The best solution, if you you have the available space, is to have a small bar within the brewery and sell some good bar food to go with it. Only open at night, so it doesn’t interfere with brewing, which is done during the day.
Lets see… get up at 5 to start brewing…mashed in by 6, boiling by 7.30… chilling by 9. 10 the meat and produce folks show up. By 11 you have it all unpacked and in the fridge. QUICK back to the wort, in the fermenter, pitch, by 12.30 you’re done. Clean 20 or so kegs, rack a few things, next thing you know it’s 3.30. Start prepping the food, get the ovens going…5pm doors open. Feed and beer the people…kick the last drunk out by 9.30. Clean…
Somewhere in there is book keeping, ordering supplies, maintenance, research… (remember, brewing new recipes for fun) and a myriad of other activities. But, it will be 4.30 am before you know it…
Sooo… that’s 10 gallons of crap in a 5 gallon fermenter… You need HELP. An employee or three… a gofer in the brewery, a wait person, a bookkeeper, a cook, a cleanup person…
You need to brew a LOT of beer.
Not saying you can’t do it. Just saying that whenever I think about it I get really scared. I have worked in the F&B business… it is BRUTAL.
First off, I’ve already said I have no interest in commercial brewing and my comment is for someone that is really interested in doing it. Secondly, there are few businesses that can be operated by a single person. You can get by on your own, but to really make some money, you need hourly help. Been there, done that.
OK, so now you’re looking at a business plan and a number of barrels that are needed to make it work, at a MINIMUM. What that number is, I don’t know. 10? 20 a day?
Absolutely, a business plan is a must, but that’s already been discussed.
To keep statements like that in context, it’s important to remember that 33 states (last I checked) allow self-distribution.
For a brewpub it’s much less than that. Half a barrel a day will keep the doors open no problem.
granted, it is a massively over simplified example. and yoy could probably expect to pay nearly twice as much as I indicated with other overhead. Even at home there is propane, electricity etc.
all that being said, go for it Weaze.
You get absolutely no argument from me that wholesaling to the public would make us more money. But just how many people would I be able to get to come to my little brewery to buy growlers and or pints? And what about the fact that this doesn’t fit into our business plan? (Because it doesn’t, long story). And what about the point that we are not able to sell directly to the public due to legality? And what about the point that some of our beer is distributed 4+ hours away from our location? Who exactly is going to deliver that beer? Me?? When would I have the time to do that? Who would I have to hire to pull pints on Friday and Saturday night at my tasting room? Am I supposed to be brewer and bar tender?
Absolutely self distribution and/or a tasting room would be great for us. Man, we could make more money if we didn’t have to sell every drop to the distributor. But, in reality, we would have a distributor even if this was a possibility. Because none of us have time to transport kegs of beer to bars. And I couldn’t afford a refrigerated truck.
Yeah, I know the 3 tier system is a racket. But, on the flip side, its a racket that works on some level. Certainly not all levels.
This is the link to Fritz Maytag’s presentation, well worth a look - on many beverage topics:
http://www.distilling.com/video.html
scroll down it is the last video on the page
It is a Quicktime video
Starting to think I’m going to be bending sheet metal for quite some years to come. 
Excellent points - sure doesn’t sound like much fun - perhaps you should consider becoming a wholesaler instead… 
Just seems like there has to be a way to start small, and grow from there. I’m not finished yet.
You can totally do it weaze, just go into it with your eyes open. Learn everything you can and you’ll figure out the path. Get the biggest system you can afford, sell as much out the door as you can, skip the pub, and choose your location based on cost with room to grow. With a population of ~50k nothing can be very far from anything else, right?
This is great advice. There are a million reasons not to start your own business, and you should really be aware of those reasons.
My mom’s “retirement” plan was to buy a campground. Pretty much all of her friends told her she was crazy to sell her house, move to another state, and own a business. It’s been a lot of work for her, but in a little over two years she’s making about 10x as much money each year as she did at her last job. It took her about 5 years to find one that grossed enough and was cheap enough for her to afford, and in those 5 years she did a lot of research.
Another thing to think of is alternative revenue streams. I know a guy who wanted to start a coffee shop. He found an investor to help with the down payment, and they bought an old warehouse for about $1m. They gutted it and turned it into 5 different retail storefronts, and artist studios. His coffee shop is one of those retail stores, and they rent the rest of the building. Even at half capacity, the renters more than pay the mortgage. At full capacity they make a lot more than the coffee shop ever could.
If you need to lease/buy a brewery, why not buy a big building and earn some rent, if you can get the capital together for the down-payment?
I think the key to success is learning from others mistakes. More importantly, not making the same mistakes.
Visit as many nano and micro breweries as you can. Read books from the likes of Ray Daniels, Sam Calagione and others. There are pro brewer forums to join. Research, research and more research as well as developing a sound business plan. The closer you can get to having a solid vision, the better prepared you’ll be.
I can tell you one thing…it’s will be difficult getting started but can potentially be rewarding if you have a sound business plan and you are willing to work hard and put in some long hours.
Heck yeah - it’s a blast and well worth all the hard work. Think about it like this, you have a mch bigger budget to buy new gadgets and ingredients. And you have a good reason to be searching the Internet for beer stuff all the time! Right now I am trying to acquire used Chardonnay barrels to age some batches of saisom in. Really, lots of fun and worth all the hard work and money.
…and you can learn from Keith who’ll be three steps ahead of you. 
Indeed, if you can have someone else pay the rent, that would make a huge difference. Now you have to do your Commercial Real Estate Investment due diligence.
There is a reason many people will tell you why it can’t be done. MOST businesses fail in the first 1-3 years. Under-capitalization being the main culprit. Some succeed, but they studied hard, worked even harder and had a little bit of luck.
If I were to pursue this, I would get my ass working at a small brewery for a few years to see it from the inside.
Just looked back at your OP Weaze, and it looks like maybe you have one big advantage here which is that you have a business minded person who is encouraging you and it sounds like wants to be involved on that side of things. If he’s got the money to bankroll you on this, and it isn’t OLD money, one would assume he knows what he is doing. I might also suggest a book called ‘Beer School’ by Steve Hindy. It’s about the Brooklyn Brewery and their experience as a start up brewery. Good read with a lot of info in this direction.
I was recently listening to NPR and they were talking about the importance of failure. Basically failure is good becuase it means you are trying things and there is rarely any success without trying things, thus rarely any success without failure. If someone else is making the financial risks all you have to lose is your time. Which is, needless to say, valuable but at least won’t land you in the poor house (but just might land you in the pour house, pardon the pun)
Also, a lesson from Beer School, make sure you have a good contract with your money guy.