Why This Chapter Exists

This book is about the realities of running a brewery. Most of those realities are financial — margins, costs, competition. This chapter is about a different kind of cost, one that doesn't appear on any spreadsheet.

If you open a brewery, you will be surrounded by alcohol at a level that most people never experience. You will taste it, sell it, celebrate with it, commiserate with it, and build your entire working identity around it. And the cumulative effect of that exposure — on your liver, your heart, your brain, your weight, your sleep, your relationships — is something you need to go into with your eyes open.

You wouldn't take a job in a coal mine without understanding the risks to your lungs. Don't take a job in a brewery without understanding the risks to everything else.