Beer School - by Steve Hindy & Tom Potter

Book Synopsis

Beer School

Bottling Success at the Brooklyn Brewery

What do you get when you cross a journalist and a banker?

A brewery, of course.

"A great city should have great beer. New York finally has, thanks to Brooklyn. Steve Hindy and Tom Potter provided it. Beer School explains how they did it: their mistakes as well as their triumphs. Steve writes with a journalist's skepticism--as though he has forgotten that he is reporting on himself. Tom is even less forgiving--he's a banker, after all. The inside story reads at times like a cautionary tale, but it is an account of a great and welcome achievement."

--Michael Jackson, The Beer Hunter

"An accessible and insightful case study with terrific insight for aspiring entrepreneurs. And if that's not enough, it is all about beer!"

--Professor Murray Low, Executive Director, Lang Center for Entrepreneurship, Columbia Business School

"Great lessons on what every first-time entrepreneur will experience. Being down the block from the Brooklyn Brewery, I had firsthand witness to their positive impact on our community. I give Steve and Tom's book an A++!"

--Norm Brodsky, Senior Contributing Editor, Inc. magazine

"Beer School is a useful and entertaining book. In essence, this is the story of starting a beer business from scratch in New York City. The product is one readers can relate to, and the market is as tough as they get. What a fun challenge! The book can help not only those entrepreneurs who are starting a business but also those trying to grow one once it is established. Steve and Tom write with enthusiasm and insight about building their business. It is clear that they learned a lot along the way. Readers can learn from these lessons too."

--Michael Preston, Adjunct Professor, Lang Center for Entrepreneurship, Columbia Business School, and coauthor, The Road to Success: How to Manage Growth

"Although we (thankfully!) never had to deal with the Mob, being held up at gunpoint, or having our beer and equipment ripped off, we definitely identified with the challenges faced in those early days of cobbling a brewery together. The revealing story Steve and Tom tell about two partners entering a business out of passion, in an industry they knew little about, being seriously undercapitalized, with an overly naive business plan, and their ultimate success, is an inspiring tale."

--Ken Grossman, founder, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.

From the Back Cover

"Any beer lover hoping to jump on the bandwagon ought first to take a lesson from Beer School."
--Time

A journalist and a banker share the life and business lessons they learned while building a successful brewery in New York City

"A great city should have great beer. New York finally has, thanks to Brooklyn. Steve Hindy and Tom Potter provided it. Beer School explains how they did it: their mistakes as well as their triumphs."
--Michael Jackson, The Beer Hunter^(R)

"This account serves up more than the usual suds and foam--its counsel is sound and its prose lively, and it should appeal to both wannabe industrialists and beer drinkers, not that those categories are mutually exclusive."
--Publishers Weekly

"Great lessons on what every first-time entrepreneur will experience. Being down the block from the Brooklyn Brewery, I had firsthand witness to their positive impact on our community. I give Steve and Tom's book an A++!"
--Norm Brodsky, Senior Contributing Editor, Inc. magazine

"Steve Hindy and Tom Potter's Beer School may be the first business book ever that could set the cold heart of a Hollywood producer racing. This one has it all, Mr. DeMille, and if I owned the rights, I'd already have my people on the line with your people."
--Jack Curtin, Celebrator Beer News

"Beer School is a useful and entertaining book. In essence, this is the story of starting a beer business from scratch in New York City. The product is one readers can relate to, and the market is as tough as they get. What a fun challenge! The book can help not only those entrepreneurs who are starting a business but also those trying to grow one once it is established."
--Michael Preston, Adjunct Professor, Lang Center for Entrepreneurship, Columbia Business School, and coauthor of The Road to Success: How to Manage Growth

"The revealing story Steve and Tom tell about two partners entering a business out of passion, in an industry they knew little about, being seriously undercapitalized, with an overly naive business plan, and their ultimate success, is an inspiring tale."
--Ken Grossman, founder, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.

Review Quotes

"This gripping and lighthearted read charts their successes and failures and leaves you thirty for more." (Sainsbury's Magazine, September 2009)

"This winning tale of the rise of the Brooklyn Brewery follows the basic pattern of every entrepreneur's memoir: a restless visionary sets out to accomplish a dream, barely survives a series of setbacks, emerges victorious--and ready to tell readers how they can do the same. But this account serves up more than the usual suds and foam--its counsel is sound and its prose lively, and it should appeal to both wannabe industrialists and beer drinkers, not that those categories are mutually exclusive. In fact, the authors, foreign correspondent Hindy and banker Potter, decided to found their New York brewery, now 17 years in business and among the top 40 in the U.S. in sales, after consuming many bottles of Hindy's homebrew. The longtime partners tell their story in engaging, candid voices, delivering cautionary anecdotes, reflections on longstanding disagreements and lingering resentments, and brutally frank self-assessments. It helps the story immeasurably that beer is a more colorful subject than, say, spreadsheet software, a fact that gets the reader past the inevitable chapter on financing. Though Hindy and Potter may not help the aspiring entrepreneur strike gold, they offer a compelling model and a heartening story." (Oct.) (Publishers Weekly, August 22, 2005)

About the Author

STEVE HINDY is President and cofounder of The Brooklyn Brewery. A former Middle East correspondent for The Associated Press, he is currently a director of Brooklyn's Prospect Park Alliance and the Brewers Association. Hindy has a master's degree in teaching English from Cornell.

TOM POTTER cofounded the Brooklyn Brewery in 1987. He served as its CEO and chairman until his retirement in 2004. Previously, he was an assistant vice president at Chemical Bank, where he financed the acquisition of assets valued in excess of $1.5 billion. Potter graduated from Yale and has an MBA from Columbia.