Brooklyn Brewery co-founder Steve Hindy, one of the famed “Class of ’88” pioneers of the craft brewing movement, has announced his retirement, effective December 31.
Hindy announced his retirement in Thursday’s edition of Craft Brew News, while also revealing himself to be “Diogenes,” Beer Marketer’s Insights’ anonymous columnist over the last decade.
Brooklyn Brewery CEO and president Robin Ottaway shared Hindy’s retirement plans Thursday in an email to staff. Ottaway recounted what Hindy has meant to Brooklyn, the brewery, the craft brewing industry and to him personally, calling Hindy his mentor.
“No words can precisely capture what Steve Hindy has meant to Brooklyn Brewery and to many of us personally,” Ottaway wrote. “Steve is Brooklyn Brewery. To quote one of his favorite movies, Scarface, he ‘put this shit together, man,’ and that might be the perfect, albeit colorful summary of what Steve means to Brooklyn Brewery. Steve is why Brooklyn Brewery exits.”
Even though Hindy “put this shit together,” Ottaway wrote that “he didn’t always dominate it.”
“He was a catalyst, and an enabler, and attracted many talented people to his company,” he wrote. “Those folks believed in him and his vision, from the early pioneering employees who had no reason to believe, and still today, because the foundation he built is so solid. Steve is a mentor to many of us.”
Ottaway was effusive in his praise for Hindy, who co-founded the brewery with Tom Potter in 1988. (Potter retired from the Brooklyn Brewery in 2004 and is now president of New York Distilling Co.)
“No recounting of craft beer’s history and its giants can be told without featuring Steve,” Ottaway wrote. “He was one of the original believers, a pioneer, a member of famed Class of ’88, and always a champion of unity among craft brewers, and with big brewers and distributors.”
Ottaway also touched on the mythologized story of Hindy convincing the late Milton Glaser, best known for creating the logo for the I Love New York campaign, to create the brewery’s iconic logo and brand identity.
“There’s a whole story there which many of you have heard about the lengths Steve went through to get Milton on board,” Ottaway wrote. “Is it apocryphal? Perhaps, but who cares, it’s a great story, and it illustrates Steve’s doggedness in those early days.”
Ottaway also shared how Hindy’s friendship with he and his brother Eric’s father, forged “while covering wars and avoiding bullets in the Middle East together,” may have “inadvertently” written the brothers into the Brooklyn Brewery story.
“I met Steve when I was still a boy, evidenced by a picture of me feeding his daughter Lily a bottle when she was a baby and I was 8 or 9 years old,” Ottaway wrote. “Little did I know that this man would shape my life in so many ways, from what I ended up doing with my career, to where I lived, my commitment to my community, and even my sense of humor. Steve showed me why our community was so important to invest in and how to become a leader. Probably most importantly, he taught me to stay focused on the goal, and not let the noise distract me. I guess that’s what you learn covering wars.”
Ottaway wrapped his email referring to Hindy as the G.O.A.T. (Greatest of All Time).
“How do you summarize a GOAT’s achievements in a few paragraphs?” he wrote. “You don’t. You can’t. But hopefully these words impart a sense of what Steve means to Brooklyn, to Brooklyn Brewery, and to many of us personally.”
Ottaway noted that post-COVID-19, the company will get together “to honor and celebrate Steve’s legacy,” which he said will be more of a “roast.”
In retirement, Hindy will remain a member of Brooklyn Brewery’s board of directors. He will also write a novel based on the life of his grandfather, Ali Hindy, who moved to New York in the 1890s from Syria at age 11.
For more on the story of Brooklyn Brewery, the following YouTube video is an entertaining refresher.