Bottling as soon as we Open?

[Ehalemfg]

Hey everyone,
Got a pretty broad question, but any advice or suggestions would be appreciated. I'm opening a brewery with a business partner and we are looking to bottle instead of can first, and can later. My question is not about whether to bottle or can.

The question is how quickly can we start bottling after we open? I'm hearing a lot of people say we should wait 6 months to a year. Is this necissary? What is your opinons or expereinces? Thanks

[B Gerovac]

Open the way you're going to be. Otherwise you'll struggle against perceptions that you are a draft-only brewery.

Went through this with a brewery in Virginia in the early 2000s.

[beerguy1]

Sure, you can bottle from day one and it will get your product out to many more people but you will experience many problems at start up that you will fix with time some of them being changing each grain bill or the beer may not be of the quality that you imagined and all these things get fixed with time and learning your equipment plus learning a bottling or canning machine for that matter can be a challenge so it will only add more issues to your plate. My opinion (15 years in the business) I would wait 6 months learn your brewery and adjust the recipe till you have it right then tackle packaging. But your the boss lol

[mikeyrb1]

Sure, you can bottle from day one and it will get your product out to many more people but you will experience many problems at start up that you will fix with time some of them being changing each grain bill or the beer may not be of the quality that you imagined and all these things get fixed with time and learning your equipment plus learning a bottling or canning machine for that matter can be a challenge so it will only add more issues to your plate. My opinion (15 years in the business) I would wait 6 months learn your brewery and adjust the recipe till you have it right then tackle packaging. But your the boss lol

Exactly, dial in your recipes and ensure quality before distributing. If people's initial impression of your beer is a flat, oxidized, can or bottle, they might be hesitant to try anything else. First impressions and all that....

[ChesterBrew]

I'm so glad to know we're not crazy... we're a 3bbl place and keeping everything in-house until we dial in our operations. That's been my concern -- first impressions. Feedback on our beer has been very good but serving from a tap room creates something where customers are willing to accept it may taste different from batch to batch in a pint glass. But if we ever package or introduce our beers in restaurants/bars, they're going to only accept consistency.

Exactly, dial in your recipes and ensure quality before distributing. If people's initial impression of your beer is a flat, oxidized, can or bottle, they might be hesitant to try anything else. First impressions and all that....

[Ehalemfg]

Thanks for all the responses. Would anyone mind going into a little detial on potentential problems we could encouter?