How to get Started

[ERock]

Hello all.

Over the past year or so I have been forming in my head ideas for a great ecological brew pub, and am currently in the process of brain dumping it to paper to refine it further. I have lots of contacts who I could get to do the work I would need. architect and some other things. But i wonder if anybody has advice for finding investors for such a project. with some of my ideas this would require a HUGE intital investment, but with the savings would more than pay for itself over time. I could without a doubt get some grants for some of the systems, but still it would not pay for the whole kit and kaboodle. any ideas?
thanks!
Eric

[tarmadilo]

1. The positive power of prayer

2. Lotto tickets. Lots of Lotto tickets! (I call them my "retirement fund")

3. Lots of luck, a very very thorough business plan, and excellent salesmanship in selling the idea to investors.

4. More prayer!

Good luck,

Tim

[beauxman]

and yet even more prayers......run away! (think Monty Python and that rabbit, it looks timid and cute, and "hey, it's just a rabbit" but damn does it have a bite!)
-Good luck...play the lotto, you have better odds.

[Dogwonder]

Yeah, I'm in the same boat, I'm starting to wrap up my b-plan and realize it is time to start trying to find money. I've got some that I will put in myself (basically all I have, including cashing out most of my current retirement fund), but it won't cover everything. I think you gotta start where everyone usually ends up in this situation, friends and family. Hopefully that will lead to some connections. Best of luck, we are all going to need it.

[ERock]

1. The positive power of prayer

2. Lotto tickets. Lots of Lotto tickets! (I call them my "retirement fund")

3. Lots of luck, a very very thorough business plan, and excellent salesmanship in selling the idea to investors.

4. More prayer!

Good luck,

Tim

1) working on that
2) bad idea, for if i won the lotto, my plans involve only hopping from beach house to beach house internationally and not doing a thing for the resat of my days
3) working on the business plans, and since this involves 2 of my passions (sustainability and beer) the salesmanship would come naturally
4) working on it

a problem I came up with last night was a lot of support staff would be needed because the idea is turning waste streams from both the brewery and restuarant operations into revenue streams. I am not sure if where I am at now is a good location for it as many a brew pubs have gone under, there are 2 brewery chains here, but the sustainability market here is wide open and growing everyday. never know what you are capable of until you try.

I must try something as I am thinking more and more everyday my chosen career path at this moment (software engineer) isn't really something I see myself doing day in and day out. sure the money is good when I am working (i ahve been laid off twice in the past 3 years) but my life isn't about money I think it would better if I were just happy.

[hmois]

How to get started

I think you are on on something here ,as you say you got salesmanship,you defenitly got the knowlege,you have connections .on the other hand you got no money,no brewing or restaurantexpirience ,so why would you make this step opening a brewpub or microbrewery .in this small a scale of brewing or restaurant you probably are not getting old enough to see waste turn into money.i would go ahead and bring ewverything to paper wrap it nicely and send it or show it to the bib breweries or brewerychains,restaurantchains all you need is one ,if it works you have something to show of and if it saves really good money they will buy .just a thought-good luck

[tarmadilo]

I must try something as I am thinking more and more everyday my chosen career path at this moment (software engineer) isn't really something I see myself doing day in and day out. sure the money is good when I am working (i ahve been laid off twice in the past 3 years) but my life isn't about money I think it would better if I were just happy.

I agree completely and salute you for following your bliss!

However, I should note that the single most unhappy year of my life was spent on a microbrewery startup. My partners were able to raise enough money to open and survive a year, I brewed some pretty good beer, and we still had unbelievable stress. We just couldn't sell enough beer (and I had fundamental philosophical differences with my partners about beer styles, flavor profiles, etc). After thirteen months, we managed to reach a break-even point, saleswise, but I was a burned-out zombie and had to quit for my own well being, and after three years the company closed (never having met any of its profitability goals).

Your business plan is the key. It HAS to account for every variable, it has to be accurate and honest about your projections, and it has to clearly show you just how much money you need to open and stay open until you start to earn a profit (and it has to tell you how much money you need to make to BE profitable). Then you need to raise enough money to make it work (and if you only ALMOST raise that much money, the odds are you'll only ALMOST be successful!).

Best of luck to you!

Tim

[ERock]

I think you are on on something here ,as you say you got salesmanship,you defenitly got the knowlege,you have connections .on the other hand you got no money,no brewing or restaurantexpirience ,so why would you make this step opening a brewpub or microbrewery .in this small a scale of brewing or restaurant you probably are not getting old enough to see waste turn into money.i would go ahead and bring ewverything to paper wrap it nicely and send it or show it to the bib breweries or brewerychains,restaurantchains all you need is one ,if it works you have something to show of and if it saves really good money they will buy .just a thought-good luck

Actually I over 10 years or so resturant experience I have done almost all of the front of the house jobs, and am very familiar with the operations of a resturant buisness. I have been a server, a busser a bartender, a dishwasher a line cook for a few days, acted as a host.... and I dunno how to wrap these ideas as they are completly integrated into the whole idea. kinda like making the building into a living breathing thing.
I have studied permaculture (look it up) and basically the idea is systems thinking, looking at the whole and coming into ways to reuse as much as you can. the only thing I don't like about my idea is it would probably have to be new construction. Can always buy used building materials but it would be nice to have a structure that could be reused. In stead of that building on abandoned industry sites is the best idea. believe me there are plenty here.

I need to look around to find it, but there is a company in sweden I believe where they have every waste output (heater, water, ash...) going into another area of the company to use that to lower their overhead. I am trying to find a sketch of the layout, but can't remember the company name. When I find it I will post here.

Seriously this is a feasiable idea, I took some ideas from things that are already being done, put them together and add to it. It is looking at the whole operation and seeing what you can reuse or reduce.

here are two ideas I would like to do that don't take a genius to figure out.
1) dual fuel brew kettles, use gas and..... biodiseal have an inhouse biodiseal system to reuse the waste fryer greese from the kitchen it is easy to make, cheap, and as long as youe make under 10,000 gallons a year you need no government permission and it lowers your utility bill.
2) sterling engines... how much wast heat goes out your hood from your line, or venting from brewing/cooling? sterling engines have been around since the 1800s and the move based upon heat. you can easily generate some electricity from the heat you lose in the process. sure not much, but hey it is something from what is traditionally a waste product.

sure I have no professional brewing experience, but I want to . I have helped out in a small brewery here (hi Scott), and I would love to do more, I am honestly just happy to be around the equipment. If i would open this I would not be the brewer because My hands would be so damn full with the operations and keeping an eye/doing all the stuff for the sustainabilty aspects I wouldn't have the time. so above are 2 of many ideas I would like to use, and they aren't even the good ones. thanks to willie nelson for the biodiseal idea.

[ERock]

ok I was wrong, the town is in denmark, here is a basic webage about it
http://www.symbiosis.dk/

here is a complex image about how that area works, using waste. think about it on a smaller scale. what are your wastes, and how can you utailze them. (sorry my spelling is aweful! i studied computers not english)
image

[ERock]

...
here are two ideas I would like to do that don't take a genius to figure out.

Mind you I am not saying I am a genius I just just saying these are easy ideas to figure out if you just shift the way you think just a little bit.

[hmois]

we all or at least many from us know about or read about reusing wast,but as i say earlier in a small brewpub restaurant just a hassel keeping it straight and working and it never will pay off .believe me you will have enough headaches with a traditional brewpub /microbrewery you dont need anything else and then keeping those extra tings running in shape maintained ,start up costs and saving money with it i really believe thats not even and never will at least not in such small a skale

[beauxman]

Wise decision to concentrate on running the business rather than trying to brew also. Your ambition is to be respected, but it will be difficult to turn a profit if you ask me. Then again, anything is possible!

I would be concerned with the "why" two previous attempts in your market for a brewpub went under. I am sure you have researched this?

On the subject of waste, how is the "market" for farmers in your area? If you are lucky, you can charge them for the spent grains and recover a tiny bit of money. If you are in a difficult region (such as myself), you will PAY the farmer (if you can find one) to haul your grain away!

Good luck,
-Beaux

[ERock]

Wise decision to concentrate on running the business rather than trying to brew also. Your ambition is to be respected, but it will be difficult to turn a profit if you ask me. Then again, anything is possible!

I would be concerned with the "why" two previous attempts in your market for a brewpub went under. I am sure you have researched this?

On the subject of waste, how is the "market" for farmers in your area? If you are lucky, you can charge them for the spent grains and recover a tiny bit of money. If you are in a difficult region (such as myself), you will PAY the farmer (if you can find one) to haul your grain away!

Good luck,
-Beaux

well why one of them went under was due to rats. and some news channel picked that up, and well I am sure you can understand why they went down. I haven't looked into the other one (ok there are two that went down) but I could find out.
as far as the farmers go. I am on a first name basis with several organic farmers in the area and am good friends with them. getting rid of the spent grains are not a problem, as in addition to giving them to farmers, that is one of the areas to get additional revenues from (at least 3 addtional uses before going to the farmer).

and to hmois:
yes the start up costs will be HUGE and I am not thinking otherwise, but I do think it would work. waste is waste, and if you can reclaim anything out of it, it is good. I also think I may be able to get cheap/free labor from universities as interships running some of the project, and allow them to do thesis work there. there is CMU with an ecological design program, and Slippery rock with a sustainablity degree.

[Alex T]

hi,

look up ZERI (zero emissions research initiative) and brewery. there have been a couple of projects around the world doing just this - a brewery that is completely sustainable which turns wastes into products, etc, etc. there is one they set up in namibia (south west africa) which is based on the zeri principles. there may be on going on in montana as well???? check out the new belgian site for a few ideas, they seem to be doing a lot of sustainability work. have fun and good luck!

alex

[Alex T]

hey,

i looked it up and found the site. maybe just some initial ideas....

http://www.zeri.org/index.cfm?id=projectBrewery&CFID=855748&CFTOKEN=76821448

alex