It's time to say goodbye.
I started working on this brewery 10 years ago in China, with the goal of creating something truly unique. I wanted to create something that no one had ever seen or tasted before.
This brewery started with a dream and an obsession with brewing and craft beer. The very first batch of beer I brewed, I knew I wanted to start a brewery. My obsession took me all the way to China, where I started the first iteration of Jade Mountain, inside an old teahouse in central Huzhou. Everyone thought I was crazy, and maybe I was. I moved to a foreign country, just because it was so difficult to get into the beer industry here in Colorado. Nothing was going to stop me from pursuing my dream of opening a brewery. When I found that old teahouse, sitting by a river in central Huzhou, I thought it was the perfect place to drink a beer. I used every resource I had to build that 300 sq ft place from nothing into something. I taught English during the day and made and sold beer in the evenings. The beer I made was terrible, I had no teacher, no one to show me what to do. Just books and online videos and most important, trial and error. I made beer every day, figured out what worked and what didn't.
Expats supported me, the local Chinese looked at me like I was crazy, but eventually we found a place in their hearts. I made something they had never tasted before. The beer got better. My ideas grew grander. I wanted to use the Osmanthus Flowers that grew on the tree outside the brewery. I saw locals using those flowers for dessert. Why not use them in beer? I gravitated to using anything local I could. Fruits, spices, tea and took inspiration from the people around me. I mastered the language and communicated with locals and created a community through beer.
I wanted to show my hometown of Aurora what I had learned in China. I knew so many craft beer drinkers were adventurous and was always looking out for something new and unique. And I had just the thing for them.
I came back to Colorado and started to build Jade Mountain Brewery & Teahouse. I wanted to showcase all the best parts of China, the culture, the flavors in a space that was authentic to China and to my life in Huzhou. I struggled for years to open the space in Aurora. So many people doubted me, but I felt I had something special, a story to tell through the beer I made. Finally, on May 1st, 2021 my dream of opening a brewery came true. It was a culmination of years of hard work and perseverance.
Was it exactly how I hoped it would go? Not exactly. We struggled from the day we opened our doors. Despite creating something truly unique in the Colorado beer scene, we just never gained the following that we had hoped for. Maybe our branding was confusing, our beer names and styles. Perhaps what I created was too different, too niche or more likely it was because we opened in the middle of COVID in an uncertain political and economic climate.
But I did everything I could, I focused on the things in my power to change, looked at every possible solution to why our business wasn't succeeding. Was it the location? The niche beers? The teahouse environment? I always strived to make better beer, I never stopped improving or became complacent like many professional brewers. I even painted my favorite Chinese idiom on the wall, "他山之石可以攻玉, the stone from the other mountain can polish jade." Never stop improving yourself, accept criticism, never be complacent. I tried a million different ways to evolve to better understand our customers and bring in new adventurers in craft beer.
Eventually I came to the decision that perhaps our theme was the issue. Our exotic beer flavors and styles had made us too niche for the average beer consumer. Also, prices of exotic fruit and ingredients were out of control, our costs were significant. I felt we needed to make a change. I wanted people to drink more beer more often. Not just when they felt like trying something different, once in a blue moon. I struggled to keep the doors open with what we were doing. Something drastic had to happen.
In comes Incantation Brewing. My solution to rising costs and an ever changing and evolving craft beer market.
I've always done things over the top. Just changing beer styles at Jade wasn't the solution. We had to shake things up, make a splash and create some attention so people could hear what we had to say. However, I never expected the backlash I received from the change. All the negativity that poured in was crazy. I knew there would be some surprise from the way I announced the change, I just didn't expect how angry people would be. Craft beer drinkers and other brewers alike seemed to treat this decision like I killed their puppy. However unwarranted I felt the backlash was, I still was unwavering in my decision to change.
I saw the writing on the wall, if I kept going the way we were going, we'd close. Simple as that. I needed to sell more beer, be less niche and for me, heavy metal was an easy transition. Many people were confused by it, but if you knew me personally, it wasn't a surprise. Heavy metal has been a part of my life since I was a kid. Playing guitar in bands in high school, going to concerts and hanging out in the mosh pit. I could have been more neutral and named the brewery "Smoky Hill Brewing" or something basic, but I still wanted to have a part of my personality in this brand, so I could get behind the beers, the styles and be more authentic to myself.
Instead of focusing on Asian inspired flavors, I went back to my roots and focused on my favorite style, Mexican Lager. I also incorporated many of my own cultural flavors into the beers I made. Less squid ink and durian, more cinnamon and chocolate.
Was it the right decision? Maybe, maybe not. But, I couldn't just sit around and wait to run out of money and the doors to close.
I saw change. More people drinking more beer, staying longer, enjoying the beers I made. I also felt reinspired and remotivated. My beers are the best they've ever been. My process has improved, I allowed myself to focus on a few styles and do them well. I feel like I've become a better brewer overall. I saw the market change to favor easier drinking beers, lagers in particular. So that's what we focused on.
I also noticed a huge piece of the market had simply just stopped drinking, for health or other reasons. So, when we decided to open up our second location off South Broadway, I added a full-blown coffee house. Always changing, ever evolving, I tried to chase beer drinkers and non-beer drinkers alike. Maybe we got stuck in another bad location, but it's all we could afford, and barely. I knew we needed to be more central. Aurora was way too far of a drive for most people. Gone are the days of driving hours to Greeley or Glenwood Springs for good beer, many people won't even walk one block to check out something new and different. But, to be fair, 6 months at Alameda isn't giving it much of a chance. I just can't make it with $100 a day. If I had hundreds of thousands more to throw at it, eventually it would succeed, right? With this current economic and political climate, I'm not so sure. Maybe things will change in the future.
I know it's not just us struggling. Every brewery, restaurant, bar and small business is struggling. There will be more closures unfortunately. If you love your local business, support them. A few bad weeks, a few bad months is all that takes to put us out of business. So here we are, closing both our Aurora brewery and our Alameda coffee shop & taproom. I tried my best to keep things going, we're just too far in the hole to dig ourselves out.
I want to thank all of our employees, past and present for helping me with this dream of opening this brewery. I know it wasn't always easy, but I appreciate all of your hard work and effort. I also want to thank every one of our hardcore Jade Mountain & Incantation supporters. We literally wouldn't have made it this far without you.
Is this the end? I always have ideas and plans for the future. Perhaps you'll see me make beer again, either as Jade Mountain, Incantation or something completely different. This is not goodbye forever. Just goodbye for now.
-Sean Guerrero
No comments:
Post a Comment