So You Think You Want to Open a Brewery
This is so apropos!Three groups of my friends (6 people, total) are attempting to start breweries, brewpubs, or cideries.I have a number of thoughts for these friends. (Advice not totally unsolicited -- I've been homebrewing for about 17 years.)- Brewing a good batch of beer - better than most of the what's sold in stores - is easy. Almost anyone can do it with their first batch.- This tricks people into thinking that brewing is easy. But...- Consistency is hard. That recipe that turned out so well the first time? It might be good the second time, or it might spoil, or it might be too hoppy, or it might be cloudy, or taste of yeast, and so on. At any rate, it's unlikely that it will taste exactly the same as it did the first time.- Brewing large batches is hard. Even transitioning from 5 gallon to 10 gallon batches requires different equipment. Recipes don't scale in a simple way. And when you get into backwatering high gravity beers everything becomes even more complex.- Making wine and cider is hard compared to brewing beer. The former two have fewer ingredients, which, being fruit instead of grain, tend to be less consistent. Conditioning takes MUCH longer which means feedback and learning take much longer.- And yet, I bet actually making a consistent, high-quality beverage is the easy part compared to running a profitable brewing business.- Brewing is expensive. Startup costs are high. Even an enthusiastic homebrewer can easily spend thousands. Think $10,000 for a bare-minimum commercial brewing setup built around e.g. a SABCO Brew Magic.- The legal stuff is hard. Licenses, bonds, a legal location -- all that stuff takes time and money.- The food industry is brutal. Combining a brewery and a restaurant seems like it must tremendously increase the probability of failure.Anyway, brewing is a fun hobby. But one of those that sort of lulls people into making hasty business decisions.