At some point in August of 2009, I reached the height of dissatisfaction at my job and my career as a whole. Since 2003, I have worked as an instructional designer, developing curriculum for various companies in all kinds of industries, from retail to railroad. With the exception of one or two jobs, I’ve mostly done contracts and worked according to the client’s wishes. Most people think that a consultant has the advantage of recommending the best solutions for the problem. It’s true, I can and did, but when it comes down to it, I was always at the mercy of the client. What the client ultimately wants is what I had to deliver, even if it wasn’t the best solution. I was good at what I did and was offered a very lucrative full-time position, but really, my heart was just not in it and hadn’t been for a few years.
Pairing this frustration with my underlying passion or dream of working in a more hands-on creative field and being my own boss, I was ripe for something new. Although money is important, it’s not my primary motivation. I know everyone says this, but, when it comes down to it, I just want to be happy doing something I love. And furthermore, I REFUSE to become one of those people who silently toils day after a day at a job they hate because they don’t have the guts to just take the risk and see what happens. I wanted to be a doer and not a dreamer. If I wait for the perfect moment to “make my move” I could be waiting for a very long time for a day that may never come.
One of my big “When I have the money, I’d like to” dreams was to open a restaurant or a bar. However, a vast amount of time, money, and experience is required for such an undertaking. Plus, while I have many cool plans for types of restaurants or bars I’d like to open, I wasn’t really feeling a bright passion or clarity for any of them.
So, one day, while at work, I walked past the upstairs tea “brewery” at Argo Tea, and got to thinking about a real brewery and how the idea of making beer all day long really appealed to me. So, I (jokingly, at first) said to my friend that we should quit our jobs and open a brewery.
Well, the idea stuck. I suddenly developed an idea of what I wanted to do and where I wanted to be. It felt as though all of these plans and ideas had been locked inside my head and I had just found the key. Within a few hours of brainstorming and researching, I had the name: Robey Street Brewery and the theme: Chicago History. I’ve always been very passionate about this city and had even recently applied to volunteer the Chicago Cultural Center (they still haven’t gotten back to me!).
I started reading about the few other local craft breweries in the Chicago area and realized that there really wasn’t that much competition to speak of. If anything, Chicago needs MORE craft breweries! Plus, I was surprised that no breweries (with perhaps the exception of Goose Island) had capitalized on making a beer that is all about Chicago.
In the middle of all this, I spent a week on vacation in September to Amsterdam where I went to visit my old friend and her husband. While I was in Amsterdam, I had the pleasure of trying a bunch of amazing Belgian and other European beers that weren’t readily available in the States. Plus, my friend decided that we should book a day trip to Brussels, Belgium. I excitedly agreed, and after thumbing through the Fodor’s guide, I was happy to see that Brussels had a BREWER’S MUSEUM! Naturally, this was first on the list and that trip was probably the highlight of the entire vacation. It further inspired and motivated me to go back and pursue the idea of having a brewery in Chicago. For the rest of the Amsterdam/Brussels trip, I continued to drink a lot of great beer, making notes and getting very excited. I will post a separate entry about the trip and my beer notes.
Brewers Museum, Brussels Belgium
When I got back to Chicago, I decided to delve a little deeper and started the research. I read about various options: contract brewing, package brewery, brewpub, etc. I did some research on the industry as a whole and most importantly, about how I could start brewing at home.
Other than the plethora of websites, I made a trip to the library and picked up the following books: Brew Chem 101 (by Lee W. Janson, PhD), Beer: A Tap Into the Art and Science of Brewing (by Charles W. Bamforth), How to Brew (by John J. Palmer) and Redhook: A Microbrew Success Story (by Peter J. Krebs). These books and more are linked on the right side of the main blog page.
I also joined various craft brewing forums, websites, and associations. I got my ticket to FOBAB, and continued to find out how to better get to know people who are already in the industry and get some answers to my many questions.
Once I was sure that this was something worth pursuing, I made the decision to quit my job and give myself 3 months to solidify a game plan and really explore as much as I could. Months before, I had fully intended to take at least 3-6 months off of work to travel, but now I had a much more practical goal in mind and a comfortable cushion of savings set aside precisely for a period of unemployment. Plus, if things didn’t work out or I needed to make some money, there are almost always contract opportunities available in instructional design if I ever needed to go back to it.
