Brew school thoughts

What are your thoughts on the siebel institute? I am hoping to open a brewpub or microbrewery some day and believe taking some classes would help my progress. Any suggestions on if its worth of, or if any other place is better?

I'm not a pro brewer so take it for what it is worth, but put your energy where you need it. If you have no business experience invest in learning how to operate a business as running a brewery is more about selling the product than producing the product. If you have plenty of experience running a business but are clueless as to how to brew and know you would be the brewer then invest in learning how to brew. IMO, there are enough resources to learn to be an excellent brewer and really learn the science behind brewing without making a massive investment in something like a Siebel education, further there is plenty of opportunity with micro brewers to volunteer and learn how to brew, keg, etc at a commercial level. So, if it were me, I would invest in some business education and when I was up and running and had things to a point where I knew my areas of weakness in production, I would sign up for education or seminars specific to the particular area of brewing I needed help with. Anyway, just this homebrewers thoughts.

I am also interested in take professional brewing classes at the UC Davis program, but I believe Bensiff is right. From everything I have read and heard about the brewing business, it really is 80% business and 20% beer. I mean think about it for a second. Theres hundreds of good recipes on here and other internet sites. If a brewery needed to create a list of great beers all they would have to do is turn to the homebrew community, find some good recipes and start brewing. Anybody can make an IPA, so what really makes one IPA stand out over another? Marketing, packaging, labels, distribution, price point, etc. Those have nothing to do with brewing the beer and everything to do with business. Like Bensiff stated, if you don't know anything about business, especially marketing, spend you time and money learning that. If you got a great hold on that, the classes will just make you a better brewer and help you create great recipes from scratch. I feel a modern brewery has to have a great marketing plan as well as very creative and tasty beers. Like I said above, every brew pub will have an IPA, an Amber, A Pale, A Hefe, etc. A real brew pub will have beers that you can only get at their pub.

woodpints said:

What are your thoughts on the siebel institute? I am hoping to open a brewpub or microbrewery some day and believe taking some classes would help my progress. Any suggestions on if its worth of, or if any other place is better?

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I went to UC Davis. I thought the professors and programs were pretty good. At the time I was looking to step up my home brewing and move into a brewing/engineering position at a brewery.

I believe the Siebel institute offers all classes online too. This gives me the impression that the quality of instruction is lacking, and it's more of a money making centre. I have no proof or experience though.

I second the idea of focusing on business. Knowing the business and friends in the alcohol production industry, it's mostly marketing, management, paperwork and, most importantly, money and taxes.

You're probably one of three guys:

1. A doofus who says "Man, wouldn't it be cool to own a brewery?? All the beer you could drink and everyone would want to be my friend." Your plan will fade away the first time a banker or government official hits you in the face with a mountain of paperwork.

2. Someone with restaurant or business experience who realizes this could be a good business plan, especially in an area that is underserved. A short instructional course could help you learn about commercial brewing and further your business plan.

3. Most likely, you're a good home brewer. You think about it all the time and wish you could make a living doing it. But you're signing up for a lifetime of paperwork, so go to business school. If you're really determined, you can make it happen.

Right now, I don't work in a brewery, and have no plan to. Every time someone has one of my beers and enjoys it, and asks if I want to sell it or go into business, I reply, "No." I will always keep home brewing and it will be my favourite hobby, but that's all it will be. I love brewing and drinking beer, not paperwork and management.

Learn about business first, then create a business plan with that knowledge. Then start your company and hire a brewmaster who has gone to school. At the point at which your brewery is profitable, have it pay for you to go to brew school and use that knowledge to expand your operations. Basically, create the infrastructure to pay for your knowledge without having to invest in it first and maybe be able to pay it off later. The business knowledge will be more transferrable and more likely to pay off regardless of your success as a brewer specifically.

If you hate business and don't want to go to school for it, then consider becoming an intern at a brewery until you know enough to be a brew master. Then hire a business manager to help you start your business. Either way I discourage investment in very specific knowledge without a way to make it pay. That's why (well one reason anyway) there are lots of people working as waiters, barristas, etc. with masters degrees.

Thanks for the replies everyone. I mention brew schools, because it seems like it would look better to investors having some sort of certificate stating you have documented brew business knowledge. I completely agree about the business aspect taking up the majority. I may actually have a potential partner, who I've been conversing with. He's a business major so I'm kind of looking to him to man that department, not saying I'm not willing to help as much as I can. As for me, I'm just a home brewer who is sick of the 9-5 computer job. Don't get me wrong, I do like my job, but it's not what I want to spend my life doing.

I actually quit my job a year ago strictly for brewing. I just homebrewed and looked around to local brew pubs and bars to see if I could get my foot in the door anyway I could. Seemed to be bad timing, in Los Angeles, because after 3 months of dead ends, I was back with my head in a computer screen.

Hopefully some time in the neat future my luck will be different.

If you want to impress investors, win some ribbons. Enter you beers in homebrew contests and develop a good line up. Nothing speaks louder that an under served great product. Everything else can come next. I see your point to give brew school a try to get there so it is an option.

TahoeRy said:

If you want to impress investors, win some ribbons. Enter you beers in homebrew contests and develop a good line up. Nothing speaks louder that an under served great product. Everything else can come next. I see your point to give brew school a try to get there so it is an option.

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My thoughts on the matter are different, friends and family who don't really know much about investing in startups are going to be the crowd who are going to be swayed by a great product. People who make a living by investing in startups care about the numbers, they want to see a fully integrated business plan and be convinced that you have business sense enough that they won't be flushing their money into someone's poorly thought out dream. They want to know where you will be located and why you think the market wants you there, what type of brewery you will run and how you plan on selling in that category, what you project your production to be initially and growth in the first few years...and so on. They want to see all the fiscal numbers broken down with projections based off relevant data to know when they can expect their ROI (it doesn't have to be perfect, but being able to base your numbers off other local brewery experience, for example, is going to say something a lot more than what you hope to do based off nothing, sort of like writing an academic paper, you better back your argument with relevant data). Once you have convinced them that you are up to the challenge of running a business then you can shine them on with the, "and by the way, I already have a line up of great beers that have won multiple awards."

True. But you can't sell crap. A business plan, projections, location, etc matter but you better start with a good product. In today's business and brewing environment you can't expect to do well with a mediocre beer. You need to have beer that stands out and people can only get at your brewery. Investors will want to see the whole package. Anybody can throw numbers at a wall and see what happens. A real investor is going to want a product that sells so they can believe the plans projections.