STEVE HINDY is President and cofounder of the Brooklyn Brewery. A former Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press, he is also a director of Brooklyn's Prospect Park Alliance and the Brewers Association. Hindy has a master's in teaching English from Cornell. TOM POTTER cofounded the Brooklyn Brewery in 1987. He served as its CEO and chairman until 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.
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)