I know this is an old thread, but I can only agree with today's comments. In post-retirement just to keep busy I put in a couple days at the same store that gave me my start in the '90's. Last year, they celebrated their....50th anniversary. I couldn't believe it had been going that long. I found out the reason the original owner opened the store is because he has a small vineyard on his property and honest to god, wanted to find a way to get a conduit to winemaking supplies. That's what I was told a few weeks ago, anyway. Hard to believe someone would open any business for this reason but knowing the guy as I did, anything's possible. Anyway, he did well enough.
Cut to today. I am truly sad for the current owner, who worked for the original owner and bought the store sometime around 2018. I see it - many days, exactly right, maybe 150 bottle caps here, a yeast pouch there. Hours go by, and nothing. I had a restaurant that failed, and I can see this younger man's 1000 yard stare. It's downright scary and sad because I know those sleepless nights all too well.
Being a chef-owner has been burned out of me, which is a rare thing for me. Crazy thing is, I still have a sort of smoldering and entirely insane vision of a little British-oriented brewery somewhere in our beautiful countryside. It feels like I've forgotten everything. I've re-acquired all the books in my former beer library, including the "serious" British books (e.g., Briggs and Young), but my brain is not the same one of even a few years ago - memory and cognitive grasp has been dinged pretty well.
Mainly, my wife would not only divorce me, she'd murder me. So,
probably not going to bring it up. Too much.
Not in a million years could I recommend it to anyone.
