Upstart Microbrewery Help

Beer and Spirits
1

So, let’s say that last week you were going about your business trying to raise and market Wagyu cattle. Your business partner and money man has the brilliant idea of starting a co-branded microbrewery to supply high energy mash and beer to fatten up said cows and possibly make some local coin on the hooch.

I know how to drink beer, not how to make 10,000 gallons of it.

If you could start net new with a custom built (ground up) brewery, what would you do? Any help from legal, production, marketing, etc. would be greatly appreciated and rewarded with beef.

2

Beer + Wagyu FTW!

3

First of all, 10,000 gallons of beer isn’t very much from a commercial brewing perspective - roughly 325 barrels. You need to think more in the range of 1,000 to 5,000 barrels.

The investment needed to build a 4,000 BBL/year brewery is probably in the $600,000 to $1,000,000 range, and will take a year to build and license.

Most breweries are more than willing to sell their spent grain - we give ours away just so we don’t have to dispose of it. That might be a better approach.

4

Don’t know about Texas, but I would not consider this in Michigan. There are micros popping up everywhere, and I think the market will not support them all.
Too risky for me, but if it is your passion, go for it.

5

This. Most breweries are looking to tap into the ‘farm to table’ market, helps them to be seen as a regional entity. If you could work out a contract with several you could probably get a fairly consistent weekly food source. Hell, if there was one you could get an exclusive with one and they could provide you with enough, you could even cross-advertise as ‘Fed exclusively with Brewery X grains’, the same way some breweries advertise specific barrels for their beers or coffee roasters for their coffee beers

6

Thanks for all the input. That 10,000 gallon number was just a random thought.

The beer is kind of second fiddle here as the marketing it to be brewing and feeding all in house. We have thought about contacting established microbrewery folks here, and that might be a backup plan if the dollars and timeline don’t work. I don’t think the goal is to be producing beer for a real profit or very wide distribution.

7

you should message John Liotta Bill. He helped start up a brewery last year that’s doing very well in the ATL

8

#CritterBrew

9

Geez Bill, I might have to move to Dallas [wow.gif]