Small Brewery Start up

[nick79brew]

First post, here goes!!

I have been homebrewing for about 3 years now and am planning on starting a small restaurant and brewery (100 max seating). I have 5 years experience in the restaurant industry, 3 of those years working for a microbrew pub. I want to create the the ideal local brewery and eatery. My plan is to have 6-8 of our beers, two taps for seasonal and distinct beers. I want to truly brew "hands on". Ideally a 3 bbl gravity flow brewery. Can this be done? Im trying to learn all of the systems out there and it seems there is a lot of pumps, hoses, filters, etc. Can a person have a sucsessful brewery with out all of the gadgets? I have started a business plan and my goal is to be running in 2 years. Any thoughts would be great!

[MikeRoy]

From my humble experience as a pub brewer I would say you need to do some more homework. There's some great threads on here for brewpub start ups. Pumps and hoses I've neverf actually see as gadgets they seem to be nessecities in commercial brewing.Gravity brewing might be ideal at home when you're doing 5 gallons and you can stack things onto your counter and such, but in a brewhouse where space/ time/efficency/money are all at odds it would seem to be very hard to do without pumps as having gravity on that scale would seem to need a lot more vertical feet in your now warehouse sized pub. If you're concerned about start up costs of having additional equipment, it's going to pay for itself in the long run by saving you time. As far filtering your beer, that's your call, I've seen brewpubs that do it and that don't do it, with mixed results.

You say you've been working in the rest. industry for 5 years, three of those in a brewpub, if you're still at the brewpub, why aren't you brewing? My advice is if you're still there get some hands on experience in actual commercial production, even if you're volunterring your time. If you're not there go somewhere where you can get some brewing experience.It'll give you a better sense of what you're getting into. If I were going to open a barbershop I think I would want to invest my time in learning to cut hair.

[swami]

not practical

in the process of starting a brewery and my personal opinion is that 3bbl is not practical for the money, frustration, paperwork, more paperwork, insurance, more paperwork, time you will have to spend brewing in order to even break even. If you plan on gettin into it I would recommend 7bbl at least with enough serving tanks to do 1000 bbl /year to make it worth your time. Just my 2cents. on the serious note, good luck, listen to your heart.

cheers
swami
black lotus brewing co.