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Hi everyone. I just stumbled upon this forum after pondering an idea while sitting at my desk at work today. I've always been a beer guy. When I was in college I quickly graduated from Natty Light to microbrews and I've never looked back. Now I'm 25 with a good job and a few years of work experience, but I'm wondering what it is I REALLY want to do when I grow up. Let's start by saying that I've read about brewing, tried lots of different kinds of beers, and stared wide eyed at the tanks at Triumph Brewing Company here in Princeton, but I've never had a job in the brewing industry. I know absolutely nothing about it. I am however extremely willing to learn as much as I can. That being said, I'll talk about what prompted this idea.
I was reading about how Samuel Adams had established their brewery in an old brewery in Boston that not only had a lot of charm and character, but it was also a great re-use of an old building. One of my interests is the revitalization of cities here in New Jersey, and there is no shortage of historic brick factory buildings in this state which date back as far as the 1850s in many cases. Many of them sit idle and abandoned while others are simply used for warehousing/storage. Needless to say with the various smart growth policies implemented over the years there is money available for people who want to start businesses by re-using old urban structures in order to discourage the consumption of what little open space we have left. There is also quite a bit of money available for cleaning the sites up (brownfield remediation) and building "green." I'd love to be able to start a business and stimulate the economy of one of our cities at the same time. Not to mention the fact that the brewery would occupy a beautiful historic building that could be a great marketing tool. I would want to produce beers that reflected the rich history of the area in terms of styles and names.
I have a lot of questions (of course), so here goes:
NJ is notorious for not being all that business friendly, which I'm not THAT worried about since businesses seem to start here anyway, but how BREWERY friendly is NJ? Are there any quirks to NJ law that make the state more/less conducive to operating a brewery?
Is there a complete list of NJ microbreweries and their locations anywhere?
How much startup cash are we talking about here for equipment? Obviously the building is a variable, but what would it cost in equipment to build a small brewery? How about a medium sized one? I should note that I'm very handy, I can weld, fabricate, do plumbing, wiring, etc...and I have many friends in various trade unions who are properly trained and licensed and would be happy to do side work for me for cheap/free.
What kind of licensing do I need? How much will it cost?
How does distribution work?
How many people does a typical microbrewery employ? How many skilled/unskilled workers would I need?
What am I getting myself into?
I'd appreciate any advice anyone can give. I see a business like this as a combination of passions for me (beer, history, urban renewal, etc...) and I feel it's something that would undoubtedly be very demanding and arduous, but ultimately fulfilling.
I was reading about how Samuel Adams had established their brewery in an old brewery in Boston that not only had a lot of charm and character, but it was also a great re-use of an old building. One of my interests is the revitalization of cities here in New Jersey, and there is no shortage of historic brick factory buildings in this state which date back as far as the 1850s in many cases. Many of them sit idle and abandoned while others are simply used for warehousing/storage. Needless to say with the various smart growth policies implemented over the years there is money available for people who want to start businesses by re-using old urban structures in order to discourage the consumption of what little open space we have left. There is also quite a bit of money available for cleaning the sites up (brownfield remediation) and building "green." I'd love to be able to start a business and stimulate the economy of one of our cities at the same time. Not to mention the fact that the brewery would occupy a beautiful historic building that could be a great marketing tool. I would want to produce beers that reflected the rich history of the area in terms of styles and names.
I have a lot of questions (of course), so here goes:
NJ is notorious for not being all that business friendly, which I'm not THAT worried about since businesses seem to start here anyway, but how BREWERY friendly is NJ? Are there any quirks to NJ law that make the state more/less conducive to operating a brewery?
Is there a complete list of NJ microbreweries and their locations anywhere?
How much startup cash are we talking about here for equipment? Obviously the building is a variable, but what would it cost in equipment to build a small brewery? How about a medium sized one? I should note that I'm very handy, I can weld, fabricate, do plumbing, wiring, etc...and I have many friends in various trade unions who are properly trained and licensed and would be happy to do side work for me for cheap/free.
What kind of licensing do I need? How much will it cost?
How does distribution work?
How many people does a typical microbrewery employ? How many skilled/unskilled workers would I need?
What am I getting myself into?
I'd appreciate any advice anyone can give. I see a business like this as a combination of passions for me (beer, history, urban renewal, etc...) and I feel it's something that would undoubtedly be very demanding and arduous, but ultimately fulfilling.
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