So am i crazy???...thought of going pro.

[Ashevillain]

You're missing the point.

Atmosphere is important, yes. Beer quality is important, yes. Without those you're only going to get so far.

What ultimately matters is business acumen. Great beer, great atmosphere, mean f*** all if the business plan is poor and the business can't turn a profit (or at least cover costs). The difference between only getting so far and getting absolutely nowhere.

There was a place in my neighborhood that made great beer (atmosphere was mediocre though), but their business administration was so poor that they shuttered after barely a year. Giving their employees a week's warning. And after having not paid rent for nearly half their existence.

This is an aspect that we don't get to see first hand in small breweries. Its so easy to focus on the awesome parts!There is a lot to stay on top of between bills, insurance, permits, inspections, etc. Its absolutely doable, but it takes a full on commitment and a good business plan obviously.

Business plan, good beer, good place, and dedication seem to be a general consensus on what makes a good startup brewery.

I really like the idea of the farmers market, at that level it just looks like a lot of fun. I would love to sell my homebrew if I was making more than I needed to keep my lines flowing.

 

[Mainer]

You're missing the point.

Atmosphere is important, yes. Beer quality is important, yes. Without those you're only going to get so far.

What ultimately matters is business acumen. Great beer, great atmosphere, mean f*** all if the business plan is poor and the business can't turn a profit (or at least cover costs). The difference between only getting so far and getting absolutely nowhere.

There was a place in my neighborhood that made great beer (atmosphere was mediocre though), but their business administration was so poor that they shuttered after barely a year. Giving their employees a week's warning. And after having not paid rent for nearly half their existence.

Along with a business plan, you definitely need a personal finance plan, too. I'd ask the OP, pointedly, what your reserves look like. Are you talking about brewing and selling part-time, or are you looking to quit your day job and jump right in. If the latter, do you have enough in savings to not draw a paycheck for like 2-3 years?

Most startup breweries have to give away a lot of product early on to get their name out there, and they also probably need to sell at or below cost for a while. Is that realistic for you?

 

[Dcpcooks]

I was at a brewery this weekend in Wi. They have been around for 100+ years. The brewer has been there 24 years. They sell about 10,000 bbl's per month on average. They make < 8% profit and run 24/7.

I'm in the middle of a business plan for a brewery w/ a tap room and we're planning to self distribute. I'd estimate your 2 bbl brew house would max out at $145,000 in gross revenue. That's brewing once a week ( 2 bbl) and having four beers on tap. So assuming you have a barn to brew in and don't pay rent and you have well water you'd be lucky to not lose money.

It's nearly impossible to work another job and brew consistently. Then you have to factor in just how small a 2 bbl batch really is. If your successful you'll need to brew twice a day four days a week with one day to keg and bottle and one day of cleaning maintenance and prepping the space for the next day. That's 8- 5 bbl fermentors a commercial glycol unit, two bright tanks and a commercial cooler.

Can you set up a successful brewery on a 2 bbl brewhouse? Sure you can pipeworks started that way. They also brewed double batches on 10-12 hour brew days and brewed 8 batches a week. After 3-5 years they are running a 20 bbl brew house and 40 bbl fermentors. They have had to rewrite and scale recipes three different times now.

 

[Coathanger]

There's a ton of good input here. And we can talk all day about our opinions on business vs brew, atmosphere, marketing and man hours required. But to get to the point - OP, you've been brewing for five months.

Don't ever let anyone tell you that you can't do something. But I would definitely keep this idea in the back of your mind - while you refine recipes, build some savings, and explore the homebrew world before taking any actual plunge. There is A LOT to learn, which is half the fun.

The reality is that it's not impossible. If it was, then craft beer wouldn't exist. But I'm putting it out there that 13-14 batches is not a whole lot of experience to go on... not to be a jerk or anything, I'm not saying there's some quantitative value at which you can "go pro," but 5 months in to a homebrewing adventure is a little early to explore producing beer for a living. Just my two cents.

 

[Mainer]

For the record, are we talking Connecticut? Because the CT farm brewery law requires that at least 25% of the hops and barley you brew with in year 1 be grown on premises, and 50% in subsequent years. That's a very tall order for a part-time gig.

 

[marjen]

So TONS of great comments in this thread from people coming from many different angles.

I think maybe my original post kind of missed the mark of what I was looking for, could have been the couple beers I had the night I wrote it

Let me say again I am not quitting my day job, I am not jumping into something without thinking, I am not doing this right now. Its something I am thinking of dipping my toe in down the road and I am looking to take steps to to get there. Or steps to find out it would be a very bad idea.

The first thing and main thing I was looking for is I need to know I can make good beer all the time. I recently changed part of my gear and increased my batch size. This led me to a whole host of issues. I am working to resolve those. But it got me thinking. So I am thinking it makes sense to put a little money into good equipment on the cold side, i.e. conical fermenter (unitank) with proper temp control to really give me the best chance possible to make very good beer. The thinking is if I can replicate the process on a small scale it would make moving up easier as the process would be the same, just different size tank. Making this small investment would be a much smarter approach than trying to jump from 5 gallon batches and carboys to 2 bbl and conicals etc. It would also really put my abilities on the line because if I can't make good beer with very good equipment then there is no future in this anyway.

My thought was to take the next year to really work on that side of the equation, brew a lot, build recipes, work on consistency, work on the process of brewing and troubleshooting and if a year from now I can brew the same recipes with the same results over and over then I can take the next step.

The other other part of my original post was just trying to lay out a business plan very early. Like others here have said, if you dont have a very solid plan the rest does not matter, you will fail. My plan would be to start small, hit farmers markets, get the word out via social media, etc to see what the reception would be. This would be check point number 2.

IF I made it past the first 2 check points then it would be time to think about the small brewhouse seriously. I feel it takes more than making good beer to be successful, that is where the barn brewery comes in. Finding a scenic setting so that people can go and relax and enjoy the atmosphere. For me something like that is more appealing. Having something like that on your own property also reduces operating cost. And if it fails, again you still have value in the property.

I also feel that keeping it small and selling mostly pours with some take home crowlers/growlers give you the best chance to make some money. Around here the average for pints from a brewery runs from $5-8+ Growlers go for $12-20. This gives you a better chance to make income as opposed to selling kegs to bars or trying to distribute.

One thing, someone brought up the CT farm license. It is brand new, but I have spoken to some of the local breweries that have some working knowledge of its rules and the 25% part actually does not need to be on premises. They really want it in state and my understanding is that even that is not attainable today and they made the requirement a 50 mile radius to get local ingredients. This makes using malt farms in western ma and NY state possible. Only a handful at most are looking to grow malt in CT. There is some hop growing, but not a ton. A lot of the breweries are also basically using local adjucts to meet the criteria. As I said it is a new law, but some smaller breweries were approved in the last year or two with modified existing laws and using the farm brewing license as template before it was actually enacted.

Anyway, I will see how things go, in the mean time, time to get brewing.

 

[Mainer]

One thing, someone brought up the CT farm license. It is brand new, but I have spoken to some of the local breweries that have some working knowledge of its rules and the 25% part actually does not need to be on premises. They really want it in state and my understanding is that even that is not attainable today and they made the requirement a 50 mile radius to get local ingredients. This makes using malt farms in western ma and NY state possible. Only a handful at most are looking to grow malt in CT. There is some hop growing, but not a ton. A lot of the breweries are also basically using local adjucts to meet the criteria. As I said it is a new law, but some smaller breweries were approved in the last year or two with modified existing laws and using the farm brewing license as template before it was actually enacted.

I read the text of the law and it seems to say it needs to be grown on-premises or on a farm owned by the brewery licensee.

The actual text of the law reads: "(5) The farm brewery permittee shall grow on the premises of the farm brewery or on property under the same ownership and control of said permittee or leased by the backer of a farm brewery permit or by said permittee within the farm brewery's principal state an average annual crop equal to not less than twenty-five per cent of the hops and barley used in the manufacture of the farm brewery permittee's beer for the first year of issuance for any such permit and not less than fifty per cent of the hops and barley used in the manufacture of the farm brewery permittee's beer for the second and any subsequent year of issuance for any such permit."

On the other hand, the state's own analysis of the bill reads, "The bill requires permittees to use a certain amount of hops, barley, or other fermentables grown or malted in the state. In the first year of a permit's issuance, a farm brewery manufacturer permittee must use at least 25% of a combination of hops, barley, cereal grains, honey, flowers, or other fermentables grown or malted within the state when brewing his or her beer. The permittee must increase this amount to at least 50% each subsequent year" No mention of an on-premises requirement there.

So maybe you're right. It seems like there's some ambiguity. I'm sure these things will be clarified. As you said, it's a pretty young law right now.

 

[Mainer]

Oh, also, interesting that the above says the ingredients need to be grown *or malted* in state. That would seem to imply that it's okay to use barley that is grown just about anywhere but malted in-state.

 

[oceanic_brew]

Just giving you some personal insight to my job and homebrewing.

I just brewed 11 five gallon batches for a wedding and my bands album release. I personally sat up and served at the album release and built the bar along with the whole dispensing system at the wedding plus bottled, labeled, shrink capped 60 bottles of wine.

There was a massive amount of planning for the wedding, a massive amount of planning and practicing/promotion for the album release plus I work as a lead hand carpenter/cabinet maker at 45 hrs a week starting at 7:00 am every morning.

The whole process from when we started recording the album to when I finished the wedding this weekend was average of about 14 hrs a day work for me and started in September and ended in this past weekend.

I definitely have had moments of such deep anxiety and mental/physical fatigue that I've wondered why I am even doing any of this.

It was a massive pay off and worth it, the feeling of providing music and quality drinks to people (and it was free for everyone btw) was the most rewarding and soul building thing I've ever done.

What I'm trying to get at here is that you cannot keep this up I don't care who you are or how slack your day job is physically, In order for your business to be successful you need to have a plan to eject yourself from your desk job.

Your new business requires you to be energetic and passionate always. If you are so run down that the thrill of providing a quality product/experience to people doesn't break its way through than the bond between you and your customer will be broken.

The hard work is a selling point to the customer, many craft beer drinkers analyze beer by flavor of course but also the blood, sweat, and tears put into the product and business. This isn't a sellable factor if you have nothing left in you.

 

[HopGobbler]

I would love to go pro and move out of IT, the problem that I see is the craft beer market, especially where I live is SO saturated that it would be hard to compete. There is literally 1-3 breweries a month opening here so my fear is that the market is too saturated for me to make any decent money at it. I brew for me and for my family and friends to sample and enjoy, would I love to brew for masses? Sure, but I don't have a half mil of capital to invest in starting my own brewery either, so it is what it is

 

[ericbw]

I think you either explained or hinted at all of that in your original post. There are just a ton of threads or comments on this forum where people want to "go pro" after 2 batches. It's an industry that doesn't make it easy for small start ups. Just like if you had $100 million, you would still have a hard time starting a small bank. The industry, even with farm brewing, has hurdles.

But what you described was buying property with a barn and getting the license, then selling at farmers markets. That hurdle is very low. Even with a 1bbl system, you could probably break even, depending on how well-trafficked the market is and if you can do it year round.

1bbl gets you 60 growlers plus samples. If you fill a growler for $15, you net $900 per batch, then subtract the ingredients (cost of goods sold). Then subtract the cost of your market spot and transportation to the market plus any paid help. Maybe you're ok with breaking even and having fun at this.

Amortize your equipment costs over the life of the equipment and account for licensing, inspections, and maintenance to the property.

When you're regularly selling out of beer at the markets, then it's time to open a tap room for growler fills - not a tasting room, just a place for people to fill a growler on the way home from work on Thursdays and Fridays.

When that is successful and you're routinely getting foot traffic, then you build out your tasting room and open for a few hours Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturday afternoons.

The sale of the actual growlers, pint glasses, and other swag helps to underwrite the sales of the beer and build your brand.

If you have a scenic space, you can also rent it out for private events (weddings, etc.). You work with others in that industry (event planning, wedding planning, catering, etc.) and that adds to your bottom line with little cost.

Fill in the numbers, and that's the (very!) rough outline of a business plan. Each step has a checkpoint where you figure out if it's working. You decide then to stop, continue as-is, or advance. Obviously, you need to drill down into all of these areas and check for feasibility.

I think the problem is not just having a business plan, but also being willing to accept the answers when you come to them. And it might be that you're not profitable, but you're breaking even.

 

[ericbw]

Just giving you some personal insight to my job and homebrewing.

I just brewed 11 five gallon batches for a wedding and my bands album release. I personally sat up and served at the album release and built the bar along with the whole dispensing system at the wedding plus bottled, labeled, shrink capped 60 bottles of wine.

There was a massive amount of planning for the wedding, a massive amount of planning and practicing/promotion for the album release plus I work as a lead hand carpenter/cabinet maker at 45 hrs a week starting at 7:00 am every morning.

The whole process from when we started recording the album to when I finished the wedding this weekend was average of about 14 hrs a day work for me and started in September and ended in this past weekend.

I definitely have had moments of such deep anxiety and mental/physical fatigue that I've wondered why I am even doing any of this.

It was a massive pay off and worth it, the feeling of providing music and quality drinks to people (and it was free for everyone btw) was the most rewarding and soul building thing I've ever done.

What I'm trying to get at here is that you cannot keep this up I don't care who you are or how slack your day job is physically, In order for your business to be successful you need to have a plan to eject yourself from your desk job.

Your new business requires you to be energetic and passionate always. If you are so run down that the thrill of providing a quality product/experience to people doesn't break its way through than the bond between you and your customer will be broken.

The hard work is a selling point to the customer, many craft beer drinkers analyze beer by flavor of course but also the blood, sweat, and tears put into the product and business. This isn't a sellable factor if you have nothing left in you.

I am guessing that 11 5-gallon batches (less than 2 bbls) takes longer to brew and keg than one 2bbl batch or even a 3bbl batch.

An album release party and wedding at the same time?

 

[marjen]

So I got to say something and it might be their beer talking but.....

I made. Trip to my favorite brewery over the weekend. I came back with 4 different beers, beers I have had before and loved. I tried one of each tonight and man I wish I had beer from my 4-5 best batches right now as I honestly feel those were better. At least to me. My wife sampled two of them and she agreed. And anyone who thinks who cares it's your wife, after 20+ years of marriage trust me she tells it like it is, lol. She has told me the last couple batches sucked but also agrees that she got spoiled by the good batches.

That's all.

 

[Murphys_Law]

So I got to say something and it might be their beer talking but.....

I made. Trip to my favorite brewery over the weekend. I came back with 4 different beers, beers I have had before and loved. I tried one of each tonight and man I wish I had beer from my 4-5 best batches right now as I honestly feel those were better. At least to me. My wife sampled two of them and she agreed. And anyone who thinks who cares it's your wife, after 20+ years of marriage trust me she tells it like it is, lol. She has told me the last couple batches sucked but also agrees that she got spoiled by the good batches.

That's all.

Amen to this! My wife of 30 years is all too quick to say I suck when I suck! I seek criticism more than praise, I think. It helps you grow when people are honest. I always tell people I want their real opinion and to not hold back because if they say it's good and its really not then they will keep getting bad beer and have to continue to lie!

 

[MapleGroveAleworks]

So I got to say something and it might be their beer talking but.....

I made. Trip to my favorite brewery over the weekend. I came back with 4 different beers, beers I have had before and loved. I tried one of each tonight and man I wish I had beer from my 4-5 best batches right now as I honestly feel those were better. At least to me. My wife sampled two of them and she agreed. And anyone who thinks who cares it's your wife, after 20+ years of marriage trust me she tells it like it is, lol. She has told me the last couple batches sucked but also agrees that she got spoiled by the good batches.

That's all.

Do you treat your water? Do you measure mash pH? Have you had your beer judged or evaluated by a completely unbiased registered judge? Everyone thinks their beer is the greatest thing ever, just like their kids are cuter than everyone else's kids. I have a strong feeling that after 13 batches your beer isn't as great as you think it is, sorry.

 

[ericbw]

These threads have a typical pattern:

I want to go pro.

It's too hard; the brewing industry is saturated; you don't know about licensing/real estate/marketing, etc.

You need a business plan, not just good beer.

You don't even make good beer, so why bother?

("Do you measure mash pH" is a new one at least!)

 

[Dcpcooks]

These threads have a typical pattern:

I want to go pro.

It's too hard; the brewing industry is saturated; you don't know about licensing/real estate/marketing, etc.

You need a business plan, not just good beer.

You don't even make good beer, so why bother?

("Do you measure mash pH" is a new one at least!)

Lol. Was talking to a veteran brewer of 25 years last weekend. I was asking all sorts of questions about going pro.

Me: Do you have a DO meter?
Him: no I know my beer is still good after 6 months in the keg. Don't need one. But buy a co2 meter and a ph meter

Me: how often do you test your water?
Him: I'll check it monthly but I know my beers and I know my water so I can usually anticipate seasonal changes. I only need a bit of acid for light beers. Nothing for anything else.

Me: Do you filter your water? RO system?
Him: No I'm on a well that's 100 years old and the brewery is on a granite slab. It's a 900 foot deep aquifer. It's stable. I'd notice a flavor change in the wort before it got to the fermentor.

Me: what's the best take away for a new brewery?
Him: you've got to make the best beer you can and offer a fun place to drink it. Save your money as you'll need it. Plan for two to three times as much beer as you think you'll need. You can't afford to not have enough beer to sell and you can't afford to scale up equipment and loose money on old Equipmemt.

Me: is 10 bbl enough if I have 20 bbl fermentors?

Him: maybe but doubtful. You need 40 bbl's of your flagship beer and you should have two guest taps to start.

Me: any more advise?
Him: ya don't be surprised when you realize the first beer you drink in your brewery will actually have cost you 600k to 1 million. With a good business plan and good beer the SBA and your bank will be more likely to fund a larger system than a little one. They like that your planning to actually make money and not have to hope you can make it through the first 5 years scraping by. Remember you have to want it more than the next guy.

 

[ericbw]

Lol. Was talking to a veteran brewer of 25 years last weekend. I was asking all sorts of questions about going pro.

Me: Do you have a DO meter?
Him: no I know my beer is still good after 6 months in the keg. Don't need one. But buy a co2 meter and a ph meter

Me: how often do you test your water?
Him: I'll check it monthly but I know my beers and I know my water so I can usually anticipate seasonal changes. I only need a bit of acid for light beers. Nothing for anything else.

Me: Do you filter your water? RO system?
Him: No I'm on a well that's 100 years old and the brewery is on a granite slab. It's a 900 foot deep aquifer. It's stable. I'd notice a flavor change in the wort before it got to the fermentor.

Me: what's the best take away for a new brewery?
Him: you've got to make the best beer you can and offer a fun place to drink it. Save your money as you'll need it. Plan for two to three times as much beer as you think you'll need. You can't afford to not have enough beer to sell and you can't afford to scale up equipment and loose money on old Equipmemt.

Me: is 10 bbl enough if I have 20 bbl fermentors?

Him: maybe but doubtful. You need 40 bbl's of your flagship beer and you should have two guest taps to start.

Me: any more advise?
Him: ya don't be surprised when you realize the first beer you drink in your brewery will actually have cost you 600k to 1 million. With a good business plan and good beer the SBA and your bank will be more likely to fund a larger system than a little one. They like that your planning to actually make money and not have to hope you can make it through the first 5 years scraping by. Remember you have to want it more than the next guy.

That's interesting. 40 bbl of beer = 10,000 pints. That's not a nano brewery. If 100 people buy a beer EVERY day, you would brew once every 3 months (or twice if you have a 20 bbl system).

I've also read that 3bbl is too small to make money, etc. But it all depends on the expectations you have for making money.

 

[markstache]

Sell shovels to the miners.

Brewing beer is not the only way to be in the beer industry. If you are going to buy a farm, why not start a hop yard and/or a malt house? As has been pointed out elsewhere in this thread, local ingredients are the bottle neck in many of these farm license systems. Build a business serving that need, and then get into beer production if/when the ingredients business is in a good place.

 

[SanPancho]

Sell shovels to the miners.

Brewing beer is not the only way to be in the beer industry. If you are going to buy a farm, why not start a hop yard and/or a malt house? As has been pointed out elsewhere in this thread, local ingredients are the bottle neck in many of these farm license systems. Build a business serving that need, and then get into beer production if/when the ingredients business is in a good place.

yes, this. at both the 15bbl level and a little 3bbl level both our operations would love to see something like this in our neck of the woods.

and it will provide a much more stable revenue stream which you can then use to support brewing operations when you get there.

one thing i will say- distrubution sucks. when you're bottling/canning and sometimes even just kegging, what you're really dealing with is a factory that makes widgets. its all about marginal costs, mass production, and quantities of scale. nanos dont qualify. the only way for nanos like that to succeed is to have very good beer and crappy competitors (locally), be in a place that has almost no competition, or to have started like 10-15 years ago.

the competition for shelf space or taps in a bar is fierce in most places. you're up against distributors selling other people's beer with salesmen, marketing budgets, incentives, etc.

much better and more profitable to cut out the middle men and sell directly to the public at retail- i.e. a brewpub, a tasting room in a well trafficked location, or a venue like farmhouse/bnb/etc with a bar open to public.

a hop farm or something to that effect could be a very base to build on. your beers are "just a little side project" and folks are more forgiving of recipe misteps vs a commercial brewery. if your beer sells, and sells well, then take the plunge.

 

[bbohanon]

I can honestly say I have given this road alot of thought myself...ALOT.

I have been brewing for well over 4 years now, have built (and overhauled) my e-brewing setup, have had my beers win competitions and even had my stout recipe made at a local commercial brewery as a grand prize (and was there for the entire brew day helping make it and got 4 kegs of it for myself!).

I also have the business plan together, have talked to many other pros (even hanging around during brew days to look at different systems and how they all operate), done the brewery layout/equipment breakdowns and depreciation cost models/licensing costs/distribution (self or not)/etc. and even have potentially all the investors lined up if I decide to pull the trigger..

The one thing that keeps me away from it is the fact that right now, there is alot of saturation in the market (and my 3 kids who I have to support). I know the beer bubble is a debatable topic, but I do think there is alot more risk in jumping in now as opposed to 2-3 years ago..especially if you dont have alot of experience homebrewing or if you have ANY concerns around your personal financial well-being.
The other problem with the latest craft beer saturation is that many of the new startups around here are just not making good beer....like at all.

I have had to dump quite a few of the local offerings due to me picking up on off tastes due to bad brewing practices (many of them I had myself early on when I started up that I did not realize I had until I started to enter my beer into comps).

I do agree that you have to want it more than the next guy or its destined to fail before it begins and you have to clearly understand what you are sigining up for with this and have the beer to back it up.

I also think (and no disrepect here at all) that just having your wife or friends you are giving free beer to is not a good measure of your beer quality.
You need to get it into competitions and have it professionally tasted/reviewed. You will be surprised at how many things are wrong with with your beer that YOU did not pick up on that others who are seasoned beer tasters will but once its pointed out, you realize the issue and can correct it.

You fail to do this and your beer is yet another one of the sub-standard or "meh" offerings on the shelf, you become part of the larger problem and then you will be struggling to keep repeat business (or win new customers).

Not trying to be a wet blanket with it as I do think if you can make beer that you can market properly and lives up the hype, there is still alot of room for success, but if not....I might be the one buying your brewery equipment on probrewer when you have to shut the doors.

 

[MHBT]

Are you good at business?

 

[oceanic_brew]

I am guessing that 11 5-gallon batches (less than 2 bbls) takes longer to brew and keg than one 2bbl batch or even a 3bbl batch.



An album release party and wedding at the same time?

Of course, it takes much longer. But a brewery is much more to pull off than brewing and kegging 11 5-gallon batches.

My point was more so about how much work all this was even though I didn't have my future riding on it. It's not a discouragement. I love the work, I'll like manually work myself into the grave. Just my nature.

 

[Brownalemikie]

JMO, but maybe the OP should get a few hundred batches under his belt before jumping into a very competitive market. The worst case scenario is you'll be able to drink excellent home brew. Best case...you could become the next Sam Adams of beers. Just sayin......

 

[bob1852]

So I got to say something and it might be their beer talking but.....

I made. Trip to my favorite brewery over the weekend. I came back with 4 different beers, beers I have had before and loved. I tried one of each tonight and man I wish I had beer from my 4-5 best batches right now as I honestly feel those were better. At least to me. My wife sampled two of them and she agreed. And anyone who thinks who cares it's your wife, after 20+ years of marriage trust me she tells it like it is, lol. She has told me the last couple batches sucked but also agrees that she got spoiled by the good batches.

That's all.

Don't discount the effect of drinking your beer at it's peak time while comparing it to someone else's beer that may be past it's peak....

Storage and serving condition time really changes the character of beer. Usually in a bad way.

Just something else to consider (that I don't think anyone else brought up yet)...

 

[ericbw]

yes, this. at both the 15bbl level and a little 3bbl level both our operations would love to see something like this in our neck of the woods.



and it will provide a much more stable revenue stream which you can then use to support brewing operations when you get there.



one thing i will say- distrubution sucks. when you're bottling/canning and sometimes even just kegging, what you're really dealing with is a factory that makes widgets. its all about marginal costs, mass production, and quantities of scale. nanos dont qualify. the only way for nanos like that to succeed is to have very good beer and crappy competitors (locally), be in a place that has almost no competition, or to have started like 10-15 years ago.



the competition for shelf space or taps in a bar is fierce in most places. you're up against distributors selling other people's beer with salesmen, marketing budgets, incentives, etc.



much better and more profitable to cut out the middle men and sell directly to the public at retail- i.e. a brewpub, a tasting room in a well trafficked location, or a venue like farmhouse/bnb/etc with a bar open to public.



a hop farm or something to that effect could be a very base to build on. your beers are "just a little side project" and folks are more forgiving of recipe misteps vs a commercial brewery. if your beer sells, and sells well, then take the plunge.

From what we know, he's a more experienced brewer than a farmer.

 

[Lmanning507]

This is all the advice you need; if you're passionate about it, then go for it. End of story.

 

[bob1852]

This is all the advice you need; if you're passionate about it, then go for it. End of story.

If he's passionate about making money, yes.

Passion for just brewing beer won't make for a successful business....

Good brewers (especially at the homebrew scale) are a dime a dozen.

I'd argue to run a successful brewery, the emphasis shouldn't on the owner being the brewer. You can hire a great brewer for cheap....

 

[Murphys_Law]

Do you treat your water? Do you measure mash pH? Have you had your beer judged or evaluated by a completely unbiased registered judge? Everyone thinks their beer is the greatest thing ever, just like their kids are cuter than everyone else's kids. I have a strong feeling that after 13 batches your beer isn't as great as you think it is, sorry.

What if he does treat his water (or really doesn't have to)? And maybe he owns a really kick ass pH meter! And random strangers love his beer, including a judge.

And his kids are really great looking...so much so that random people come up to them (even beer judges!) and remark about their especially good looks.

Is his beer OK then? Even after 13 batches?

Or maybe you don't have an idea what this dudes beer is like, or his plan/process to improve, sorry.

 

[Sbe2]

From what we know, he's a more experienced brewer than a farmer.

Yeah, investing 10k per acre just to grow hops(not including processing) and not knowing what you really have until the third growing season is difficult to swallow. Plus the environmental factors of the NE vs that of the PNW make it a challenge. There is way more to hops than just planting and forgetting.

But to the OP, YOLO. Could be easier to know the result than to ask yourself what could have been for the rest of your life.