Looking to start brewery?

I am looking for good info on starting a brewery. Any info will be great!

your post is pretty vaugue, your really asking for a lot of information with just one sentence. Narrow your field, are you wanting information on getting into homebrewing, or are you really starting a commecial brewery? What is your experiance in homebrewing? The information you provide will lead to better answers based on your experiance level. Your question is basically saying how do I start a bussiness?

I am gonna start home brewing first. Sorry for the big question lol but I want that to be my big goal. Do you have any good advice for a beginner? I am 25 out of Ohio. So I figured If I start young maybe I can start a business eventually.

Look up the licenses required and do a financial analysis (cash flow analysis for first 3 years operation, break even points, startup capital required) as well as a market analysis to determine if it's even viable. You will then want to have a solid business plan, so if you don't have any education in that realm, you might want to get with someone who does. Then, I'd suggest working with a lawyer and an accountant to determine if you can get all of the legal items set up that you will need.

Buuuut, you might want to start brewing and figure out if you even like it before you start thinking about opening a brewery.

To quote Oscar Wong, the very successful founder of Highland Brewery in Asheville, NC.

"If you want to make a small fortune in the brewing industry, start with a large fortune."

ok, thats better, know i know where you stand. My advice is to start by purchasing a book first so you can understand the process and determine where you want to start, beginner--intermidiate--or all grain, (John Palmers "How to Brew" is great and "Homebrewing for Dummies is good to"). From there you will need to purchase a beginner kit, you can find these by simply doing a google search for homebrew beginner kits, or you can sometime find good deals on craigslist. If really short on cash you can search for individual items on craigslist and haggle people to get what you need or you can search this forum for making some of the equipment. Brewing can be a very fun and rewarding hobby I know that once you start you are going to be hooked, my advise is to not rush. Start with the basics and once a few brews are under you belt and you feel that you are ready to move on then make that step then. There is alot to learn before going commercial, im sure you can ask every homebrewer in this forum if they want to start a brewery and the answer would be the same---YES!!, but finances, time, and knowledge are the major hudles you will encounter. Do not be intimidated to start though, if you can boil water you can make great beer. The three main items/keys to focus on in my opionion is time/tempratures/and sanitation. You will find these are the main items that can ruin a homebrewers day.

Good luck and Godspeed
Anthony

This site is for homebrewers......You really want to go Here for info on starting a brewery.

Saying you want to open a brewery before you've even ventured into home brewing is like saying you are going to be a famous painter before you ever tried holding a paintbrush.

Why don't you just try making some beer from established recipes, start trying many many different styles of craft beer, work your way up to making some good original beers that you come up with and then think about if you have something to offer and want to try making a go of starting a brewery.

You can also do a search on here and find lots of threads by people who either want to or are in the process of getting a micro brewery going.

What part of Ohio?

I am from right outside of Dayton. Thank you for all the advice! I will get the book. I know all grain is the way to go. But here is a stupid question. How do U put certain flavoring in the beer. I know hops barley yeast and water. For example cherry flavored.

With cherries.

Every homebrewer I know thinks about opening a brewery, and I'm in the same place... but you don't seem to have many of the basics.

If you want cherry flavored beer, put cherries into your beer It's not that complicated.

I echo what others have said... just start homebrewing (start with simple recipes - not bland, but simple) and then go from there. Get the basics and slowly introduce more skillful techniques. Maybe you'll be making your own recipes in a year or two, and then you can look into brewing professionally.

*note: I just started homebrewing, and am in no way an expert. I drink a LOT of craft brews and have visited several breweries, but homebrewing is still new to me.

Well, if you're starting off by asking how you'd "put flavors in beer," (please take no offense here - there's none intended!) you probably should start out reading some of the stickies here in the beginners section on the basic brewing process, and then look into a couple good beginner's texts like John Palmer's "How to Brew" or Charlie Papazian's "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing." Or, if you're more of a hands-on kind of learner, look for a local homebrew shop and see if they offer classes. Either approach will give you the info you'll need to get your feet wet with homebrewing, and from there you can start to learn more about what actually goes into beer.

You can start out, like many of us have, with extract brews - which allows you to learn the basics of brewing process, cleaning and sanitization, fermenting process, packaging, and such, and build on your equipment to move towards all grain when (and if) you feel you're ready for it. Or, you can dive straight in if you'd like, though at that point you're immediately diving into a lot of variables and, depending on just how you decide to approach it, a fairly significant initial investment in equipment.

Jlotto1987 said:

I know all grain is the way to go.

Click to expand...

Hmmm. I've made some excellent extract brews. You sure seem to 'know' All-Grain is the 'way to go' but you've never brewed before? These threads are like car accidents. You hate to rubberneck, but you're hoping there's an arm mangled up and blocking the center lane as you finally get to pass.

There are several ways to open a brewery but the three most common are:

Become a very good home brewer and then start figuring out the finance side.

Become good at finance and hire a brewer

Start a Restaurant to help fund the brewery and either hire or learn by trail and error. (Licensing might be easier if you have a brewpub)

Thanks guys you are the best!!! I will start reading and brewing!

First off, you put flavors in your beer through careful selection of grain and through procedure in brewing.
Next, there are so many different yeast strains out there and they give different flavors.
After that there are countless hops out there that smell, taste and bitter different. Then there is what you do with the hops.
After that part is mastered, you can add things like cherries to a beer.

What you need to do is to try to make some beer. You can start with all grain or extract, but I would suggest that you start with an extract kit since you need all that equipment to move on to all grain anyway and you need to get a handle on so many things so taking the mash out of the equation will help get you started right.

Brew, brew and brew some more. When you can make recipes that people like and have a handle on things, start trying to come up with something new.
If there is a local home brew club, maybe join it.

One big thing that you need is patients when you make beer. Not fine wine or barrel aged whiskey patients, but patients.
Your posts suggest you don't have any patients.
Don't worry about your brewing empire featuring cherry beer until you can make a pale ale from a recipe kit.

Just because you like drinking beer, doesn't mean you'll like making it. Trust me, it's a pain in the ass sometimes. But give it a shot, have fun and start saving money!

I would say you probably would want to make a beer, maybe two. You'd have to find a place with running water and a front door. Good luck.