[A note from Tugboat Institute: Please note the postscript at the end of this article, in which the author comments on the connection of this topic to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.]

When I retired from the Air Force in 1992, I had no idea I would be the owner of a brewery one year later. And yet, in September, 1993, there I was: proud founder, with my business partner Dick Doore, of Left Hand Brewing in Longmont, Colorado.