I’m just starting to look down my new path. I would like to open a small (2 to 7bbl) direct sales only tasting room Brewery. I’ll apologize now for any stupid questions I’m sure to ask.
My background: Highlights, Kickass fisherman and professional beer drinker. Ran small businesses before going into Corp for the last 28 yrs. Very Mechanical, drafting n Design, Engineering back ground, Configuration Management, Project Manager, Commodity Manager, retired at 52 yrs.
Beer background: I’ve been home brewing half bbl. all grain for 35 plus yrs., clean, propagate, and slant yeast including my house yeast. 4 to 8 beers on tap at my house. I’ve changed my friends pizza restaurant into a craft beer bar. Went from 6 taps to 28. Sales from beers are better than all 4 pizza stores together. Helped in many breweries over the years from keg cleaning to brewing.
This small brewery will hopefully be my successful testing grounds to grow much larger in the future.
I now live in Dunedin FL. We have 8 breweries within a mile of my house. Most are 2 and 3 bbl successful breweries. Most breweries are only open Thur thru Sun. Dunedin Brewery is the oldest in FL and the largest around here. Our town of 36K draws in lots of people per it’s a great beer/food/party destination.
Where to start? I’m sell finaning. Because this area is very supportive of breweries I believe it doesn’t matter if I get in the most popular area downtown or off the beaten path. It’s the cost of leasing and sq footage that will dictate the size of the system I’ll need to support the building and make a profit. I’m thinking to start I’ll put spread sheets together to capture every cost I can down to the soap dispenser refills, look for a building, decide what size system I’m going to build.
I plan to buy used equipment to build a 3 vessel system. Is direct fire the cheapest to install? I’m guessing running steam pipes and or electrical would be much more startup cost than installing vents.
Leasing??? So many questions. SQ footage is 16 to 25 plus triple net in most places around here. I don’t know what I can afford to pay for rent. To get an idea can I ask, how big is your system? How many sq foot is your brewery? How many seats do you have? How many kegs per month do you sell?
Any and all help much appreciated.
Thx n Cheers
Jay
My background: Highlights, Kickass fisherman and professional beer drinker. Ran small businesses before going into Corp for the last 28 yrs. Very Mechanical, drafting n Design, Engineering back ground, Configuration Management, Project Manager, Commodity Manager, retired at 52 yrs.
Beer background: I’ve been home brewing half bbl. all grain for 35 plus yrs., clean, propagate, and slant yeast including my house yeast. 4 to 8 beers on tap at my house. I’ve changed my friends pizza restaurant into a craft beer bar. Went from 6 taps to 28. Sales from beers are better than all 4 pizza stores together. Helped in many breweries over the years from keg cleaning to brewing.
This small brewery will hopefully be my successful testing grounds to grow much larger in the future.
I now live in Dunedin FL. We have 8 breweries within a mile of my house. Most are 2 and 3 bbl successful breweries. Most breweries are only open Thur thru Sun. Dunedin Brewery is the oldest in FL and the largest around here. Our town of 36K draws in lots of people per it’s a great beer/food/party destination.
Where to start? I’m sell finaning. Because this area is very supportive of breweries I believe it doesn’t matter if I get in the most popular area downtown or off the beaten path. It’s the cost of leasing and sq footage that will dictate the size of the system I’ll need to support the building and make a profit. I’m thinking to start I’ll put spread sheets together to capture every cost I can down to the soap dispenser refills, look for a building, decide what size system I’m going to build.
I plan to buy used equipment to build a 3 vessel system. Is direct fire the cheapest to install? I’m guessing running steam pipes and or electrical would be much more startup cost than installing vents.
Leasing??? So many questions. SQ footage is 16 to 25 plus triple net in most places around here. I don’t know what I can afford to pay for rent. To get an idea can I ask, how big is your system? How many sq foot is your brewery? How many seats do you have? How many kegs per month do you sell?
Any and all help much appreciated.
Thx n Cheers
Jay
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