It’s the middle of the nineteenth century, give or take a decade or two. You are an ambitious young man.
James Watt’s steam engine and other inventions have already revolutionized the textile and ceramics industries. Industrialization has opened the door for ambitious young men like you to advance in the world without the traditional leverage of inherited wealth.
That first sip of a really great tasting draught beer is a magical moment. The senses are brought to life by the beer’s color, aroma and flavor. The dichotomy of the moment is inspiring: At once a thirst is quenched and an appetite created.
In his scant nine years as a professional brewer, Matt Brynildson has worked for one award-winning brewery after another: Goose Island in Chicago, SLO Brewing in California, Firestone Walker in California.
Guinness, the name, appears on beers brewed in 50 different countries and sold in 100 more. Guinness the name, then, is one of the world’s great global brands. Guinness the name appears on something else rather remarkable, the best-selling copyrighted book in history. Nearly 100 million copies of Guinness World Records (previously the Guinness Book of World Records) have been sold since 1955, when it was created at the behest of Guinness managing director Sir Hugh Beaver. This means that Guinness, the name, is known by millions of people who have never let a drop of Guinness, the beer, pass through their lips. So yes, it’s safe to say that Guinness, the name, is known the world over.
To those of us in the rest of the country, “ the West Coast” is a world apart. Despite the vast geographical spread from California to Alaska, despite a cultural spread that brought us both the Grateful Dead and Ronald Reagan, viewed from the outside, the West is one strange singularity. It is Hollywood glitz, Haight Ashbury, Microsoft, and the ANWAR; the acceptable face of hedonism and the last outpost of the renegade.
Sat Aug 28th, 2010
Birth of a Brewery
It’s rare that a beer lover gets to watch a brewery being born. However, years ago I offered a young man a job at the magazine for no apparent reason...
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