TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Every day amid the hustle of Brooklyn, something is brewing at Steve Hindy's place. It looks like, tastes like and goes down like beer but it smells like success.</s>STEVE HINDY, CO-FOUNDER/PRESIDENT, BROOKLYN BREWERY: We sell beer now in 25 states. And the name Brooklyn rings bells in Sweden, in Britain, in Italy, in France, in Germany, in Japan, in China.</s>FOREMAN: Hindy was a long time foreign correspondent in some of the world's most dangerous places. He quit the news business back in the 1980s and decided to turn his hobby of making beer into a small business. He started in a part of New York where property values were comparatively reasonable. His small team focused on keeping costs low, quality high, helping community charities instead of buying big ads, and crafting distinctive brews that stood out from mass produced beers.</s>GARRETT OLIVER, BREWMASTER, BROOKLYN BREWERY: I think the reason why we've been successful is that we've always trusted that people have good taste rather than trying to dumb things down or do focus groups and try to figure out what does everybody like.</s>FOREMAN: The result, even as the recession raged, Hindy's place kept going. Even as per capita beer consumption plummeted, the Brooklyn Brewery kept growing.</s>HINDY: Well, I think it's just the fundamental fact that people are drinking less beer, but they're drinking more special beers. And, you know, we offer a whole range, a whole rainbow of flavors of beer.</s>FOREMAN: This year, he says they will expand their staff of 90 people, open a new shop in Stockholm, and sell $50 million worth of beer.</s>HINDY: Our future is very exciting.</s>FOREMAN: For a former reporter and Brooklyn, that's a headline. Tom Foreman, CNN.
Beer Offers Taste of Success