Amazing!
Alright. So I have some "Thanks" to put out there. Cape and others gave some very good information about the desperate importance of looking into local, state and federal code before you dive too deeply into a brewery business venture. When I first started dreaming about Muddy Creek Brewery I took that to heart. And I must admit this VERY THREAD was an important part of that. I have Akthor and his trials and difficulties to thank for our relative ease into licensing and code navigation.
Which brings me to my favorite part of this response, "Quote-foo"
The "haters" in this thread highlight what a steaming pile of horsesh!t government has created for it's citizens in the USA. I, like all of you, have run the numbers. I, like all of you, are more than willing and able to put in the hard work to produce a quality product that fellow citizens would pay for. But alas, with every agency under the sun waiting in line to take their pound of flesh, the barrier to entry becomes too great for all but the most driven, rich, or stupid. Gone are the days of the local baker, grocer, and brewer. And we all lose because if it.
...
Wow dude, hold on you missed the point lol. There's a reason haters was in "". I think this guy was doomed from day 1 and there was plenty of free advice from guys that were doing it right. My point was just that it's too bad you can't really create and operate a small local business anymore due to endless red tape and bureaucracy. I'm really responding to posts like from the guy that had to go through hell to have a damn sprinkler head replaced. This kind of madness places an enormous barrier to entry that almost can't be overcome by the little guy. And it's too bad. As ill-conceived as akthors plan was, he did seem to have the drive (if not the sense)to make a small brewery work.
The above was actually 2 quotes.
What I wanted to point out here is that Akthor's critical mistake (and this has been stated, but perhaps not hammered home so bluntly, so completely and in as crystal clear a manner as I'm about to try to do now) is that he did not
initially contact his local, state and federal zoning and TTB representatives to determine
precisely what he needed to do in order to get his brewery up and running.
And that's it. That's all. He did SO much great work. He built SUCH an amazing place. He did all those amazing things with the property. His only lapse was a lack of experience in terms of the codes and licensing and the "legalese". But the really amazing and wonderful thing about his thread is that it does exactly what he sort of kids about near the end. It serves as a "cautionary tale." There are processes and steps to take in order to get your brewery up and running and most of them are slow, tedious and expensive, but keep in mind, while the government is slow, they aren't averse to you getting up and running.
Those people WANT you to start a new business. They WANT your taxable income. It's the ****ing GOVERNMENT! The faster you get going, the more money you make, the more money THEY make. Is it bureaucracy? YA! But you CAN do things to minimize the hassle and speed the process up. And the very
best thing you can do is contact them from the very start and ask them what their requirements are.
Please, for the LOVE OF GOD Akthor, do this. Do it for your SWMBO, do it for yourself, do it for your children, and if your beer is ANY GOOD AT ALL, do it for your future customers. I cannot be any more blunt or any clearer. I am not being a hater. I am not wishing you ill. In fact, I am attempting to lead you on the
only path that can possibly move you toward success. I truly appreciate that folks from Maine have a unique sense of rebellion and stubborn-ness. (Although I'd argue that's not at all unique.) But you can see from that comment that I did indeed suffer through every damn post of this agonizing thread just hoping and praying that you'd get your **** together and talk to the proper people about your permits and your zoning.
So please. In your
new venture, do that. And don't be mad at me. Recognize that I come from a place of kindness and appreciation. Your struggles helped me to avoid the same. My path was much easier. We still had a couple surprises. The sprinkler system threw us for a loop and cost a ton of money, but we found out about it early enough that it didn't slow down our opening our overrun our budget. The electrical restrictions placed on us by our electrical contractors popped out at us late in the game, but we were able to work with the city and get it resolved because we'd been in constant communication. We didn't try to do everything ourselves.
Please, please talk to the proper authorities and make a plan. You will almost undoubtedly find that they'll be very eager to work with you and very willing to "fudge" on the small things if they are brought to their attention early enough and aren't major health concerns and as long as you have a plan to remedy them over time.
Said with love...
Quote-foo continues....
Here's the thing, @ 3.50/pint or $9/growler I OUGHT to be able to turn a profit even at small scale. I would be paying taxes and licensing fees as well as spurring my local economy. We should be encouraging these businesses not making it as difficult as possible to achieve.
$2500 month rental (And we're talking ridiculously cheap rental, btw
$1800 month utils
(We'll just forego salaries and emp. taxes, despite the fact that it's completely unrealistic.)
$100 month CO2 (I spend a ton more than that, but I'm guessing for a smaller op.)
$500 month malt (Again, a fraction what I spend...)
$200 month hops (We ARE carrying an IPA, right?)
$75 month yeast (You can probably save some here by re-harvesting. But you'd need the equipment)
$30 month supplies. (TP, Napkins etc.)
$35 month pretzels
And I'm just doing something off the top of my head here before lunch. This is by no means comprehensive.
I could easily add in our marketing budget which would be the 2nd or 3rd highest line item here.
I could also add in regular maintenance costs which should run somewhere between $50 and $100 a month.
The point is, everything adds up here and there
That gives you $5245 a month. At $3.50 a pint you'd need to move 1499 pints to break even. Over a month period we'd need to average 50 pints a day. That seems fine, but remember we can only sell 3 pints per customer, per day. Quite often we only get somewhere in the zone of say 30 or 40 people in on a Monday. What if they only have 1 or 2 pints? What if some of those people are "Fishin' Hole" members and they choose to redeem their "1 free pint" that week on a given day?
In my case, I DO have employees, and I have to not only pay them a wage, but I also have to pay taxes for them on top of that. Let's also remember I have to pay both a State tax on alcohol as well as a much larger Federal tax.
So, in the end, $3.00 or even $3.50 is actually more difficult to make a profit at than you'd suspect. Certainly, small breweries DO make a profit on products in the taprooms. In fact that's the very BEST way for them to make a profit. But it's not like they're pulling down money like it grows on fabulous money trees made in Arabia. We have to be as efficient and careful in our processes as anyone.
It turns out, it's a business. Just one that you love.