If your serious about doing this, you really need to educate yourself. You can't judge off what your friend says he can sell. You really need to do market research, find out costs, competitors, because when you get to that level you are going to be at you do not brewing the same way you do your 5 gallon batches, fermentation is totally different and there is ways you can produce beer multiple times faster than you currently do. You have to worry about the water/sewer supply going into you business. I'm also pretty sure that licensing is going to be many times more than $1k or everyone on this forum would be selling their own beer. Plus you have to run everything by the health department, they will question every ingredient that you put in that beer. You have to know all the chemical components of your beer and quality control, you defiantly have to have quality control. Right now it sounds like you are only doing extract and your talking about all grain. Take a look at the all grain section and all the first time all gainers and all the issues that we all deal with. I've been brewing for four years and just ran into my first water chemical issue. Try to create the same exact beer two, three, four, etc. times in a row. Then think about getting serious. Also think about writing a business plan, or entering into some homebrew competitions. Obviously I don't know what your friend has going on or if he's going to be paying the tax that the government charges on every beer sold, if so he's very generous. Just my two cents, I've been thinking about opening a Brew your Own, and have been looking into all these factors. I'm just saying make sure you understand everything from the business, government, brewing sides and then think about it. This is in need of more planning and maybe a few years out after you figure out all the variables and laws. Again just my two cents. But if you do go with it I wish you the best of luck!
