These people make a good, fairly inexpensive, business plan software program. You can download it from their website. It starts with a series of questions. You can plug in a W.A.G. for the parts you don’t know and go back later to put in better information. Using it helps you to see how different parts of the business affect each other. They have a lot of example business plans to look at.
I’ve used it to generate several business plans that I presented to get loans and/or investers. It makes a very professional presentation when done.
$100 may seem like a lot, but that probably won’t get you a hour with a good CPA.
Everyone’s advice here is good–particulary the business planning and due diligence. It’s the roadmap for your dreams. Without it, it is too easy to get lost.
In your OP it seems that you’re entertaining the notion of both production AND distribution of your beer. In some states it is difficult (or illegal) to do both without having separate corporate entities and different individuals listed as the managing partner. Certainly worth investigating.
It might be wise to look at production and distribution separately. Analyze them independently. Are they both potential money makers? Or will the losses in one (let’s hypothetically say distribution, especially with today’s gas prices and insurance) completely wipe out the profits in the other.
Sam C. (in “brewing up a business”) mentioned how the profits from the restaurant side were used to offset the losses on the brewery side for quite some time. It led to him and his best friend/restaurant partner splitting ways. It is a cautionary tale.
Weaze
I have owned a business for 20+ years. The first few years were tough with long hours and doing most of the work myself. The old 90% of businesses fail in the first year weighed heavy on us (wife and I). There have been times when I wonder just why do I put myself throgh this. But overall, it’s been a very good.
I’m going to give you a couple of things to think about. First and perhaps the most important, is your wife behind you in this? Is she going to be OK with you brewing on a Saturday night? Mine has been a very supportive to me. I have times when I’m extremely busy. With some one less than understanding, it would definitely be a problem.
Next, walk into partnerships very cautiously. Talk about who is going to do what. Who is going to get the profits? Are they reinvested in the business? If you are getting backing, draw up a contract that clearly spells out how much they get and when they can expect it.
Very sage advice here. My wife has been behind this 100%. Otherwise I could not do this. And definitely choose your partners wisely. i got very lucky on my partnership. But I walked into it a little blind. I now know what to look for in the future.
You might check whether you’d need the equivalent of a commercial kitchen to comply with health laws.
I’ve discussed the possibility of having a “homebrew night” at a local pub, it’d be easy enough to brew 5-10gal a week. It wouldn’t be for profit so much as developing a beer culture where there is none. But you have to deal with all the legal mumbo jumbo no matter what your production rate so it is probably best to jump in, in a bigger way.
Good point you bring up Tom. I’ve thoguht about it too. Just one more thing I need to research. Lots to find out, butthe journy is half the fun, right?
You mention in the first post about doing 5-gal batches and selling those - the problem is, non-sankey systems (read: corny kegs) pretty much don’t exist in most pubs/bars, so convincing someone to dedicate time, tap space and equipment costs to not only a brewer just getting off the ground but also to a different tapping system from what they have already, will be difficult.
The other thing about 5-gal vs Sankey is workload - if your beer is really popular, they’re going to have to have someone going down to the cold storage and swapping kegs out more often.
If you’re going to do sankey kegs, you’re going to have to brew basically three times the same batch for one keg, which is three times the work you want to be doing.
My suggestion, if you wanna be serious about this, is to first get your brewhouse up to handling 15.5 gallon batches. Shouldn’t cost you too much, and from what I’ve seen filling sankeys without all that filling machinery isn’t terribly difficult.
I know that New Belgium offers them, because I was given one years ago. I have never used it, but I would think you’d fill through a Sanke connector or the spear could be removed. In fact, the spear would probably have to removed unless you were to get the proper equipment to clean it. I’m guessing high pressure steam. Here are a couple of them next to some regular Sankes. Sorry, I can’t offer more info about them.
FWIW the majority of my beer is sold in 1/6 bbl (5.25 gallons) sanke kegs. We also sell in half bbl kegs to those locations that demand it. A lot of the bar tenders now prefer the smaller kegs because, while they do have to swap them out more often, they are much, much easier to move.
Also, you would want to pick up a keg filler. Removing the spear every time would be a PITA. That said, I do know some breweries who do that. Nucking Futs I say!
So, how do you clean them? If I did it without removing the spear, I’d probably just pump a hot cleaning solution through them for a few minutes, followed by a good rinse and a little sanitizer…
Cleaning is a bit tricky if you don’t own an actual keg cleaner (which I plan on purchasing eventually, but they costs about $15,000 for the one I want). We built a keg cleaning station that works well though is labor intensive. First we purge with 140 degree rinse water. Then recirc 140-160 degree cleanser through each keg for about 2 minutes (longer for 1/2 bbl kegs) followed by another rinse and then recirc sanitizer and purge with Co2. During the cleanse cycle you apply compressed air to up water pressure and to insure total evacuation of water/cleanser. In our case we run the cleansing routine first on all kegs. Disassemble cleansing parts and reassemble to sanitize. Takes about 4-5 hours to clean/sanitize about 60 kegs.
Those are normal 1/6 barrel sankey kegs. A ton of craft is sold in them. There are some soda kegs that have been converted to sankey. Sabco sells them as “pub kegs”. I believe the draw is that they are cheaper than buying new sankey and used sankey basically doesn’t exist. Could be wrong on that.
It’s the details like this that one doesn’t necessarily think too much about, until you actually dive into it. 4-6hrs in keg cleaning is a significant amount of time and effort.
The conry conversion happened a few years ago and it’s why the price of cornies has gone up, less supply.
To convert the corny they remove the posts and weld them shut. The lid is converted with a sanke attachment and tube and is also welded shut. It’s kind of freakish-looking the first time you see it, but it is a much more cost effective solution for commercial brewers.
