Brewery idea would love feedback

I would also pass, there is a new brewery here in south florida and its just 1 guy and his wife running the brewery, hes on a small system but yet that means always something new on draft. I really like this idea, the brewer is great and chats with us everytime we visit. I like the personal attention that they give at this place. Will he expand, yes pretty soon but he is really only brewing for onsite nothing is going to distro, if he can feed his family doing this its a great thing to see and support. The beer is quite good as well

 

Sounds interesting and I would definitely check it out, but I don't know how often I would come back. It sounds like a way to be really hit and miss with quality. Not all brewers are created equal, especially when you are dealing with limited experience. Personally I think you would be a lot better off permanently hiring the best, most experienced brewer you can find/afford. Being a brewery with unreliable beer quality and a potential lack of identity seems like it would quickly put you in the category of breweries I would consider not worth my time. I realize that sounds harsh, but I think it would be hard to keep it from going that way if you are dealing with a rotating roster of inexperienced brewers.

 

I'm sure you can find something! Been reading 'We make beer' and the author basically did this with a brewery in MA (Blue Hills). Probably would be easier to find a very small brewery/start up, as opposed to going to bigger more established ones. Might want to just stop by on day they aren't open but brewing to chat. May take time by building a relationship with the right people and being consistent.

Back to the OP's question

 

I like the idea, but if people go twice and get shit they won't be back.

 

Could a brewery make it financially just one what is sold in the tap room?
If not, it seems like one would need a full time brewer and a few regular year round beers to sell on site and off, and supplement that with some amount of guest brewing.

 

You make a good point, and are actually lucky if you're finding them all good/very good.
Where I live, most of the local beers can be described as either somewhat competent or OK. There are precious few around these parts make it very much past that category, unfortunately.
A lot of them (if not most of them) seem to make the mistake of not hiring a well trained, porfessional head brewer (and it seems as though none of them have true Brewmasters at the kettles).

 

The way it's going to work at the place near me that will be running soon is this: BBL owns the brewery. BBL vets the applicants. There will be a "supervisor" brewer. They'll end up with 3-5 brewers inthe "incubator". All get the necessary training. The BBL will front the cost of each brewers first batch, which the brewer will pay back out of sales over the bar. Whatever is left over, each brewer puts toward the upfront cost of his new batch, and, hopefully, puts a bit aside towards getting his own equipment and space. When one brewer moves out on his own, a new brewer will take his place. It's not as complicated or nefarious as some of y'all are making it sound.

There are lots of breweries that start out as home brewers. For example, Schooner Exact started out with a 1/2 barrel brew system, in a storage unit. They would go brew after getting out of work at the day job, brew a batch, then take a keg or 2 around to neighbor hood bars. They've now got a beautiful facility, beers available along the I-5 corridor in both draft and package forms, and are doing good work.

All this type of incubator does, is give folks a chance to brew consistently, with others that are learning alongside you, with an experienced guide advising, with a guaranteed customer for your beer. While we have plenty of Nano breweries in folks garages, sheds, and back yards that are doing nicely, a thing this type of incubator does is give more folks chances. It's hard to start a nano if you live in an apartment.

 

Agreed, check the waste water laws in your state and city of brewing. Cincy is having issues at present with the cost of water disposal. Ultra high from the words I have heard.

 

This isn't the same as the OPs idea, but it's sorta in the neighborhood: http://www.flyingbike.coop/

 

Make this a brew pub, instead of full blown brewery and I think this would work better. That way you can have actual beer for your customers if the noobs make a shitty one.

 

If you're close to/in Portland, this sounds like a close match: http://www.newschoolbeer.com/2015/1...tory-portland-craft-beer-lab-and-brewery.html

 

I don't think anyone is saying it is that complicated, what you mentioned above is the sticking point we were trying to get across. I think with a supervisor brewer, one that knows the system, your odds of success succeed greatly.

Yes a good bit of them are pretty successful. To increase your profit you can look at also filling Growlers/Crowlers and such. But I highly recommend that you have a food option. One is to allow food trucks to service, the other is to provide it yourself and keep the profit. Again, good luck if you decide to proceed. I swear if you opened up close to my house I would come by, if within walking distance, probably quite frequently

 

Just FYI, recently graduated Ferm-Sci students wouldn't be interested in this. Current students/summer internships yes, post grad not so much.

 

Houston had a place called The League of Extraordinary Brewers (AKA Brewery Incubator). It was a brewpub set up so aspiring brewers that did not have a brick a mortar place yet could come to their brewery and make test batches to serve and be sold at the brewpub. It was a great idea, but they ended up closing. Some of which didn't pertain to the beer end of things, some did (long story, but public naked twister was involved within the brewpub among many other issues ) That idea in the hands of competent owners which are not childish idiots, that had know idea how to run a business, could have been great.

 

Experience. Ferm-Sci students already have their foot in the door, they have a degree, a part-time assistant brewing position would be like going to school for automotive design to get a job washing cars for gm. Unless you had a brewers specializing in something that they wanted to learn or were offering more creative control/license, I don't see many recent college grads taking a part time position they are over qualified for.

That said, if you offered positions to current students/summer internships, that would be great and I wish even more breweries would get even more involved at OSU.

 

The main issue I would see is most breweries try to limit the number of different malts, yeasts, and adjuncts to prevent wasting money. You would have to have the young brewers buy in to using the same group of ingredients or you will waste alot of money.

 

Like I mentioned upthread, the incubator fronts the money for the first batch of ingredients, which then gets paid back out of sales. Whatever is left after that, the brewer uses to buy ingredients for the next batch.