In reporting this story, GBH reached out to 13 different Craft Beer Cellar franchisees, four who did not reply and five who provided some variation of “no comment.” GBH did, however, receive two unsolicited, anonymous responses condemning Craft Beer Cellar and Schalow specifically.

Hours after reaching out only to Brian Shaw, the owner from Newton, Massachusetts, and Brandon Nickelson, owner of a store in Clayton, Missouri and in-planning store in St. Louis, an email was sent from "cbcinformer@gmail.com" telling a GBH reporter that "You are too close to S and spend all your time complimenting her and CBC. No one will speak to you on record." At that point, GBH had only attempted to contact Shaw, Nickelson, and Schalow. All three denied any involvement with this or other anonymous contact with GBH.

"S" was presumably in reference to Schalow, who had appeared on an episode of the Good Beer Hunting podcast in July 2017 with GBH founder Michael Kiser, and also joined GBH's Fervent Few community, which is comprised of readers, brewers, retailers and a variety of industry professionals. In the group’s online Slack channel, Schalow engaged in an “Ask Me Anything” session with other Fervent Few members, along with occasional posts interacting with the community on beer and related news.

Interactions on Twitter, written by Kiser, had been kept to several comments complimenting Schlow on her advocacy for diversity and inclusion and another suggesting to share a beer at a later date. He also tweeted about the leaked beer list issue, though he did not engage with Schalow, beginning a thread on what constituted “quality” and the responsibility of acting as a curator for customers in a specialty shop.

"S doesn't need anything else to fire her up," the emailer later wrote. "She's already going after franchisees and Glassdoor in federal court. I like my money in my pocket and not in a lawyer's pocket. Good luck writing your puff piece about how great CBC and S are."

The Glassdoor reference was related to a March 2018 complaint and demand for jury trial issued by Craft Beer Stellar, the company created by Baker and Schalow, against the online ratings website that allows employees and former employees to anonymously review employers.

Beginning in mid-November 2017, two weeks before the internal buy/do not buy beer list was leaked, anonymous ratings began appearing on Glassdoor, all but one wildly negative. "A mess for prospective franchise owners" headlined one. "Worst decision of my life." read another. "Other negative reviews are spot on. Worst decision and years of our lives." tried to act as something of a greatest hits, pulling quotes from previous negative reviews.

They continued. One in January 2018. Two more in February. Four in March.

During the same time period as the reviews, two anonymous Twitter accounts were created, their content on the site seemingly existing only to troll Schalow and Craft Beer Cellar. Between November 2017 and March 2018, “Beermaster” and “CraftBeerMass” had mostly one-way conversations on the platform, at times taunting the owners about closed stores and legal issues, and also proudly displaying screenshots of being blocked by Craft Beer Cellar’s main Twitter account.

At one point, "Beermaster" tweeted at handles for BeerAdvocate and its co-founder Jason Alström, saying they should write a story about the franchise and its perceived troubles. The same day, they also wrote to Chris Furnari, editor of Brewbound, asking the same thing and specifically mentioning the Glassdoor reviews. Neither tweet received a reply and as of this story’s publication time, nearly all Craft Beer Cellar franchisees contacted by GBH turned down the opportunity to talk.

Still, the Twitter accounts seemed to be secondary to Glassdoor, which included detailed and angry reviews. Themes among them are similar, including “pros” about making valuable relationships in the beer industry and listing “cons” about sales projections, marketing skills, technology systems, and more. The reviews specifically call out Schalow over and over, claiming mismanagement, dishonesty, and one calling her “The Trump Insult Machine.”

“As an owner, I fully endorse the other comments,” one anonymous poster wrote under the headline of "Do not buy a franchise." “Suzanne is a brash woman who bullies and calls names when confronted about anything.”

The irony was not lost on Schalow. She was being called names and felt harassed on Twitter and Glassdoor, but nobody would talk to her directly. Requests from GBH to various franchisees to learn details of improper management were also declined.

Craft Beer Stellar had contacted Glassdoor in February 2018 requesting that six reviews be taken down due to content that Schalow felt crossed a line. One was removed because it violated Glassdoor’s terms of service due to mention of a non-management employee by name, but was then reposted without that reference. Craft Beer Stellar’s lawsuit asked that reviews be taken down from the site, citing defamation as well as breach in confidentiality and sharing trade secrets due to discussion of sales projections and the franchise's proprietary informational manual for owners. The lawsuit seeks $75,000 in damages, though Schalow estimates a potential cost to the company near $500,000 due to loss of possible signed franchisees and associated fees and revenues.

In mid-May, Glassdoor responded by asking for a dismissal of the suit, saying Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act allows for such posts, since they are created by third-party users and the website only hosts them. Craft Beer Cellar then filed an opposition on May 25.

Schalow and Baker’s path to a legal victory may not be easy, as Glassdoor has championed its efforts in fighting similar lawsuits, saying the company receives hundreds of such requests each year and even hosts a running tally of its court wins on its website. Glassdoor’s willingness to allow for posts similar to those calling out Craft Beer Cellar have regularly put them in the crosshairs of employers, but it’s seen as a key component to Glassdoor’s ongoing effort to protect free speech, “which includes the ability of people everywhere to leave anonymous reviews of their workplace experiences.”

Beaucher, co-owner of the Grand Rapids store, said that he is aware of the Glassdoor reviews and is confused about their purpose. “Any negativity out there publicly hurts everyone,” he says.

Like any entrepreneur, he’s been working hard to boost the prospects of his small business, opening at 10 a.m. six days a week to allow shoppers to come in early, working with the city to expand nearby parking options, and hosting weekly tastings, educational classes, and happy hour specials. He’s added a small menu so visitors who want to sit and have a drink from one of his 20 draft lines can snack on hot dogs, pretzels with beer cheese, or mini flatbread pizzas.

He says communication and insight from Baker and Schalow have been great, and aside from a normal concern of how to get more foot traffic, something all businesses strive for, doesn’t understand why other franchisees would want to tarnish the brand or dissuade potential shoppers.

“When I ask a customer how their day is, I really want to know and really want to spend time with them,” he says. “Sometimes I’ll walk around and hand pick six-packs for them because I want to push hospitality as high as possible.”

A worry over public perception is front of mind for Schalow, but there’s also confusion. “Why would you do something or try to trash something that would bring your own business down?” she asks about the negative reviews, which she believes were written by the angry franchisees. Some reviews intimate its author is a past or present owner. In conversations with GBH, Schalow mentioned she feels the attacks are partially rooted in sexist attitudes toward her and Baker, though language in the reviews and elsewhere doesn’t publicly state as much.

Days after receiving an initial communication from cbcinformer@gmail.com, a second, unsolicited note was sent to a GBH reporter, though this time from an encrypted ProtonMail email account, which prides itself as the "world's largest secure email service."

“I am hoping you realize that writing a positive piece about that company and the garbage human that runs it is not a good thing to do,” it read. “Don't feed into the bullcrap they are selling.”

The interaction is something of an epitome of the past year, opinions of a vocal minority shared secretively and anonymously. For some franchisees, however, these impressions couldn’t be further from their own truth.