So I have been trying to keep myself occupied to deal with some personal issues and one thing I have been working on is starting a micro-brewery.
I had been part of a group of guys looking to do this but as I listened to them in their meetings all it seems like is that they are talking about it but not doing it.
The initial ask of 5K has now swelled to 30K and it seems that no one wants to do the work but simply to get other to do it.
It's like they are all playing a big game of chicken to see who actually starts spending money first.
There was a plan, and originally the 5 of us would all pony up 5K each and start out of this one person's garage.
Now there is talk about renting/buying a space and bigger equipment etc etc. No one has put a dime into the company account and the most people seem to do is make plans and find resources but no action.
I have no freken clue how to start but i asked these guys if they mind if I start trying to make some on my own to get in practice, because I didn't want them to think I was going to use their plans and start myself.
They all said yes because they really don't care. I suspect this is just a bunch of guys who like the idea, want to say how much money they have to play with and plan about something they never seem to want to do.
So, OG, help me.
WTF do I start?
I've made home made wine, made home made booze, but never beer.
Oh yeah, one guy has a beer recipe he put together because he's a chemical engineer but has not shared it with anyone until he sees money in the account. The rest are the same. The accountant says he won't put together the info he has on bottling etc until he sees money.
It's nutz. They all talk about it, say they have info and money ready, but no one does anything.
I bowed out after they started talking 30K minimum as the buy in.
Should I just hit a u-bew and start learning the craft?
I would contract brew to get started. I really looked hard into this about 2 years ago. I was gonna do one in NOTL. Figured I needed at least 500K if not more to set up my own brewing operation. One thing that really detered me was that I wanted to run a distribution model only, meaning I could use my contacts in town and in tourism to sell my beer. But you need to have a brewpub because the markup on a pint over the counter is over 1000%. You need to do that . I didnt want to be a bar owner but it looks as though its a necessity. I sat with a local brewpub owner and he told me this . It was validated by the fact that the other brewer in town was making the conversion to a brewpub from being just a distributor with a tasting room. 2 out of the 3 partners that started that operation were no longer in it after 2 years and to me that was an ominous omen. This on a street that sees 3 million people drive past its front door every year.
Worse odds than a restaurant. I think they saved your ass tbh
BigEyedFish -
I would contract brew to get started. I really looked hard into this about 2 years ago. I was gonna do one in NOTL. Figured I needed at least 500K if not more to set up my own brewing operation. One thing that really detered me was that I wanted to run a distribution model only, meaning I could use my contacts in town and in tourism to sell my beer. But you need to have a brewpub because the markup on a pint over the counter is over 1000%. You need to do that . I didnt want to be a bar owner but it looks as though its a necessity. I sat with a local brewpub owner and he told me this . It was validated by the fact that the other brewer in town was making the conversion to a brewpub from being just a distributor with a tasting room. 2 out of the 3 partners that started that operation were no longer in it after 2 years and to me that was an ominous omen. This on a street that sees 3 million people drive past its front door every year.
Wow.
Great info, thanx.
Should I just start learning how to make it and then wait for them to get their crap together and talk to me?
They say they have pubs that are local that will carry it already but who knows what is and isn't anymore.
invalid - Worse odds than a restaurant. I think they saved your ass tbh
Damn...maybe I should just have fun learning how to make my own beer and having taste events with my friends.
Are there any micro-brewers in your area you can work with for a while to see what actual day-to-day life is like? I can imagine that it's much harder and more involved than you would think.
Daddy Rorny Michael - Are there any micro-brewers in your area you can work with for a while to see what actual day-to-day life is like? I can imagine that it's much harder and more involved than you would think.
No, there isn't. That is part of the reason we started talking about it.
The fall back is that we're about an hour from a large population. So even though we have huge numbers in the summer due to being a tourist town we'd have to ship to a city closeby to make it over the winter months.
But good point. I'll look for other micro-breweries to start learning more.
Dougie -BigEyedFish -
I would contract brew to get started. I really looked hard into this about 2 years ago. I was gonna do one in NOTL. Figured I needed at least 500K if not more to set up my own brewing operation. One thing that really detered me was that I wanted to run a distribution model only, meaning I could use my contacts in town and in tourism to sell my beer. But you need to have a brewpub because the markup on a pint over the counter is over 1000%. You need to do that . I didnt want to be a bar owner but it looks as though its a necessity. I sat with a local brewpub owner and he told me this . It was validated by the fact that the other brewer in town was making the conversion to a brewpub from being just a distributor with a tasting room. 2 out of the 3 partners that started that operation were no longer in it after 2 years and to me that was an ominous omen. This on a street that sees 3 million people drive past its front door every year.
Wow.
Great info, thanx.
Should I just start learning how to make it and then wait for them to get their crap together and talk to me?
They say they have pubs that are local that will carry it already but who knows what is and isn't anymore.
you mentioned bottling. A new bottling line IIRC is 100K ish....in certain regions where there are a lot of winery and brewery activity, usually you can find a freelancer with a mobile bottling line on a truck that you can just rent. But a good bottling line is expensive, which is why a lot of start ups use big bottles or growlers so you can fill em by hand.
Some pubs carrying your beer will not cut it. You need a lot of places to carry it, especially if you are not opening up a brewpub (brewpub = serve pints over the bar; microbrewery = making beer on site and exporting it).
If they say they have pubs, ask them how many and what the turnover is. They should have these commitments in writing. The one brewpub in town here has a bunch of guys as partners like the deal youre proposing. They are doing pretty good I think - they just expanded but like I said, on a street (as well as the other one) with 3MM people driving by a year.
Someone needs to do a detailed business plan, thats the bottom line. Dont do fuck all until you see the numbers. Im happy to look at them if you want. A good friend of mine is a master brewer at a decent sized operation and I went up and worked with him for a week to learn the ropes and what is needed.
BigEyedFish -Dougie -BigEyedFish -
I would contract brew to get started. I really looked hard into this about 2 years ago. I was gonna do one in NOTL. Figured I needed at least 500K if not more to set up my own brewing operation. One thing that really detered me was that I wanted to run a distribution model only, meaning I could use my contacts in town and in tourism to sell my beer. But you need to have a brewpub because the markup on a pint over the counter is over 1000%. You need to do that . I didnt want to be a bar owner but it looks as though its a necessity. I sat with a local brewpub owner and he told me this . It was validated by the fact that the other brewer in town was making the conversion to a brewpub from being just a distributor with a tasting room. 2 out of the 3 partners that started that operation were no longer in it after 2 years and to me that was an ominous omen. This on a street that sees 3 million people drive past its front door every year.
Wow.
Great info, thanx.
Should I just start learning how to make it and then wait for them to get their crap together and talk to me?
They say they have pubs that are local that will carry it already but who knows what is and isn't anymore.
you mentioned bottling. A new bottling line IIRC is 100K ish....in certain regions where there are a lot of winery and brewery activity, usually you can find a freelancer with a mobile bottling line on a truck that you can just rent. But a good bottling line is expensive, which is why a lot of start ups use big bottles or growlers so you can fill em by hand.
Some pubs carrying your beer will not cut it. You need a lot of places to carry it, especially if you are not opening up a brewpub (brewpub = serve pints over the bar; microbrewery = making beer on site and exporting it).
If they say they have pubs, ask them how many and what the turnover is. They should have these commitments in writing. The one brewpub in town here has a bunch of guys as partners like the deal youre proposing. They are doing pretty good I think - they just expanded but like I said, on a street (as well as the other one) with 3MM people driving by a year.
Someone needs to do a detailed business plan, thats the bottom line. Dont do fuck all until you see the numbers. Im happy to look at them if you want. A good friend of mine is a master brewer at a decent sized operation and I went up and worked with him for a week to learn the ropes and what is needed.
I think the fact that I stepped out is good. I was starting to suspect this was all talk about bluster and more I think about it and what you are saying makes it sound like these guys are not serious.
hey I have some rough notes that I put together from my due dilligence. If you want to take a look at em, PM me an email address. Ill send it over.
Im not trying to talk you out of it either because the thought of the idea really excited me and the research was fun. Heck I might circle back and do this one day since Im getting into some complimentary businesses here in the region. But I can say it wasnt what I thought it would be and it can be a pretty tough business.
You really need to learn the process, the machines etc...What you need to buy and what you dont.
BigEyedFish -
Im not trying to talk you out of it either because the thought of the idea really excited me and the research was fun. Heck I might circle back and do this one day since Im getting into some complimentary businesses here in the region. But I can say it wasnt what I thought it would be and it can be a pretty tough business.
You really need to learn the process, the machines etc...What you need to buy and what you dont.
Thanx!
From what it sounds like I am better going int he direction that i was going in me just making my own and starting to learn how to do it and then if i want to move past that I can do it later.
I kept saying that we needed a product before we did anything else and the one guy kept sayin his recipe was the product and we didn't need to actually make it before we had the process and distrobution.
Read some books about the history of microbrewing to learn the problems and pitfalls experienced over the last few decades. History does repeat itself if you're not careful.
Three that come to mind:
1. Audacity of Hops by Tom Acetelli
2. We Make Beer by Sean Lewis
3. Ambitious Brew by Maureen Igle 
lol @ Audacity of Hops lol thats great