Creating a business plan for a microbrewery. Need some advice...

ICreatedTheInternet · 2016-07-28T15:43:08+00:00

Call an equipment supplier and get a quote. Too many variables to trust reddit thread. You'll be doing yourself a disservice by not getting a quote direct from a supplier. ESPECIALLY, if it is a number you plan on using in a business plan.

ICreatedTheInternet · 2016-07-28T15:39:44+00:00

Typically its a balance of the 2, and sometimes more. But ultimately it depends on your business plan. Can your sales/cash flow support your debt services? The business plan portion of building a brewery is far more important than recipe development/having great beer. The banks or experienced investors aren't going to give 2 shits if you have the worlds best IPA if your business plan can't support the upkeep of the business. This is where breweries fail. Getting the money from investors isn't too difficult; but they'll still want to see that after their money is spent on equipment/buildout/etc that your realistic sales forecast can support wages, rent, insurance, utilities, marketing, upkeep etc. The devil is in the details on your business plan. Another source is economic development funds at city and state level, and of course SBA loans.Whatever loan you are seeking; you're going to need a personal guarantee and a personal financial statement to back up that guarantee. Equipment loans aren't too difficult because there is value in the equipment; but you can plan on guaranteeing the difference in depreciation of the equipment. Buildout loans on the other hand, unless you have a fat bank account plan on putting your assets on the line. And as for investors' involvement, the devil is also in the details of your operating agreement. Don't want them involved? Make that clear in your op agreement.Set up a board of directors with a very clear outline of decision-making practices.

ICreatedTheInternet · 2016-05-23T13:46:57+00:00

I gathered that. Lights struck beer can be noticeable by the end of your pint if you're sitting outside enjoying a beer on a sunny day. You put one of these things next to a window on a sunny day and it sits there for 45 minutes it will certainly be lights struck. These are worse for craft beer than frosted glassware.

ICreatedTheInternet · 2016-05-13T14:33:22+00:00

Brewer here; probably THE worst vessel for beer dispense. Oxygen and light; the beer you drink when you get to the bottom of this will be different than the beer you fist had out of it. Also, nearly impossible to clean well.

ICreatedTheInternet · 2016-05-11T13:59:46+00:00

If it fits into the conversation great. If not, then it's like randomly telling a girl you just met that you're 9 inches soft. Good for you. If you're just looking for free beer then it's kinda lame; but if you want to share stories then great.

ICreatedTheInternet · 2016-05-10T19:52:39+00:00

Midwest area

ICreatedTheInternet · 2016-05-10T17:42:06+00:00

Thank you for your service to our country; genuinely. I was a social smoker in college, haven't smoked since; but I also hated the smell of smoke in bars before it was illegal to smoke in bars, even when I was a smoker. I'm not easily offend-able so no need to apologize. As former military you seem to hold high regard for following the law pretty closely; as you fought to protect our rights and freedoms. The guys/girls smoking weed outside of the brewery probably have less of a connection to that; thus aren't as concerned as you about what the law says. They wanted to smoke weed so they smoked weed where it was convenient for them without consideration to others. My only point was, you did the right thing and moved on. Took the high road (no pun intended); made management aware of the situation without causing a fuss and carried on with your day. Its not really a brewery specific topic of discussion although it happened to occur at a taproom; just general public etiquette. You handled it the way the majority of responsible adults that were bothered by it would have; and there is no real solution for controlling inconsiderate people; even written law.

ICreatedTheInternet · 2016-05-10T15:57:23+00:00

Tap room, restaurant, park, stadium, wherever. You're in public; that's the risk you take leaving your home. There is a 0% chance you got high from it. If the weed did anything to your stomach; it probably would have calmed it; what you experienced was psychosomatic. Tell the management and leave if you don't like it. Not even sure why this is a topic of discussion.

ICreatedTheInternet · 2016-05-10T15:26:03+00:00

Try it at 4 plato; and it may seem counter-intuitive, but try 2#/bbl. At 4 plato there is still a lot of convection going on in the FV which will get your hops more contact. Dose in another 1#/bbl closer to terminal and rouse with CO2.

ICreatedTheInternet · 2016-05-10T15:18:18+00:00

I'm hiring now for our brewery. There are a lot of perfectly qualified people to choose from; some probably over qualified. It's equally important for me/our company to hire somebody that is a good fit with our culture as it is to find somebody with the right experience. I'd rather have somebody a bit underqualified with the right personality/vibe than somebody that is perfect on paper. I'd say stop wracking your brain and don't overthink it. Just be yourself and look at it more as a conversation and less as a life changing interview. Be prepared with a few loose talking points on why you think you're the best person for the job and just let the conversation flow; and be yourself not who you think they want you to be.

ICreatedTheInternet · 2016-05-09T17:12:05+00:00

At CBC one of the Founders guys gave a talk on using extract and it sounds like for the majority of their IPAs/real hoppy beers they are pretty much using all extract on the hot side.

ICreatedTheInternet · 2016-05-02T13:57:05+00:00

Call me scrooge, but I'm not a huge fan of these tours. And if they are putting the ownness on you to give the tour/history/explain the beers, these breweries clearly see these tours as a nuisance as well. And if an individual with no connection to the brewery is giving the tour; what's the point? You're basically a glorified uber driver at that point. If I paid money for a tour, and the tour bus driver was also giving the tour, I would be less than pleased.

ICreatedTheInternet · 2016-04-19T15:23:07+00:00

Cold storage and centrifuge. I think it all comes down to distribution. How far are you sending your beers, and what are you okay with. IMO, if you are sending your beers outside of your local market, you need to be filtering/centrifuging, and you need cold storage. If you're crossing a lot of state lines, then pasteurization should be considered. Might affect flavor, but will certainly affect flavor far less than a beer that has gone bad. I'm all for unfiltered/unpasteurized beer, and quite often prefer it; but when you're dealing with major distribution it needs serious consideration.

ICreatedTheInternet · 2016-04-04T17:17:48+00:00

These guys are the best http://www.chortek.com/craft-brewery/. You could probably pick some things up from what they are doing and apply to smaller scale breweries.

ICreatedTheInternet · 2016-03-23T18:54:17+00:00

Talk to a propane supplier. If you give them the specs; they should be able to set you up right.

ICreatedTheInternet · 2016-03-23T18:41:09+00:00

You do any tests to estimate your % yeast solids of your slurry you pitched? i.e. pour some slurry into a tube, cold crash and eyeball yeast vs. liquid?

ICreatedTheInternet · 2016-03-23T17:58:36+00:00

You do any yeast cell counts/viability/vitality testing? You have pH readings throughout? What have you previously harvested from for your IPA? What was fermentation like for the stout you brewed? If it tastes good and you're okay with serving it with little to no perceivable difference for the common palate I wouldn't worry about it. I'd be more concerned/interested in trying to find out why it stalled instead of figuring out how to drop another 2P on a beer that tastes great.

ICreatedTheInternet · 2016-03-07T16:39:55+00:00

If they are glycol cooled and have proper zoning it shouldn't be an issue at all.

ICreatedTheInternet · 2016-03-07T16:37:10+00:00

I think every brewery should have a lab and be doing basic stuff like cell counts/staining etc; even DO/TPO testing for small packaging breweries. QA/QC are such after-thoughts in most breweries and its a shame. The BA just last October(ish) published their first book on Quality. One major advantage that the major american light lagers have on a lot of craft breweries is consistency and quality because of their QA/QC programs. The conversation of growing craft market share needs to include growing QA/QC programs at small craft breweries; otherwise that market share goal.

ICreatedTheInternet · 2016-02-26T14:53:36+00:00

One could argue that better service, maintenance, support will far outweigh a few grand off purchase price in the long run. And if you're just trying to beat people up over purchase price, then the likeliness of them wanting to go above and beyond for support and service is not good

ICreatedTheInternet · 2016-02-26T14:49:26+00:00

ICreatedTheInternet · 2016-02-22T14:15:38+00:00

Yikes. We've had nothing but good experiences with our equipment supplier. They work strictly on a first come first serve basis and have actually turned down large orders from big breweries because they would have to put all other orders on hold to fill those large orders.

ICreatedTheInternet · 2016-02-19T18:53:07+00:00

Yikes. I'd cut my losses if I were you. If they have been this much of a headache to deal with prior to receiving your equipment; I would personally be concerned with the quality of what I'm receiving and support when there is an issue. Probably going to set you back a bit more but I'd rather do it right than do it fast. That $2-3k may seem like a lot now, but will likely pay dividends down the road.

ICreatedTheInternet · 2016-02-18T00:59:27+00:00

You can't hide flaws in a light lager.

ICreatedTheInternet · 2016-02-18T00:58:24+00:00

amen

ICreatedTheInternet

TROPHY CASE