Trying to start Up a 1bbl NanoBrewery

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RandomBeerGuy

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Hello Fellow Washington Brewers,

I am doing my research for my business plan to open a Nano/Mircobrewery. I am wondering if anyone has started a nano and got approved to brew at your house. If so I would like to pick your brain a little. If your in the Lacey/Oly area I would like sit down maybe over a brew session and talk about what i'm trying to achieve.
 
I don't know about your laws but in indiana you have to have a separate address for your brewery. There use to be a small nano brewery here that was operated out of this small a frame cottage that was behind his house. He had a 1 barrel system and used a stove and turned on all 4 burners to heat water. Pretty ghetto but it worked.
 
I would have to say the best place to find out answers on this would be the FDA/ATF....check their websites for the info. I dont see a problem with it as long as everything you do is within the local code. Let me know what you find out.
 
I have no information that you are looking for but am very excited and hope that you make this dream happen!

Best of luck to you RBG!
 
In Washington as in most states you need a building that is licensed commercial that meets regs i.e. no grain explosions due to the mill being too close to brew rigs and such. I would advise if you are in that area to try and find something zoned commercial in like Roy or somewhere cheap, because you can have a homebrew setup, but you must have the proper building.
 
Update: My dream is getting closer and closer kinda excited. Long story short I know a guy who is wanting to have someone brew for his company and has requested me to brew up some of my recipes to see if that's what he is looking for. I smell a partnership forming. I am going to go with a iipa, irish red, and porter. Im going for hoppy, malty, and roasty style. Any thoughts?
 
Update: My dream is getting closer and closer kinda excited. Long story short I know a guy who is wanting to have someone brew for his company and has requested me to brew up some of my recipes to see if that's what he is looking for. I smell a partnership forming. I am going to go with a iipa, irish red, and porter. Im going for hoppy, malty, and roasty style. Any thoughts?

I read an article recently which indicated someone is renovating the old City Hall building in Darrington and planning to open a distillery & brewery. He indicated he was going to be looking for a homebrewer who wanted to take the next step. Is this, by chance, what you're referring to? If not, maybe you want to look into this as well.
 
No, ours is in Tacoma
What part of Tacoma? I checked into the business license part of a brewery and found in the state of Washington it has to be a separate from a home. Good luck and if you need any help send me a message. I have been in business in Tacoma for 20 years (not a brewery) but I can try to answer any business question you have.
 
I think the biggest question you need to ask yourself is: Why do you want to open a nanobrewery? Are you wanting to just try out larger, more commercial equipment? Are you wanting to actually sell your beer? Do you have plans to give up your day job and open a brewery permanently?

If you want to just try out the larger equipment, find a brewery in your area and volunteer. They will, usually, take free labor that's knowledgable about brewing.

If you want to sell your beer, why? There's no reason why you should want to sell your beer unless you want to go commercial.

If you want to start the brewery and have this be your full career, I'm going to tell you to don't do it. Everybody will tell you to go after your dreams, but I'm going to be the guy to tell you to not do it. Your job right now is to prove me wrong. If you have a very comfortable day job where you can do this on the side and you want this as a corporation with separate liabilities, I actually wouldn't oppose this. But in general, you need to have about $50-100K you don't mind burning. You will need $50-100K for the initial build out. You will also need that much as a good cushion for a yearly cash flow. Thus, you need $200-300K+ in the bank to last you for two to three years or so. This all has to be cash that you and your significant other don't mind you burning over the coming years.

If you don't have this type of cash or can't find investors to give it to you, then just stick with home brewing. This is your first test of proving me wrong. If you have a gigantic cushion of money, then you've passed the first hurdle. If you're going to nickel and dime this, then stick with home brewing.
 
I think the biggest question you need to ask yourself is: Why do you want to open a nanobrewery? Are you wanting to just try out larger, more commercial equipment? Are you wanting to actually sell your beer? Do you have plans to give up your day job and open a brewery permanently?

If you want to just try out the larger equipment, find a brewery in your area and volunteer. They will, usually, take free labor that's knowledgable about brewing.

If you want to sell your beer, why? There's no reason why you should want to sell your beer unless you want to go commercial.

If you want to start the brewery and have this be your full career, I'm going to tell you to don't do it. Everybody will tell you to go after your dreams, but I'm going to be the guy to tell you to not do it. Your job right now is to prove me wrong. If you have a very comfortable day job where you can do this on the side and you want this as a corporation with separate liabilities, I actually wouldn't oppose this. But in general, you need to have about $50-100K you don't mind burning. You will need $50-100K for the initial build out. You will also need that much as a good cushion for a yearly cash flow. Thus, you need $200-300K+ in the bank to last you for two to three years or so. This all has to be cash that you and your significant other don't mind you burning over the coming years.

If you don't have this type of cash or can't find investors to give it to you, then just stick with home brewing. This is your first test of proving me wrong. If you have a gigantic cushion of money, then you've passed the first hurdle. If you're going to nickel and dime this, then stick with home brewing.

Silly questions you have, First if Im planning on building a brewery Im pretty sure I want to sell my brew for profit. Second I have an investor already so the build and buying will be cheaper than doing it solo. Thirdly Im building a nano not full scale where my batch sizes will be around 1 bbl.. Fourthly I have a place to sell my product already in the works. I am doing my homework with license's and other government things like taxes, logs, ect. I hope you understand now on why I'm doing this. Are you also trying to open a nano in my area and that's why you asked me these silly questions? If so RDWHAHB :mug:
 
Silly questions you have, First if Im planning on building a brewery Im pretty sure I want to sell my brew for profit. Second I have an investor already so the build and buying will be cheaper than doing it solo. Thirdly Im building a nano not full scale where my batch sizes will be around 1 bbl.. Fourthly I have a place to sell my product already in the works. I am doing my homework with license's and other government things like taxes, logs, ect. I hope you understand now on why I'm doing this. Are you also trying to open a nano in my area and that's why you asked me these silly questions? If so RDWHAHB :mug:

Congratulations on investors and going pro. No, I'm not going pro nor am I in the planning stages. The questions aren't really silly. It's more of a thought exercise for those people who post threads that ask about going pro but have no real ability to follow through with it. You have passed the first hurdles. Even gathering investors is huge. Congrats.

Is your investor actually wanting to make a return on their investment or is this just a cool project that they're willing to give you money for? If it's the latter, you found the perfect investor :)

If it's the former, you need to go bigger than a nano brewery. Anything less than say about 7-10bbl will limit you in the very beginning. You will always be brewing at capacity and will always be brewing more than you ever want to brew to keep up with demand. Doing the math, you just can't easily keep up with demand on a nano brewery. So if you have investors and have the money, go bigger. You will not regret it.

Do you have a target opening date? I look forward to trying your beer!
 
Update: Meeting with the investor next week to discuss a possible location. We have found a 10,000 sq ft warehouse near downtown Tacoma that looks very promising needs a little touch up no major worries.
 
Update: Meeting with the investor next week to discuss a possible location. We have found a 10,000 sq ft warehouse near downtown Tacoma that looks very promising needs a little touch up no major worries.

How's the progress? I'm in the mid stages of building out a 1 BBL brewery right now. Your 10,000 sq ft space would be a dream for me. I'm doing it on 1/10 that amount of space. It is certainly limiting, but limitations make you think about things in new ways.
 
Congrats on going pro!

I have a question for you - how did you choose your real estate? We own a building that has space on the first floor for a brewpub, but we don't know how to find potential new breweries who are looking for space. Can you speak a bit about your process? Was there a real estate agent involved? Did you just look in classifieds?

Thanks, congrats again!

Cheers!
 
Congrats on going pro!

I have a question for you - how did you choose your real estate? We own a building that has space on the first floor for a brewpub, but we don't know how to find potential new breweries who are looking for space. Can you speak a bit about your process? Was there a real estate agent involved? Did you just look in classifieds?

Thanks, congrats again!

Cheers!

It just kinda happened me and my investor opened a smaller business down the road from where we are going to build the brewery. We were working late and we heard a noise in the back alley so we ran out to check what was going on and we ran into a elderly lady. We explained why we ran to the alley she had questions about our current business. Long story short she owns 3 warehouses up the hill and said if we did some work on one of the warehouses that we could use the empty one for 2 years before we lease it. So we are jumping on it before she finds someone else. Its huge and we are very excited. At the moment we are speaking with the city about any regulations regarding the space and requirements needed to build a brewery ect.
 
Thought for you...save a few extra $$$$ over a little time and go a little larger. You will end up working yourself to death on a 1BBL system, unless, unless this is just a hobby business and its just for fun. Doesn't have to be huge, a 3 BBL system is not going to cost 3x the investment ( well it may be) but it will cut your labor by much more than 3x. Just a thought..
Good luck! I want to see this come together.

Keep us posted!
Cheers
Jay
 
Thought for you...save a few extra $$$$ over a little time and go a little larger. You will end up working yourself to death on a 1BBL system, unless, unless this is just a hobby business and its just for fun. Doesn't have to be huge, a 3 BBL system is not going to cost 3x the investment ( well it may be) but it will cut your labor by much more than 3x. Just a thought..
Good luck! I want to see this come together.

Keep us posted!
Cheers
Jay

Thank you I wish I change the thread name but we are going with either a 5BBL or 7BBL I've read tons and tons about breweries starting with 1bbl and have to pretty much upgrade right a way. I think with a 5bbl or 7bbl should be a good starting point. The 1 bbl was before the investor stepped into the game.
 
Thank you I wish I change the thread name but we are going with either a 5BBL or 7BBL I've read tons and tons about breweries starting with 1bbl and have to pretty much upgrade right a way. I think with a 5bbl or 7bbl should be a good starting point. The 1 bbl was before the investor stepped into the game.

Very smart move!

Where are you looking for equipment?

Keep us posted.....

Cheers
Jay
 
Right now im looking at glacier tanks because so far they are cheaper than most. I want to get all my equipment from one vendor.
 
Sorry I havent been on the threads but I have some good/bad news. Good news is investor is game for the long haul. Bad news the brewery is on hold (life got in the way) It just might take longer than expected to get it off the ground. We had the 10,000 sq facility all picked out but we decided to keep looking and use the space for our other project (non brewery related). We are hoping to get things back on track towards the end of the year after our other project takes off.
 
Thats the one bad thing about life it always seems to throw something in the mix to screw everything else up. Defiantly keep updating us, I am on the east side of the state and possibly thinking about starting a nano.
 
Right now im looking at glacier tanks because so far they are cheaper than most. I want to get all my equipment from one vendor.

You might look at Stout Tanks, I just picked up a custom 1/2bbl system I had them build. They were excellent with communication and dealing with all my questions and changes I was making especially given it is such a small order for them. You also get the advantage of having competing quotes and get to hear why their equipment is better than the other guys.

As a side note, everything I have ever heard is that a 7bbl is about the minimum size to be profitable when you dealing with overhead such as leased space.

As for the original question, which I know is no longer relevant at the moment, but my understanding is that you can have a brewery at home so long as it is in a detached building. This has to do with WA state law, not federal, all they care about is that you have your tax bond up and paperwork completed. If you ever want more info on this, go talk to Eric down at Puyallup River Brewing, he has a 1.5bbl system at his house...he is usually too busy to chat too long, but if you sit at the bar when its slow and order a few beers he is happy to give you a little insight.
 
You might look at Stout Tanks, I just picked up a custom 1/2bbl system I had them build. They were excellent with communication and dealing with all my questions and changes I was making especially given it is such a small order for them. You also get the advantage of having competing quotes and get to hear why their equipment is better than the other guys.

As a side note, everything I have ever heard is that a 7bbl is about the minimum size to be profitable when you dealing with overhead such as leased space.

As for the original question, which I know is no longer relevant at the moment, but my understanding is that you can have a brewery at home so long as it is in a detached building. This has to do with WA state law, not federal, all they care about is that you have your tax bond up and paperwork completed. If you ever want more info on this, go talk to Eric down at Puyallup River Brewing, he has a 1.5bbl system at his house...he is usually too busy to chat too long, but if you sit at the bar when its slow and order a few beers he is happy to give you a little insight.

I tried to contacting them before I started doing my own research and never heard back. Thank you for the info and Ill do some digging around my dad has a shop in tacoma that they are just storing things in I never until now had an idea to ask if I can turn it into a small brewery if they say yes then im back in the game.
 
so any updates on this? I think it's a cool idea much bigger than most think when they start home brewing. Just a curious fellow home brewer.

Doc
 
Alot happened I should have removed the thread. We ended up getting into a huge argument over some things and I ended up backing out. Look like my dream will stay a dream for now at least. Now I'm focusing on my kids and family. I'm make ng moves to get closer to my brewery dream little by little but I'll get there. Large scale or small scale. Just sucks that this was not the time to shine
 
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