and all Americans.”

The movie will be unveiled at several film festivals, with international distribution to follow, Sherman said. “We will be offering viewing events in some of Iowa’s own great breweries as well.”

In addition to writing books and working on a movie project, Sherman sells real estate and specializes in farms, hunting properties and acreages. He and his wife, Amy, have four children.

A Beer Money movie and Bass Reeves book release party is slated for Oct. 26 at 6 p.m. at the Prairie Canary Speakeasy in Grinnell.

Sherman’s books are all available on Amazon or from his website, www.scherman.com and from some local bookstores.