Most Profitable

[BillmeyerBrewing]

Well I plan to start a brewery as soon as i get done with business school, or sooner depending on what happens. It seems that finding info on small scale setups are some what difficult although not impossible. I was just wondering what your thoughts are about the most profitable small scale setup would be? I am thinking 7-15 bbl to start out, but I am having issues on all the odds and ends of sizes. Any info would be of great help.

Thanks,

Billmeyer Brewing

 

[milesvdustin]

You must have a large amount of disposable income! But really, are you experienced in homebrewing? You need some unique recipes to start a brewery, as well as more help than this forum can provide. Check out probrewer and like forums, they can better guide you. Hope that helps!

 

[pompeiisneaks]

I often dream of buying a system from: http://www.nabrewing.com/ they have 3.5 to 7 even higher level bbl systems, etc.

 

[bosox]

If you are just getting into brewing, I would hold off on the bigger scale stuff, and just get yourself a basic set-up where you can brew normal 5 gallon batches for a while first.

Brewing is fun, but it can be tedious, trying to create your own recipes, tweaking tastes, accidents, etc. They are all part of the fun and madness of homebrewing, but if you jump into this head first without a pretty significant amount of experience, you'll end up with thousands of dollars in equipment and not a lot of information.

 

[BillmeyerBrewing]

I have been brewing for a while, what i am looking for is info for the future more so than right now so i can start using a similar setups while finalizing my recipes.

 

[Wayne1]

This should help

Guide to starting your own brewery

Table of contents

 

[JonK331]

The economies of scale concept dictates that the more quantity you make, the lower the cost and the more profit there will be. But you should know that from business school right Actually selling larger quantities is another story all together. I would recommend getting something you can grow into but not so big that you will not be able to sell your product.

 

[remilard]

Well I plan to start a brewery as soon as i get done with business school, or sooner depending on what happens. It seems that finding info on small scale setups are some what difficult although not impossible. I was just wondering what your thoughts are about the most profitable small scale setup would be? I am thinking 7-15 bbl to start out, but I am having issues on all the odds and ends of sizes. Any info would be of great help.

Thanks,

Billmeyer Brewing

At least 30 bbl to start. You need to be able to brew once a week when you are starting out because beer doesn't sell itself. If you do well and can start to hire some additional employees and brew around the clock that 30 bbl brewery is good for a moderate size regional brewery.

 

[HoyaSaxa]

Not trying to be a wet blanket, but brewing the beer is probably the absolute easiest parts of actually starting a commercial brewing operation. Finding a way to license, bottle, sell, distribute, and manage your business operations will be significantly more challenging. Not many small brewers are profitable, and typically require an adjacent business (brew-pub/restaurant, etc) to sustain the brewing operations while sales and distribution channels are built.

I would think long and hard about your differentiation and distribution strategy. As I'm sure you've learned in B-school utilizing Porter's 5-forces analysis, the micro-brew industry is not an attractive one. Competition is high, buyer power is very strong, suppliers have you on a tight leash, and there are virtually no barriers to entry, which is a recipe for a no/low margin business.

That said, best of luck and I hope you let us know how it goes.

 

[Revvy]

You might find more helpful info and discussions here. http://probrewer.com/ that is the HBT for professional brewers....Although many may dream on here, to different levels of realism, few will actually do it on this site.

 

[Phunhog]

Have you considered the nanobrewery concept? I feel it is a great way to test the waters and your brewing skill without a lot of risk. I am in the process of starting one ,and granted I won't be quitting my day job, it will offer me a chance to see if my beers will sell before investing 200K+. I have been following a local startup brewery and I have to hand it to those guys. They are going with a 15 bbl system and hiring a professional brewer. Best case scenario though is that it will be years until they are profitable. I think if you are starting a brewery to make money......well there are much better ways to do that. Anyways.........here is my FB page http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Two-Trees-Brewing-Co/102323289804018

 

[pdxal]

This should help

Guide to starting your own brewery

Table of contents

+1,000,000.
Read/research as much as possible, and have financing lined up for >$500,000. Expect to lose money for at least 2 years before turning profit.
A production brewery probably has more potential and less downside than a brewpub, but is a tough market to enter.
Good luck.

 

[BillmeyerBrewing]

Not trying to be a wet blanket, but brewing the beer is probably the absolute easiest parts of actually starting a commercial brewing operation. Finding a way to license, bottle, sell, distribute, and manage your business operations will be significantly more challenging. Not many small brewers are profitable, and typically require an adjacent business (brew-pub/restaurant, etc) to sustain the brewing operations while sales and distribution channels are built.

I would think long and hard about your differentiation and distribution strategy. As I'm sure you've learned in B-school utilizing Porter's 5-forces analysis, the micro-brew industry is not an attractive one. Competition is high, buyer power is very strong, suppliers have you on a tight leash, and there are virtually no barriers to entry, which is a recipe for a no/low margin business.

That said, best of luck and I hope you let us know how it goes.

As far as distribution in Wisconsin you can self-distribute, and that is what i plan on doing. Well at least at first.

 

[samc]

Private label, wholesale, bottling, retail? How many different kinds of beer? Lots to think about before figuring system size. How can you figure what the most profitable set up is if you don't know your selling prices and volumes? If you have a large influx of orders at low margins with too small a system you'd be dead before you really got going. Been through all this in a non food business and I just winged it for a long time with good success. Not a great strategy however to pursue.

 

[snevey]

Do you even know how to boil that much wort? Cool it? Where are you getting your yeast from? Are you prepared to make yeast starters in the gallons? How do you plan to bottle? Make labels? Where to purchase all these supplies from? And I believe these are the SMALL questions that need answered...