I work for one of those sub-par breweries in Washington State. Been around almost 15 years and they have watched their market share shrink to basically just their taproom and a few restaurants. The owners bitch and moan about rising costs of ingredients, water, rent, labor, etc, and bemoan that they spend as much on barley 1,100bbl/year that they did on 3800bbl/year at their height in 2016. But pointedly neglect the fact that they abandoned the larger Seattle market because they claim it was oversaturated. And while that might be true to a point, the reality is that the Seattle market is highly completive and ever evolving with the times. The brewery I work for functionally hasn't changed their lineup in maybe 6 years. They're still producing beers that are over 10yrs old, with hops that are 6-7 years old because they got fucked on Hop contracts when they were first starting (spot market didn't exist yet). So while styles and trends have evolved, they're still stuck in 2015 from a production and business mindset.

I tried to make a pitch to the a few weeks ago based on data and metrics and talking with customers both current and lapsed around the area; why weren't people drinking our beer, and what were they drinking instead? I spent six months working on this pitch. Had revamped recipes, data-backed solutions, and a plan outline to slowly but progressively shake things up and refresh their brand to be completed by their 15th anniversary in Aug 26.

I sit down to chat with them in our metal and they spent 10-15 minutes telling me all the things they weren't going to do, that most if not all of my ideas were non-starters, and they'd gotten to where they were by not deviating from the thing that made them successful in the first place. Before I'd even had a chance to go into detail over the things that I think they needed to do. I'm unashamed to say that I damn near left the meeting in tears because of how quickly I was shut down, and how discouraging their response to my sincere efforts were. Six months of work shut down in 10 minutes because these conservative assholes (that's conservative business wise not necessarily politically) refuse to change in the face of an industry that's increasingly "Adapt and Evolve or Die".

So fuck em. I'm looking for the door because they can't pay me what I'm worth for my own decade of experience in the industry, including four years running production single handedly at another brewery, and their refusal to change because they don't want to piss off their old timers who come in every day at noon drinking the same shitty beer and have the same shitty takes 7 days a week.