I'll let you guys know how it goes.
Emerging microbrewery trend
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NickTheGreat
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Hell, I'm a few years younger than you and I hate today's youth. SWMBO sometimes refers to me as a grumpy old man.
"I'd rather be dead than singing 'Satisfaction' when I'm forty five."
-Mick Jagger
I just turned 23 last week and the OP gets under my skin a little bit, partially because I have a hunch its directed towards me.
I have been drinking beer since my 21st birthday (that's the official story, at any rate), and I've had such a broad exposure to beer compared to the majority of my age who I'll hang out with at a craft brewery only, to my horror, to watch them order something like a PBA or a Bud while I indulge in the magical elixir that tastes like someone's achieved dream. My love for beer started early, and coupled with a love of the art of food, I was quickly able to develop a taste for it and find each beer's characteristics, flavors, strengths, weaknesses, etc that I loved, didn't like, and so on and so forth. I loved beer so much, that I decided to go out and buy a brewing kit.
If there's ever been a story of love at first sight, it would be written about me and my brewing kit. I've never had so much fun in my life making beer, and I've never been able to feel truly accomplished every time I open a bottle and drink something that I created. The entire process has been fun, even though I take it extremely seriously. I've built a library of beer-related literature and have brewed a number of beers over the past year, of which I've been a perfectionist but can't say that I'm perfect. I will most certainly agree that, yes, I am not near where the older, more experienced brewers are on these lines.
I quit my job at a bookstore (a year ago this May, actually) to start my own company, a managerial services corporation, which then acquired a contract to operate and staff a car rental agency. I have been working 7 days a week, 9-12 hours a day, since May 2012, and I don't see an end in sight anytime soon.
The largest battle I've had to face was lack of respect. Despite wearing a suit and tie every day, using "sir" and "ma'am" to address people, shaving, and being extremely mature and professional for my age, I get the same response everywhere I go: "But you're just a kid." I got that when I told my parents my intentions to go into business for myself, I got that from the State when I filed with the Secretary of State, I got it from every person and department I've interacted with since, and still do. At first, it got on my nerves, and while in a lot of ways it still does, I've never let it affect what I do and what I aspire to do.
I aspired to go into business for myself, and I'm succeeding (a college dropout, too, I might add). I have some debt from the startup costs, but it's nowhere near the exorbitant amount carried by many freshly graduated college students. My original intention was to start a brewery, but I realized and understood from the very start that a. I lacked the expertise, b. I lacked the business know-how, c. I lacked the finances and d. It would be a long process.
My goal is to open a microbrewery before I'm 30. Period. It's going to be a long road to get there, and I'm spending a lot of time working extremely hard at making a recipe that I can call my own, while figuring out the logistics and planning of it all. I'm drawing, drafting, designing, formulating, calculating, and factoring in every little detail that I can think of, especially the pitfalls, because I know they'll happen. Oh, and let me clarify, I'm doing all of this as preliminary planning, because it's going to be years down the road before I even take the business plan I'm writing and place it on a banker's desk to ask for a loan.
I'm sorry, but all of the pessimism and ridiculing, all of the nay-saying "well you're just a kid," that is all fodder that makes me smile and nod and say an internal "F*** you and watch me succeed." Yeah, it's a hard road ahead. It's been a hard road since I started my current career; but I don't believe in taking the easy one.
So go ahead and rant about how you dislike us young whippersnappers are aspiring to do things with our lives. While you're doing that, I'll be taking steps to prepare for my own future.
Cheers!
I have been drinking beer since my 21st birthday (that's the official story, at any rate), and I've had such a broad exposure to beer compared to the majority of my age who I'll hang out with at a craft brewery only, to my horror, to watch them order something like a PBA or a Bud while I indulge in the magical elixir that tastes like someone's achieved dream. My love for beer started early, and coupled with a love of the art of food, I was quickly able to develop a taste for it and find each beer's characteristics, flavors, strengths, weaknesses, etc that I loved, didn't like, and so on and so forth. I loved beer so much, that I decided to go out and buy a brewing kit.
If there's ever been a story of love at first sight, it would be written about me and my brewing kit. I've never had so much fun in my life making beer, and I've never been able to feel truly accomplished every time I open a bottle and drink something that I created. The entire process has been fun, even though I take it extremely seriously. I've built a library of beer-related literature and have brewed a number of beers over the past year, of which I've been a perfectionist but can't say that I'm perfect. I will most certainly agree that, yes, I am not near where the older, more experienced brewers are on these lines.
I quit my job at a bookstore (a year ago this May, actually) to start my own company, a managerial services corporation, which then acquired a contract to operate and staff a car rental agency. I have been working 7 days a week, 9-12 hours a day, since May 2012, and I don't see an end in sight anytime soon.
The largest battle I've had to face was lack of respect. Despite wearing a suit and tie every day, using "sir" and "ma'am" to address people, shaving, and being extremely mature and professional for my age, I get the same response everywhere I go: "But you're just a kid." I got that when I told my parents my intentions to go into business for myself, I got that from the State when I filed with the Secretary of State, I got it from every person and department I've interacted with since, and still do. At first, it got on my nerves, and while in a lot of ways it still does, I've never let it affect what I do and what I aspire to do.
I aspired to go into business for myself, and I'm succeeding (a college dropout, too, I might add). I have some debt from the startup costs, but it's nowhere near the exorbitant amount carried by many freshly graduated college students. My original intention was to start a brewery, but I realized and understood from the very start that a. I lacked the expertise, b. I lacked the business know-how, c. I lacked the finances and d. It would be a long process.
My goal is to open a microbrewery before I'm 30. Period. It's going to be a long road to get there, and I'm spending a lot of time working extremely hard at making a recipe that I can call my own, while figuring out the logistics and planning of it all. I'm drawing, drafting, designing, formulating, calculating, and factoring in every little detail that I can think of, especially the pitfalls, because I know they'll happen. Oh, and let me clarify, I'm doing all of this as preliminary planning, because it's going to be years down the road before I even take the business plan I'm writing and place it on a banker's desk to ask for a loan.
I'm sorry, but all of the pessimism and ridiculing, all of the nay-saying "well you're just a kid," that is all fodder that makes me smile and nod and say an internal "F*** you and watch me succeed." Yeah, it's a hard road ahead. It's been a hard road since I started my current career; but I don't believe in taking the easy one.
So go ahead and rant about how you dislike us young whippersnappers are aspiring to do things with our lives. While you're doing that, I'll be taking steps to prepare for my own future.
Cheers!
fluidmechanics
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OP, if a child is a music prodigy is the music they make by nature of their age any less profound? If there parent bought them their instruments does it make their music any less credible? The answer is no. I'm one of those people that nothing comes easy to. Just about everything I have, i have had to earn. So I admire people who have family money that can afford them opportunities that I don't have and that's something I hope to do for my kids. In the words of my former CO "some people can fall backwards into a pile of dog **** and find a diamond" for the rest of us we will just have to keep plugging away until we get our shot.
Eisenhans it sounds like you are an exception to what the OP is talking about. I believe the people he is talking about are the kids without the drive and perseverance that you have. It's the ones who say "beer is neat, I'm going to open a brewery", get written a huge check on the spot, and go blindly into the business before they realize it's not the six figure job they had dreamed about. You are one step ahead realizing that you need time before you can make it happen.
You have to realize though, there are a lot of life lessons to learn between now and 30. Lots of experience to gain, not only in brewing but in life. I had my first kid at 24 and holy crap did that change my life. While I love the heck out of my kids, there are days I would kill to be in your shoes again with nowhere to go but my dreams each day. I would have to guess most of the harassment you get about your age comes from envy. From older people that have seen young guys aspire to do great things and fail and on many levels you are probably just being looked out for if it doesn't seem like it.
You have to realize too, even tough you've been working long hours for the past year, many of us have been doing that for a decade or three. There is a strain on your soul from doing so that there is no way you'll understand until you are there. It is likely that many younger people will get a brewery going, start to feel that strain, and puss out because they don't know how to deal with it yet. Older people see this happen and shake their heads knowing they could keep that business shining.
Sorry man, I don't mean to lecture. I applaud your efforts and it sucks to think you might be offended when I don't think this was meant for a guy like you. I'm a programmer by day and I work with a 25 year old that is one of the most amazing coders I've seen. He may not be as driven as you but he knows what he loves and he dove into it head first at a young age. I find it pretty cool.
You have to realize though, there are a lot of life lessons to learn between now and 30. Lots of experience to gain, not only in brewing but in life. I had my first kid at 24 and holy crap did that change my life. While I love the heck out of my kids, there are days I would kill to be in your shoes again with nowhere to go but my dreams each day. I would have to guess most of the harassment you get about your age comes from envy. From older people that have seen young guys aspire to do great things and fail and on many levels you are probably just being looked out for if it doesn't seem like it.
You have to realize too, even tough you've been working long hours for the past year, many of us have been doing that for a decade or three. There is a strain on your soul from doing so that there is no way you'll understand until you are there. It is likely that many younger people will get a brewery going, start to feel that strain, and puss out because they don't know how to deal with it yet. Older people see this happen and shake their heads knowing they could keep that business shining.
Sorry man, I don't mean to lecture. I applaud your efforts and it sucks to think you might be offended when I don't think this was meant for a guy like you. I'm a programmer by day and I work with a 25 year old that is one of the most amazing coders I've seen. He may not be as driven as you but he knows what he loves and he dove into it head first at a young age. I find it pretty cool.
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