My dream is too have a very small brewery when I retire. Pints and growler fills only, no onsite food. It seems like a big hassle(kitchen, employees, health department). My local brewery is pints and growlers only and they are doing very well. People bring in their own food, get food delivered, and of course they have food trucks on weekends. I really think this might become the wave of the future for breweries…actually it sounds like it already is.
We will be having a corner BREWERY on every street corner by the time all us boomers retire!
Food trucks and serving local breweries best beers along with your beer is what you maybe banking on. A tap room should not compete with the local bars, you are selling kegs to them (if a package brewery) . Close early and hand out drink chips. I never knew you could get NG Belgian Red on tap until I went to a friends brewery and tap room.
Ever try that?
You may already be a pro. You don’t have to sell or produce mass quantities to be a professional.
you do however have to get paid for it. otherwise you are an amatuer
Money doesn’t make you a better brewer, nor does it make you a pro. I know many people that are hobbyists in various fields, that I’d put up against most “pros” in a minute.
yeah that’s true. I also know lots of people who could go up against pros but the definition of professional is that you get paid for it. amateur means you do it for the love of the thing.
A registered professional engineer can get certified as such and never make a penny doing it. He’s still very much a pro. There are many certifications that this applies to. Maybe a buddy gives me a dollar for a homebrew. Am I a pro? Not in my book.
"pro·fes·sion·al [pruh-fesh-uh-nl] Show IPA
adjective
- following an occupation as a means of livelihood or for gain: a professional builder.
- of, pertaining to, or connected with a profession: professional studies.
- appropriate to a profession: professional objectivity.
- engaged in one of the learned professions: A lawyer is a professional person.
- following as a business an occupation ordinarily engaged in as a pastime: a professional golfer."
and
"am·a·teur [am-uh-choor, -cher, -ter, am-uh-tur] Show IPA
noun
- a person who engages in a study, sport, or other activity for pleasure rather than for financial benefit or professional reasons. Compare professional.
- an athlete who has never competed for payment or for a monetary prize."
I don’t know about this whole amateur vs. pro thing… ::) I like to see brewing as more of an art form than a “profession”. That being said I have friends who play in bar bands on weekends. They get paid but they definetly don’t consider themselves “professional”. They do it because they love it, but I am sure it is nice to make a little on the side. Kinda sad but ultimately it is the government who decides who is professional…
Arguing about sematics? Why would you want to do that, when we all have plenty to learn.
Instead of “pro-brewing” I have been calling it “commercial brewing” to avoid people getting their feeling hurt/dander up, whatever. I know some homebrewers who know more about brewing than some pro - ahhh, I mean commercial brewers. 
And I have found the homebrew community rich with creative ideas. Some of the best beer you will ever taste without question is homebrewed.
OTOH I would para-phrase Steven King who says a “professional writer is one who writes something, gets paid for it and pays the utility bill with it.” I think the same thing applies here. Also, I will point out that most commercial brewers (myself included) brew several times a week (I brew 3 - 4 times a week now) and we eat, breath and sleep brewing all day, every day and often well on into the night. I don’t have many times during the day when I am not thinking about something regarding the brewery, often I fall asleep wondering if my yeast shipment will arrive or wake up worrying if the glycol pump is still functioning. So there is a “pro” aspect to it that goes beyond just an “art form”. And, FWIW I am a trained artist and I consider brewing a “craft” not an art form but boulder is right - enough of semantics already.
Re: Pro v amateur. Glad we got that sorted out. Anyway, I’m going to start brewing on a schedule like some of you suggested.
I’m also looking into opening a nanobrewery in the meantime. I know it’s not a great business decision, but it’s cheaper than Siebel or UC Davis (since we already have a building that could work, and wouldn’t have to pay rent/utilities), and should be a great learning experience for when we buy a “proper” brewery.
Obviously you can do whatever you like but, financial things aside, this seems like a questionable decision to me. Learn by homebrewing and giving it away, as soon as you start selling there is an expectation of higher quality and you will get a reputation. If you’re not sure that reputation is going to be positive, you might not want to sell the beer. Once you get a rep as a bad brewer it can be hard to overcome, and you don’t want that following you into the next venture.
Oh man, I wish that were true. I’ve drank so much awful beer at so many profitable brewpubs I can’t count them all. I would never count on the general public to have good taste.
I have often wondered how places with bad or even marginal beer stay in business. I agree with Nateo…the general beer drinking public doesn’t really have much taste.
I read an article about blind tastings. Expert sommeliers can’t tell the difference between a red and a white if they’re served at the same temperature and in an opaque glass. Most people can’t tell the difference between pate and dog food. Enjoyment of a product is largely about context. That’s why breweries put little stories on their bottles, and go to the trouble of corking and caging, and applying foil to tops.
I’ve read and listened to the stories of sommeliers but it wasn’t that they couldn’t tell the difference between red and white wine but rather they couldn’t tell the difference between an $8 bottle and a $50 bottle. I’m pretty sure most of us could tell the difference between Amber Bock and Celebrator.
Regardless, not sure how many of you were beer drinkers in the early 90’s but a very similar situation was happening then that is happening now. Lots of breweries popping up here there and everywhere. Lot’s of these people had the dream first of opening a brewery and then learning how to make beer. That bubble burst and most of those breweries that were making sh!tty beer went down the toilette and drug a bunch of the good ones down with them.
Well, the exact same thing is happening again now. People should not start with idea of a brewery but with the passion for crafting beer. way too many people are enamored by the stainless steel tanks and equipment and volume and not enough about the yeast and fermentation and malt and hops.
This has been clear to me for the last year or so. There are people out there that have brewed some beer, think it is great, and want to open a brewery. The beer is flat out bad, and they don’t have a clue.
On the other side of the coin, just because you make good, or even really good beer, it does not mean you will be successful.
There are places springing up all around here. Some will not last. Some of the established breweries are expanding, but they have a handle on quality, and will grow more.
Agree. Just like any business there is a chance you will fail no matter how good you are. Perhaps the fail rate is even greater with breweries.
When I first planned to open my brewery there was one other local brewery making pretty bad beer, and one other brewery in Alabama that had just started up making good beer a couple hours away. By the time I opened my doors two other breweries sprung up locally and two more in state. The one making “pretty bad beer” failed. Two of the other breweries had deep pockets and have expanded rapidly. Just last month another “brewery” opened it’s doors (I use quotes because they contract brew but they are calling themselves “local”) and I know of another brewery in development and two others at least in planning.
There is no way that all of us will be able to survive. I feel lucky that we got started when we did because tap space is going to start filling up but expanding is going to be quite a challenge.