We live in a small town. Most of the money here's seasonal tourism- rafting in the summer, skiing in the winter, and art all of the time. In this town was a brewpub for which my husband was the head brewer-a management position in this particular place. He loved his job, and was good at it. He ran the brewery well and efficiently, helped in the restaurant, and fixed most everything in the building that needed it.

The business was owned by a group of city guys who had purchased it from the original owner, their former partner and the guy that started the brewery part of their little chain of places. They never really liked this town, and I don’t think it fit into their corperate mold. For whatever reason, they decided to sell. They were sneaky about it, and sprung it on everyone rather suddenly. They introduced the woman, (we’ll call her “Ppppppp” from here on) and she proceeded to hang around for a week or so before the sale to talk to the managers, etc…, though she never bothered to talk much to the brewer. The former owners had told her about the brewer’s plans to open his own place, something we’d been preparing for, working on and researching for quite a while. Ppppppp wanted to know if he’d run it under her name. He said he would not. The conversations between the two were limited. One asking about the possibility of poisoning someone with the beer, (If she’d known more about the place, she’d have been more worried about things like the used chicken marinade that, after sitting out all day, an improperly trained manager had poured into the ceasar dressing), one that involved the ATF papers that are to be kept on premises at all times. Ppppppp wanted to take them home. The brewer said “no”. She took them anyhow. And another conversation where the brewer informed her of the Federal Brewers Notice (license to brew) she knew nothing about- the license is important. The lack of it means no one touches the business end of the brewery, though they can serve what ale is already made. At this point, the brewer is very worried.

Let me back up a bit here. For those of you who don’t know, a place like that makes most of it’s profits on the beer. Coupled with a restaurant it’s a good thing. It’s hard to make a restaurant work. You have to keep the labor percentage very low to make money, something you need fast, hardworking employees to accomplish. It’s a sore spot with me because the place had for so long kept slow, lazy, uncaring employees on, chasing away the good ones. In my opinion, the managers were never trained properly, so neither were the employees. How can you correct improper procedure or praise proper procedure if you can’t recognize either? Anyhow, the brewery’s low cost of product makes up for the high labor cost that occurs with such circumstances.

Ppppppp said she'd be keeping the employees on, and the wait began for the sale to take place. So what about that license? The brewer’s worried. It’s late May, and time to start making the beer for the tourist season-something that can’t be caught up once you’ve gotten behind. It’s o.k., he’s told. You can brew under the former license until it goes through. So we go ahead and make a purchase of a large expensive item only to find out on sale day that it was Bullshit! That bit about the license was absolute Bullshit, and should not have been said! So sale day comes, and the brewer is told by the former owners that he’d have to transfer all of the beer, something he busts his butt to do, then he’s told he’d be laid off by them because of Ppppppp’s lack of a license- probably 3 months to get that license. So in one giant idiotic move, this person wrecks our chances of a business loan we were working on for our place, and wrecks her own chances of making enough money to get by the slow winter months. Knowing all of this, I’m surprised she closed on the deal. She’s not done wrecking things yet, though. It’s the last day the restaurant will be opened (though we thought there’d be one more). My hubbie comes to my office and tells me he just got laid off , and that the story he was told about the license was false. Also that Ppppppp had no license to sell alcohol or beer-to-go yet, so she'd be closing for a week or so. Not something many of her newly acquired employees could afford.

This is where it goes from bad to worse. I got angry. I wrote a note to our friends informing them that the brewer would be laid off due to the lack of homework done by the new owner, that he’d been lied to about his ability to brew under the old license, and that they should come in and get their kegs and growlers filled while there was still good beer. Then we’d have to find another place to have our after-work pint and conversation since she’d be closed. I suggested her closest competition so that we could invest our money in a place that would still be around Next year. I had only managed on such short notice, to get the note to 3 friends. We met our friends for a pint or two. Though we should have been celebrating the sale to a “local” that we’d been hoping would happen for years, it was nothing to celebrate. The brewer had been screwed. At the end of the night, before the usual closing time, everyone was shewed out rather quickly, and customers were turned away at the door. One of those notes was left on the table with the rest of the trash. Most people would have thrown it away, but for some reason, the manager decides that she should give it to the new owner instead. I’m glad it wasn’t my personal medical records or something! The manager (who was recently fired-I think someone’s running out of money!) tells the owner that I wrote the note. The next day, Ppppppp accuses the brewer of distributing the note, said something about it not being her fault about the license and told him he couldn’t work there because of it, even though she’d been told who was responsible. I guess the truth hurts. Maybe she should stick her head back in that hole in the ground. We’d all be better off.

It’s not over yet, time to twist the knife a bit. A week or so later we go back to pick up the one of the brewer’s last paychecks from the former company, and to get a jug filled. Ppppppp meets us up front after we’ve paid for our beer, and tells us we won’t be back, and tries to prevent us from getting our beer, though it’s halfway poured. Now the brewer has no way to get his own equipment out of the brewery. An autoclave, a temperature sensor, and a motor. This became my next goal. Funny how a number they used to call daily, sometimes more, days off and lunch hours included, suddenly gets forgotten. We get to hear from a third party that, if the brewer talks to the new brewer, he can have his equipment back. He’s not going to talk to the new brewer. Why should he have to? It’s his equipment. Why should he help a person that has the job due to the stupidity of his new boss, and has no idea how to operate the equipment. Why should he do anything to help that “woman”? Besides, he can’t help the guy if he’s not allowed in the door! The new guy actually had the gall to call to ask how to light the kettle, though I have to give him credit. He’s the only one in the place that had the balls to call! A friend dropped the autoclave off several months later, but they still have the motor and temp controller. How are we supposed to get them if we’re not allowed in the building? Then there was the last paycheck from the former company. At this point, It’s been about a month since it was issued, and they’re holding onto it, and we’re needing the money. So she takes his career, blows our business plans, and now that there’s no income, her manager won’t give him his final check. I had to email them and ask if they knew it was not legal to do that.

So what’s my purpose in writing this? First, to tell the brewer’s customers what happened, for they’re not being told the truth when they ask at the brewpub, and second, to ask them for support. If you believe what was done to the brewer is wrong, let the owner hear it. Tell your friends. Spend your good money elsewhere. If you believe that a person taking over a business has a certain social responsibility to the employees involved, and that it’s downright wrong to take away a guy’s well earned career because you don’t like his girlfriend, please tell Ppppppp. Maybe then she’ll realize that she’s only getting what she deserves when her business fails.