brewingmeister
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Because I don't want to hate brewing..
What Stops You From Going Pro?
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I desperately envy guys like Sam Calagione and Jeremy... errr... the one behind Shmaltz/He'Brew - they are exactly making money on their hobby without getting to hate it. Would it be my case? - Hardly.
I would have (had I been 10 years younger) thought about becoming a beer/brewing consultant or something like that, you know - travelling around and giving smart and well paid (hmmmm...) advice on setting up the brewery, properly locating the equipment, tuning it up and getting it to work, etc., you know, this sort of thing.
I would have (had I been 10 years younger) thought about becoming a beer/brewing consultant or something like that, you know - travelling around and giving smart and well paid (hmmmm...) advice on setting up the brewery, properly locating the equipment, tuning it up and getting it to work, etc., you know, this sort of thing.
Dirty25
Well-Known Member
I have no desire to turn my hobby into a living. i enjoy the relaxing part of homebrewing where I don't need to worry bout production timelines and turning a profit.
Yeastieboy
Well-Known Member
Amen. I feel the same way about cooking. I love cooking. Why the hell would I want to open a restaurant!? [emoji42]
Regulations and income.
Chinese pro beer brewing regulations are like stricter US regulations meets Franz Kafka - it takes dedicated teams of lawyers who specialize in esoterica to figure out what you can and can't do, and even if you win, you lose. It's even worse trying to run a business as a foreigner where the cards are stacked against you legally and the more successful you get, the more likely you are to be screwed over by someone who wants to muscle into your market space.
Legally the only thing most people agree on is that the safest bet to avoid breaking any laws is to run a brewpub and only serve your beer on draft. That's a lot more cost overhead and time investment, so even without the risk of going under or getting pushed out of the market it becomes really hard to make much money brewing beer.
It's really not so simple as the "$0.25 in ingredients = a $4.00 pint at the bar = PROFIT!" beer coaster calculations we like to make after one too many homebrews.
Chinese pro beer brewing regulations are like stricter US regulations meets Franz Kafka - it takes dedicated teams of lawyers who specialize in esoterica to figure out what you can and can't do, and even if you win, you lose. It's even worse trying to run a business as a foreigner where the cards are stacked against you legally and the more successful you get, the more likely you are to be screwed over by someone who wants to muscle into your market space.
Legally the only thing most people agree on is that the safest bet to avoid breaking any laws is to run a brewpub and only serve your beer on draft. That's a lot more cost overhead and time investment, so even without the risk of going under or getting pushed out of the market it becomes really hard to make much money brewing beer.
It's really not so simple as the "$0.25 in ingredients = a $4.00 pint at the bar = PROFIT!" beer coaster calculations we like to make after one too many homebrews.
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I plan on opening one in a few years. But money gets in the way. I've run a couple small businesses before, did well with them, and know that once I secure funding for the brewpub it will do well also. But there's no way in hell I'm quitting the job I've got until I've got a house paid off, kid's college fund set up, 3 years income stashed away, new cars in the driveway, and the building i would do all this in secured.
So, yeah, just give me a few decades. But seriously, this place will be great.
So, yeah, just give me a few decades. But seriously, this place will be great.
I know Rob Tod, who founded Allagash Brewing, pretty well. Great guy. When he started out, it was just him and his parents' garage. It amazes me what some people can build, and how much they're willing to risk. But to make it work, you really have to eat, breathe, and sleep it.
Invertalon
Well-Known Member
I would love to brew for a living... I would expect if I ever did, my brewery would be quite "dynamic" in terms of the tap options. While some breweries have a few flagships always on, mine would likely be ever-changing in some way... If not the malt bill drastically, hops and water profiles to keep it interesting. As mentioned prior, I would also not care for brewing the same beer over and over and over and over again. I would likely just do taproom only and a few small bottle format releases once and a while. Not to worry about distribution and all that.
I'm pretty young, and should be in a position to take risks, but the way that the industry is stacked right now, with low salaries and an attitude that you should be happy to even be allowed in the game - I just don't see it.
I'm not normally a very political person, but I do believe that people that do hard work should be properly compensated - even if it is something that the person in question loves to do! Brewing does not properly compensate the work that is put in. If you want to work your way up, the industry attracts such cheap labor that owners want you to be grateful for minimum wage, even though being a grunt doing cleaning in other industries would pay more. If you have the technical knowledge and Q/A ability to open your own place that actually has keg accounts, you need over a million dollars - a barrier to entry so high that you have to have outside investors. If you just want to be a nano, you get to work 18 hour days.
I have a fantasy of opening a small brewery on a farm. I hear about small places that sell bottles at farmers markets or get to be a brewery with less red tape because they grow some of their own ingredients. I live in an area with cheap farmland all around me.
And then I remember that I live in California, not New England - and that our laws don't have anything I can find about being a farmhouse brewery. It even sounds a bit unknown whether or not you can have a brewery in a barn on the same property that you have a house. (Highly unlikely would be my guess)
So, as everybody else says - money, work hours, and red tape.
I'm not normally a very political person, but I do believe that people that do hard work should be properly compensated - even if it is something that the person in question loves to do! Brewing does not properly compensate the work that is put in. If you want to work your way up, the industry attracts such cheap labor that owners want you to be grateful for minimum wage, even though being a grunt doing cleaning in other industries would pay more. If you have the technical knowledge and Q/A ability to open your own place that actually has keg accounts, you need over a million dollars - a barrier to entry so high that you have to have outside investors. If you just want to be a nano, you get to work 18 hour days.
I have a fantasy of opening a small brewery on a farm. I hear about small places that sell bottles at farmers markets or get to be a brewery with less red tape because they grow some of their own ingredients. I live in an area with cheap farmland all around me.
And then I remember that I live in California, not New England - and that our laws don't have anything I can find about being a farmhouse brewery. It even sounds a bit unknown whether or not you can have a brewery in a barn on the same property that you have a house. (Highly unlikely would be my guess)
So, as everybody else says - money, work hours, and red tape.
2005STi
Well-Known Member
The divorce rate is 50% as it is, among small business owners it's 90%. Why put unnecessary stress there if you have a comfortable, well paying job. Besides whatever work it is, it will always be work. It's the grass is greener metaphor as I see it. Would brewing/cleaning equipment/bottling/distributing 5-7 days a week make you happy?
Sir-Brews-Alot
Well-Known Member
Honestly? Too much back breaking labor for very little reward. I can't see myself putting in 12 hours days of hard labor, and making less than I currently do sitting in front of a computer listening to brewing podcast all day, lol. Maybe I'm just not passionate enough? Sure some "celebrity" brewers have made a ton of dough off their gig, but that happens to what...1% of all currently operating breweries? And most of those have been in the business for 30+ years.
FloppyKnockers
Well-Known Member
I turned a passion/hobby into a profitable career once. It was amazing how fast it became work.
...never again.
...never again.
LostHopper
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wi_brewer
Well-Known Member
Imagine this question for another hobby, like golf. The answer for most people here could easily be that they are just not good enough at all aspects of brewing.
Honestly the Go Pro is not that good of a camera, just look at their stock tanking because of it. I would much rather go with a smaller camera, at least they innovate!
Yeastieboy
Well-Known Member
Don't hate just cause you can't afford one.
Having worked in the beer distribution business for a few years and seeing just how much hard work that is, I can only imagine the back breaking work of owning a brewery. It's my go to "screw this job" comment...let's just leave and start a brewery; heck that's how my whole home brewing fascination started. It's really easy to look at it through rose colored glasses, but when you really sit down. It just seems entirely too risky.
I agree with what quite a few people said though. I love cooking, wanted to do culinary school; but didn't want to hate cooking, and make crap money.
Loved paintball, was on a national tournament level team, had a blast, managed a couple of shops and began to hate it.. it actually drove me out for years; work and hobbies just don't mix that well sometimes. Ask any IT guy who loves technology how much he loves spending his day solving incidents that make him want to bang his head against his desk(or maybe i'm projecting)
Still...I want to do it, even with the area I live in being insanely saturated with Breweries. It'd be an adventure for sure.
I agree with what quite a few people said though. I love cooking, wanted to do culinary school; but didn't want to hate cooking, and make crap money.
Loved paintball, was on a national tournament level team, had a blast, managed a couple of shops and began to hate it.. it actually drove me out for years; work and hobbies just don't mix that well sometimes. Ask any IT guy who loves technology how much he loves spending his day solving incidents that make him want to bang his head against his desk(or maybe i'm projecting)
Still...I want to do it, even with the area I live in being insanely saturated with Breweries. It'd be an adventure for sure.
FloppyKnockers
Well-Known Member
Same reason for not going porn-star too, I suppose.
Beerthoven
Well-Known Member
I would probably become an alcoholic. Also, the worst time to jump into an industry is when it's peaking...google craft beer bubble.
Jimbodaman
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As a general response to " I wouldn't want to brew the same beer over and over" I understand that I'm an odd ball in saying that I love trying to perfect just one recipe at a time, I think "Oh maybe I should try a different bittering hop next time." Every time I'll make nearly the same beer except for 1 at most 2 tweaks. Once it's perfect I love to brew it over and over, that being said I'm 4 years in and have 2 really good recipes, which I'm okay with. (as well as numerous good recipes).
To answer the original question, I haven't hit the lottery yet. More realistically maybe just maybe in 20 years once I've saved up more than I need, I'll take a calculated risk and open my own tiny brew pub, if nobody shows up more beer for me and my friends. I think success is mostly good business sense, which involves having a flagship beer to get your name/brand out there. Quality of beer definitely doesn't matter when it comes to running a successful beer business, that said I would absolutely not stand for that ( I would strive for 2-3 phenomenal beers).
To answer the original question, I haven't hit the lottery yet. More realistically maybe just maybe in 20 years once I've saved up more than I need, I'll take a calculated risk and open my own tiny brew pub, if nobody shows up more beer for me and my friends. I think success is mostly good business sense, which involves having a flagship beer to get your name/brand out there. Quality of beer definitely doesn't matter when it comes to running a successful beer business, that said I would absolutely not stand for that ( I would strive for 2-3 phenomenal beers).
bobeer
Fermentation Specalist
Start-up money is a big issue for me as well as help. No one I know well enough to want to go into business with brews or knows anything about it. It would be very difficult to run a sizable brewery big enough to turn a profit by myself. I don't mind the work, paperwork, promoting/sales, etc... but you need at least 2 people to get everything done.
I'm working with a local coffee shop that BOP's and are interested in closing that up and providing their own beer on tap. It's a 5 gallon RIMS system and it would be a very casual thing because the beer wouldn't be their main income. It would be more like, "hey we have beer too if you want a pint or two." I feel this is a good opportunity to get a little payment for my hobby while not going "full commercial brewery" mode while also, perhaps, making a name for myself in the industry. I also wouldn't need any help because it would really be the same as what I do at home and I wouldn't have to tweak any of my recipes. I'd work on my own schedule and only brew a handful of beers to offer at the shop. I wouldn't need any startup money at all because they already have a retail space and the brewing setup. I think it would work well but that's pretty much the only way, at the moment, that I could picture myself going commercial.
I"m all for going nano if you can swing it. If you sit around and let your opportunity pass you by you might get a case of the what-if's later in your life. Might as well make a go at it. Buying from small local places is the trend these days and there's a ton of nano's opening up so you're in good company! Good luck!!
I'm working with a local coffee shop that BOP's and are interested in closing that up and providing their own beer on tap. It's a 5 gallon RIMS system and it would be a very casual thing because the beer wouldn't be their main income. It would be more like, "hey we have beer too if you want a pint or two." I feel this is a good opportunity to get a little payment for my hobby while not going "full commercial brewery" mode while also, perhaps, making a name for myself in the industry. I also wouldn't need any help because it would really be the same as what I do at home and I wouldn't have to tweak any of my recipes. I'd work on my own schedule and only brew a handful of beers to offer at the shop. I wouldn't need any startup money at all because they already have a retail space and the brewing setup. I think it would work well but that's pretty much the only way, at the moment, that I could picture myself going commercial.
I"m all for going nano if you can swing it. If you sit around and let your opportunity pass you by you might get a case of the what-if's later in your life. Might as well make a go at it. Buying from small local places is the trend these days and there's a ton of nano's opening up so you're in good company! Good luck!!
BentBrewer
Well-Known Member
What's stopping me? Apparently very little. We signed the lease on Wednesday, and hope to open the doors in Nov/Dec.
Now stop telling me how bad an idea this was!
Now stop telling me how bad an idea this was!
The whole "you need a mountain of money to start" is a steaming pile of poo.
And it's not 18 hours a day of back breaking work in order to make $7,000k a year. Employees don't make shti because there is such a flood of people trying to get into craft beer that a ton of people offer to do anything... for free. Owners are a very different story.
It's certainly not all rainbows and unicorns... or just sitting around drinking beer... but its a lot different than how a lot of people are describing it
And it's not 18 hours a day of back breaking work in order to make $7,000k a year. Employees don't make shti because there is such a flood of people trying to get into craft beer that a ton of people offer to do anything... for free. Owners are a very different story.
It's certainly not all rainbows and unicorns... or just sitting around drinking beer... but its a lot different than how a lot of people are describing it
What's stopping me? Apparently very little. We signed the lease on Wednesday, and hope to open the doors in Nov/Dec.
Now stop telling me how bad an idea this was!
Congrats - I wish you all the luck in the world!
brewbama
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I make bacon, sausage, and other cuts of cured meats ...but I don't want to open a meat market.
tracyk
BrazoriaBrew
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Because I want to keep it as a hobby, not a job. I enjoy waking up early in the morning watching the sun rise as I fill my mash tun with strike water for my grains, then just sit back with a cup or two of coffee and listen to the birds chirp, the woodpecker pounding away on a tree, and the neighbors cat coming over for a treat. Very relaxing!!!
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