Professional meeting today...what should I ask?

[Zabuza]

So I was lucky enough to get a personalized your set up with some of the brewmasters and executives at St. Arnold's brewery here in Houston and I was wondering if you guys could give some advice about what questions I should ask. I'm basically a homebrewer that has bought a nice pilot batch/small scale brewing system (a MoreBeer brew sculpture) and I'm engaging in the long and arduous process of getting ready to try professional brewing. I'd like to have some halfway intelligent questions to ask these people at the meeting and I was wondering if anyone could give some advice. So far I can think of asking them about yeast management (maintaining purity and health, use of nutrient, storage, etc.) and how they achieve batch consistency (like what they specifically do to ensure each batch of lawnmower ale tastes the same, how do they scale up from their Sabco pilot batch system to a full-scale batch, etc.), but I'm sort of blanking on anything else to ask.

Soooo...what would you ask the brewmasters/execs/owner of a major brewing corporation if you had a chance?

 

[hotwatermusic]

I'd wonder about allocation of man hours. Even if it's a one man operation. Obviously you need good beer, but at some point you have to market that beer, sell the beer, keep accurate books, gather useful feedback from your target consumer etc. They may have an idea of some useful ways to focus your energy at start up that might not be so obvious... I would probably ask if the; make an accurate estimate of costs for materials then double it is a general practice. Also how does one go about developing a production schedule to merry demands at first...and later. Good luck!

 

[hotwatermusic]

Meet not merry...oops

 

[Hamaki]

IAs mentioned, marketing, customer satisfaction and finances probably aren't at the top of the list for most home brewers thinking of going pro. There may be other factors as well, such as locating and/or building an appropriate brewery; hiring, training & managing personnel; how big do you need to be to get off the ground and what are realistic expectations for time to start turning a profit.

They probably know of other aspects of the business that did not occur to them as home brewers. Ask them what questions you should be asking them. Good luck!

 

[clockwise]

If you are asking randoms on a forum what questions to ask you are already doomed. Drawing a blank means you are just out of your element or over your head. How can you not know what questions to ask? We don't know what you don't know and want to know, so how could we tell you? Silly logic....

That totally reminds me of that Rumsfeld quote ..... lol

Stick to you day job and brew for fun. If truly interested you should probably just try to land a job at a brewery to learn the ropes, see firsthand the to-do's and not-to-do's.

 

[ThunderpantsBrewing]

If you are asking randoms on a forum what questions to ask you are already doomed. Drawing a blank means you are just out of your element or over your head. How can you not know what questions to ask? We don't know what you don't know and want to know, so how could we tell you? Silly logic....

That totally reminds me of that Rumsfeld quote ..... lol

Stick to you day job and brew for fun. If truly interested you should probably just try to land a job at a brewery to learn the ropes, see firsthand the to-do's and not-to-do's.

He was asking for questions not opinions on his personal goals.

 

[m00ps]

I've met with a few brewers opening breweries and I had a list of questions:

- Do you have a house yeast? How do you store and propogate your yeast

- what is your favorite hop? hop combination for an IPA?

- what characteristics do you think make the best Saison? best IPA (my fav styles)

- how do you select which grains and hops to buy?

- do you think non-domestic malts are worth the extra price?

- do you have a small pilot system?

- how do you guys usually formulate a recipe? is it based on the desire to create a certain style? or a certain flavor? or use a special ingredient?

thats all i can remember now

 

[BreezyBrew]

I'd ask about water and wastewater management. It takes 7 gallons of water to make 1 gallon of beer so I'd think this becomes important on a large scale.

 

[JohnSand]

And how much they turn over for a given size system.
You might do well to ask what they wish someone had told them when they started.
I suggest that afterward, you read all of the available stories (Lagunitas, Dogfish, Sierra Nevada etc) of craft breweries.
I wish you well, please keep us posted.

 

[atoughram]

If it were me, I'd ask about the regulatory stuff. What licenses, permits, elected officials, etc, do I need to buy to brew beer for profit.

 

[JohnSand]

I wonder how it went? The title was "meeting today", over a week ago. I realize that my reply was late, but I still find the discussion interesting.