How hard is it to make a living from brewing?

A wise man once said, "The best way to make a small pile of money with a brewery is to start with a big pile of money."

I know a bunch of brewery owners, and while most of them seem to be doing OK, none of them are driving BMWs or anything. That said, apparently if you play the game right you can get a huge offer from AB after a few years of steady growth.

 

Though this doesn't really cover brewery owners, but here is some data:

http://www.abgbrew.com/index.php/admissions/faq#.VJHyoyvF-JQ

http://www.craftbeer.com/brewers_banter/getting-a-boot-in-the-brewhouse-door-2

Looks like the majority of the positions are in the $40K area once you have some experience. I'm not sure what benefits outside of that look like - insurance, retirement, etc.

Brewmaster or Brewery Manager seem to be the positions you'd want unless you're the owner.

 

So many variables: How big to start? Long-term growth? What position do you see yourself filling? Do you know folks to fill other positions? On-site sales only? Distribute only locally? Location (both generally[what town/county], and specifically [which neighborhood of town? Zoning?])? Styles? And on & on & on...

There's a brewery near me, North Fork ( http://www.northforkbrewery.com/ ), that's been in business a fair while. 3bbl system, do their own food. The owners run the place, and the brewer is full-time, probably the kitchen manager/lead chef too. You only see their beer in Bellingham occasionally, and almost never out of Whatcom County. They are at a size that lets them live their lives in the manner they want. It can be done, but they all bust ass. If it can succeed in Deming, WA, it can surely work in the capitol of OR.

 

3 barrels is a pretty small system, especially if you don't have several fermenters you can be running in parallel. Let's say you have 2 fermenters and can turn out a batch once a week. One 3bbl batch is 720 pints. At $5 a pint, you're grossing $3600 a week. $187k a year. Gross, and assuming no lossage. What that's going to leave you once pay rent and utilities and loans and raw materials, I couldn't say exactly, and obviously depends to some degree on where you locate your brewery. It may be a lot more viable in that small town than in the big cities. 720 pints a week also leaves you at risk of disappointing customers when you can't keep your taps consistently filled. Again, perhaps more of an issue in Portland vs a small town.

I'm ignoring food, as that's a whole set of additional complications that maybe a new brewer / owner doesn't want to tackle at the same time as starting up a brewery. And, I assume North Fork must have more than 2 fermenters / 1 brewday a week if they employ a full time brewer; but this is just to put out the sort of ballpark calculations that folks should do before deciding what's a big enough system.

 

Generally, they brew 3 days a week, end up around 600 barrels a year. Again, they do have the restaurant which is very popular and busy, especially during ski season, as it sits right on the way back down from Mt. Baker, so that's a separate thing for our purposes.

If OP wanted to run a tight ship, be the brewer/sales guy during the day, then work the bar in his tasting room from say 3-7pm, he could do it. Realistically, probably would to hire a couple folks to work the tasting room, while he brews/sells/delivers/does paperwork/insert endless other things.

Or, OP could go the Nano route to get rolling, like these guys: http://www.foggynogginbrewing.com/ . They brew at night, after work, and open their tasting room (which is in their garage) for a few hours each day on the weekends.

 

Honestly, money is important however enjoying one's occupation is the most important. Coming from a possible life direction change I have come to learn that very well. I think opening a brewery is like owning a resturant or any business, it's hard. Though, the rewards can be really good, minus the risk. I've heard 40k or around there quite a bit. I'm sure some popular places around town the owners and brewmasters make a decent income.