Category Archives: Steve Hindy

Monster’s Log: Tuesday, January 31

A river runs through it.

Steve forwarded me an email last Friday with the above photograph attached and “Wwwrrooowlllll!!!!” as the subject line.

Later that day, over dropped bits of lunch I was munching off the floor, Steve explained that the picture is of his friend’s cat, Henry Hudson, and in turn I taught the perplexed brewery founder that the term wwwrrooowlllll is north African in origin and historically used to announce the sudden approach of a challenger. We deduced that Henry Hudson must believe his floating around in an empty Brooklyn mixed case is reason enough to justify an unsolicited application for my succession (not the first to try). My response to Henry Hudson:

From: Monster
Sent: Friday, January 27, 2012 3:07 PM
To: Henry Hudson
Cc: Steve Hindy
Subject: Re: Fwd: Wwwrrooowlllll!!!!

Dear Henry Hudson,

My advice to you is twofold:

[1] Ask your owner what “no vacancy” means.
[2] Get the hint.

Warmest regards,
Monster

Happy Birthday, Norman Mailer

Today is the birthday of one of Brooklyn’s great writers and one of my personal favorites, Norman Mailer. I had the honor of meeting Mailer in the early years of the brewery. He was attending a production of “The Cherry Orchard” at BAM and I was there serving Brooklyn Lager at a pre-theater reception. I was introduced to Mailer and he tried a sip of my beer. “It’s a bit heavy for me,” he said in his gruff voice. “I’m not a big beer guy.” I guess I looked a bit crestfallen. Mailer said, “Well don’t brood about it man, I don’t know shit about beer. I’m the last guy you should worry about.” He then asked how I got into the beer business. I told him about my past life as a Middle East correspondent for AP. He leaned toward me and said, “You are probably the only person here I want to talk to.” We talked about the Arab-Israeli conflict and other Middle East issues. He introduced me to his wife and kids. As we parted, he said, “See you around. The Brooklyn establishment is not that big you know.”

– Steve Hindy, Co-Founder & President, Brooklyn Brewery

Steve Hindy To Give Keynote Speech At 2012 Craft Brewers Conference

 Hindy at the mic in 1988 commemorating the F.X. Matt Brewery’s centennial

Brooklyn Brewery’s fearless leader will “address thousands” of beer industry professionals at the 2012 Craft Brewers Conference in San Diego on May 2. A beer biz veteran of nearly 25 years, Steve has amassed a trove of knowledge, insight and great stories about our favorite beverage, and has delivered countless speeches to fans, media entities, business partners and industry insiders. All of this is to say we’re confident he’ll shine on the CBC stage.

We interviewed Steve today about the art of public speaking:

Brooklyn Bloggery: What do you generally think about when giving speeches? What’s on your mind as you address the crowd?

Steve Hindy: The most important thing about giving a speech is having something to say, having a message. Seems to me that many people who give speeches, particularly business executives and politicians, studiously avoid saying anything. This is very frustrating, and boring, for their listeners.

BB: What is your favorite kind of crowd to address?

SH: I like addressing my peers in the industry and other entrepreneurs. I like talking to young people about entrepreneurship.

BB: What are some of the things that make a beer-lover crowd unique, aside from the obvious collective interest? What characteristics tend to define this audience?

SH: Beer lovers are intensely interested in beer, and breweries and brewers. They want to know about our beers and us. But their attention tends to be inversely proportional to the volume of beer they have consumed. So if they have had more than two beers, end the speech.

BB: Do you think you are more or less of a better speaker when you yourself are drinking beer during your speech?

SH: One beer enhances my speaking ability. Beyond one, the benefits diminish.

BB: Where did you give your best and worst speeches? What’s the most memorable speech you gave?

SH: My most memorable speech was at 6pm on the day we celebrated the opening of The Brooklyn Brewery [Williamsburg, Brooklyn facility] in 1996. There were a couple of thousand people at a two-block party on N11th St. I announced there would be FREE BEER until the kegs ran dry. This resulted in a mad rush. My partner Tom Potter then announced the free beer would end at 6:30pm.

BB: Do you still get nervous addressing crowds?

SH: Yes I do get nervous. But you have to channel that nervousness into positive energy. A calm speaker can be a blah speaker.

BB: What topics will you be addressing during your CBC speech?

SH: In San Diego, I plan to celebrate the role of the Local Brewer and outline some of the great challenges facing our industry in the next 25 years.

Brooklyn In The News | Dec-Jan, 2012

The Italian bureau of Vogue – arguably the most fashionable of the fashionable — recognizes One Brewers Row as a Brooklyn “Hot Spot” (pictured above).

NY Post talks with Steve Hindy about Brooklyn the brand, and features the Brooklyn Box Set in its holiday guide:

The Washington Times names Sorachi Ace one the Top Beers of 2011.

Brooklyn Lager wins 3rd Place in the Lager/Pilsner category in CraftCans.com‘s 2011 reader poll:

El Vocero  Escenario reports on the arrival of three new artisanal beers in Puerto Rico:

Michael Fassbender (of Inglourious Basterds fame) enjoys a Brooklyn Lager in Shame:

Garrett talks “beerology” on Canada radio waves courtesy of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

AMA Bionda, The Companion Ale and BAMboozle all get some love in Yankee Brew News.

Finnish daily Ilta-Sanomat names Black Chocolate Stout the second best selection in their Christmas beer tasting:

Garrett jumps the pond to promote The Oxford Companion to Beer, pictured below at the Hook Norton Brewery in (the appropriately named) Oxfordshire.

CNN International bids farewell to “The Boss”:

From The President: Taking a Chance on Big Beer

It’s been 17 years since we brewed the first batch of Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout. It was the first beer Garrett Oliver brewed for us, and it was inspired by a homebrewed stout that I used to make. Garrett did it much better, of course. I recall my partner Tom Potter was nervous about making 6,000 cases of a stout beer. Tom noted that our distribution company, The Craft Brewers Guild, only sold a couple of thousand cases annually of stout beers, from Samuel Smith’s, Grant’s, Sierra Nevada and others. Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout was bigger and stronger than any of them. We believed that it would be a winner and we took a chance. It sold out by January 1995. This year, we’ll sell 12 times that much. It’s a winner.

– Steve Hindy, President & Co-founder

From The President: Remembering “The Cat’s Head”

The “Brooklyn Night Bazaar” planned for Dec 15-17 at 149 Kent Ave with DJ James Murphy, and bands Fucked Up and The Hold Steady takes me back to a similar extravaganza on the Brooklyn waterfront in 1989, the Cat’s Head*. Of course there are significant differences. The Cat’s Head was completely illegal. As I recall, it was created by a group of early Williamsburg settlers –Robert Elmes, Jessica Nissen and Fred Valentine. They squatted in an abandoned industrial building on the waterfront. No one had insurance; no one had any official approval from the Building Department or the Fire Department or the Police Department. No one had a beer license, but they somehow managed to buy and sell Brooklyn Lager. There were radical art installations, towering sculptures, exploding watermelons, nude performance art, even a tennis match between Paul Campbell and Reggie Hodges in a grain silo, when the event was held in the Mustard Factory on Grand. There were great bands. It went all night. It was utterly raw. As I recall, there were two such Cat’s Head happenings. The shadowy organizers took the profit and went to Berlin and did a Cat’s Head there.

The Brooklyn Night Bazaar will be much more buttoned up, but it continues a great Williamsburg party tradition.

– Steve Hindy, President & Co-founder

*I seem to recall a severed cat’s head on the property gave the event its name.