Urban Growler Kickstarter

From their own blog on Nov. 11th.

"Fast forward three years and the Urban Growler is an extremely profitable business with 60 employees thanks to the time, talent and dedication Jill and Deb have poured into it."

Either they are greedy or they are lying.

Being down in NE I had no idea they had a flagship cream ale named cowbell...Lol, yeah that isn't a ripoff of anyone.

 

still a pretty gray area from the looks of it, but with some interesting tax and accounting considerations.

because they're giving something in return, it seems unlikely that you could consider it all of it a gift but a part-time parking spot isn't worth $10k so perhaps some of that might be? more likely, it's income that's taxable to them in the current year, which then means a chunk of your donation is going to the government.

more specifics here - http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/2015/oct/crowdfunding-and-income-taxes.html

and overall, i agree. i really don't get the vitriol and name-calling here - no one's forcing anybody to participate, especially if you're not buying their product in the first place. say fuck 'em and move on.

 

Newly opened local brewery with a self valuation of $8 MIL? Could have been fun to see them try and make that business case on an episode of Shark Tank........

 

Omar Yes. Deb and Jill no.

 

I remember not to long ago a brewery who is now defunct asked the public for $200,000 dollars for a bottling line so they didn't have to contract their beer anymore. Anybody remember where the money went?

 

You might need to be more specific. Craft Beer in Minnesota is BOOMING!, so the breweries which fall by the wayside are often quickly forgotten*, and many of us also have a short attention span these days.

(*The same is true nationwide, but the same phenomenon also holds true.)

 

They made a wild rice beer.

 

"JP Brewing Company" (seriously, that outfit was cursed.)

For a moment I thought you meant tbut he more obscure Kuether Brewing Company, both of which are ancient history hereabouts.

 

I liked the Page guys. I wonder how Ken Stout is doing.

 

Last I spoke with him he was with Star Brand Imports, but he's currently with Fulton Street.

 

Wow, over the weekend I heard a story of how Page ended and Ken was furious with the poor deicsions at the end. Ken's a great guy, I told him after they had their baby he would make a great dad! A few years after the baby was born he said some great stuff about parenting that I will never forget. Back then he was always so positive even with the challenges that was ahead for them. Prost to Ken!

 

A detour of this posting. Bent Brewstillery is doing a Kickstarter for a different reason. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1290506035/free-the-cocktails

 

The standard criticism of Kickstarter funding still applies but at least the rewards seem more in line with donation amounts. Seems riskier on the part of Bent to invest future product in a venture which is far from guaranteed to increase sales.

 

I don't think it does. As you stated the rewards are in line with the donations which is the biggest gripe I have with most Kickstarters. Plus, I see this as being somewhat altruistic. They are spending their own product to change a law to benefit to the whole brewery/distillery industry. I respect that, and would throw in $10 if my experiences with their beer were better.

 

Indeed, they just joined and this is their only post. If you're going to create an identity just so you can defend your brewery at least try to be a little bit more subtle about it...

 

I've been to UG twice and actually had brief conversations with the two owners during my visits. They seemed very nice and it was obvious to me that they work pretty hard to run that place. Their beer isn't my favorite but some of their offerings are decent-- good enough to be in this market- I think this puts them in the same boat as most MN breweries that have opened in the last 2 years. I am going to make a few assumptions here but it would seem that they need this canning line to provide additional revenue through distribution, as perhaps the forecasts for their current business model aren't looking as good as they once had. In business you do everything within your power to stay in business, especially in the first couple of years. If they have a sense that some of their most loyal customers would be willing to give them a handout to stay in business, then why wouldn't they take that chance? It might sound petty to most of the posters here but look at it the other way, what is so noble about going out of business? My guess is that they aren't in a financial position to be able to offer their crowd funders fair value in terms of free beer/merchandise. They may simply be hoping that their regulars don't want to see their favorite hangout spot go away, and might be willing to part with some of their hard earned cash to keep the brewery around. Lack of fair value is quite common in the crowd funding world. If it helps to play the woman-owned brewery card to attract more female crowd funders, who knows, maybe it does? Ifeed hey are desperate, I won't fault them for it. I suspect we will see a lot of other breweries trying something similar, because if Harriet Brewing couldn't stay in business (I was a big fan) then I'm sure there are at least 10 other local breweries who risk closing their doors if they can't find new capital.

 

The best thing about approaching the Craft Beer segment from the perspective of a hobbyist is that one can't be faulted overly much when speculating or making assumptions. We do it all the time on these forums. It's fun! (And it fuels continued public interest, too.)

While I don't know the specifics* of their present financial situation, my landlord is an early supporter. He's lived in the neighborhood since Summit Brewing Company opened and was excited enough about Urban Growler (especially as they allowed community sponsorship) that he cut them a check (for a "free first pint for life", I believe.) While not a traditional investor's situation per se, his level of interest in the new brewery was shared with enough longtime neighborhood residents who recalled Summit's history making involvement in the area.

Still, it appears that such interest wasn't great enough to translate to the traditional form of investment or required startup (and packaging line) capital.

But what if their original plan had always included packaging for retail?

I spoke with Deb and Jill at their second event and recall that packaged beer was a part of their longterm plan. At the time I believed it was bottles and this surprised me: Packaged beer in cans had ceased being a trend in the Craft segment, and was becoming the new norm:



(Nice labels! Interesting that they didn't choose mobile bottling or canning early on.)

When I learned of their can-starter, I also found early business coverage which I hadn't come across when they opened. It's clear from their own account that they had experienced difficulty in securing bank loans. In recent months I've learned that the same is still true (banks aren't as receptive to their expansion plan as they'd have hoped.)

As such --and believing they'd always planned to have packaged beer in the market-- who can fault them for choosing the funding path which they've chosen? Especially when the local community and regulars are more than receptive and willing to chip-in.

As much as we enjoy approaching all of this from different angles and areas of understanding, I believe Urban Growler will ultimately be successful, even as their packaged beer enters an increasingly crowded market.

*Nor am I a regular; There are always cars and bicycles in their parking lot when I pass by so it looks like they're busy and doing great. But who knows?

 

If they had enough regulars who deem them their favorite spot to get $60K for nothing, they should be doing well enough to get a loan from a bank.

In addition, no one said there needs to be a product that's fair value right away. Offer something that's worthwhile over time, and if u can't afford that, the canning line isn't going to help one damn bit - which is more than likely why a bank wants nothing to do with it.

It's has nothing to do with them being nice, or good people, or even making decent beer. They are a business which means the number one goal has to be getting into the black. It can be by $1 where they earn a very modest living doing what they love, but they have to get there. Throwing cash at flaws in a business doesn't help, it masks the issue and delays the inevitable. So, in my opinion, if you can't get a loan or outside investor, you should change the business plan. Change the beer, the way u run the taproom, or the way u market.

With that being said, I do wish them the best of luck, because owning a business isn't easy. I simply disagree going this route.

 

If a successful company like Brewdog can crowdsource $50 million to put their brewpubs in every major city, not sure why a smaller community brewer couldn't do the same without anyone batting an eye.

 

We at Sisyphus Brewing are planning to launch a kickstarter soon looking for $45 dollars so Isaac and I can have a nice picnic once it warms up outside. For $500 dollars you can watch the picnic from a distance with binoculars but no direct communication allowed. For $1000 we will include a 1-way monitor so you can at least listen to our conversation. People that can read lips are not allowed to redeem this reward.