Sell Yourself as a Microbrewery

[Bobby_M]

The worst thing is that you'll report that income as self employed and most of it vanishes.

 

[TerapinChef]

Here's a bit of a twist for you...I'm an avid homebrewer and happen to work in a restaurant. We are actually located in an old mansion, and I've often thought about how nice it would be to use one of the old rooms in the basement as a lagering cellar. What would be the difficulty in the restaurant obtaining a brewpub permit, having our existing equipment inspected, and using the facilities to brew on a small scale level? At our busiest times, it would be a max of 10G/week of any brew, and if more than one were kept on tap, it really wouldn't require that much of my time to brew it for them...the only investment for them (that I can think of from reading this thread) would be the brewpub licence, a few cornies, and my time/ingredients. Anyone with any knowledge of the brewpub game feel free to chime in here....

 

[Sir Humpsalot]

Here's a bit of a twist for you...I'm an avid homebrewer and happen to work in a restaurant. We are actually located in an old mansion, and I've often thought about how nice it would be to use one of the old rooms in the basement as a lagering cellar. What would be the difficulty in the restaurant obtaining a brewpub permit, having our existing equipment inspected, and using the facilities to brew on a small scale level? At our busiest times, it would be a max of 10G/week of any brew, and if more than one were kept on tap, it really wouldn't require that much of my time to brew it for them...the only investment for them (that I can think of from reading this thread) would be the brewpub licence, a few cornies, and my time/ingredients. Anyone with any knowledge of the brewpub game feel free to chime in here....

If your profit from brewing is less than a half a million, I believe the so-called "per barrel" tax is a flat $500 as far as the Fed is concerned. That's basically a "subsidy" (actually a tax break) for small micro-breweries. And of course, there may be state taxes to consider.

 

[MNBugeater]

I live in a very small community. Less than 1000 people. I am know around town as a homebrewer and the topic of providing my homebrew on tap in 1 of the 2 restaurants in town has come up.

In fact the similar concept posted by the OP is the idea i had looked into.

Most of the hurdles are just that...red tape that you can get over. Not AROUND..but over. Quite legally. You can indeed sell a food product to a restaurant and they can prepare and serve the final product. i.e. You sell them wort, unfermented, etc and they complete the preparation an serve. So far so good.

Here is the rub as mentioned in earlier posts. Yes, as a food (wort) seller you would need to have your entire setup inspected by the health department and receive a food inspection certification along with all the NSF approvals for the facility that you prepare food (wort) in. The kicker..this CANNOT be in your home. Not only would i have to create a separate building to do this, but it more than likely cannot be on my residential property as it is zoned residential, not commercial.

This is pretty much where my "oh this might be fun" idea stopped. Even though nearly every time i frequent the ONE restaurant in town the owner asks me to bring in a keg and hell GIVE away just so i can have my beer available when i come in...

 

[BrianTheBrewer]

After reading all of your posts I have learned a bunch tonight, thank you.

As for my own opinion, I look at it like this...
You want to sell your beer or own your own brewpub???
Find some rich F##K that will invest in you and you better be able to sell.

 

[jmancuso]

Bringing back an old thread, just wondering if you ever pursued this further?

 

[PanzerBanana]

Um. That's not legal.

 

[HexKrak]

Actually Panzer it's been done. I remember a story recently I saw about a guy who was running a sub-micro-brewery out of some space in the back of a coffee shop. I think in the story the brewer owned the coffee shop, but never the less it shows that it's possible if you can convince the bar/restaurant owner to give it a go. Of course you'd have to fill out all the TTB stuff, and get it approved, and probably fork over the licencing cost or work it out in a detailed contract with the business owner. You'd also have to brew on premises amongst other complications. I've been thinking about chatting up the bar owners that I'm acquainted with and seeing about getting some business going.

 

[Revvy]

Actually Panzer it's been done. I remember a story recently I saw about a guy who was running a sub-micro-brewery out of some space in the back of a coffee shop. I think in the story the brewer owned the coffee shop, but never the less it shows that it's possible if you can convince the bar/restaurant owner to give it a go. Of course you'd have to fill out all the TTB stuff, and get it approved, and probably fork over the licencing cost or work it out in a detailed contract with the business owner. You'd also have to brew on premises amongst other complications. I've been thinking about chatting up the bar owners that I'm acquainted with and seeing about getting some business going.

You're talking about my write up and pictures about Sue's in Michigan aren't you?

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f5/smallest-brewpub-202767/

 

[Sparky]

Thanks for the great thread. Ironically, the solution is there, you just don't realize it. Off to finish up the business plan. MooHoooHaHa

 

[Crinkle]

-you can't make the wort in your home and sell it - not legal by any means
-when applying for the brewpub license, you have to give a detailed description and layout of the brewery, and what equipment is used.
-you have to keep detailed logs of the grains you use as compaired to the beer sold, so they can determine what to tax you.
-in short this is a decent plan, but must be done at another location, best option is to work with the eatery and set up shop in the same facility. A lot less hoops to jump through, but a harder sell too.
Good luck, if you figure it out, let me know!

 

[payton34]

i think the health department would like to inspect any place that makes an edible or drinkable product that is for sale to the public

 

[dvdanny]

Being under-employed, I've just been toying around with crazy thoughts lately. Here's one.

For Illinois you would need:
Equipment to brew 30 gallon batches
A couple of kegs.
A kegerator
A working vehicle

Go to a restaurant who is already serving alcohol, Bring many homebrews. Get in touch with the owner. They already pay $500 a year for their liquor license. Tell them that if they pay the additional $550 to get a brewpub license, you will bring over and install a working kegerator.

Once a week, or once a month, depending on how often you are needed, you brew at home, then deliver the cooled wort to their premises where you pitch the yeast and stick it in a closet.

You make one, maybe two "house" beers that are unique just to the restaurant. They can sell 6 packs for another revenue stream.

It costs them a mere $500 a year to serve a unique product that nobody else has. You pitch it to them by saying, "I can create a beer that perfectly accompanies the majority of your dishes... your restaurant's style. I can match it to your clientele, to your regional specialties.

You get paid one dollar per pint... the cost of pretty much any other "import" beer. With 31 gallon batches (1 barrel), that's $310 per night of brewing, plus a quick trip to rack the beer and again to keg it, minus the ingredient cost.

Actually a friend of a friend who happened to own and manage a bar and grill tried one of my beers (the hoppy hefe) and said if we (my friends and I) could get two or three batches of beer that was consistently that good she would like to serve it in her restaurant. And she suggested doing what you listed here (In california the laws are different but she said it was doable).

 

[HexKrak]

You're talking about my write up and pictures about Sue's in Michigan aren't you?

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f5/smallest-brewpub-202767/

Yep, that's the one I was thinking of.

 

[HexKrak]

Actually a friend of a friend who happened to own and manage a bar and grill tried one of my beers (the hoppy hefe) and said if we (my friends and I) could get two or three batches of beer that was consistently that good she would like to serve it in her restaurant. And she suggested doing what you listed here (In california the laws are different but she said it was doable).

My only 2c would be to have a lawyer confirm. It will be worth every penny in the long run. Other than that, Go for it! I sure dream of the day where I could.

 

[Homercidal]

I think you could produce wort at home, if you do it in a detached building, not your residence. You have to have it inspected and maintain that inspection.

There is a little restaurant in a nearby town who basically hired a guy to homebrew at the restaurant. For a small place the cost to get set up was fairly small. They brew each Monday when the place is closed. I can see this happening more if the fermenters and kegs were located on site and the burners and kettles were brought in on brew day.

The actual brewing could be done in a spare room, if there is one. And you have to consider fermentation temps. Real breweries have pretty precise temp controllers. That setup would have to stay on-site during the entire fermentation process.