Namaste No More for Whip In

Calgione could have licensed the name to Dipak for $1 and saved a headache if he really wanted to. Just saying.

I see why he did it though. Namaste is coming out as a year-round 4-pack for them next year. Gotta defend that copyright.

 

Kalama is the goddess of wealth. Irony noted.

 

Could've been positive PR for DFH, doubt prior to this it affected sales or into the future.
Never been a fan of DFH's beer but thought better of Sam as a businessman.

 

I don't see why everyone is blaming DFH for doing anything wrong. I liked the name that the Whip In had and thought it fit them. But that being said they should have seen this coming. They sold Namaste bottles and never once thought "hmm I wonder what DFH would think if they found out we named our brewery Namaste"? DFH is protecting their brand and I see nothing wrong with that.

 

Naw, man, stay.

 

Like DFH calling Whip In and talking to them? Like emailing them?

Oh, they did.

 

It's odd to me how everyone wants craft beer to be successful, but nobody thinks it should be treated as a legitimate business. It's like all brewers should just be hacky sack buddies and talk it out. A C&D is pretty mellow to me; it's not like they filed a lawsuit. I don't get this whole phone call idea. A C&D is the official way to go about it. No big deal.

It's a real business segment now. BA sometimes reminds me of punk rock fans who get all bent out of shape when their favorite band gets signed.

 

This takes me back to the 'quarrel' between Freetail and Ninkasi over Tricerahops, only Scott's repsonse was much funnier.

 

I think the problem most people have with these is that it feels like the big guy beating up the little guy. It's not like Whip in distributes any beer outside their doorsteps as is (I'm not sure if they plan to in the future either... their setup is a lot more minimalist than a lot of Homebrew systems I've seen and can't be more than 1/2 bbl.

Whatever. Business be business.

 

1/2 barrel system? The death of Namaste brewing started right there.

 

You got your breweries and names mixed up. It was over hopasaurus rex, which was technically not the name of FT's beer but a process of randalling their beer through hops.

 

Thanks for the correction, James.

 

We are wandering a bit off topic, but that is nothing new around the SW forum.

I only know what I read on internet and learn from podcasts. I am sure reverseapachemaster knows this but there are a few Brewing Network podcasts under the Brew Strong show last year where they talk about homebrewers going pro and some of the necessary considerations if anyone is interested.

Some of the main points I took away from those podcasts are 1. economy of scale and 2. time spend on the business.

Lets say it is a 1 bbl system, you are only going to get 2 brews a day to fill a 2bbl fermenter. Probably 2 fermenters, otherwise they would have bought a bigger system with the money spent on ferm #3. That is about 6 kegs a week.

Now the owner has either brewed it themselves or hired someone, perhaps part time. They are still paying the employee for 20hrs minimum/week to brew 2 days twice a day and even that is optimistic. Basically brewing to break even or lose.

If the owner does the work the rest of the business gets neglected, like marketing and distro although those are probably not difficult tasks for Whip In since they are selling it there and are an established business. Still, time away from the other business.

I think they could only pull it off since the business is already established and there is not distro, but the brewing will never make money and be supported by the other divisions of the business.

So opening a brewpub with a 1/2-1bbl system is a fools errand, but Kamala will survive off the existing business. Just my amateur opinion.

 

Kevin Sykes, head brewer

April Lowery, assistant brewer

Ty Wolosin, assistant brewer

Dipak Topiwala, managing brewer

"Our current system is merely a 10 gallon Sabco experimental batch setup that we gleamed from the auspices of Twisted X Brewing Company here in Austin. Using this to get started, we will eventually have a 6-7 barrel system."

I'm not sure what their plans for the future are regarding their brewery but at least right now it doesn't seem like they have are going to ever brew enough for any sort of distribution. With their current set up they should actually be making pretty good money from their brewing. A 10 gallon system might run you, depending on what their brewing, about $150 per batch (for their double IPA depending on the amount of honey and hops). They usually sell their beers in 6 ounce glasses, which should give them about 200 pours give or take. Charging $6/ glass you're looking at $1200 per batch. For them to not be turning a profit off of their own beer would mean they would have to be using extremely expensive ingredients.

 

@jamescain thanks for the info. I think your estimate for ingredients is high, I am brewing 10g of porter right now and I would say ingredients cost me about 30$ and I bet they pay less than me for ingredients. Plus I don't have many hops in this one.

Still, you listed 4 apparent FTEs and selling product at "roughly" 2x the industry standard. Still have not included water/sewer/electric/gas/rent/bartender/barback/whateverelseIamforgetting.

I wish them luck and I am sure they have a plan, but like I said no brewpub is going to make money brewing 10 gallons at a time. The brewing will be supported by the rest of the operation. At least until the upgrade to the 7bbl, which from the podcasts I think is about the minimum to break even.

There is actually formulas to figure out how much beer/chair to brew and other stuff like that on the Brewers Assc website, but I think you have to join to get those resources.

Cheers.

 

I was thinking about their DIPA. I know for my DIPA, which was a 5 gallon batch it was about $60ish and they are using honey which is pretty expensive per pound. I agree with you that they could not run their business if they were relying solely on a 10 gallon system. They were fine financially before they started brewing so I'm assuming they are still doing ok on that side, but the idea that they are not making anything or losing money from their brewing doesn't make any sense to me. They're an established restaurant and bar that decided to do a little brewing on top of their current operations, but they could not survive on their brewing system alone.