Business Plan for a Microbrewery

One of the last 2 classes I have to take before I graduate is a Small Business Entrepreneur class where the final project is a 30 - 40 page business plan. I, naturally, decided to do mine on a microbrewery.

Does anyone have any good sources of information for how much a typical microbrewery sells / spends? Finding equipment prices is hard enough, never mind how much you actually sell your beer for and spend on malt & hops & yeast.

Any other bidness plan input is greatly appreciated. Who knows, if I get financing for my brewery, I might come here when I'm hiring.

I know there's a couple guys on here who have opened them....lemme do some digging to find the thread (I'm having a senior moment and the thread name is on the tip o my tongue)

But this is a forum for professionals that might have some good resources for you.

ProBrewer.com: An Online Resource Serving The Beer Industry

Here ya go...pm Brewtopia he will prolly give you all the info you need...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f19/naked-city-brewing-has-location-61611/

You can also contact him directly through the website.. (I haven't seen much of him on here in awhile)

Naked City Brewing

Mention you are from here....

Revvy said:

Here ya go...pm Brewtopia he will prolly give you all the info you need...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f19/naked-city-brewing-has-location-61611/

Click to expand...

Schweet. Thanks

Good luck!!!!

I imagine prices would vary a lot based on your location. For our recent bulk grain buy, we purchased from a distributor (I think) in the bay area (CA) and had it shipped to northern california. shipping for the one pallet of grain (42 bags) was about $140-150. Below I've pasted in the price per pound on the different malts they had available. most of these were from Great Western malting company, which is middle of the road price wise. There's definitely room to go higher.

Munich $0.59
Brown $0.85
Vienna $0.59
Rosted Barley $0.86
Black $0.86
Choco $0.86
Crystal 15, 40, 60, 75 and 120 $0.69
Flaked barley $0.65
2 row $0.56
Pale ale $0.56
Wheat $0.59
Pilsen $0.62

I don't really know what's common practice in terms of yeast used. Sierra Nevada pays a company to maintain their original strain, and they get small shipments as needed that are built into massive starters.

You are just looking for a straight microbrewery? Or Brewpub?

This sounds really interesting. If you need an editor, or just somebody to read through and proof it, give me a shout.

rj_hockey said:

You are just looking for a straight microbrewery? Or Brewpub?

Click to expand...

The plan is for a brewery, however there is a timeline in the plan that (as of now) is 5 years deep, one of the plans is to open up a brewpub. A hop growing project isn't far behind the brewpub on the timeline.