07/12/2024
Late 2019/Early 2020 was a horrible time to start a brewery. I lost a lot of money and a few friends. That's pretty much all of the negatives I can see from where I sit tonight.
The positives:
I took a leap of faith that most people would never dream of taking.
I made new friends, and lots of them.
I learned countless life lessons and made incredible memories that will hopefully stay with me through the next 40 or so years.
I got to design and build a small factory.
I got to make my own schedule and spend lots of time with my newborn son.
I got to fall madly in love with my wife again.
I never envisioned the time I spent building and operating and fighting to keep the Gasper dream alive would bring me full circle to the place I am now. I just knew I made some pretty great beer and wanted to share it with people. I severely underestimated how many hats I would need to wear on a daily basis.
I also learned how to not make bad beer. That first year or so had some not so smooth patches.
These days as the Master Brewer at White Squirrel Brewery, I have creative freedom and total support from all members of our ownership and management teams. I have a fantastic production team who's talent for creating great beer will hopefully surpass my own some day.
I get to make award winning beer that sells out sometimes faster than we can make it.
Then I go home. Every afternoon.
I've often heard people talk about a work/life balance and while I understand the concept, I was never really good at making it happen. I was always really heavy on the work side at the detriment of the life side.
I've said for years that "you only get one spin on this dirtball, make it count"
I've found a new peace being really heavy on the life side. I'm truly happy with the way things worked out. I'm truly happy in general. I'm an incredibly lucky guy.
I'm shutting down this page at the end of July. Thanks for being my people. Peace.
