We're Really Digging Today's Reddit AMA With Brooklyn Brewery's Steve Hindy
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We're big fans of AMAs (short for Ask Me Anything) here at Food Republic. During these candid columns on social news website Reddit, users can submit any question to an individual. Notable participants have included Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Madonna, Larry King, Roger Federer and Rachel Maddow. We were especially excited this morning when we saw a prompt from Brooklyn Brewery co-founder Steve Hindy. While the Q&A is still going at last check, we've rounded up some of our favorite moments:
Did you ever have any trouble with crime or gangsters at the time you were starting out?
I was robbed at gunpoint and forced to open the safe, which held $30K in cash. We had a run-in with some mob-like guys when we built the brewery. Read about it in Beer School, my first book.
What would you consider your biggest mistake with Brooklyn Brewery?
In the late '90s, we were distributing our own beer and others. We tried to develop a dot-com to home deliver the beers in NYC. Big mistake; cost us $1 million. Lesson: stay focused.
What are some of your favorite breweries besides Brooklyn?
Deschutes in OR; Yazoo in TN; New Belgium in CO; New Carnegie in Stockholm.
Do you have a favorite Brooklyn Brewery beer?
Right now, I have Hammarby Syndrome on tap at home. It is a beer made with the artisanal grain, spelt and spruce tips. It is a tribute to our joint venture brewery in Stockholm, Sweden.
With the proliferation of breweries, what is your take on the global shortage of hops and some of the bigger guys buying up most of the supply?
Definitely becoming a problem. We have longstanding and loyal suppliers, so I think we will be OK.
Which is more difficult: Writing a book or running a brewery?
Running a brewery.
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