Do you mind when breweries refuse to grow or expand?

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2012/06/19/new-belgium-taps-perkinswill-for-nc.html

 

thanks I was goggling 200-barrel brewing system and found it. That land and building must not be cheap. I wonder how one gets a loan now days for 175 million, lol. I guess they will be in the Boston beer Co league after this?

 

My favorite part about Kern's business model is when they promise stores an allotment of Citra if they carry their other beers, then reneg when Citra is released. Several stores in SD won't carry them at all now - more for you! =)

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^THIS!!!^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

This is how I feel about my business as it is today......In 2004 things really took off, we expanded, bought equipment, bought surrounding land, built another 50,000 sq ft, and added 35 employees. Going from 70 employees, to over 120 as we are today is a whole new level of headaches and like the above said BULLSHIT.

It's a lot more work, my 50 hour work week turns into 70-80 nowadays. For what? We were more profitable when I was smaller company, same wage, with less headaches.

 

Not nearly as much as the self-entitlement some people have in believing that every beer brewed should be available to them.

But that's just me.

 

Timely discussion, apparently...here are Jamil Zainasheff's thoughts on the matter: http://www.byo.com/blogs/risk-and-reward-and-risk-and-reward.html

 

I'm sure you and I would like that, given our proximity to Atlanta.

 

It's getting harder to even find their regular offerings here in town. The shipments are very sporadic, and not large in quantity.
Good thing you have a friend close by the brewery for when Citra is eventually released again.

 

"I'm already making enough money so I don't want to expand distribution and make more money down the road..."

Sounds real selfish to me.

 

You really think too highly of your own opinion.

 

Basically everyone has been telling the OP he is a selfish fool...

 

I think we have a contender for stupidest thread of 2012, and we're barely at the half way point of the year!

 

My recent trip to Cali completely agrees with you

EDIT: Though, truth be told, I was pretty stoked when I found out that the Bruery was opening their new tasting room while I was out there, and even more so that most everything was still on tap two days later when I finally stopped in!

 

From what I can see you were the only one that thought 100 Million was crazy...We are talking about building a production facility from the ground-up here... What did you think it would cost? $5 million?

Oh and I would expect a manufacturing facility for rocket ships to cost well over $1 billion to build.

 

I thought $100 million sounded crazy. I guess I was wrong.

 

Agree 100%. On the rare occasions that I have the time and flexibility to travel, it's usually a family trip w/ wife and child. Given that I'm the only beer geek in my family, what would be truly selfish would be to spend more than a very small fraction of our limited time together seeking out local beers.

As to the OP's question: No.

 

One point that I think needs more emphasis. Many small brewers were started by people who simply wanted to make a living brewing beer. Most of them did not get into the business to be managers of brewing companies.

 

Here's another way we can look at it: I work in the animal health field. Is it selfish of me to not work 14 hour days so I can help more animals? I think not. It's the same idea. Expanding creates more work, more headaches, more time away from loved ones (and in the instance of brewery expansion, more debt). If not wanting these things is selfish, then I guess you can color me selfish.