I sold $25m of beer from my back yard
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Senior Writer
Jody Clarke Dec 12, 2008
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There used to be 50 breweries in Brooklyn, New York. But by the time Steve Hindy, 59, returned from the Middle East in 1984, there were none. "And I was not happy." Having spent the past five years as a foreign correspondent, covering the invasions of Iran and Lebanon, he was pretty bored working as an editor with Newsday, the Long Island newspaper. "I mean, I was sitting behind President Sadat when he was assassinated." Editing copy from a desk was a lot less fulfilling. He was looking for a way out.
So he started home brewing, having picked up a few tricks from alcohol-starved diplomats in Saudi Arabia. Reading up on the history of the "rich, dark malt beers" that Brooklyn was once famous for, he started trying to convince Tom Potter, his downstairs neighbour and a successful banker, that "we should quit our jobs and start a brewery. He initially thought I was a madman – in US brewing the big guys were getting bigger and the small guys were going out of business."
However, microbreweries were popping up rapidly on the West Coast. So having convinced Tom and found a 100-year-old brewery with spare capacity, the two handed in their notice, and raised $0.5m from family and friends, including "$110,000 from the fellas at Newsday. And journalists, let me tell you, don't make a lot of money. But they tend to be a little bit crazy. Crazy enough to believe that I could make money from this."
They then hired a fourth-generation German American brewer and asked him to make a new "100% malt beer, full of flavour and guts". Next, they found a warehouse in the borough from which to distribute it. "The area was so scary that the truck drivers refused to come in late at night. But it was inexpensive." Buying an old Chevrolet van, "we pedalled the beer from the truck", selling it for cash to bars and delis in the local area. "Our first day in business we delivered to five customers," selling a whole pallet, 48 cases at $20 each, to one customer.
Hindy then convinced Milton Glaser, the man behind the 'I love NY' logo, to design a similar emblem for the brewery, in exchange for stock. "That got a lot of attention from the media, as did the back-story of brewing in Brooklyn." In the first year, they sold 2,000 cases a month and had shifted 20,000 by that year-end. Within a few years they were winning tasting competitions, including for the "best amber lager" at the 1992 American Beer Festival. By 1995, the firm was making $5m a year in turnover, when Hindy was robbed of $30,000 at gunpoint at the company's offices. "But we wouldn't move out of Brooklyn. The least expensive place to sell beer is your own back yard. The further you get from that, the harder it is to project your brand."
This year, Brooklyn will manage just under $25m in sales, with its name growing in popularity among beer lovers the world over. "The press appreciate risk, they thought we were crazy, trying to start a brewery in Brooklyn. But they liked the story and it worked."
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