I read an article about Sierra Nevada hitting the 1,000,000 barrel mark. The revenue from that is approx $200-million.
That got me thinking: $200m seems like a lot of money at first but that is just sales revenue from the beer. I have no clue what operating costs are or what the net is, but you can bet it is a fraction of $200m. There are hundreds of employees, taxes and all associated expenses that apply to a normal business and then those that apply to a brewery. Then there is that little brewery being built in North Carolina. No doubt Ken Grossman has made his fortune in beer but it has taken >30yrs.
For me, I would have to sell a lot of beer to live comfortably, not 1,000,000 BBL, but definitely thousands and I'm not looking to become a pro brewer. I recently toured Terrapin Brewing Company in Athens, GA with the GA Craft Brewers Guild. They were saying it takes approx 3000 BBL to start making a profit or maybe it was to break even or maybe...it was their estimate to make a comfortable living. I'm not sure what size brewery they were basing that on or what the related expenses are that go with that calculation. But doing some very simple math using the $200/bbl figure from the article, that comes to $600k in sales for 3,000 BBL. With expenses, I'm sure there ain't much left in the end. I personally enjoy my vacay time and my boat. On the other hand, I sure am glad there are people who take the risk and make us some delicious adult beverages.
Here is the article:
http://news.investors.com/managemen...ierra-nevada-leads-surge-in-craft-brewing.htm
That got me thinking: $200m seems like a lot of money at first but that is just sales revenue from the beer. I have no clue what operating costs are or what the net is, but you can bet it is a fraction of $200m. There are hundreds of employees, taxes and all associated expenses that apply to a normal business and then those that apply to a brewery. Then there is that little brewery being built in North Carolina. No doubt Ken Grossman has made his fortune in beer but it has taken >30yrs.
For me, I would have to sell a lot of beer to live comfortably, not 1,000,000 BBL, but definitely thousands and I'm not looking to become a pro brewer. I recently toured Terrapin Brewing Company in Athens, GA with the GA Craft Brewers Guild. They were saying it takes approx 3000 BBL to start making a profit or maybe it was to break even or maybe...it was their estimate to make a comfortable living. I'm not sure what size brewery they were basing that on or what the related expenses are that go with that calculation. But doing some very simple math using the $200/bbl figure from the article, that comes to $600k in sales for 3,000 BBL. With expenses, I'm sure there ain't much left in the end. I personally enjoy my vacay time and my boat. On the other hand, I sure am glad there are people who take the risk and make us some delicious adult beverages.
Here is the article:
http://news.investors.com/managemen...ierra-nevada-leads-surge-in-craft-brewing.htm