Finally sat down and read this thread Hoss. Very inspiring! You mention several times about the size of your batches for startup. One story that I just finished reading kept flashing into my mind. Dogfish Head started out with 5 gallon batches, and what are they now? somewhere around 10,000 bbls! His book
"Brewing Up a Business" is an excellent read for many specifics in the growth of a brewery. In his case, he started out with just a brewpub and now has one of the larger microbrews in the US after 15 years in the biz.
Another comment I had was on the IRS issue of time limit for profit. I believe this misconception comes from the relatively recent rule ('90s I think) that you can no longer use one business as a write off for another. In other words, if you already have one business in place, and then start a brewery, there is a time limit on how long you can write of the loss from the second business. You can continue that second biz as long as you wish (or can manage) without 'showing' a profit. Just can't utilize the losses after what I thought was 3 years... maybe it is 5?!.
But it's great to see that you have a 'demand' for your beers... marketing can be the most critical aspect of a biz like this, so you've already got a great start.
We're seeing a similar response in our area, with one hotel and one retailer already interested in product. Might be a case of 'careful what you wish for' in our situation!