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Spring_Chicken

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Has anyone considered starting a nano brewery? I'd like to be able to sell growlers to friends legally, and in Washington State it looks like it would only cost around $300 to get the appropriate licenses. Of course there is a mountain of paperwork too.
 
I have but financially it doesn't make sense to get fully licensed. Ultimately you are talking at least 500-700 dollars a year in fees and taxes. Not to mention all the paperwork. Hardly worth it to sell a few growlers to friends. My advice.....stay in the underground....;)
 
To be at all profitable without working yourself to death, it would be necessary for 15bbls at least. There is plenty of reasons and just cause Washington has cheap license the Feds usually don't along with terribly long wait times for anything.

Furthermore this is a home brewing forum, check out pro brewer.com forums for better detailed info. I am typing on my iPad and don't wait to go on anymore or be any more specific.
 
Maybe, I need to think bigger to avoid working too much, but I just want to be able to legally do what a ton of homebrewers do already. Also, 15 bbl is 5 times bigger than a nano. Technically I would be brewing at home so I'd still consider myself a homebrewer. :)

I have a job that I wouldn't be quitting. I'm just thinking Friday and Saturday nights I could open the brew shack up for sales.
 
there are some threads on here with advice for starting a micro. I have/ am looking into it also and from what I know you need to sell a good deal to make it worth it... somewhere around 2bbl system brewing once a week will get me squeaking by. My suggestion is dont worry about selling to friends give it to them, and if you want to sell give it to some bar owners to see if they would be willing to carry it/ sell it for you. Your friends probably cant buy enough to keep you from loosing money.

Check out this:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f28/dont-try-home-part-1-a-11117/ (there are 4 parts to that one I think)

PS: I like your name... I have a brew called Spring Chicken it is an APA
 
I have a job that I wouldn't be quitting. I'm just thinking Friday and Saturday nights I could open the brew shack up for sales.

I am not an expert, but from what I have gleamed, there are a lot regulation surrounding what can be considered a brewery. For the most part it must be a separate building, or inaccessible from the dwelling. There is also usually a minimum production requirement for taxes purposes. Meaning that you must a pay a minimum amount of taxes regardless if you produce that much beer or not. These make it prohibitive for home brewer that does not want to open up a business to sell beer.

If you are still interested I would read over HBHoss' trials and tribulations: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/nanobrewery-build-137400/
 
You can also find information at http://www.probrewer.com/

You'll find just as many if not more skeptics there, but you'll also find some solid, relevant answers to questions you may never have thought of yourself.

Reiterating other comments on other threads:
Before you go pro, make sure your beer is actually as good as or better than your favorite commercial beers. Also, make sure you can turn out a second batch of a beer exactly the same as the first. Very little to no variation between batches.
 
I'd rather get 'above ground' and see where it takes me.

Great. Sounds like you want to own and run your own small business rather than just "sell some growlers to friends". Unfortunately the way the laws are structured you are either a homebrewer or a pro brewer. There is no middle ground:( That means you have to comply with all the local, state, and federal requirements (zoning, taxes, paperwork, licenses) for a brewery. It absolutely CAN be done though. I think it is only worth it though if you really think that at some point you might want to own a brewery/brewpub that actually makes money.
 
I have a job that I wouldn't be quitting. I'm just thinking Friday and Saturday nights I could open the brew shack up for sales.

If you are talking about a brew pub you dont have to brew that big of batches... the income per batch is a lot larger there! You may need to provide food as part of the state laws though. There is a brewpub in town here that brews in 10 gallon batches and is doing quite well. I dont know how often they brew, but they are open 6 days a week. So if you're only open two you could brew less.
 
Maybe, I need to think bigger to avoid working too much, but I just want to be able to legally do what a ton of homebrewers do already. Also, 15 bbl is 5 times bigger than a nano. Technically I would be brewing at home so I'd still consider myself a homebrewer. :)

I have a job that I wouldn't be quitting. I'm just thinking Friday and Saturday nights I could open the brew shack up for sales.

You really have to check with your local city/county. My city requires a conditional use permit to serve alcohol which cost 7K plus another 1K every year to renew it. That is on top of state and federal licensing/taxes. It can be done but everything I have heard/read about nano's is that it is a "break even" business BUT it allows you greater chance to someday expand to a full on micro.
 
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