Startiing a brewery...

I was wondering why every homebrewer doesn't want to start his/her own brewery. What are the biggest obstacles to starting a brewery? How much would it cost to do it right and be set it up for success? Is it more important to be better at brewing or better at business? Thanks for the help,

First of all. .. It's a pia. Several threads on it. Second of all. .I have no desire to turn a fun hobby into a job

Exactly. This has become a fun pastime for me. The last thing I need is to turn it into the old nine-to-five (or more likely, as with most small businesses, dawn until well after dark). No thanks.

I love this hobby too much to ever want to do it for a "Job." Not everyone wants to do this for money. A lot of us like this hobby way too much to ever want to turn this into work....It's one thing to get up at 10am, get brewing by noon, and drink all day while standing around with your friends to brew 5-10 gallons of beer, that doesn't necessarily have to be the same recipe every time, and have to maintain consistancy from batch to batch. And to start at 5 in the morning mucking out several hundred pounds of stinking grain from the mlt from yesterday's backbreaking brew day, and spend another 10 hours a day doing it again. Not to mention it's no different from any other business, people think breweries must be places of drunken bachanalia, but it's no different than any other factory or places of business, random drug tests (someone posted on here that he couldn't believe that when he applied for a job there they made him piss in a cup) deadlines, taxes, licensing, inspections, budgets ad nauseum.

Brewing professionally has as much in common with what we do as building model airplanes has with being an airforce mechanic. It's a matter of scale and responsibility.

If you want to get an idea of the reality of trying to start one, read Brewpastor's great thread Don't Try This at Home - parts 1, 2 and 3.

And we have a thread of just the opposite; folks like me who would never dream of trying to do this for a living. Show of hands: Who doesn't want to go into commercial brewing? It's folks who have a more realistic view of what commercial brewing is, and want to keep that away from the fun we're having now.

If you want to understand what you need to do, start here, and here, then go to your State's alcohol site for the hoops you have to go to there, and refer your other questions like that to here. Probrewer.com is the best resource to go to for questions since people are actually doing it.

Also, Cape Brewing actually has a great thread on what's involved in going pro. I went "pro" - What it actually takes to do so.

Also the numbers game. You can't make money until you get to a certain volume and its not easy to get there. Much like a restaurant, the vast majority don't make it

Get as much money as you can, then find more money.

I am opening a brewery in Chicago right now, we should be producing in September. I'll try to answer your question as best I can.

The reason every homebrewer doesn't do this is because it is not nearly as easy as you might think. First of all, you can't sell beer produced at home. This leads to a building lease. Licensing takes 6-8 months, and you can't apply until you have your lease, meaning you are throwing tens of thousands at rent without a single drop brewed. Next up is equipment. Homebrew equipment sized batches might make a "profit", but not if you ever plan to pay yourself. You'll be looking at $80k minimum for a 7bbl brewhouse and fermenters. Now you have a building, licensing and equipment. Time to make as much beer as possible, right? Maybe, but most likely, no. You need to be able to SELL your beer. Depending on the state you will either need a distributor or can self distribute. Distributor is taking around a 30% margin on your beer, if you produce small batches, this is all of your profit.

Long story short, it's expensive, that's why more people don't do it.

Some do go pro. Others, like me, are retired from our real jobs (or, make great money at our real jobs!) and like to brew for a hobby.

I know lots of guys who like to play pick-up basketball or hockey. They love it. (I'm a hockey player, myself). That doesn't mean that a person that loves playing basketball with friends wants to be in the NBA.

Sometimes a hobby is just a great hobby. To make it into a job would then turn it into work.

And let's face it, if you've ever worked in a brewery, it's HARD work. Backbreaking work, often. I'd really rather do a different job 40 hours a week for better pay and easier work, and brew for fun.

Yooper said:

I'd really rather do a different job 40 hours a week for better pay and easier work, and brew for fun.

Click to expand...

This^^^^

I know some brewers, I have a relative in the brew business currently. Near as I can tell it is very little "brewing" and a crap-load of cleaning, sanitizing, paperwork and publicity......

I like "brewing," not "working."

You really have to ask yourself "WHY" a brewery!! If it is to make money....Stop right there!! Of course a few brewery owners do make a nice living but most get by and that's about it. Take a cue from a lot of wineries and make your money in some other business and then open a brewery. That way the pressure to "make money" is less and you can have more fun with it IMO. As the others have said operating a brewery is a lot of hard work. Now I for one really love the hard physical work of brewing but it is much different if you need to do it to put food on the table or pay a mortgage. I still want to have a small brewery (3-7 bbls) someday when I am close to retirement, the kids are gone, house is paid off, etc. The great part is that hopefully I will be in the enviable position of not really needing the money from the brewery.

Awesome. Thanks so much for the insights fellas. I appreciate the candor and detailed responses. All very helpful.