We followed Tom Henderson to the Malloy Brewery. As we pulled in, I noticed the building could use a paint job and the parking lot was becoming overgrown with weeds. There were five trucks parked in front of the main entrance, we parked next to them. I saw a delivery van parked next to an overhead door at the far end of the warehouse. I sighed as I remembered what the brewery looked like the last time I was here with grandpa. He had always made sure the building was painted, and the grounds were well maintained. We walked inside to what was always the reception area. It looked like it was the only area of the office that was currently being utilized. The rest of the offices were dark, including grandpa’s office at the end of the hall. I heard the sound of machinery running in the plant as we walked out of the office. A man was loading some bottles on a conveyer, as he set the last bottles on the line he yelled, “that’s all the bottles we have. When they are filled, shut it down and start to clean up.” He saw us standing there and walked toward us.
Tom shook his hand, “Hal, this is Caleb and his friend Eli.”
Hal took my hand, “of course, I remember Caleb, what’s it been 10, 15 years?”
I also recognized Hal, he had worked in the brewery for about 25 years. I said, “it’s good to see you again, Mr. Jenkins.”
He said, “please, it’s Hal. After all you are sort of my boss now, at least until you decide to unload this mess.”
I said, “well, I haven’t made any decisions just yet Hal.”
Tom said, “if you have time Hal, I’m sure Caleb has a lot of questions for you.”
Hal nodded, “sure, we are done with production for today, let’s go to the office.”
Hal turned back to the two men that were running the bottling line, he said, “I’ll be in the office, finish packing those last cases and get that vat washed out.”
We followed Hal inside, he moved some chairs next to a desk that was covered with papers and the only computer in the room.
He sat down and said, “well Caleb, what can I tell you about the brewery?”
I said, “Tom has already shown me a bit of the financials, is the brewery really sustainable?”
He said, “it will take a lot of work, but yes, I think it could make some money again.”
I asked, “how have you been keeping it going?”
Hal sighed, “duct tape and WD-40.”
I gave him a questioning look.
He laughed, “if it moves and shouldn’t, use duct tape. If it doesn’t move and it should, use WD-40.”
I chuckled, “I get it. How are you selling the beer you do produce?”
He said, “there are the six bars in Waynesboro that have been buying from us since your grandpa started the brewery. There is a liquor store that also stocks our beer as well as the three convenience stores. I suppose you saw the van out front, we use it for weekly deliveries. Joey, our warehouse/driver/salesman loads up every Monday to deliver here in town. On Wednesday he goes north to Keysville and Hephzibah. On Friday he heads south to Sardis, Vidette, Perkins and Girard. They are all small towns with a few bars that again have been loyal customers for years.”
I asked, “and that is enough to keep the brewery running.”
Hal shrugged, “just enough for now, but even those sales are starting to decline. Joey always watches for new bars to open, and he gives any new place a free case just for them to see if it will sell.”
I said, “so we have Joey running our distribution department, so to speak.”
Hal chuckled, “yeah, I guess you could say that. I’ll be sure and tell him you gave him a title.”
I said, “so how many other employees do we have?”
He said, “Rick and Ed run the filling line. Brad is our maintenance guy, he keeps the machines running the best he can.”
I nodded, “and you are the brewmaster?”
He said, “yes, I guess you could say that. I know the recipe. We all actually do whatever needs to be done. Brad and I stack pallets while Joey is out delivering, we all jump in if there is a major breakdown on the filler and we all help with cleaning up at the end of the day.”
I asked, “who takes care of all the paperwork?”
Hal said, “Jeff Thomas, he was your grandpa’s office manager up until a year and a half ago. He knew how things were going for your grandpa. So, he started his own accounting business downtown, he came in a few times a week to do the books while your grandpa was still running things. He is still helping us out, he comes in once a week and does the billing, pays the bills and does payroll.”
I said, “and we are making enough to stay open?”
He nodded as he handed me a piece of paper, “just barely, this is last week’s P&L. we made a little over $500 for the week after all expenses. In the summer, we sometimes hit $1000. Once we build a little cash up, we usually have a major breakdown to use it up. I try to do a little upgrade if we ever get far enough ahead.”
I shook my head, “wow, why haven’t all you guys just quit and found new jobs?”
Hal took a deep breath, “your grandpa gave all of us a chance when were all at a bad point in our lives. I started here 25 years ago when I had just been fired from my job in construction, I got caught drinking on the clock. I can’t even tell you how long I was an alcoholic, it kind of snuck up on me. A few beers after work every night turned into a six-pack and then a 12-pack. The next thing I knew, I was filling my thermos with beer instead of coffee. The boss checked that thermos one day and drove me home and told me that I didn’t need to come back in the morning. I wasn’t being as sneaky as I thought I was. I guess it was the wake-up call I needed. I saw an ad in the paper the brewery was hiring so I walked in here and filled out an application. Your grandpa interviewed me right then, he asked why I left my last job, and I was honest and told him the truth. He hired me on the spot, and I haven’t had a drop of alcohol since. I know it sounds silly for an alcoholic to be working in a brewery, but your grandpa trusted me, and I never did anything to lose that trust.” He chuckled, “hell, every year he would give all the employees a case of beer with their Christmas bonuses. He always got me a case of Dr. Pepper, since I had quit drinking, it was my new addiction.” Hal paused a minute, then continued, “all the others have similar stories, they weren’t all drunks like me, but your grandpa helped them out too, I guess we feel we kind owe him.”
He saw me just staring at him and added, “I saw your dad headed down the same path that I did. I wanted to help him, but before I could work up the courage to talk to him, he had his accident. I’m sorry I didn’t act sooner Caleb.”
I sighed, “thanks Hal, dad made his choices. I had no idea grandpa helped people like that. I’m sure he would appreciate the loyalty, just as much as I do. When was the last time you guys had a raise?”
He said, “it’s been a couple of years.”
My mind was racing, how could I put these guys out of a job? They could have all found other jobs a long time ago, they may have made some mistakes, but they all sounded like good guys.
I asked, “what would it take to get the brewery running at full capacity again?”
He asked, “do you mean both lines or just the one we are using now?”
I asked, “there are two lines?”
He nodded, “yep, back when we had enough business, we had two lines running to keep up with sales. When business fell off, we shut one line down and to be honest, we have been robbing parts off it to keep the main line operating.”
I said, “ok, so how much to get the current line up to full speed, and how much more to get the second line going again? Or would it be better to buy a completely new line?”
Hal reached into his desk drawer and handed me a paper, he said, “your grandpa looked into a new line about five years ago, here’s the estimate.”
I quickly scanned the paper to the bottom line, over $500,000, I’m sure it would be much more now.
Hal chuckled when he saw the look on my face, he said, “yeah, that was the same look your grandpa had on his face when he saw that. I would guess it would take about 35,000 to get the current line running well, another 50 grand to get the second line going, but we don’t have the sales to need both.”
I nodded, “how many more employees would we need?”
Hal asked, “are you seriously considering fixing up the brewery?”
I shrugged, “I’m still not sure, I’m just looking at all my options.”
Eli asked, “I’m sorry to interrupt, what would be the best way to increase sales?”
Hal said, “the first step would be to find a distributor.”
Eli asked, “what do you mean?”
Hal said, “right now, we are selling our beer directly to bars and liquor stores. About two years ago, the distributor dropped us because we didn’t have enough sales.”
I asked, “so how are we able to sell beer, don’t we have to have some sort of license or permit?”
Hal nodded, “we need to be licensed with the state to sell to a distributor. About twenty years ago when all these microbreweries started to pop up, most distributors didn’t want to carry them until they had a certain number of sales. The small breweries lobbied and got a bill passed that allowed the state to issue them a permit to self-distribute directly to bars and liquor stores. When we were dropped by our distributor, we got one of those permits.”
Eli asked, “so how would a distributor help sales?”
Hal said, “a distributor not only delivers the beer to bars, so we don’t have to, but their salesmen also talk bars into carrying our beer.”
I ran my hands through my hair and sighed, “wow, there is a lot more to running a brewery than I ever imagined.”
Tom said, “it is a lot to take in Caleb, and I don’t want to rush you into any decisions, but we can’t drag this out for too long.”
I nodded, “I understand Tom.” I turned back to Hal and said, “could you get a list of what it would take to get one line up to full speed and how many more employees we would need? Oh, and please make a list of anything else that needs to be repaired, I know the building could use some paint.”
Hal nodded, “sure, I can work on it tomorrow while we are waiting for our new bottle shipment.”
I asked, “so we won’t be able to bottle any more beer until the bottles show up?”
He said, “yeah, we get a shipment every Wednesday. We will do our weekly sanitation tomorrow. We should already have enough beer bottled to meet our orders for this week.”
I said, “if it’s ok with you, Eli and I will be back in the morning. We can help make phone calls to get prices on the things that you tell us we need. You can continue to educate me on the brewery business too.”
He smiled, “that would be great, I was hoping you would give keeping the brewery running some serious consideration.”
I shook his hand, “of course I will, especially after all that you and your crew have done to keep things going.”
He said, “like I said, we owe your grandpa.”
Tom led us to grandpa’s house and gave me the key after he opened the door. He said, “I’m glad you are thinking about keeping the brewery running. I will be happy to give you any legal advice along the way.”
I said, “I’m sure I will have lots of questions.”
He said, “I’m sure you know your way around the house. I did take the liberty of having Wi-Fi set up in case you wanted to do some research. I’m sorry there aren’t any groceries, but I did get you some coffee for the morning. There are a couple of fast-food places just down the street so you can grab something for tonight. The grocery store is not too far away if you want to do any of your own cooking.”
I said, “I’m sure we’ll be fine Tom, I’ll call if I need anything else.”
He nodded, “your grandpa was a good man, and just between you and me, I would love to see someone give that smug Scott Patefield a run for his money.”
I smiled, “thanks Tom, I will keep you posted.”
He asked, “how long are you staying in town?”
I said, “we are going back to California on Friday.”
He nodded, “make sure to stop by the office before you leave.”
I shook his hand, “I will, thanks for your help.”
Grandpa and Grandma built the house in the mid-eighties. It sat on about five acres on the edge of town. We were standing in the entry as I turned around to look around. It had been over ten years since I had been here. I began to give Eli the grand tour. There was a formal living room just to the right of the entry, grandma liked to entertain a lot. I was never allowed in that room as a kid, unless guests were over. The formal dining room was on the left, again I was only allowed in there at Thanksgiving or Christmas. The kitchen was off the dining room, it was large with a table and chairs, this is where I usually ate when I was a kid visiting. Just down the hall was what grandma always called the sitting room. It is a lot less formal, with a couple of comfy chairs and a couch. It was also where the TV was located, again, I spent most of my time in that room during my childhood visits. Further down the hall was grandpa’s home office and a guest bathroom. At the end of the hall were the bedrooms, that included a guest room, my dad’s childhood bedroom and the master bedroom, each had their own bathrooms.
Eli said, “wow, very nice.”
I nodded, “yeah, I guess. It was fairly fancy for its day. It’s clear that grandpa hasn’t changed anything since grandma died ten years ago.”
Eli chuckled, “yeah, there are lots of Mauves and pinks, totally eighties and nineties décor.”
I said, “oh, I almost forget about the pool.”
He raised an eyebrow, “there’s a pool?”
I nodded as I led Eli through the formal living room to a set of French doors that led outside. We walked outside to the large patio area that had a nice privacy fence surrounding it. The outdoor furniture was a little dirty and weathered and the pool was empty, also in need of a good cleaning.
I said, “well, I guess grandpa hasn’t done too much entertaining out here since grandma died either.”
Eli said, “too bad the pool is empty, I feel like going skinny dipping.”
I shook my head, “come on, let’s go back inside and order a pizza for dinner.”
I found a pizza place and placed our order, unfortunately, they didn’t deliver.
Eli said, “no problem, I’ll go pick it up.”
I nodded, “thanks, I’m going to start making a list of questions for Hal and Tom.”
Eli left to get the pizza as I sat at the kitchen table and opened my laptop, I typed Hal on the top of one page and Tom on another page. I quickly had both pages nearly full by the time Eli returned.
He set the pizza on the table as well as a six-pack of beer. I saw it was Malloy Beer, I looked up at Eli.
He grinned, “if we are going to own a brewery, we should start drinking the beer.”
I laughed, “I still haven’t decided what I am going to do, and what do you mean, “we”?”
He opened a bottle and said, “well, I was thinking, I just got a $10,000 bonus after I finished my last project. I would be willing to invest that in a worthwhile business venture.” He took a drink of his beer, “hey, this is pretty good.”
I opened a bottle and took a drink, “yeah, it is.”
He asked, “so, what do you think, do you want a business partner?”
I sighed, “ok, you have ten grand, I guess I have about twelve to fifteen that I was saving for a new car. But you heard Hal, it would take at least $35,000 to get one line running, and you saw that what kind of shape the building is in, it could use some serious work too. I’m guessing we would need closer to $100,000 just to get things halfway running.”
Eli shrugged as he took a bite of his pizza, “you’re probably right, but we really should see if we can raise the money. We can try and get a loan or see if any of our other friends want to invest.”
I shook my head, “I don’t know Eli, it’s a big risk.”
He grinned, “oh please, I know you well enough to know that you want to do this. I saw the look on your face when Hal was telling you about all the guys, you want to keep the brewery running for them.”
I rolled my eyes, “maybe a little, but I’m not going to lose everything I have, just to help them.”
He chuckled, “we’ll see.”
We brainstormed more ideas of how to get the money to keep the brewery going. I still didn’t know how much money grandpa had, that might be coming my way. I added that question to my Tom page.
We went to the sitting room to watch a little TV before we went to bed. We were sitting next to each other on the couch drinking our last beer, it really was a good beer. As we were watching TV, a commercial played with a very good-looking red head flashing a sexy smile.
Eli chuckled, “look, it’s Trevor.”
I said, “what are you talking about?”
He said, “that actor in the commercial, does he look like Trever?”
I rolled my eyes, “he has red hair, all redheads don’t look alike.”
He shrugged, “probably not, but I have never been with a ginger, and Trever sounded really hot.”
I laughed, “ok, I told you about my first time with Trevor, it’s your turn to tell me about your first time.”
Eli rolled his eyes, “it wasn’t nearly as hot as yours, believe me.”
I took a drink of my beer, “I’ll be the judge of that.”
He sighed, “fine,” he took a big swig of his beer and started his story.
It was my first semester at UCLA, and like you, I made it to college with my virginity intact. A group of my friends were telling me about a party they were going to and invited me to go along with them. They said that there would be a lot of football players at the party, but told me not to get my hopes up, most of them had girlfriends that would also be there. I told them I didn’t care, I just figured I would still be a virgin tomorrow whether I went to the party or not.
I asked, “so they all knew you were gay?”
He nodded, “yeah, I came out to them as soon as I started classes, I had come out my parents that summer but still had not had my first boyfriend.”
So, anyway, we went to the party, and we were all having a good time. I was enjoying checking out all the hot jocks, not expecting too much. Most of the guys that I was told were on the football team, had girls hanging all over them. I was starting to get a buzz on when this sexy black guy grinned at me and walked in my direction. I had never met him, nor did I know his name, I guess I hadn’t noticed him yet. I was standing at the keg, refilling my glass as he stepped next to me. I had the keg nozzle in my hand, so I offered to fill his glass when I finished filling mine.
He smiled, “thanks, I’m Jackson.”
I finished filling his glass and said, “Eli, nice to meet you.”
He took a drink and said, “I hear you suck dick.”
I nearly spit out my beer and stuttered, “well I… um, I mean I have never… but…”
He laughed, “I think you are kind of cute, do you want to get out of here?”
I looked over at my friends, they were all watching the whole thing. They were soon nodding their heads, encouraging me to go with Jackson.
I took a deep breath, “I guess we could go someplace and talk.”
Jackson set his glass down and said, “cool, my place is just four blocks from here.”
I followed him out of the party, and we chatted as we walked to his place. He told me he was a safety on the football team and was from Texas, attending UCLA on a scholarship. I told him a bit about me, and I began to relax the closer we got to his place. When we got to his apartment, he told me his roommate was out of town with his girlfriend.
I said, “well, it’s true that I am gay, but I have never done anything with another guy.”
He smiled, “that’s ok, I kind of have a girlfriend, but I have been wanting to try something with a guy for a while now. I was talking to your friends at the party, they saw me checking you out and told me that I should go talk to you. Sorry I just blurted out that line about you sucking dick.”
I chuckled, “it’s ok, it worked, didn’t it?”
He nodded, “I guess so. I’ve never done anything like this before either.”
We shared an awkward kiss, and each pulled back looking into each other’s eyes.
We started kissing again and everything just started to feel so natural, we just started pulling each other’s clothes off. Jackson sure had the body of a football player, he was lean, but he had muscles in all the right places. I ran my hands across his broad chest and then down his six-pack abs, God he was perfect. I reached down and found his cock, it was just as perfect as the rest of him. He was a little longer than me, and a bit thicker. I just had to taste him, I kissed my way down his torso and licked the drop of precum that had formed clean from his cock head. It was delicious, I quickly took his entire member into my mouth. Jackson began to moan, so I must have been doing a good job. I cupped his nuts as I bobbed up and down. I felt those nuts tighten and Jackson pulled me back to my feet and led me to his bed. I latched back onto his cock, and he started to suck me too. I was in heaven as I felt his nose rub across my balls and he worked a finger into the crack of my ass. I let his dick fall from my mouth and told him I needed him inside me. He gave me another kiss and we moved into position, he slowly pushed in, giving my chute time to adjust to his girth. We were soon making out as he fucked me, hitting my sweet spot with every thrust.
He broke our kiss and asked, “how does it feel?”
I panted, “it feels great.”
He asked, “will you do it to me?”
He didn’t have to ask twice, we quickly changed places, and my pole was soon buried in his ass. We were soon past the point of no return. I filled his hole with my seed, and he shot his love juices all over our chests.
Eli turned to look at me, I was rubbing myself through my jeans.
I said, “I think that was just as hot as my first time. It’s kind of cool that we both had basically the same experience. I mean it was mostly a positive experience for all of us. Maybe since it was the first time it seemed like we all learned the ropes together.”
He shrugged, “well, maybe it was close to being as hot as your story. And you are probably right about having another first-time guy as a partner made it a bit better.”
I asked, “did you see him again?”
He nodded, “yeah, we hooked up a few more times. He was a senior and graduated that spring. He got drafted by the Miami Dolphins but just played on their practice squad. The last I heard, he was coaching high school football back in Texas.”
I sighed, “well, now that you have me all horned up, I think I’ll head to bed.”
He chuckled, “yeah, I guess I’m ready for bed too.”
Since we had enough bedrooms, I took my dad’s old bedroom and Eli took the guest room. It didn’t seem right to sleep in grandma’s and grandpa’s room, at least not yet.
After I took care of the hardon that Eli had given me, I fell right to sleep. We wanted to go into the brewery early in the morning.
To be Continued…
