starting a Craft Brew Store

Anyone here ever done it? There are none where I live and being unemployed I have the opportunity to look into doing something like this, but just tossing ideas around in my head at the moment. Thinking selling everything in singles, make your own 6 pack type of deal (you can always get 6, 12, 24 whatever of a single type if you want). Anyone familiar with the idea, like it's already been done somewhere else or any ideas in general?

Be pretty cool even to have a coop kind of thing where homebrewers can bring in all their own beers to sell

There are a few out here in the Seattle area, and they do pretty good business. I've been to Bottleworks, there selection is huge, and the beer kept in the correct lighting. I imagine the start-up, licensing, and setting up with a distributor would be your biggest hurdles. If you have a decent amount of people who drink good beer in your area you should do great.

Additonally, here is a thread discussing the issue

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=41697&page=2

Websites for the retailers mentioned above
http://www.99bottles.net/
http://www.bottleworks.com/

Parker36 said:

Be pretty cool even to have a coop kind of thing where homebrewers can bring in all their own beers to sell

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Home brewers can't sell their beer.

cnbudz said:

Home brewers can't sell their beer.

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Maybe you could start a "Give a Brew, Take a Brew" program!

yeah definitely cant sell homebrew here has to go through distributor. What's teh correct lighting to use? are the lights that don't give off UV?

I was thinking of selling minor homebrew supplies as well as offer homebrew classes.

On a serious note, that is a great idea. What does it really cost in taxes/fees/WTF to become a brewery? I am still fairly new at this but I have done nothing but browse these forums since I started. Seriously, I could almost claim to be logged on as much as a moderator. Has anyone seriously looked into starting their own brewery?
-Drew

LostDakota said:

On a serious note, that is a great idea. What does it really cost in taxes/fees/WTF to become a brewery? I am still fairly new at this but I have done nothing but browse these forums since I started. Seriously, I could almost claim to be logged on as much as a moderator. Has anyone seriously looked into starting their own brewery?
-Drew

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I'm not 100% sure about a brewery, but my cider will be on the shelves as of the first of the year...

First, you need to get an EIN and a business bank account. Then, get a general permit from the ATF TTB. Then you will also need to get bonded to cover your excise taxes. After that, you need to register your label, file 3 or 4 other permits with the feds (permit to open a winery/brewery, operational permits, excise tax registrations, etc.). After all of that, then you will need to register with the FDA (thanks dubya), and contact your state. Depending on your states laws, there may be just as many applications and paperwork to file with them (including another set of operational permits, sales tax registration, another label registration, etc.).

It's a lot of paperwork and phone calls if you are not 100% serious about it. But the good news is none of the federal permits or licenses cost you a single penny. For me to go commercial with my winery, it's costing me a total of $70 per year in state permits, $250 a year to get bonded, and then excise and sales taxes.

After 3 pints of Apfelwein, I'm sure I left out a couple steps... and like I said, there may be a couple steps different for a brewery Vs. a winery, but that is the basic info...

Adolphus79 said:

It's a lot of paperwork and phone calls if you are not 100% serious about it. But the good news is none of the federal permits or licenses cost you a single penny. For me to go commercial with my winery, it's costing me a total of $70 per year in state permits, $250 a year to get bonded, and then excise and sales taxes.

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I'm in the process of getting my production/distribution license. For the Connecticut permit alone it's over $1800 for a year

There are a couple local liquor stores that have a good selection of Craft beer around where i live. One of the places just sells singles and they have a make your own 6 pack thing. but when you make your own 6 pack you get something like a 5% or 10% discount.

The reality of opening a craft beer store selling commercial beer depends in part on the local laws governing the sale of alcohol (for example, in PA you can only buy beer by the case at a beer store, while in RI there is only 1 type of license so most stores carry wine and alcohol since they make more money that way) and the availability of craft beer from your local distributors (again, RI just recently got Stone because Stone finally made an agreement with a RI distributor).