It's official starting my own brewing business!

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This may come off as kind of mean, but since you made this thread I started and am now running a successful nano and I'm 25 years old. I did it through hard work, planning, and a willingness to actually learn how to start and operate a business. If you're actually still trying to do this, I suggest you listen to the advice myself and others posted.

To me, this thread represents the quintessential nanobrewer syndrome: focusing on the fun parts and avoiding the not-so-fun parts. You know what isn't fun? Getting shut down because you're not in the right zoning (happened to my friend). This is not how you start a business.
 
Good Luck!!! I envy you! get those pics up asap, and let us know what goes really easy and what doesnt along the process!
 
Wow, I've read this entire thread over the past couple days and it's very interesting! I love love love the concept and I'd really like to see it succeed. I'm also a little stubborn and do things my own way when it comes to my professional life & business; I've been self employed since I was 20 because I know in my heart I have good ideas and I can make things happen, which I do, and I have, quite successfully.

However, I have to agree with the so called "haters", that focusing on the fun parts and leaving regulation aside will be the downfall... but I'm starting to wonder whether the author truly wants to become commercial, or just scale up his hobby? Maybe it's just a stubborn way of building a kick-ass home brewery!

Please prove us all wrong. I will fly to Maine to check this place out!!! Good luck!
 
Weather has been a lot uncooperative with either it being super hot and muggy or downpouring but this is where we are at. The hops are my gf's baby and she has finished nursing school and started a new job so she has been lax with the weeding. We did go to my buddies in Vermont and he hooked us up and the owner of a slate roof quarry sold us a pallet of green colored slate for the beer garden really large pieces and 1" to 2" thick for $75. We could have had more for the same $ but what we brought back was all that the F150 pickup could carry (stuff is heavy). We still need to finish the waddle. Next is to use the gravel to level out the area between the house and the waddle and to make a base so we can put the slate down. Also found the lighting we want back there so gotta put that up. (Hops planted are fuggles, cascade, goldings, hallertau, and a 5th I can't remember???)

Walk in cooler wise I am being held up with trying to find a door. I want the door off an upright freezer. I hope to find one at a transfer station but honestly haven't had a chance to look for one. But the floor and ceiling are insulated and sheathed. Next will be building the wall the door and air conditioner mount in.

Also I'm sure the early pics show like what was 1/2 way built as a big closet in my brewing area. We tore that all down.

That's it for now.

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rexbanner said:
This may come off as kind of mean, but since you made this thread I started and am now running a successful nano and I'm 25 years old. I did it through hard work, planning, and a willingness to actually learn how to start and operate a business. If you're actually still trying to do this, I suggest you listen to the advice myself and others posted.

To me, this thread represents the quintessential nanobrewer syndrome: focusing on the fun parts and avoiding the not-so-fun parts. You know what isn't fun? Getting shut down because you're not in the right zoning (happened to my friend). This is not how you start a business.
Click to expand...

:off:
My wife saw your brewery when she went to Leesburg a few months back. She really liked it and told me we have to go there for a pint or two! Congratulations! (and sorry for the off-topic; I want everyone to succeed with their endeavors)
 
Well was forced to buy a new car, kinda put a crimp on things moneywise but I didn't have a lot of choice. But we did finish insulating and sheathing the walk in and got the door and airconditioner openings done. Now I gotta rewire the AC and fugure out a way to mount the door and caulk inside and out and paint the exterior and figure which thing I want to do inside. Either the plastic sheathing or an insulating paint on stuff. Leaning towards the paint stuff.

We did finish the wattle and the hop bed. Hops are doing ok considering we got them in late. But we really didn't plan on much of a hop crop but look forward to harvesting rhizomes for next year. Next is to bring in the gravel to level out the ground so we can put in the slate patio.

Guess I can't post pics from this tablet will do when I get to the PC.
 
Looking good man! Been reading this whole thread for the past day or so and I must say this is pretty cool. There's a lot of nano's opening in my area and everyone seems to be doing it a little differently, which I think is awesome. As long as you get it done correctly and all the legal stuff is in place then it really doesn't matter how it's all done. I think it's cool you have no risk and if it doesn't turn out as planned you'll be out nothing. All you'll have is a sweet place to brew and hang out; you can also move back in too!
Good luck man, Keep them pics coming. I'd like to see more the bar/hangout area too! Did you ever find a pool table?
 
Wow sorry I've not updated in so long things have been going crazy here plus with the holidays.

So update. Now when I say "we" it's for convenience, me and my partner are the we. She's the finance end and I am the "talent". She owns the properties here in Maine. BUT she loves beer brewing and grew up much like me in campgrounds and shares a lot of my loves like fishing too. Now in this thread I try to disclose as much info as possible without, you know, giving out too much, you never know what people can do you know? But I may get a little more detailed here.

Now our original plans I have wrote about here. We were planning construction of the main campground building in spring since it was also where we would live. Her son graduates in June and I moving out of the building the brewpub would be in solved all those headaches. Now you will hear alot of talk about campgrounds marinas and hotels but remember wherever this goes the nano brewery is 1/3rd of what we wanna do no matter what.

She is very smart so she contacted an economic developer that works for the State. We met with him and he loved all our plans. But then he said something that blew our minds open with possibilities. He said you are going to spend A LOT of money building the campground from scratch and then of course there is no guarantee of success have you ever considered using the money instead to buy an existing campground? One that is up and running with a proven history of success? Noidead why this thought never occurred to us but it never did till he said it.

Of course we hadn't!! And the one thing we could never add to our place is WATERFRONT. Now personally I have never camped on a campground that wasn't on a lake or pond or river with swimming and fishing. I know a lot of people do go to places that just have a pool but not me. We both feel this way so suddenly we were like we could be on waterfront!

So to shorten this up a bit we started searching for the perfect place for us. We are looking mainly in the Northeast, New York, and Minn, Wis, Mich, MO. She is from Minnesota, her parent are getting to that age where she wont have a lot of time left with them so going back to Minnesota would be ideal. BUT her kids are or will be in college in the Northeast. Plus we have just found A LOT of properties that we like in New York.

During this search we discovered Marinas with cabins and or campgrounds attached can be as profitable if not more so than campgrounds AND we have found smallish hotels with marinas and or cabins and RV sites we like too. AND most of these have restaurants and or bars also with the property. Seems these are often called "resorts". So our ideal place has become some sort of lodging that either has or can be added things to make it campground like in atmosphere that has a marina or the space to add one and most preferentially has a restaurant and bar already on the property OR the purchase price is low enough and the financials make sense enough that we can easily add them. Then we are researching the areas. We prefer places where the nearest places especially ones that will compete with our brewpub are far away. Places that are growing, developing, not places that are depressed and all the people and $ are moving away. We have found a lot of places that are ripe for a microbrewery.

I can't talk about specific places since we have to sign non-disclosure agreements when we research them. But needless to say pretty much all our free time has been consumed with searching, talking to realtors and owners and now we are visiting sites. We just got back from a 4 day trip to New York. We visited one place in Southern Maine (Sebago Lake) along the way and 4 places in New York, on Lake Ontario, Oneida, and Champlain. From that trip we got 2 really nice places we love and we are waiting on more financial info from the owners to move forward.

We also have a place in South Carolina we love that we will probably visit. It's a little more South than we like but the property is so amazing we really love it. We will also be taking a trip to Minn/Wis to visit a few we like before we make a final decision.

Like I said I can't give specific places but once we have an accepted offer on a place I will fill you in.

So what does this mean for brewing? Well we are at least upgrading to a 2 barrel electric nanobrew setup and quite possibly a 3bbl one or if a nice used system becomes available we could go bigger. Also could be going with steam. Pretty sure direct fire is not gonna happen. Again I am working on nailing down quotes on systems and as you know you put money down and it takes awhile for them to build the system. The moment we actually do the down payment on a system I will list everything in here.

Still lots to do, once we have our choice or choices we have to work with our economic consultant here and with their counterparts in other states. Then we have to do the financing part. But we are getting close to making offers.

So that's the update so far. There has been some exciting changes from the original plan. I still believe the original plan would have worked but we want a certain lifestyle out of this and it's not purely about the money and for us having waterfront property is really ideal. Plus in searching we have come to the conclusion that we can buy a business already up and running with clientele and income already there THAT already has a bar/restaurant there for FAR less than we could do it for here.

I will keep you all posted. Hey and if you know of a suitable place for sale in your area that you think would work for us shoot me a message.
 
You may want to take a look at the setup Shawneecraft brewery has. The owner of that brewery also owns a golf course, park, restaurant, and hotel on the same campus in the Delaware water gap in PA. It is a really cool setup and is bigger than you are aiming for but it is still a good place for inspiration.
http://shawneecraftbrewingcompany.com/
 
I'm sure you've probably thought of this but if a nano brewery is part of the master plan, don't the laws around nano breweries vary by state? I imagine some states are easier and less expensive to work with than others. Just hopefully something that's included in your consideration when scoping out potential sites.
 
Remember to do the math on your operating costs and profit margins as this is what gets most people into trouble when starting a new business. Plenty of research material out there on where you should fall.
 
OK time for an update. Turns out campgrounds seem to ba a labor of love. Any we can find in our price range ($500,000 ish or less) either have been a complete failure as a business or they have incomes that are not what we need. $14,000 ish is around where they seem to come in. Of course the fact that owners of hospitality businesses do funky stuff with their accounting. As in not claiming ALL their income as in not the cash they receive. Which does us no good since we need cold hard numbers backed by tax returns to take to the bank for financing. So we had many owners tell us what they really make but that didn't help us any. So we focused strictly on mom and pop hotel/motels. Many of which make decent money but finding one that makes decent money with legitimate financial records to back it up also in an area with the things we are looking for (near great hunting and fishing, little competition from other hotels, no brew pubs anywhere near) hasn't been easy and once we decided to limit the search to Minnesota even more so.

Finally though we found the place that met our requirements. So we have made an offer and it was accepted, contingent upon all the financial stuff mainly dealing with our two properties in Maine. One sold and one to go if everything goes to plan. We should be closing mid-juneish and be moved to MN by July.

The property also has a nice 3+ garage building that will be the brew pub.

So once we close (still under confidentiality agreement) I will tell you where and post pics.

This has been a long strange trip. I can't begin to tell you the hours of scouring the net. Looking at records. Visiting properties. I visited multiple new states. Some of it was fun and exciting a lot of it was tedious. We had our hearts broke on more than one occasion when we fell in love with a place and just couldn't make the numbers work in the end. I look forward to making it thru the finish line.
 
I read all 12 pages or 462 posts and wow. Congratulations!
I envy your desire to keep moving forward and especially the brave moves you've made to start what appear to be multiple endeavors at once and then take on uprooting your location for a brewpub to another location for a nano.

I truly hope this works for you. I have little advice that I think you'll want. The biggest thing would be to finish one project before you start another but I don't feel you operate that way. Some people do best in complete chaos and I can appreciate that greatly.

Where is the new campground/nano brewery/beer garden/house? Are you still in Maine?

Do you have a website that documents your adventures in brewing/camping/gardening? I searched "Ten Gallon Ales" but all that came up was this thread. I'd be interested to see lots more photos and just see how this pans out.

I also commend you for not losing your shirt in starting all this in one location then moving. At least that is what I get from this, that you moved.
 
Are you kidding me?!?!?!?

464 posts and 3 hours of reading and it seems the whole thing is trashed?
 
ShineOn said:
Are you kidding me?!?!?!?

464 posts and 3 hours of reading and it seems the whole thing is trashed?
Click to expand...

Why do I have a feeling the next post 6 months from now is going to be something like "I've decided to forgo the campground & brewpub to pursue my lifelong dream of becoming an astronaut. Wish me luck! Florida here I come!!"
 
No no, not trashed. I think I explained earlier that when we met with the small business advisor that works for the state's economic development dept and outlined our plans he suggested buying an already thriving campground as opposed to building from scratch. The thought never occurred to us honestly. Then as we researched and visited properties we learned about things and our plans morphed. We didn't trash one idea for another we just saw more and better opportunities as we went. But the offer has been accepted on the property that we want now we just have to go thru the process of selling two properties in one state and buying another. The dream is still the same, get paid to make beer. The process of getting there has altered a lot. Yes A LOT and if lady luck hadn't smiled on us allowing us to persue this avenue we wouldn't be able to. I mean frankly without getting into detail a huge financial windfall just dropped in our laps. If that hadn't happened, which trust me if I am ever allowed to tell the story was just the craziest set of circumstances it boggles the mind. But if that didn't happen the EXACT plan outlined in the beginning would be what we would be following. However for good or ill we were given the freedom to do what we want to do in a better way and we've adapted our thinking and our plans along the way. But we are at the end of that journey and about to start another. Not just plans but money has been put down and contracts have been signed so we are firmly on this path now.

As soon as the red tape clears I will have details and pics.
 
I'm curious, in what world would a buyer have to sign an NDA when buying a campground or any other property for that matter?

Don't be one of those guys who starts a thread about going pro and provide vague information every update under the guise of an NDA and red tape. If you want to document your journey for the world (HBT) to read, then please, don't toy with these mystery messages. I am absolutely interested in the 2+ year plan to go pro without any real plan or path. It is the haphazard chaos I thrive on and I genuinely would love to see this happen and know what you total expense ended up being.
 
Hello said:
I'm curious, in what world would a buyer have to sign an NDA when buying a campground or any other property for that matter?

Don't be one of those guys who starts a thread about going pro and provide vague information every update under the guise of an NDA and red tape. If you want to document your journey for the world (HBT) to read, then please, don't toy with these mystery messages. I am absolutely interested in the 2+ year plan to go pro without any real plan or path. It is the haphazard chaos I thrive on and I genuinely would love to see this happen and know what you total expense ended up being.
Click to expand...

I agree with your post, but I have bought a business before, and NDA before opening the books is standard.
 
jbaysurfer said:
I agree with your post, but I have bought a business before, and NDA before opening the books is standard.
Click to expand...

That makes sense but I thought he said he was under an NDA before the closing. He didn't mention books at all. I don't see this guy reviewing the books but that is just a weird impression I get. ;)
I've been a part of going public and also sales of companies, NDAs regarding the books is standard but the announcement of the business that is being sold isn't so much. That's what I thought he was trying to keep under wraps.
 
Hello said:
That makes sense but I thought he said he was under an NDA before the closing. He didn't mention books at all. I don't see this guy reviewing the books but that is just a weird impression I get. ;)
I've been a part of going public and also sales of companies, NDAs regarding the books is standard but the announcement of the business that is being sold isn't so much. That's what I thought he was trying to keep under wraps.
Click to expand...

Probably depends on the business. I'm a financial planner, and finding out a planner is selling could lead to an exodus of clients. So for my business that's what everyone was focused on. I get a similar impression as you about OP fwiw. Wish him luck though....will be interested to see where this goes.
 
Hope it works out. I live in MN and when you get it up and running I'll come stay for a weekend.

Please keep us up to date
 
 
Just read this from beginning to end. I was hoping that by now it would've been open and/or a happy ending. But alas I've been gypped.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
 
StressedPenguin said:
Be careful, all these are from 2011. Zombie threads!
Click to expand...


I just read them for their shear entertainment value, no plan to comment on any of them :) Best to let them die & save ourselves more potential disappointment.

Maybe a mod can change the title of THIS thread to:

It's official, I may own a campground someday!
 
redshift76 said:
I just read them for their shear entertainment value, no plan to comment on any of them :) Best to let them die & save ourselves more potential disappointment.

Maybe a mod can change the title of THIS thread to:

It's official, I may own a campground someday!
Click to expand...

Priceless:D
 
The "haters" in this thread highlight what a steaming pile of horsesh!t government has created for it's citizens in the USA. I, like all of you, have run the numbers. I, like all of you, are more than willing and able to put in the hard work to produce a quality product that fellow citizens would pay for. But alas, with every agency under the sun waiting in line to take their pound of flesh, the barrier to entry becomes too great for all but the most driven, rich, or stupid. Gone are the days of the local baker, grocer, and brewer. And we all lose because if it. Rant over...
 

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