I went "pro" - What it actually takes to do so

[AVLbrewing]

That's almost an impossible question to answer because there are SO many factors that come into play...

What will your space cost you? Our space is INSANELY cheap... about $450 a month utlities included...

BUT... we needed to replace a ton of our equipment... instead of the amazing stand my partner fabricated, we needed to buy new burners and stands that ran us over $2k all in.

so... again... it's going to vary dramatically by what your individual town's inspectors are going to let fly.

That said... I would be thinking tens of thousands instead of tens of hundreds.

You could probably swing it for $20k if you got really lucky.

Thanks, that's exactly the sort of answer I was hoping for. $20k sounds completely reasonable, and hopefully in a few years I'll be posting a similar thread about a nano brewery in NC!

Good luck and I'm looking forward to your future insight!

 

[Nightshade]

Well he said they would be making about $400 a month to split between 3 guys. I bet if you move across country and work for $100 a month with no benifits they might hire you

Some things are worth the gamble. I have played this game before and made crazy money with high risks such as this, I have also seen the lows that come with high risks...which is where I am at right now due to economy and my last risk being a failed company

 

[Cape Brewing]

On the tasting room... yes, we have spoken with our town's board of selectmen and they've "unofficially" approved us having a tasting room. We have to fill out another pile of forms and get an actual liquor license just like a regular bar. The nice thing is that in Massachusetts, because we have a Farmer-Brewer license, our liquor license doesn't count against the town quota so we are almost a rubber stamp approval, for about a $100 filing fee, instead of paying $10k for a liquor license off an existing bar owner.

And yeah... we are going to sell growlers out of the brewery..

but..

we all have full time jobs and families so it ain't like the brewery is going to be open every day from noon to 10PM. We'll sell them when we can and see what we can make.

We haven't filled out any of that paperwork yet only because we want to get up, running, get our release parties behind us, get our beers into normal rotations ar bars and then worry about growlers. That said, i have the paperwork on my counter at home and will likely get to a large chunk of this weekend (after brewing all day Saturday that is.). Luckily we can leverage a ton of our TTB paperwork for the Pourer's license.

 

[Brewmech]

Are you selling quarter bbl or 6ers for the most part?

 

[Cape Brewing]

Are you selling quarter bbl or 6ers for the most part?

ALL 1/6ths...

All of the bars we've spoken too really prefer the 1/6th kegs so they can rotate beers really often. We've been told that we have a dedicated tap at a pretty nice beer bar in Boston and doing 1/6th kegs will allow us, again, to rotate a couple of our beers on that line with some regularity.

 

[BBL_Brewer]

Are you using cornys or sankeys?

 

[Cape Brewing]

Sankes... I don't know of any bars that will accept a corny

 

[BBL_Brewer]

I had that feeling, but had to ask.

 

[Cape Brewing]

And the market for used sankes is extremely tight so I wouldn't simply assume, "meh, I'll grab a pile used for cheap".

We went with 65 new 1/6th sankes... and the ones we bought have the entire spear simply unscrew so we can get in and "manually" clean and sanitize them without either having to have automated keg cleaning equipment or it being a massive PITA

 

[BBL_Brewer]

What do they run? I assume you probably got a bulk discount buying that many, but ballpark?

 

[Cape Brewing]

What do they run? I assume you probably got a bulk discount buying that many, but ballpark?

About $80 a whack.

(now you know why breweries get so pissed about homebrewer's simply keeping a keg and making a keggle. It's a huge money loser for breweries)

 

[BBL_Brewer]

Ouch. That's about what used 1/2 bbls go for, if you can find them.

 

[BBL_Brewer]

Oh yea, back to the fermenters. Are you using 55 gallon drums? I was thinking about using 55 gallon poly drums. How are you controlling temps? Sorry about all the questions, you had to know they were comming.

 

[bob1852]

Cool write up Cape. It's like the other nano write ups, with a twist.

 

[Cape Brewing]

We are actually using 55 gallon "wine fermenters"... they are tall, thin, 55 gallon stainless steel fermenters (not conicals since conicals are stupid... but that's a debate for another thread)...

We are temp controlling them by chilled glycol copper coils that we wrapped the fermenters in. We have them hooked up to PIDs and pumps to control fermentation to the degree (you can even watch out temps on our website via webcam!! how exciting is THAT?!?!... "65 degrees... still 65 degrees... WHUP!!... no... still 65 degrees... '

 

[Cape Brewing]

Cool write up Cape. It's like the other nano write ups, with a twist.

thousands of innocent, really nice people, fall victim to senseless violence and ultimately lose their lives every day.

... yet Az_IPA continues to march on unscathed.

There is no God.

 

[Johnnyhitch1]

The link to your sites broken!

 

[Brewmech]

What do you sell the 1/6 barrel kegs to your customers for?

 

[kpr121]

great post! Good luck! Subscribed to live vicariously through you.

 

[integra93ls]

Interesting read

 

[NewJersey]

this thread has me so excited to brew tomorrow!
i'm gonna pretend i'm a business!
i work at a bar here in NJ, anyone have any clue as to laws regarding me giving beer to the bar to sell???
(i just think it would be cool to have my beer on tap)

 

[Cape Brewing]

this thread has me so excited to brew tomorrow!
i'm gonna pretend i'm a business!
i work at a bar here in NJ, anyone have any clue as to laws regarding me giving beer to the bar to sell???
(i just think it would be cool to have my beer on tap)

Go back and read post # 1.

Thats what you need to do.

 

[LakesideBrewing]

We've been told that we have a dedicated tap at a pretty nice beer bar in Boston...

What bar? I'd like to go and try your beer! Good luck, man!

-Mike

 

[shoreman]

Nice story man and its cool to see that you've been brewing for 20 years. You guys have the perfect attitude for this biz and starting super small like that is key-good luck and let us know where your beer will be - Publik house? I'm going in to Boston soon and will swing by - hopefully it's that saison on tap.

 

[mjdonnelly68]

Great write up - good luck with your nano!

 

[Cape Brewing]

Nice story man and its cool to see that you've been brewing for 20 years. You guys have the perfect attitude for this biz and starting super small like that is key-good luck and let us know where your beer will be - Publik house? I'm going in to Boston soon and will swing by - hopefully it's that saison on tap.

The only place we will be on tap in Boston for the ahort term is Kinsale in Govt Cemter/ Financial district.

 

[Chia]

the only brew pub in our city just went out of business for failure to pay taxes. they have a 7bbl system and i know a few guys thinking of picking up the equipment. the building is too far gone, so i am going to email then your post! thanks!

 

[Mcbobs]

This is all very interesting to read. Really gets the juices flowing and makes me wonder what it would take to get a small startup brewery going here in Manhattan Kansas. Tallgrass brewery is really knocking it out of the park and to be able to be as successful as you are right now makes me want to start a brewery also!

 

[shoreman]

The only place we will be on tap in Boston for the ahort term is Kinsale in Govt Cemter/ Financial district.

Cool I know where that is will check it out

 

[SCBrewster]

Maybe somebody asked this already and I didn't read the whole thread but why go through all of that work to do a nano brewery where you said you knew you would barely break even?