SH*T! Big time bummer (brewery content)

[Bennyboy]

I have been involved in a brewery in NORCAL, the Jack Russell Brewing Company in Pollock Pines. Great place. IT has been in existence for about ten years. The original owner sold it about 8 months ago to the general manager. At first we were all happy about the move, Ian was kind of an asshole and treated the brewery as his private playground.

At the time I was saying "It is better to dance with the devil you know than one you don't know". As soon as the papers were signed the new owners wife started to control things. Put up cameras, stop music events due to insurance reasons etc. Had their son(with no brewing experience)start telling Greg (the brew master since the inception) how to brew, what to brew and when to brew.

we stopped having events back in June. Too bad, it brought a lot of people in and introduced them to the beers.

They cut back on the number of brew festivals we were allowed to do (Our bread and butter and my function). Said they could not give that much beer away. Even though that is how we got accounts and placed out beers all over the west coast.

Due to the kids poor direction we could not fill orders.

So today we all had a meeting. Everyone involved was fired. Turns out they have not paid any payments and have run the company into the ground.

Of course Ian will call their note and the brewery will return to him, but that is long ways off. I figure with no brewer and stock on hand they have about six months or less. no one can just jump in a start brewing on the system and get the same quality. So all the retail and restaurant accounts will be gone.

So tomorrow we go up and clean out out all of our shit. (a lot of equipment is OURS). We have enough stuff to brew our own beers and recently got approved by the feds to do so. But now we have no facility to brew in, no bottling line etc and will have to hire that part out, cutting into our profits.
we had a deal with Jack Russell (Both old and new owners) that allowed us to brew our beers there and we would trade the promotion of their beers for the use of the facility and line etc.

So sad freaking day round these parts.

[Suich]

1. Well, that sucks! Sorry!

The new owners sound like idiots. Why did they buy the brewery in the first place?

[seemunkee]

2. Damn, that sucks

You put a lot of sweat into the place and are now officially screwed.

I took a look at what it might take to start a small brewhouse or brewpub and after getting an idea of the work involved decided it wasn't for me.

[Bennyboy]

3. Yeah it is going to be back to ground zero

But we know the biz, so we will be alright. But if we still worked Jack Russell and then worked El Dorado we would be able to work them both together. Both beers are different with ED being an organic brewer. JR is English style ale. So they really were not competing, but complimenting each other.

We laid it all out for the new owners as to how it was going to work and they did not seem to have a problem with it. We scheduled what beers according to sales and all that and would brew our beers (ED) around the JR shcedule. And it is just as easy to do 2 beers at a fest as it is one.

I just think they got too many people involved that had no diea what was going on and now think that someone is going to hop in and brew the same beers. For the really ridiculously low amount of money that Greg was getting.

Me and Al (another partner) we just worked for free, expenses to fests and a percentage of beer sold to retail, accounts we set up through the fests.

Now JR has no one with any brewing or sales experience in the industry. They do not know everyone in the biz like we do. It will be sad to see something we worked so hard to build go to shit.

[seemunkee]

4. Sounds like they wanted a vanity business

owning a microbrewery sounds like a cool job, and probably is, but you still have to run it like a business and not screw the people who know what they are doing

[Bennyboy]

6. The thing is...the manger knew what he was doing....

but the family got involved and the $$$ paid clouded their minds. What a shame. we jsut came from there and it was so sad. oen more trip and we are done.

[Wapsie B]

5. Goes to show how nepotism and incompetence can ruin a business fast.

I never cease to be amazed how in many industries people are put into positions of leadership without having earned it or knowing what they're doing. I hope you can get something else going.

Was this son an MBA too? Or did he rise to his level of incompetence just on Mommy's apron strings?

[Bennyboy]

7. MBA..worked in the tech industry...never saw or talked to him directly

but he would send emails telling Greg what to brew and when. (winter seasonals now for example). Stout in the spring (time for lighter beers for summer). he sent programs and would never lsiten. Wanted to start using extracts too, instead of the organic berries we used for our blueberry beer.(a huge seller).

I just hope that when ian takes it back over (apparently they have missed 3 months payments) we can come back.

[Quiet_Dem_Mom]

8. Is this the same JRB that participates in the Apple Hill festivities?

If so, we stopped by there last year on our first trip to Apple Hill and it was p.a.c.k.e.d. We could barely get through the door with all the people lined up inside. The front lawn area was covered with people eating & drinking, including us, of course. My sister and I had the blueberry beer and we enjoyed it so much that I made Quiet_Dem_Dad trudge through the crowd to buy a six-pack to bring home.

What a shame. Hopefully, things will improve and it will turn back around.

QDM