Hello everyone! I have a question directed to the people out there who's sitting on information concerning the steps of starting a microbrewery in your home country. I am a Norwegian brewer looking for another country where I can start a microbrewery, with as little involvment from the government as possible. My intentions are pure, but I am not a big fan of how the Norwegian government wants their share of the brewer's income, disguised as tax money and various fees. Both selling and drinking beer is an expensive pleasure over here, and I would like to try my luck elsewhere. Does your country provide a simple path to opening a brewery, or would you advise anyone with that idea to simply lock it away?
Start a microbrewery in your country?
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I will open a nanobrewery (120 l per brew) in Germany (south-west) next year. It´s pretty easy. The brew kitchen must have the usual standards. 100 % tiled, stainless steel, no possibilities for dirt to accumulate. Nothing special, really. There is a beer tax, but it´s minimal for small brewers, 0,441 EUR/°P for 100 liters.
I´m convinced Germany is a perfect place for a small brewery. I´m beta testing right now and everyone loves a juicy Pale Ale. Not too bitter and minimal haze. Nobody really knows what it is, the supermarkets are just starting to slowly offer some Sierra Nevada stuff but the taste is 100% there! Everyone after the first sip is asking what the hell this is, totally astonished and then they rave about it. I think Germany is like USA in the mid 90s craft beer wise. It feels like having the almanac from back to the future 2 and knowing how it will develope -> just like in the states, IMHO.
I´m convinced Germany is a perfect place for a small brewery. I´m beta testing right now and everyone loves a juicy Pale Ale. Not too bitter and minimal haze. Nobody really knows what it is, the supermarkets are just starting to slowly offer some Sierra Nevada stuff but the taste is 100% there! Everyone after the first sip is asking what the hell this is, totally astonished and then they rave about it. I think Germany is like USA in the mid 90s craft beer wise. It feels like having the almanac from back to the future 2 and knowing how it will develope -> just like in the states, IMHO.
Not much. But that´s because of special circumstances. My parents have a company for organic food stuff so the kitchen is already there. I just need 400 V AC Power and the brewery stuff. I will buy a Brewtower BT140. It´s totally new, from a guy in switzerland who has worked with a Speidel Braumeister 200 for years and now developed those brewtowers in different sizes (140-1000 liters). The BT140 costs about 4200 € and can produce up to 300 liters of wort per day.
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYemkIp2vAs[/ame]
In the German Forum those machines are very well received, they work 1A!
I will invest approx. 10 000 € for the BT140, Kegs, Refrigerators, pumps, accessories. For the start I will use Speidel 120 liter plastic fermenters (already use the 60l and they are very sturdy and good to clean) and big refrigerators. So I can temp control one batch of beer for less than 1000 €. When I earned some cash I will invest in pressure tanks.
But beware of the Reinheitsgebot. If you ignore it you are not allowed to call it "beer" but must label it "Beer like beverage". But except for maybe belgian beers that´s not a problem. You can even use sugar to carbonate, but only in ales, not lagers (don´t ask me why, it makes no sense)
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYemkIp2vAs[/ame]
In the German Forum those machines are very well received, they work 1A!
I will invest approx. 10 000 € for the BT140, Kegs, Refrigerators, pumps, accessories. For the start I will use Speidel 120 liter plastic fermenters (already use the 60l and they are very sturdy and good to clean) and big refrigerators. So I can temp control one batch of beer for less than 1000 €. When I earned some cash I will invest in pressure tanks.
But beware of the Reinheitsgebot. If you ignore it you are not allowed to call it "beer" but must label it "Beer like beverage". But except for maybe belgian beers that´s not a problem. You can even use sugar to carbonate, but only in ales, not lagers (don´t ask me why, it makes no sense)
i think you're going to want to stay in the east of europe. germany seems friendly, but i bet someplace like czech republic or latvia or croatia could be even easier. lots of places in the world where they welcome entrepreneurs.
germany gets you a stable developed market with lots of potential customers with money. but also more competition, and more expensive in terms of fixed costs: rent, insurance, utilities, etc. i'd bet that in the east your fixed costs would be much lower. but you'd have a smaller market locally.
thats the trade off.
and another word of advice- think about how the new location matches up with norway in terms of culture. i opened a nano in a foreign country and the culture clash has been rough. in the US, we have standards about how work is done, how quickly, the level of quality, etc. but another culture with an attitude of "good enough" will just do the bare minimum to give you electric wiring, or plumbing, or do a cheap repair of a piece of equipment. it can be frustrating and cause big disputes when the expectations are different for you in what you want vs what they think they should have to do/provide/accomplish. it can be a challenge.
germany gets you a stable developed market with lots of potential customers with money. but also more competition, and more expensive in terms of fixed costs: rent, insurance, utilities, etc. i'd bet that in the east your fixed costs would be much lower. but you'd have a smaller market locally.
thats the trade off.
and another word of advice- think about how the new location matches up with norway in terms of culture. i opened a nano in a foreign country and the culture clash has been rough. in the US, we have standards about how work is done, how quickly, the level of quality, etc. but another culture with an attitude of "good enough" will just do the bare minimum to give you electric wiring, or plumbing, or do a cheap repair of a piece of equipment. it can be frustrating and cause big disputes when the expectations are different for you in what you want vs what they think they should have to do/provide/accomplish. it can be a challenge.
I watched your video, and it looks amazing. That's a great way to brew your beer. Thank you for your information as well!
Eastern Europe hasn't really crossed my mind, but when you mention it, the east makes a lot of sense. Beer consumption in the central/eastern European countries is quite high as well, so let's hope they're ready for a nice ale, as opposed to their lagers.
![Craft A Brew - Safale S-04 Dry Yeast - Fermentis - English Ale Dry Yeast - For English and American Ales and Hard Apple Ciders - Ingredients for Home Brewing - Beer Making Supplies - [1 Pack]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41fVGNh6JfL._SL500_.jpg)
That´s not my video. It´s the video of the inventor! I will just buy one of those.
Eastern Europe is interessting, I was in Prague and Budapest this year for two bachelor partys. In Prague, a Bohemian Pilsner in one of the most expensive clubs in town was about 0,70 € / pint. So I´m not sure how this works out when you´re producing highly hopped Ales with expensive american hops. I´m not sure eastern Europeans have the purchasing power to handle, let´s say a NEIPA for 3-4 € / Pint.
And those two citys were really great for a party weekend, but we weren´t out of the taxi for 10 seconds and the first drug dealer wanted to sell us cocain. And that wasn´t a shady part of town, it was Praha 1 in front of a very fine Hotel in broad daylight. In Budapest everyone was trying to rip us off, everyone! It felt like everyone was a crook...
So living there...no, I wouldn´t want that. As a German I want order and tidiness
Eastern Europe is interessting, I was in Prague and Budapest this year for two bachelor partys. In Prague, a Bohemian Pilsner in one of the most expensive clubs in town was about 0,70 € / pint. So I´m not sure how this works out when you´re producing highly hopped Ales with expensive american hops. I´m not sure eastern Europeans have the purchasing power to handle, let´s say a NEIPA for 3-4 € / Pint.
And those two citys were really great for a party weekend, but we weren´t out of the taxi for 10 seconds and the first drug dealer wanted to sell us cocain. And that wasn´t a shady part of town, it was Praha 1 in front of a very fine Hotel in broad daylight. In Budapest everyone was trying to rip us off, everyone! It felt like everyone was a crook...
So living there...no, I wouldn´t want that. As a German I want order and tidiness
So living there...no, I wouldn´t want that. As a German I want order and tidiness
Ha! Typical german. Everything is nice and tidy and clean.
At least until its time to break out the leather and whips and chains and things get scatalogical.
I'm always amused by the cleanliness and tidiness of german society in context of their dirty, filthy minds. Hilarious.
As to the economics, dont be put off by cheap beer prices. Mexicans pay less than $1 a beer from a retail store. And yet micro and nano breweries are blowing up down there. 5-6-7 dollars a pint for the good stuff.
And for germans, last i was there in 2016 i could get a cheap beer for a euro in a store. But the little micro/nano guys were selling theirs for 5-6-7 euro.
Northern_Brewer
British - apparently some US company stole my name
Probably not the UK, unless you're really good and have the capital to go beyond the 2-3 employee stage. 1800 breweries is a lot of competition, and supposedly on average those making up to 5000hl/year are making no money.
However it might be worth you reading the Microbrewer's Handbook which is entirely to do with the business of brewing, and nothing to do with brewing itself. Probably half of it is generally applicable and half is UK-specific - how to calculate taxes etc - but still probably worth a read. It's the boring stuff that catches you out - things like permits for the disposal of waste water.
I must admit, Germany was one of my first thoughts, although if you don't like government interference it's maybe not the country for you. Maybe hop over the border into Poland, within easy drive of Berlin? I would disagree that it will develop "just like in the states" - that might be true to a large extent for somewhere like Italy which had no great beer culture before (and even there it's intersecting with the existing food/wine culture), but it's definitely different in a country with a strong beer culture already. You can see that in Britain, the current Champion Beer of Britain is a Cascade/Chinook pale - but a cask beer of 3.8%. A combination of ABV-related taxation and tough enforcement of drink-driving laws means that British beer is significantly weaker than in the US, and I don't think that's ever going to really change although there are more in the 5-7.5% range than there used to be (above 7.5% the tax doubles, so they are pretty rare). You also have the commercial effect of most pubs being tied to the big breweries - I've been told that Cornwall has more breweries than free houses, which really affects your potential market. Germany has a very different culture, I think I saw recently that only 20% of beer is drunk in bars, compared to >60% of beer in Britain. Which is good, as long as you can afford a good packaging line, unless it means you're trying to sell into supermarkets then you may find yourself wishing for the delights of British tied pubs!
Since you'll be buying a lot of ingredients on the international market in competition with the US/UK etc, I'd tend to go for customers with money - a Mexican may afford 1x€5 beer, but a German can afford 6x€7 beers, I know which is more attractive as a market!
Another angle might be to eg go for the eastern Alps, say Innsbruck or somewhere. It's no bad thing for people to associate your product with good times on holiday, it can open up markets away from your immediate locality. Mountains and snow should also be a good cultural fit for a Norwegian - oh, I've just seen you're in Bergen, perhaps the west coast of Ireland would give you enough rain....
madscientist451
Well-Known Member
Come to the US, even with almost 6,000 breweries, the market if far from being saturated. Open a brew pub with great beer, food and atmosphere and you'll be successful. There is a lot of mediocre beer being made and sold. You'll need at least $300-$500,000 to make it happen, although you can start a nano with next to nothing if you want to starve, but attract some investors. It can be confusing because all 50 states have different laws/regulations.
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I'd just like to throw Estonia into the mix. My wife's great-Uncle ran the Tartu Olutehas (Brewery) under the Soviets. Hungry. From all I can tell.
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