23-The Brewer's Son 酿酒也疯狂

The Brewer¹'s Son 酿酒也疯狂

When I was a teenager, my dad did everything he could to dissuade² me from becoming a brewer. He'd spent his life brewing³ beer for local breweries⁴, barely making a living, as had his father and grandfather before him. He didn't want me anywhere near a vat⁵ of beer.

So I did as he asked. I got good grades, went to Harvard and in 1971 was accepted into a graduate program there that allowed me to study law and business simultaneously⁶.

In my second year of grad school, I had something of an epiphany I've never done anything but go to school. I thought, and I'm getting pressured to make a career choice for the rest of my life. That's stupid. The future was closing in on me a lot earlier than I wanted.

So, at 24, I decided⁷ to drop out. Obviously, my parents didn't think this was a great idea. But I felt strongly that you can't wait till you're 65 to do what you want in life. You have to go for it.

I packed my stuff into a U-Haul and headed to Colorado to become an instructor⁸ at Outward Bound, the wilderness-education program. The job was a good fit for me. Heavily into mountaineering and rock climbing, I lived and climbed everywhere, from crags outside Seattle to volcanoes in Mexico.

I never regretted taking time to "find myself". I think we'd all be a lot better off if we could take off five years in our 20s to decide what we want to do for the rest of our lives. Otherwise we're going to be making other people's choices, not our own.

After three and a half years with Outward Bound, I was ready to go hack⁹ to school. I finished Harvard and got a highly paid job at the Boston Consulting Group. a think tank and business-consulting firm. Still, after working there five years, I was haunted by doubt. Is this what I want to be doing when I'm 50?

I remembered that some time before, my dad had been cleaning out the attic¹⁰ and came across some old beer recipes on scraps¹¹ of yellow paper. "Today's beer is basically water that can hold a head," he'd told me.

I agreed. If you didn't like the mass-produced American stuff, the other choices were imports that were often stale. Americans pay good money for inferior beer, I thought. Why not make good beer for Americans right here in America?

I decided to quit my job to become a brewer. When I told Dad, I was hoping he'd put his arm around me and get misty¹² about reviving tradition. Instead he said, "Jim, that is the dumbest thing I've ever heard!"

As much as Dad objected, in the end he supported me: he became my new company's first investor¹³, coughing up $40,000 when I opened the Boston Beer Company in 1984. I plunked down $ 100,000 of my savings¹⁴ and raised another $ 100,000 from friends and relatives. Going from my fancy office to being a brewer was like mountain climbing: exhilarating, liberating¹⁵ and frightening. All my safety nets were gone.

Once the beer was made, I faced my biggest hurdle¹⁶ yet: getting it into beer drinkers' hands. Distributors all said the same thing: "Your beer is too expensive; no one has ever heard of you." So I figured I had to create a new category: the craft-brewed American beer. I needed a name that was recognizable and elegant, so I called my beer Samuel Adams, after the brewer and patriot¹⁷ who helped to instigate¹⁸ the Boston Tea Party.

The only way to get the word out, I realized, was to sell direct. I filled my leather briefcase¹⁹ with beer and cold packs, put on my best power suit and hit the bars.

Most bartenders thought I was from the IRS. But once I opened the briefcase, they paid attention. After I told the first guy my story--how I wanted to start this little brewery²⁰ in Boston with my dad's family recipe--he said, "Kid, I liked your story. But I didn't think the beer would be this good." What a great moment.

Six weeks later, at the Great American Beer Festival, Sam Adams Boston Lager won the top prize for American beer. The rest is history. It wasn't supposed to work out this way--what ever does? --but in the end I was destined²¹ to be a brewer.

My advice to all young entrepreneurs is simple: life is very long, so don't rush to make decisions. Life doesn't let you plan.

1 brewer   

n. 啤酒制造者

参考例句：

• Brewer is a very interesting man. 布鲁尔是一个很有趣的人。
• I decided to quit my job to become a brewer. 我决定辞职，做一名酿酒人。

2 dissuade   

v.劝阻，阻止

参考例句：

• You'd better dissuade him from doing that.你最好劝阻他别那样干。
• I tried to dissuade her from investing her money in stocks and shares.我曾设法劝她不要投资于股票交易。

3 brewing   

n. 酿造, 一次酿造的量 动词brew的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• It was obvious that a big storm was brewing up. 很显然，一场暴风雨正在酝酿中。
• She set about brewing some herb tea. 她动手泡一些药茶。

4 breweries   

酿造厂，啤酒厂( brewery的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• In some cases, this is desirable, but most breweries prefer lighter-type beers. 在一些情况下，这是很理想的，但是大多数啤酒厂更倾向于生产酒度较低的啤酒。
• Currently, there are 58 breweries producing Snow Beeracross the country. 目前，全国共有58个雪花啤酒厂。

5 vat   

n.(=value added tax)增值税，大桶

参考例句：

• The office is asking for the vat papers.办事处要有关增值税的文件。
• His father emptied sacks of stale rye bread into the vat.他父亲把一袋袋发霉的黑面包倒进大桶里。

6 simultaneously   

adv.同时发生地，同时进行地

参考例句：

• The radar beam can track a number of targets almost simultaneously.雷达波几乎可以同时追着多个目标。
• The Windows allow a computer user to execute multiple programs simultaneously.Windows允许计算机用户同时运行多个程序。

7 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

8 instructor   

n.指导者，教员，教练

参考例句：

• The college jumped him from instructor to full professor.大学突然把他从讲师提升为正教授。
• The skiing instructor was a tall,sunburnt man.滑雪教练是一个高高个子晒得黑黑的男子。

9 hack   

n.劈，砍，出租马车；v.劈，砍，干咳

参考例句：

• He made a hack at the log.他朝圆木上砍了一下。
• Early settlers had to hack out a clearing in the forest where they could grow crops.早期移民不得不在森林里劈出空地种庄稼。

10 attic   

n.顶楼，屋顶室

参考例句：

• Leakiness in the roof caused a damp attic.屋漏使顶楼潮湿。
• What's to be done with all this stuff in the attic?顶楼上的材料怎么处理？

11 scraps   

油渣

参考例句：

• Don't litter up the floor with scraps of paper. 不要在地板上乱扔纸屑。
• A patchwork quilt is a good way of using up scraps of material. 做杂拼花布棉被是利用零碎布料的好办法。

12 misty   

adj.雾蒙蒙的，有雾的

参考例句：

• He crossed over to the window to see if it was still misty.他走到窗户那儿，看看是不是还有雾霭。
• The misty scene had a dreamy quality about it.雾景给人以梦幻般的感觉。

13 investor   

n.投资者，投资人

参考例句：

• My nephew is a cautious investor.我侄子是个小心谨慎的投资者。
• The investor believes that his investment will pay off handsomely soon.这个投资者相信他的投资不久会有相当大的收益。

14 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

15 liberating   

解放，释放( liberate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Revolution means liberating the productive forces. 革命就是为了解放生产力。
• They had already taken on their shoulders the burden of reforming society and liberating mankind. 甚至在这些集会聚谈中，他们就已经夸大地把改革社会、解放人群的责任放在自己的肩头了。 来自汉英文学 - 家（1-26） - 家（1-26）

16 hurdle   

n.跳栏，栏架；障碍，困难；vi.进行跨栏赛

参考例句：

• The weather will be the biggest hurdle so I have to be ready.天气将会是最大的障碍，所以我必须要作好准备。
• She clocked 11.6 seconds for the 80 metre hurdle.八十米跳栏赛跑她跑了十一秒六。

17 patriot   

n.爱国者，爱国主义者

参考例句：

• He avowed himself a patriot.他自称自己是爱国者。
• He is a patriot who has won the admiration of the French already.他是一个已经赢得法国人敬仰的爱国者。

18 instigate   

v.教唆，怂恿，煽动

参考例句：

• His object was to instigate a little rebellion on the part of the bishop.他的目的是，在主教方面煽起一场小小的造反。
• It would not prove worthwhile to instigate a nuclear attack.挑起核攻击最终是不值得的。

19 briefcase   

n.手提箱，公事皮包

参考例句：

• He packed a briefcase with what might be required.他把所有可能需要的东西都装进公文包。
• He requested the old man to look after the briefcase.他请求那位老人照看这个公事包。

20 brewery   

n.啤酒厂

参考例句：

• The brewery had 25 heavy horses delivering beer in London.啤酒厂有25匹高头大马在伦敦城中运送啤酒。
• When business was good,the brewery employed 20 people.在生意好的时候，这家酿造厂曾经雇佣过20人。

21 destined   

adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的

参考例句：

• It was destined that they would marry.他们结婚是缘分。
• The shipment is destined for America.这批货物将运往美国。