Brewpub or Microbrewery

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rgrim001

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I recently read "Brewing Up A Business" which left me wondering a few things. I have read different opinions on the stability of brewpubs vs. pure microbreweries. What would technically be considered the safer business venture, a brewpub or a microbrewery?

Just looking for educated opinions I guess. Let me hear it!
 
Depends on a ton of factors, laws included.

At some point, I may get involved in a brewpub venture with my friend who is an experienced head-chef preparing to venture out on his own. He has run two restaurants. The kitchen he currently runs is a steak house that has been in business in notoriously restaurant-fickle Brooklyn for over 20 years.

Point being, in my case, being that I have a best-friend who is an experienced professional on the restaurant side, a brewpub would be a great way to start. The restaurant branding will already be there, to include regulars who will following him from his previous jobs. Furthermore, the laws in the city favor brewpubs over packaging breweries, at least from what I have seen so far.
 
I don't think either is "safer" they just come with different risks.

The brewpub needs to be able to support both the restaurant and the brewery/bar but a solid restaurant manager and chef should make it functional so long as there is a market for that kind of restaurant. The brewpub needs strong local support unless you can also sell away from the brewpub (e.g. growlers or bottles).

The brewery lives or dies by its ability to get distributed and sold. The benefit is that you can distribute to a large area but you have one product that you live or die by. There's no diversification of income sources. It's beer and just beer.
 
I don't know if I would use the word "safer" but a brewpub for the most part is a restaurant that happens to make some beer. That means it's going to come with all of the problems of one like staffing, hours, parking, nights & weekends, running a kitchen and so on. That doesn't mean a brewery is safe or easy but there is perhaps a narrower focus needed.
 
I would say that a brewpub would be "safer" (no such thing when starting a business) but a micro-brewery would be easier.

Get someone who knows what they're doing to run your restaurant if you go brewpub.

Doesn't Sam say in that book that their brewpub basically subsidized the brewery?
 
I met a guy who had his own 10bbl micro and he said brewing the beer was the easy part, finding people to buy it is the trick. In a decently well known/marketed brewpub, they come to you. 5 bucks a glass > 2

The brewery end of the brewpub would be simpler. Serve from your bright tanks, no need to bottle or even keg. Also in theory you might have freer range to brew different beer. But they say most restaurant startups fail, so i personally would try for a taproom with some offsales.
 
If you happen to live in an area that has legalized gambling, get a slot machine license and go for a brewpub. You'll make $$$ from the machines, and you can do what you want with the brewing part of it!

My brother does real estate, and is an expert in bar and tavern licenses in Vegas. His clients are doing well in their bars here. Even after the economic turn, most of these pubs are still making money from their machines.
 
For me, a brewpub seems to help customers be more patriotic to your the beers. It would be a place where groups of friends can come and drink. The downside for a brewpub, I think, is not only do you have to worry about beer quality, you have to worry about food quality.

On a side not, A brewbar? would be nice that only brews beer and offers snack food or lets people order from other places to bring to the bar.
 
Yeah, kitchens are an overhead. Here in Vegas, a law was passed a couple of years ago that banned smoking where food is served in bars. A few bars had to wall up their dining area away from the bar.

If you could work out not having a kitchen, you'd be doing good!
 
Brewpub. The profit margins on selling beer you produced across your own bar is much higher than selling it across other people's bars.
 
For me, a brewpub seems to help customers be more patriotic to your the beers. It would be a place where groups of friends can come and drink. The downside for a brewpub, I think, is not only do you have to worry about beer quality, you have to worry about food quality.

On a side not, A brewbar? would be nice that only brews beer and offers snack food or lets people order from other places to bring to the bar.

brewbar is a great idea.

site brewed beer and distilled spirits along with chicken wings, fries and pretzels... open it up, i'm there. :mug:

really, who needs another caesar salad?
 
brewbar is a great idea.

site brewed beer and distilled spirits along with chicken wings, fries and pretzels... open it up, i'm there. :mug:

really, who needs another caesar salad?

Awesome! What menu, here are the beers, and we have wings, fries and pretzels to eat.

Done.

:mug:
 
Right Brain Brewery has a very limited offer of foods (chips) and I believe they let customers order from other restaurants.
 
Oh, forgot to mention Tenaya Creek in Vegas. It has a brewery and a bar with slots, but no kitchen. They also let customers bring food, and have menus from surrounding restaurants that deliver.
 
Be careful, because in some states such as mine, VA, you have to have a certain amount of sales come from food sales. I'm writing a business plan for a bus class I'm taking for a brew pub. Cost of sales is extremely low on a brewpub beer, around 15-25%, so profit margin can be very high, or your prices can be very low, depending on the median income in your area. It's kind of win-win.
 
It's beer and just beer.

I think this sentiment is wrong. If you are a microbrewery, then you are a bottling company. Your primary goal is to put a product in a bottle/can. If hard seltzer is what's hot, then put it in a bottle/can and sell it. If people want real rootbeer, then produce that. Sometimes you can focus too narrowly and miss out on business.
 
Depends on the area. At least that was the pre-COVID answer. If land is expensive (and commercial real estate by extension) brewpubs can really struggle. For a non-distro operation (or minimal distro) location becomes very important. And prime location means higher rent. Pre-COVID an affordable taproom location with decent traffic could be more sustainable than a less ideal industrial facility that's either out of the way, hard to find, hard to park at, etc. In the latter case retail sales pay the bills, but the distro market is saturated and far more cutthroat than it used to be.

This was why, when the "bubble bursting" contraction started, all the thought out projections I saw said small to regional production breweries would take the hit first as they were muscled out of needed shelf space and tap handles.

COVID has flipped that on its head though. Sit down/on premise places are closing left and right while places who've got product in grocery stores are weathering the storm better.
 
Wow, a 10 year old thread about the brewing business brought back to life! Everything has changed so much since then! I've had my own business (not beer related) and all I can say to future entrepreneurs: Get as many income streams as possible. So if you are going to start a nano-brewery, start a nano restaurant at the same time. Serve something simple like a small pizza, a Cuban sandwich/Panini you can pre-make and the bartender can heat up, there's all kinds of easy menu items you can serve, sell a hot dog for $2, a cheese plate, some salads, anything for someone who is hungry. If they want fine dining they can go somewhere else, but give your drinkers a reason to stay a little longer and have a few more.
 
Yep. Once nice thing about this particular instance of thread necromancy is that the food and beverage world is very different from what it was just a year and a half ago. And I don't think anyone can say what it'll look like in another year.

Presuming a return to "normal", sublet space to a separate restaurant operation, or get food trucks to show up in regular rotation. Both models work very well without having to own and operate your own kitchen (and whatever regulator hurdles are involved.

In some locations (like VA), if you want outside alcohol at all, you'll HAVE to serve food (but not if only serving your own beer). In others, you may have to serve food no matter what. Dunno if the above would apply (if they're separate businesses I presume the answer is no).
 
Frankly, I'm hoping this virus will make industrial/commercial real estate a little more affordable. I'm ready to bargain for better rent.

I'm not sure about industrial space since most manufacturing work seems to have been deemed essential and needs to happen onsite.

It's the office buildings that'll be cheap space. Something tells me where remote is possible telework is here to stay.
 
What about a micro brewery with a food truck? Not just any food truck, or rotating food trucks, but your won food truck. Two income streams, easy food to make, no need for a full kitchen.

Could do easy stuff like burgers etc.
 
What about a micro brewery with a food truck? Not just any food truck, or rotating food trucks, but your won food truck. Two income streams, easy food to make, no need for a full kitchen.

This is a good idea. Invite food trucks to your venue to serve spicy and sodium rich food, then provide plenty of drinks to wash it down.
 
One thing I will say is with a restaurant included with the brewery it opens you up to the nasty reviewers out there. My tomato wasn't firm enough, bread to crispy, meat over cooked, something was slimly, or cold. None of those is nasty by itself but I would imagine you have all read reviews that have these complaints but the reviewer is on a mission to make sure that no one ever goes to this establishment again because of their opinion. Which is why I believe the failure rate is a t 60% with in the first year for restaurant start ups. The beer might be good, bad or stellar, but when we do our brewcations if a place is 15 minutes out of the way and we read these nasty fair or unfair reviews we will just skip that place and move on to the next brewery in our brewcation trip. If your beer is good to very good if not stellar and your service is excellent that is all you need to succeed in a brewery start up. I'm in the camp of basic minimal food items or snacks ( frozen pizza, meat from crock pot for sandwich or taco, chips, bag of nuts, etc. Allow delivery from other restaurants keep their menus on site and food trucks as well. Once the brewery is established and in good standing with the community and has partnerships with distributed locations IE grocery stores, liquor stores, gas stations, bars and restaurants, etc., then maybe expand to a full menu of pub fair so people would come to eat and drink. In my 6 hour circle from my house I'd say 60% of breweries don't serve food which the only down side on a brewcation is when its time to eat we need to find one that does serve food.
 
I think not having to worry about running a kitchen and serving food would make things a lot easier, but it would probably be a good idea to make sure your area has a good food truck network or some good casual eateries in short walking distance. I would definitely never want to run a restaurant. That does not sound appealing at all.

The dedicated breweries in my area almost always have food trucks parked outside, and there is one nanobrewery close by that is perfectly sandwiched between a pizza joint and a hamburger joint,
 
Food trucks at micro’s are very popular here in Australia, at least in my area. Talking to some of the brewers, it’s a hell of a lot easier to not have a restaurant/kitchen. Here, there are lots in industrial areas. Basically big sheds, so to add a kitchen it needs to comply with very high food standards, which is obviously difficult in a big industrial shed. But a food truck can just park up and serve.
 
I've got a dear friend (who is also my mentor when it comes to brewing) that started his brewpub out of his garage; two years ago he finally got premises in a nice part of downtown Auburn, right next to a popular pub. He made a deal with the pub to serve some of his beers, and people go back and forth between the two for food and drinks. He's only got a microwave and an air fryer for limited food options, and allows outside food to be brought in. He's sunk a lot of money in the venture, and the last time we were there we couldn't get a word in edgewise with him he was so busy. So, I'd say, location location location, is what you want to look at. We have a few brewpubs in our area that operate out of industrial parks; great space, but not really any curb attraction, if that's the phrase I want; you won't find these places unless you already heard about them and know where to look.
 
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