According to Vinnie Cilurzo, owner/brewmaster of Russian River Brewing Company and guest contributor for this week’s Brü’s Views, “Going from homebrewing to professional brewing seems like, and in many cases is, a natural progression.” This week, Vinnie and the Brülosophy crew share their honest opinions about turning a hobby into a profession, check it out!
Having guest brewed my beers a few times, I can say with conviction, Why ruin a good hobby?
I tell people that, and I also say I know how to make beer, I don’t have any idea about selling beer.
Totally agree, Jeff.
Zero desire to give up something I enjoy doing to mix up with it everything that comes along with running a business and converting most of my time to being a janitor. I already have a job where I spend a lot of time managing a business and cleaning up messes, albeit not usually physical messes.
I’ve received a couple half-serious offers to design and oversee small barrel programs at a couple different breweries in which I would do little to no brewing and mostly just design recipes and blend. Those opportunities will probably not come to fruition and I’m not even sure I would accept the offers but that would be as deep into the profession as I would want to go.
yeah the people drinking my stuff for free never get why it isn’t my job. At least the ones that don’t brew and don’t know what’s involved…
AGREED! I’ve spent enough time brewing in a commercial brewery to convince me it’s not something I’d ever want to do as a job.
great post.
That was a really great read. Thanks bru!
I’ve had enough long brew sessions to convince me plus Denny’s admonition to fellow homebrewers about going pro.
Sometimes ya gotta make a jack-move- quit my hospital job for something I love as much as brewing- the stock market. 
Maybe not such a great idea but there’s zero physical labor and no cleaning!
It’s not quite the right time to do it - too many people have jumped on the microbrewery bandwagon, and interest in craft beer is starting to wane:
https://www.google.co.uk/trends/explore#q=Craft%20beer
Still a great hobby though. There’s never been a better time to brew your own beer, given the body of knowledge shared on the net and the ever-growing range of ingredients available to homebrewers.
This applies at some level. I recall Arnold Palmer years ago in an interview said that anyone can become a professional golfer, all you have to do is hit 2-3 thousand golf balls per day for ten years. I used to love golf. I even got a one day a week gig marshaling to pay my greens fees. I golfed 36 holes twice a week. So I was at the club 3 days a week. Every one of those 3 days would start with 2 large buckets. I did that for about 3 years. Thats roughly 900 strokes a week. Just shy of half of what Arnie recommend every day… I plaid by the rules and had a PGA registered handicap of 11 after all that. One day in a tournament I finished the front 9 one under without handicap. That gets your mind whirling! I finished 10 over LOL! Dream crushed.
Back to brewing… it takes way more than a dream to be a successful upstart brewery owner/operator. Aside from all the things already mentioned, it takes crazy levels of obsession. I love brewing, but not that much.
I knew a guy a long time ago that everyone said was the best they had seen, and had golfed at a high level in college. He started on the pro circuit for a while, and said when you had to make a put for big $, it became a mental game, and he couldn’t do it. He said the pressure was too much for his personality.
Ya I hear that for sure.
The underlying point is applicable to this going pro thread. When you have an 11 golf handicap, that means on average you bogey 11 holes and par 7. Occasionally you birdey a hole and double bogey one. Its bound to happen one day when the stars align that you put 8 pars and a birdey down on one side. Its easy to think “wow, if I do that again on the back nine, I could go pro!” If you did that routinely without effort, even when you don’t feel good, and 12,000 people are watching, and 5 camera crews, and there’s a million dollars on the line… sure!
My point is, thats how many dreamer home brewers think. “Wow! My mom likes my beer and I got a medal on one beer at NHC! If my mom likes it, maybe everyone’s mom will like it. And I’m clearly a medal winning brewer, so I’m basically Jamil and Gordon all rolled it one! Plus, I usually don’t bounce checks, so I’ve got the accounting part down pat”
Yes.
Jamil went pro and has a brewery, but still has columns in magazines, and the BN gig last I looked. Gordon still has a day job, writes, and consults. One way may have more stress? It comes down to what you and your family want, and have tolerance for.
They say to take your estimated expenses and multiply it by 3. I think you should also take your estimated talent, knowledge, and energy and multiply it by 3.
Once my friends and I were keen on skydiving. I asked my Dad what he thought and he said:
“Derek, why would you want to jump out of a perfectly good airplane.”
I am taking that, oh yeah! Good way to say it.
Awesome. I can vouch that a fair number of new breweries in Indy overestimate their talent and knowledge FWIW. 
There’s a way around this. Surroud yourself with people who have 3 times the talent, knowledge and energy.
Yup.
Sounds like how I graduated from college.