While interviewing for a job possibility the other day, I was looking at a Travel and Leisure magazine.  Normally, I’m not that interested in what they have to say…unless I’m traveling soon.  However, there wasn’t much else to look at so I went ahead and started flipping through and saw an interesting article about the revival of real Stilton Blue Cheese.

Basically, there was a food poisoning outbreak in 1983 that had one thing in common: Stilton Cheese.  It was later found that the cheese wasn’t actually responsible for the outbreak, but not before the damage was done.  The response of the government was to ban the raw version (most of Europe followed suit).  Afterward, raw Stilton didn’t exist.  But in the early 2000s, bans were being lifted and real Stilton was being made again (we, the people of the U.S., still can’t get many raw cheeses).

Obviously, this was enthusiastically greeted.  The new pasteurized version was said to be a dry, crumbly, and poor vestige of the past. The rediscovered cheese was gloriously buttery, soft, and utterly (no pun intended) delicious.  My mind began to turn to Americans who are rediscovering craft beer and leaving behind the hollow and insipid macro pilsners.  But my mind also began to turn toward toward the craft industry and the rediscovery and revival of old styles.  Sure, in terms of style, there is innovation building and discovery happening, but wouldn’t it be interesting to see the revival of some long since forgotten styles?  I think so.  At any rate, this is not what actually interested me most about the article.

Something the writer mentioned in passing was that these true artisanal cheese makers will never get rich making the product.  I suspect that it must be related to the fact that people have developed a taste for the newer and more vapid version.  Perhaps there is a serious price difference that people aren’t willing to pay.  Ultimately, discovering the motivation of others is very difficult.  Yet, there is no question about the cheese artisan.  These persons are all about the cheese.  They do it because they love it.  As you can imagine, this really stirred me into thinking about our hopes for a future brewery.  The trick will be to let people know that huge dividends and Bentley’s are not coming down the pike.  I don’t want to be rich from making beer, I want to make rich beer.  If I squeak by a living doing it, so be it.  Some things are simply done for the love of the thing itself.