Starting a Brewery

[Eisenhans]

Hello everyone!

I'm curious as to who here has ever successfully managed to start a brewery, no matter how small or large, or at the very least, sell their homebrews and make a profit.

I'm currently a small business owner in Seattle, and the most intimidating thing to me when I first explored the idea was dealing with all of the state licenses and registrations. Now that I have all of that under my belt, I want to be able to entertain the idea of seriously starting a small local brewery. Of course, my current industry and manufacturing beer are two different beasts, and I would like to know your stories and your advice for a novice like me.

Cheers!

 

[homebrewdad]

Just to clear this up, you cannot legally sell your homebrew under any circumstances - this is against federal law.

There are a few threads here about others who have gone pro, their journey, etc. I know that there is at least another forum that deals exclusively with this topic.

 

[Eisenhans]

Just to clear this up, you cannot legally sell your homebrew under any circumstances - this is against federal law.

Ooh, good point, and thanks for the tip.

I'll have a dig through the forums for existing threads. If a mod wants to move this one to an appropriate forum or merge with an existing thread, that's fine too

 

[hillhousesawdustco]

Check out probrewer.com for professional discussions

that said there are plenty of interesting threads here regarding starting, or trying to start, small commercial breweries.

 

[pdxal]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/i-went-pro-what-actually-takes-do-so-386476/

 

[Yooper]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/dont-try-home-part-1-a-11117/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/dont-try-home-part-2-a-11126/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/dont-try-home-part-3-a-11274/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/dont-try-home-part-4-a-20962/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/dont-try-home-day-life-54838/


those are my favorite threads of a journey that Brewpastor shared with us.

Another one of my "imaginary friends" on this forum shared this story with us:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f19/naked-city-brewing-has-location-61611/

 

[YNOT2K]

go talk to Don Webb at http://nakedcitybrewing.com/

his handle on HBT is Brewtopia.

here is his build thread - https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f19/naked-city-brewing-has-location-61611/

cheers!

edit - Ah, i see that Yooper has faster fingers than i do....

 

[Yooper]

edit - Ah, i see that Yooper has faster fingers than i do....

I don't think it's faster fingers- but I always liked Don and it came to mind right away.

Don had a very good job in Seattle. With a very prominent person/business (did he ever say who? because I don't want to say if it's not well known).

And he chose to "live the dream", giving up his good job and taking a big risk. It's a great story, and there is no better guy to look up to than Don Webb.

 

[Eisenhans]

Thanks a ton for the links and tips guys!