Are there any brewpubs that use homebrew size equipment

[YNOT2K]

Epic Ales in Seattle. One man operation - 10 gallons at a time...

Serves samples from a two tap keezer with corney kegs.

Cody is a cool dude. Great beer too.

 

[Grinder12000]

There is a tap room in Iowa that has a 10G system - 3 batches a day and the place is packed, like a cult! - I have the address at work!! I'll post it tomorrow

 

[JBrady]

Distribution is a state by state thing. If you learned about it from Beer Wars, you were duped into believing it was nation wide.

yep thats where I learned it from

 

[freakshow10mm]

Problem with most brewpubs is it's brewery and restaurant combined. You definitely make your money on beer sales. I've been in restaurant management and it's tough. It takes a certain personality to run a profitable restaurant. In brewpubs, generally the food profit covers those employees and draws your clients. The net profit is generated by the beer sales.

 

[Airborneguy]

yep thats where I learned it from

Yeah she made it seem like a nationwide thing. The rules wary widely. Some are borderline crazy. Take a look at Texas, and even beer-friendly Colorado where they feel the need to protect liquor stores at the expense of gas stations for some reason.

Some places allow self-distribution up to a certain about, but require larger producers to have a distributor.

It's actually interesting to look into some of the state alcohol laws.

 

[skeeordye11]

There's a microbrewery (nanobrewery?) in my area that just has a 2BBL system and no restaurant. Ballsy dudes to say the least.

 

[remilard]

I've been flirting with the idea of a brewery co-op and subsequently looking at sizing equipment. The farmer/homebrewer in me says to keep the brewing equipment small and invest more in fermenters, BUT the savy business person in me leans towards the larger (7 bbl) size to cut labor and ensure more uniformity per batch. Also, the cost of a 3 bbl system and the extra for a 7 bbl is fairly small. Just my 2 cents...

For a packaging brewery 7 is very small. It takes much more time to sell beer than to make it. If you are doing the selling too, start with a brew length that lets you brew once a week.

 

[maida7]

I've been flirting with the idea of a brewery co-op and subsequently looking at sizing equipment. The farmer/homebrewer in me says to keep the brewing equipment small and invest more in fermenters, BUT the savy business person in me leans towards the larger (7 bbl) size to cut labor and ensure more uniformity per batch. Also, the cost of a 3 bbl system and the extra for a 7 bbl is fairly small. Just my 2 cents...

How are you going to sell your beer? If you selling it in kegs then you will need to make a whole lot because the margins are low. 7 BBL would be kinda small. a 10 or 20 BBL system would make much more sense.

If you are strictly selling by the glass then you could get away with a smaller system because the margins are much better. A 3 bbl might work. A 7bbl would save you tons of time. In this scenario you's also need to manage a bar.

 

[matthendry]

There are many Nanobreweries using high end homebrew equipment some of these startups post on Homebrew talk in the DIY section .

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/

http://hessbrewing.blogspot.com/2009/11/nanobreweries-in-usa.html

 

[Revvy]

Yes, I've posted about it here. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f5/smallest-brewpub-202767/#post2369631

They have a couple conicals that I never see filled, but mostly buckets and carboys, though they do a few larger batches. But most of them are 5-10 gallon batches, that when they are gone, they're gone.

 

[-Dan-]

Well I'm sure there are quite a few; i.e. Cocoa Beach Brewing Co, Oysterhouse in Asheville, NC, etc.

 

[MVKTR2]

Worth Brewing in IA (featured on basicbrewing & brewingtv) and The Keg & Barrel in Hattiesburg MS are the 2 that came to my mind.

Both have fairly good but very different reasons for not brewing 'big'. Worth's situation is an easy one to figure, they're located in a town of less than 2500 people I believe. TK&B's situation is more due to legal issues and resulting structure limitations due to those legal issues. K&B was an operating pub which decided to add in-house product, thus they stayed small with a self-built sabco type system. In MS any beer brewed in batches of larger than a certain size (either 50 or 100 gallons I can't recall) have to be served from serving tanks not kegs. FYI the law was written essentially by the gaming industry for their purposes and that's just one part to keep down the competition.

Thus Worth has little need for even a 3.5 bbl system though I'm sure it would be a nice luxury. TK&B has other hurdles which aren't easily traversed due to their facility, a very large old home. Plus the in-house ales are only a small part of what they sell with about 60 taps. As with most things in life, one size rarely fits all.

My dream is to own/run something along the lines of Worth's model only in a slightly larger town and have it also be a pizza joint. I like Worth's non-bar feel, sort of family like. The profit margins are off the charts for pub brewed biers vs packaging breweries.

Schlante & Roll Tide,
Phillip

 

[JBrady]

Worth Brewing in IA (featured on basicbrewing & brewingtv) and The Keg & Barrel in Hattiesburg MS are the 2 that came to my mind.

I have a buddy that lives in Hattiesburg that told me about the Keg & Barrel, I just remembered that he told me about that place when I read your post.

 

[Lumberg1]

I would love to own brew pub/micro brewery someday! But where I live, which is in alabama, it's nearly impossible. Our state law says that to have a brewery or brew pub it has to be in a historic building that brewed beer for sales prior to prohibition. Last time I checked there were only 3 such buildings left in the state and 2 of them are breweries.

Other states have it so much better then Alabama. Maybe one day soon we can get that changed. If not I may have to move in the near future!

 

[agroff383]

I just have to applaud the guys out there doing 5 or 10 gallon batches. Me and my regular crew of 6 guys, 7 with me...we can usually kick a 5 gallon corney in a day of football on Sunday. Granted that would be a 4% abv pale ale or porter, and it isn't exactly 5 gallons, but you would have to be brewing 24/7 even on a 10 gallon system, I don't care how small the pub is.

Your time is worth money, and brewing 3 beers a day 5 days a week! That's nuts! It just doesn't make business sense. But the guys out there are doing it and I am just saying how it shouldn't work. I would want at least a 3 BBL system, I would want nothing more than to be able to have a brewpub someday, and I read these threads any time they come up just to soak in the info as much as possible.

 

[MVKTR2]

I would love to own brew pub/micro brewery someday! But where I live, which is in alabama, it's nearly impossible. Our state law says that to have a brewery or brew pub it has to be in a historic building that brewed beer for sales prior to prohibition. Last time I checked there were only 3 such buildings left in the state and 2 of them are breweries.

Other states have it so much better then Alabama. Maybe one day soon we can get that changed. If not I may have to move in the near future!

Yea I wouldn't open a Pub in MS (or AL for that matter) unless someone gave it too me. It's simply archaic, backwards, and pure stupid. It's one of the reasons I've become more libertarian, if not outright disgusted with government at all levels. As soon as I'm done with school and my wife completes her doctorate I have a plan! My plan/hope is in 10 or 12 years when that's done and she's rolling in the money to open a small brewpub as described above. Something that won't SINK us with debt, be too big a struggle to keep afloat as a start-up, etc.

Schlante,
Phillip

 

[RegionalChaos]

I hear ya, Floridas licensing is pretty cheap on the brewpub/resturant side. I would just hate to have to deal with the ****ty distribution structure that our country has on the packaging side of brewing.

Running a brew pub, or a small tap house seems like it could be more profitable then a distributing brewery, mainly because there is no middle man. All the mark up is your own. I totally agree that our distribution system for this stuff is pretty messed up..

 

[remilard]

Running a brew pub, or a small tap house seems like it could be more profitable then a distributing brewery, mainly because there is no middle man. All the mark up is your own. I totally agree that our distribution system for this stuff is pretty messed up..

On a fixed small scale, sure. The problem with brewpubs is that they are restaurants first and breweries last.

Package breweries can expand more easily than brewpubs (which would require a second location, and most of the multi site brewpubs aren't that well regarded).

Of course one well traveled option is to start with the pub, and then open the package brewery once you have built the brand/hype.

 

[D_Struct]

Visited a place in Florence SC last Sunday called "Southern Hops". They have a 7-bbl Specific system, but the brewer still has his homebrew set-up for test batches. Pretty neat.

M_C

Can't wait to check out Southern Hops next time I'm in Florence! My wife's family lives there, and I've been hearing good things about it, so far.

 

[D_Struct]

I just have to applaud the guys out there doing 5 or 10 gallon batches. Me and my regular crew of 6 guys, 7 with me...we can usually kick a 5 gallon corney in a day of football on Sunday. Granted that would be a 4% abv pale ale or porter, and it isn't exactly 5 gallons, but you would have to be brewing 24/7 even on a 10 gallon system, I don't care how small the pub is.

Yeah. I'm amazed by the low-capacity brew pubs. I mean, 5 gallons = 40 pints. That wouldn't last long at all with any regular business. You'd have to brew constantly.

 

[cheier]

Interesting to see how small you can go as a brewery/brewpub. Of course, Sam managed at DFH, but some folks in this thread already made a good point about what it means to be brewing on a small system. Regardless how big the system is, it is still going to take about the same amount of time to brew.

Here in Alberta, being able to start a brewpub at less than 5HL (4.3 BBL) is not licensable. You have to have tanks at a minimum 5HL and an annual production of 2500HL (2137 BBL) with a maximum of 10,000HL (8547 BBL). For breweries, it is twice the minimum with no maximum. In other words, if you want to brew here in Alberta, you'd better be serious about it.

Another nice thing we have here is that breweries within Alberta can self distribute as well. Breweries selling into Alberta have to go through the only distributor in the province.