Nano Brewery anyone???

blackmarket brewery in california is inside of an industrial unit mixed in with a bunch of automotive type buisnesses. he has a 15bbl system inside their and makes some great beer, its just a weird location.

 

we already have the beer garden with twenty handles. and we still have room in our building. we are looking for a nano brewer to come in on a mutually advantageous basis. Open to ideas. Steve 509 860 1446

 

I have done some reading in the last few days, and the majority of states allow self distribution of home brew. Meaning you can brew ad sell all you'd like as long as the product is made and distributed from the same location. If anyone is anywhere near the eastern panhandle of WV, or up in State College PA let me know, we can talk more.

 

Jeremy,

I grew up in Inwood and now live in Shepherdstown,WV. I've been looking at doing something locally to get started. The good thing about Shepherdstown is their all about local food and beer.

Nick

 

I am a runner and Gilligans was just off the Burke Gilman running path here in Seattle. It is a great space that hosts people with hobbies. The person there now does woodworking. I always cam by and saw people with Growlers grabbing some brew.

I am just about to make a pump purchase. Man SS fittings are expensive.

~Diz

 

There is an article in the Harrisburg Patriot News where a nano brewery is opening up in Camp Hill, PA. I saw a post from someone from Camp Hill near the beginnig of this thread.

 

Ha! I grew up in that house.. it was sold to them by my parents

 

In today's Sunday Edition of the Patriot News? I read the whole thing and must have missed it. What section?

 

It was sometime in August. A guy I work with cut it out and brougt it into me. It was mostly about homebrewing in central PA, but discussed the local microbreweries. It was a good article. Took up several pages.

 

A few of the nano scale brewery guys have come to club meetings to discuss their efforts. While turning your system into a money maker is a dream of most people, it doesn't always work out that way and there is a ton of work to it. I forgot the exact amounts but permits, business licenses and all the tax stuff really adds up (20k+?) as well as the time to navigate it all. 18 months is the number that sticks out but I may be a little off. Everybody was extremely nice and willing to share there experiences but also said how they kept their day jobs.

Foggy noggin - Brews on the weekends with his homebrew system and has to do many batches to keep up with demand (6/day?)

http://www.foggynogginbrewing.com/


192 gave us a tour of his brew shed. Has a slightly larger setup and does tastings out of his house.
http://192brewing.com/


Airways started out (and may still be on) a B3 system. I'd heard about this guy and was in the hood (literally) and stopped by. We chatted for over an hour until SWMBO threatened to leave me there.
http://airwaysbrewing.com/


If you're really interested in starting something up, talk to some people and see if they don't scare you out of it. And as someone already mentioned, you must scale up. I know it think it's attractive when I can make beers for $0.25/pint but then I remember I just did it with free labor. If I'm going to spend that much time making a batch, I want to yield as much as I can.

Oh and you'll need sankes because most bars don't take cornies.

 

I had the same issue while reading that. Couldn't stop thinking, "Hey I could do that!"

 

This is one of the original threads that got me thinking about opening my own nanobrewery. It has been a couple of years and up until a few months ago I was really excited about the nano concept. I did a ton of research and talked to some licensed nanobrewers. It became pretty apparent though that nano's as a business model is a break even proposition and that you need to have some sort of "end game" in mind. The successful nano's aren't staying small...they are expanding into being full fledged micros. That is the beauty of nanobreweries...the ability to start small and turn it into something bigger. My problem was that my city wouldn't let my use my detached garage as the brewery ala Healdsburg, Old Hangtown, Chappell, etc....An attempted zoning variance would cost several thousand dollars. I also wasn't looking for a career change or even a side business. As cheesy as it may sound I just wanted to get the beer to the people!!
Anyways.....here is my point. I do have a nanobrewery!! I just call it a non-commerical nanobrewery. I brew beer, pour at beer festivals, sell t-shirts, donate brewing sessions for charity auctions, etc... I do everything EXCEPT sell beer. I think in so many ways it is easier. No paperwork, licensing, taxes, zoning laws, stress, rent etc....I have lots of friends who come by for growlers. They know I don't charge for the beer but they still feel obligated to pay me back. They have bought me lunch, given me gift cards, help with brewery maintence, and occasionally left a "funny piece of paper" on my workbench. I think it is awesome what the "professional" nanobrewers are achieving and maybe someday I will join them. But for right now I am pretty happy being a "non-commercial nanobrewer" Cheers!!

 

Hello everyone,

The nano brewery idea has been something I have been kicking around for sometime. If anyone has any contacts who have actually tried this I would love to talk with them to find about their and experiences and how they would recommend to proceed in getting something like this setup. Additionally, I am considering doing this in Chicago and welcome any information on local laws concerning this topic.

PM me anytime...TubBrewer