Advice on getting into the beer industry

Im not in the industry, but as a consumer, if your goal is anything other than brewing elite beers, dont bother. There are way too many options. Especially in a city like Boston I'd presume. Locals are going to be judging your beer against something like Trillium. And that might not be a fair standard, but it will happen.

I live in California and the options are endless. When new breweries or pubs pop up, I try 2 different beers. If neither is above average I typically wont give them a 3rd try. Equally important, consistency. If I find something good enough for repeat purchase, and subsequent purchases reveal negative in consistencies, I also wont go back.

Seems harsh, but craft beer isnt cheap and I cant keep giving ABC brewery a chance when its on a shelf with Knee Deep, Modern Times, Alesmith etc

 

Boston Beer Works has a bunch of locations and they have unexperienced apprentice programs and occasionally open paid positions. I just saw a brewing apprenticeship opportunity a couple months ago where they teach you how to brew. If you want to open your own brewery, prepare to take a few years to get all the licenses and certifications that you need, with also some loans and help from others.

 

This advice is ridiculous. There are more than enough consumers that want a comfortable place with reliable beer to call their own. Not everybody is a ticker. Not everybody is looking for the new best thing.

 

Im not a ticker, nor am I always looking for the newest best thing. Problem is, the amount of current awesome beers in the market. Im not going to pay for subpar beer just because it is an option. There are already too many subpar options in the market as it is. Look at something like sculpin, i live in a very small town and its usually on tap at 3 places and sold at another 10-12.

That is what I am getting at. In todays market, people arent competing against OK beers..they are competing against great beers that are becoming more and more availiable.

 

That is very true. There is no shortage of people that think they can start a brewery based on the fact that they drink beer and homebrew. Some people actually think they can start a brewery based only on drinking beer. Like anything else, there are far more who have failed than have succeeded.

 

I think there is still plenty of room in the market for brewpubs - you can have one in every town.

But the packaged beer market is saturated. There is only so much shelf and cooler space.

 

Brewpubs that focus on being an eatery with house beer, certainly. That market is more forgiving, especially if the food is good and priced correctly. I think those draw in the "casual" craft drinker and the ones who are not craft drinkers, but are "willing to try a stout, because their coworker talks about them" .

Even then, the beer should at least be decent.

 

And I have been to more than a few brewpubs where the beers are just OK. It seems to me that these businesses survive (and often times thrive) for a variety of reasons:

• A significant portion of their customer base go there primarily to eat and the beer is an afterthought
• A significant portion of their customer base are not finicky beer drinkers and beers that are just OK are perfectly acceptable
• These brewpubs provide alternative value to their customers such as entertainment: live bands on Friday/Saturday evenings, pool tables, darts,...

Cheers!

 

Exactly. This is what I was referring to when I said 'a comfortable place with reliable beer'. Not everyone has the same notion of what is subpar that IPABeerDrinkers has. Decent beer is fine for most. They are just as excited about that as a rabid ticker is about the newest release. Casual craft drinkers are exactly the market that places like OP is suggesting should be catering to.

Incidentally, I strongly dislike Sculpin and would never think of paying those exorbitant prices for a beer that I consider subpar. Maybe there a different standard we could use?

 

The best response I could think of here is that perhaps each business should thoroughly consider which segment of the overall craft beer consumer market they are going after.

For example if the concept of the business is to cater to the beer geek market then they should figure out how to:

• Brew Outstanding/Excellent beer. Producing beer that is even Very Good will be a tough sell here.
• Brew tons of new beers to satisfy the itch of "the next great new beer".
• Provide an on premise atmosphere that caters to the hipster (or whatever you want to call it) crowd
• etc.

Satisfying the beer geek market can be challenging but the potential rewards are great since this portion of the overall craft beer market seems to be not price sensitive (e.g., somebody is buying those highly priced Ballast Point beers).

Cheers!

 

The OP might respond that he already knows how to do this but...

My advice is to learn how to construct a high quality business plan that includes a thorough and carefully quantified series of 'off ramps' for knowing how and when to exit the business. Most new businesses do not succeed and the pain & agony of a business failure is exacerbated when there is no clearly identified means (with specific metrics of performance) for exiting the business in the most expeditious manner possible. Even knowing how to gracefully exit via a sell-off is helpful in minimizing financial damages.

Cheers!

 

I started as a food/beer server at my local brewery and once I proved I had the work ethic and beer knowledge I interviewed and got a job as a cellerman. Short version of my story. Best of luck to you - if it does work out (and hopefully it does) be sure to post your experiences on here! Cheers.

 

Im not even huge on sculpin personally...but alot of people consider it to be the flagship west coast ipa, the score on here reflects that...and its everywhere. In my region, the standard ipa could be switched for Alesmith, Just Outstanding etc. Hell, look how prevalent Enjoy By is. Thats a hell of a double ipa standard. (Another im personally not huge on).

 

If you have a strong back and can get a CDL I'd honestly suggest getting a job as a driver for a distributor. If you don't want to get a CDL try getting a sales position. It will give you inside access to the "back of the house" at dozens of bars and restaurants, and you'll quickly get a sense of what to do and not to do when it comes to setting up your draft system, kitchen, etc.

You'll also learn how distributors operate, so if/when your brewery needs one you'll have an idea of what they do, how they can help/hinder you, and how you can help them grow your brand. This is especially true if you end up in sales, because you'll have brewery reps doing ride alongs with you and setting up events at your accounts, and you'll learn what separates the good reps from the bad and know what to look for when you're ready to hire one of your own.

 

Best post on this thread.

 

How does a mid-forties female business executive go about starting to merge a 15 year beer hobby into a new career?

 

Are you looking to merely work in a brewery or be involved in starting your own?

 

Depends on how much you want to translate from your previous career and how much of it you are willing and ready to throw out the window.
Do you want to make beer. Package it. Or sell it?

 

Thinking I would cut my teeth working for someone else - since I have no idea where to start!