All I want to do is brew....

True to a point, I do know guys that have to log their brew session, order supplies and such, and they are not the owners. If you are in a big place maybe it is like you say, but then that is just a job, a job where you brew, but a job making the same beer over and over.

 

Sorry, this actually isn't true. Small craft breweries are growing faster than ever. 310 microbreweries opened in 2012, 18 closed. Smaller craft breweries are growing at an average rate of over 25% year-over-year; the smaller they are, in general, the faster they are growing.

That being said, owning a brewery is only a small part about brewing and beer, and much more about running a business. There will be a time (maybe not any time soon, but eventually) when there are too many breweries, and many will be making very similar beers. I agree with Jamil's comments - go work at an exisiting brewery if you want to brew beer for a living. Think about opening a brewery if you want to own your own business.

 

I find it interesting how often people will speculate that so many breweries are on the brink of failure or barely scraping by.

Name 10 breweries (not attached to a restaurant) in the US that failed financially within the last year. You have one minute.

 

This is true. No situation is probably ideal. The OP said he loves to brew. It comes down to what you really love, just brewing, or more the creative side and control over the process. If you just love just the actual brewing part, then working at a production brewery should be enough. If your passion crosses over to the controlling the process, then it starts to cross over to the business side of running a brewery.

 

I stand corrected...but my point, which I think still stands, is that for every uber-hyped, people lining up for events, trades across country, in the news type of brewery (like FFF, Darkhorse, and Founders, as mentioned) there are plenty of nanos and brewpubs that are operating on fairly thin margins.

 

Agreed - in fact, even the larger breweries are operating on fairly thin margins, but beer is a volume based business, and they are selling a lot more volume. Owning a brewery is not like owning a web-based business - it is very, very expensive to operate.

 

Lets see,in Michigan I can come up with 4 of you 10.
Michigan Brewing Company in Webberville
Local Pub and Brewing in Jackson
Old Hat in Lawton
Sunset Grill in Kalamazoo.

Many more opened than closed.

There are others that have been sold or are up for sale.

 

The owners of Founders stated that they lost a boatload of money until around 2008-2009.
I know some that only after 15 years say that life is good and they can pay profits to the shareholders.
I know others that say they don't take a salary.

 

Sunset Grill in Kalamazoo - Food
Local Pub and Brewing in Jackson - Food
Old Hat - Food

Focus on the beer, gentlemen. Restaurants suck. Trust me, I grew up watching the restaurant business suck the life out of family members.

Michigan Brewing Company - Kid Rock beer? Gimme a break.

 

Some of those had hot dogs dude, no focus on food either. MBC had Chili.

 

My three fantasy jobs - Professional Brewer, Major League Baseball Player, and Lottery Winner. Unfortunately, I truly believe that , once you get paid for it, it becomes a job (in the negative sense). So, other than Lottery Winner, my fantasy jobs will remain a fantasy.

 

I've thought of doing something similar, only not in France. I have a ton of French cookbooks and would love to have a brewpub / French bistro that could be run just for the fun of it after I retire. It would be a bonus if it made some money. I could offer some tete de veau with a nice house triple.

 

This is actually very sound advice.

For what it's worth - every brewer I've ever spoken to that abandoned a solid and promising career to risk it all on a brewery - every single one of them says it was the best decision they ever made. If you really want to do it, it's not too late.

Also, like what sarcastro said earlier, if all you want is to brew - get yourself a job in a brewery. Start at the bottom if you're young enough. Go to brewing school if you can (I imagine it's easier to find jobs with little experience if you go through one of those extensive brewer training programs).

Or, you can work your 9-5 and brew as a hobby.

 

You are absolutely right, but let's be a little realistic about it, too. Here's a quote from Jim Koch about the rate of brewery expansion in the US and whether or not the beer industry is headed toward a burst bubble:
"I know the survival rate is not going to be 100%. Don’t ask me what it’s going to be. Last year the number of breweries in the us increased by 20%. Can that continue for 30 years? I’m just going to do the math. If it did, there would be 570,000 breweries in the US. I don’t think that’s going to happen. At some point it will stop and there will be a retrenchment."

By the way - it took him about 3 seconds to do that "math." I haven't checked it and have no idea what data he was using, but I was impressed.

 

No, it can't continue for 20 years. Industry experts expect a slow down, but there are no signs of it yet - at all. Best estimates indicate there will be some consolidation when craft beer share (in volume) gets over 10%, which could be around the year 2020.

Jim Koch has a right to be concerned. Despite Sam's growth, smaller, newer, (arguably) more inventive craft breweries are taking quite a bit of their share of the craft beer market. BBC is growing now mostly in ciders and teas, their beer business is pretty much fully mature.

Sorry, a bit off the OP's point. I hope all the information in this post has helped them.