There, she said, Stinchfield was as in his element as when he’d lead her and other Ploughshare guests on informative brewery tours where he’d occasionally break into song. She’s taken the tour more than once, and befriended Stinchfield and his wife.

“He’s so passionate about what he does that it’s infectious,” she said.

Though she had occasionally spoken with Stinchfield about the financial challenges of starting up Ploughshare in 2014, she had no idea that a few days after the beer pairing she’d get an email announcing to a select few loyal customers that the business was closing.

“We've known for a long time that a small percentage of our customer base is responsible for the majority of our retail sales,” Stinchfield said. “In other words, we have a real following and then we have everybody else who comes in once in awhile or has just come on a visit through town or something like that.

"We identified maybe a hundred folks who were very regular and saw eye-to-eye with what we were doing in terms of our beer lineup and our food program and supported the fact that we were an independently owned business, and all that good stuff. So we just sent out an invite.”