What I wish I knew about operating a brewhouse.....looking for feedback

[bstboy]

So I have a unique opportunity in owning and operating a 7BBL brewhouse with a couple of partners.

We've done a ton of homework in the past, thinking we could start our own brewery but now we have this opportunity of running a brewhouse that is already established and has a customer base, all on real crappy beer. Most of the pains and hassles of starting up a brewery throughout the first year have been eliminated (legal, construction, startup costs, etc).

The current Restaurant owner knows our beer and wants us to take over as brewers and part owners. Must say an intriguing opportunity.

The brewhouse is 7BBL. 7BBL Lauter, 7BBL DF Brew Kettle/Mash Mixer, 8BBL HLT (I know, too small), 7BBL Unitanks x 3, 7BBL FV x3 all jacketed and glycol chilled. Dual stage heat exchanger. 2 pumps and 1 mobile pump. CIP installed. Allen Bradley control pannel (graphical display). And some other minor bells and whistles.

So my question is, what did you wish you knew about operating a large scale brewhouse upon your startup from a homebrewing operation? I'm referring to the specific operation of the system. I've read all of the articles about time commitment, paperwork, etc. etc. But I'm more concerned about operations.

If we decide to do this, I'm hoping to learn from mistakes of others that have ventured on the same path. Thanks in advance for any advise.

[feinbera]

1. Get ready for some long, wet brew days. There's a certain amount of muscle memory to be quick, confident and accurate around the brewhouse – heck, think back to your first all-grain batch of homebrew, versus your average brew day now. Expect to come home exhausted and wet after 12 hours for the first couple months, but know it'll get better with practice!
2. Figure out a standard operating procedure, and stick to it! Biggest difference between my current gig and my last gig is, now, there's one Right Way To Do It, with every step and when it's done laid out before hand, and every brew day just like every other brew day, with the exception of which grains go in the mill and what hops go in the kettle. Once you get into the rhythm, you'll easily save an hour a day just by not having to think about stuff, knowing what comes next based on what you did last, and how much time you have to go and clean something or take gravity readings at any given stretch of downtime.
3. Would probably benefit you to shadow some other pro brewers, just to get an idea of what a brew day looks like. If you're willing to hose out tanks or shovel spent grain, you shouldn't have any problem finding somebody who'll let you tag along – and if you're not, operating a brewery is probably not a great career move!

[bstboy]

As further info, they currently only brew once every 3 weeks roughly. No surprise given the quality of beer....the demand just doesn't dictate brewing any more. Even if we come in and increase consumption based on the quality of our beer and say we need to brew every 2 weeks, how much time are we really talking about? I get the "get ready for long days", but does that really apply in this case? I have a day job already with minimal travel. Seems to me that the time investment to be a part of this just isn't there right now.

Now if demand really takes off and it's a once per week if not more often type of thing, then I can understand the time commitment. But hopefully by then, we would have that "muscle memory" in place where brew days are simpler and SOPs are written for all operations, including cleaning. And if we are brewing that often, then our monthly profit share just gets bigger, allowing us to possibly stomach those long weeks.

To me, this seems like too good of an opportunity for something that we love to do. Minor cash investment, infrequent brewing meaning less time commitment up front. What else am I missing? Or should I really expect to be on call 5-7 days per week even though we are brewing every 3 weeks and I'm drastically underestimating the time component. I'm happy to take all criticism.

[feinbera]

The system where I'm associate brewer sounds similar to yours, ~8 BBL, don't know about yours, but ours is highly manual, gotta walk over and adjust the valve/flip the switch/whatever. Our brew days are roughly 12 person-hours, from dumping the first bag of grain into the mill to rinsing the last CIP solution out of the kettle and turning the lights out. You can probably expect more like 16 until you get the hang of things.

Filling days (kegs and casks, not individual servings!) are roughly a similar amount of work, cleaning and filling containers, but for two batches – we brew twice a week, fill once a week.

I'd say, all-in, we're looking at 65-80 person-hours a week, with two brew days, one filling day, various random cellar/cleaning tasks, and all the "head brewer stuff" – planning the brew schedule, ordering ingredients and other supplies, answering emails, etc. A lot of that stuff can be done a couple hours here, a couple hours there – even the filling, you can clean/sani your kegs today and fill them tomorrow – but the brew day you've gotta do all in one go.

And, this is just the brewhouse – accounting and outside sales and kitchen and front-of-house are, to my understanding, magical tasks that turn finished inventory into cash by eldritch machinations I have neither the capacity nor the desire to comprehend.

[feinbera]

Oh, and, pro tip from a guy on another system with an undersized HLT – heat your sparge water in your kettle while the mash is going!

[bstboy]

Thanks feinbera

I think a main point that my team (2, possibly 3 of us) needs to consider is that inflection point where the payback on our cash investment and sweat equity isn't too long. Right now, by my calculations, if we were to brew at the current pace of every 3 weeks and sell at the same rate, then our payback is roughly 2 years. If we can manage to increase consumption by 40% and brew every other week, then that payback shrinks down to a little over one year. This is with all 3 of my team involved, which would spread the work out quite a bit. If one guy drops out, the payback time shrinks pretty significantly (1 year @ brew every 3 weeks, 8 month @ brew every 2 weeks) but now my time commitment has increased. It's about striking that right balance I think.

I think another problem that we're going to face is help from the current brewer. I've looked at the system a couple times but haven't had a chance to actually run it or watch him run it yet and I think he's getting suspicious of me hanging around. Unfortunately, it seems that his procedures are in his head because there's very little official documentation if any. Another reason probably why the beer is bad. If we do this, I have a feeling it will be with very little if no actual experience on that particular system. This is probably what I'm nervous about the most.

Thanks...keep the feedback coming.

[idylldon]

Some good points made in the responses. Here's the biggest thing for me: The apprehension about turning pro far outweighed the actuality. I spent four years as the project manager while building our brewpub and then went into the brewery about 6 months before we opened to start getting product ready. I was scared, really scared because a LOT of money was invested based on my ability to brew beer that folks wanted to buy. All during the process the investor kept saying, "It's all about the beer, Don." I even told the investor that if I couldn't do it I'd find someone who could. I remember when I went to sleep every night I felt as though I had one of those lead vests on my chest that they use during dental xrays. The responsibility was HUGE and it induced a lot of anxiety. In fact, I wasn't able to attend our grand opening because I was in the ER with stress-induced atrial fibrillation.

He also asked me how many batches I'd have to pour down the drain before I dialed it in. I said my goal is to serve everything I brew, which was a lofty goal for sure. Well, we've been open over 1.5 years and I have 21 house-brewed beers on tap. I have never lost a batch and we have sold everything we've brewed. Are all of the beers world class? No, but they're clean and tasty, and folks seem to like them since they pay for them and come back again and again. The one thing that I think gets blown way out of proportion is scaling up recipes. Of course, it depends on how much scaling you need but I found moving from 1/2BBL to 5BBL batches required very little tweaking. I initially brew a new beer using my pilot system recipe scaled up in a linear way and then I keep tweaking the recipe until I get it where I think it should be. Obviously, the first batch or two out of the "big" system aren't necessarily an exact replica of the pilot brews but they are a good starting point and I've found that they require very little tweaking to nail them down. Out of the 30+ beer styles I have brewed here, I think I have final recipes for at least half of them.

The first brew days were LONG and fraught with figuring things out, even though we did a water brew to check everything and get a good understanding of how this system works and how best to use it. Of course, as we've gone along (I have an assistant brewer who has been with me since day one) we've been able to cut our brew days down to 7 hours for a 5BBL brew length and 10 hours for a double-batch day, this includes everything from milling to cleaning. Yeah, there are days when unforeseen equipment issues cause some delays, but all in all we've been able to keep it pretty tight.

Best advice: A little fear is helpful because it will keep you on your toes, but don't let it paralyze you and try to enjoy the process even when it seems shit is going sideways at an alarming rate. As long as you pay close attention to the basics, you will produce beer that people want to drink. Are they all going to be grand slams? Probably not, but you'll be surprised to find out that a beer you think is marginal will be one of your customers favorite beers of all time. That's another thing I've learned. Taste is subjective and one man's poison is another man's satori in a glass. My best feedback is when I'm behind the bar and watching someone taste my beer when they don't know I'm watching. Their initial facial reaction will tell you what you need to know. Folks can't hide that and, to me, it's worth more than all the "expert" opinions you're going to get on places like Untapped (which is nothing more than collecting Pokeman cards for adults, IMHO). Also remember that not all beer styles are going to appeal to all beer drinkers. That's why there are so many beer styles!

I've been involved in this pub now for over six years and while there are things I'm dead tired of, the actual brewing of beer isn't one of them. I still get excited the night before a brew day and I hope that never ends. When it does, well, I'm old enough to retire and that's what I'll probably do.

Good luck!

Edit: I should have included this in my response. I started homebrewing in 1989 and this is my first professional gig.

Cheers,
--
Don
Idyllwild Brewpub

[bstboy]

Great post Don, thanks for your feedback.