Love it or hate it. Accept it or reject it. Live it or….let it die.
I love the relatability of having our primary beer central to everyone’s life. Life = Death.
Iron Horse Brewery is dead. April 20, 2037.
Not a prediction—this is a pre-mortem.
If you already know what a pre-mortem is, skip ahead. For the rest of you: a pre-mortem is a way of imagining the future and asking, “What went wrong?” It assumes the patient—in this case, Iron Horse Brewery—has already died, and we’re dissecting the cause. (Look it up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-mortem.)
What started as a flippant idea during a conversation with Riley about post mortems, turned into something deeper. After all, as the saying goes, “There are no new ideas under the sun—just new suns.” Dang, Riley, I guess we don’t have any new ideas either.
So, what kills Iron Horse Brewery over the next 12 years? What malignancy takes root that we just can’t heal?
Here’s my prediction: we succumb to fear.
Paralyzed by the risk of making the wrong move, we make no moves at all, clinging to the past and forgetting to shape the future we’re meant to live. Like so many, we chase what we’re running from.
Or maybe something external takes us out—like an environmental catastrophe wiping out malt crops. Beer dies because the costs skyrocket, and food takes priority. Life without beer? Noooooo!
What do you see killing Iron Horse Brewery? I’m in love with the wisdom of the many so I ask you, what do you see when you imagine our organizational death in a dozen years? Be provocative, be genuine, be imaginative, be specific. If you give my favorite response I will get on a zoom call with you and irritate you with questions and reflections for 42 minutes. You can invite your friends and family too. XOXO
One Comment
Erin
Greg-it probably has to do a lot to do with the loss of Chris and I…and I wasn’t able to keep supplying you with “things that were once popular on youtube” to bring such classics like double rainbow and the honey badger to you. But-I’m commenting because your post-mortem sounds like a business trip is necessary. Come visit! My kneejerk reaction every time a new brewery opens in this town is, “now this is getting out of control…no town can support THIS many breweries.” Yet they do. And when I visit-I can’t get a table because they are all so dang packed-and the grocery stores are packed with their cans. This shows me it can’t be all a generational shift…but what they all seem to have is a very unique attitude to their brand. From cats, 100% organic, Pride, to punk rock-they appear to make it work. Even the brewery I like the least-which I think has the worst beer in this town (which shall not be named) is slammed all the dang time and the grocery stores are loaded with it.
Come on over. Ride Bikes, Drink Beer, Get Awesome. :)