# Certified brewing courses Perth



## firezuki (2/11/17)

Apologies if this has been covered but I was wondering if anyone knew a worthwhile certificate course in beer brewing in Perth?


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## neal32 (3/11/17)

firezuki said:


> Apologies if this has been covered but I was wondering if anyone knew a worthwhile certificate course in beer brewing in Perth?



Don't waste your money. It's actually quite easy to make good beer, not that much harder to make great beer.

Spend your money so you can follow this ----> https://aussiehomebrewer.com/threads/move-to-all-grain-for-thirty-bucks.38674/ or something similar.

Do it over and over until it makes sense, make many mistakes, learn from them and you will be a better brewer than any certificate.

My top 5 important things.

1. Ferment with the right amount of healthy yeast. I use http://www.yeastcalculator.com/

2. Keep the fermentation temperature steady and in the manufactures range.

3. Go straight to all grain, it's cheaper and better.

4. Pay extra attention to cleaning and sanitizing. Especially cold side.

5. Never stop learning. Make friends with http://brulosophy.com/ and https://www.themadfermentationist.com/

Good luck! It's a pretty deep rabbit hole.


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## firezuki (6/11/17)

Thanks Neal. I have been all-grain brewing for a little while and love it. I'm actually looking (only preliminary-wise) at perhaps a nano brewery business (very small bar) and was wondering if you had to have some kind of official accreditation to brew beer for the public? If so, where would one go?


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## malt junkie (6/11/17)

firezuki said:


> Thanks Neal. I have been all-grain brewing for a little while and love it. I'm actually looking (only preliminary-wise) at perhaps a nano brewery business (very small bar) and was wondering if you had to have some kind of official accreditation to brew beer for the public? If so, where would one go?


Your ability to make a beer that is drinkable or even approaches quality is not actually a prerequisite to owning/running your own brewery.

Firstly you need a premise that is in a suitably zoned location and gain permission of the local council planning department, and health department (food safe). You will need your RSA, and make application the WA Licensing for brewery license. The federal government will require you to have your brewery calibrated for excise and you will need to show how alcohol volume for excise will be calculated (excise is paid up front upon packaging). This is not a cheap process and not one to be entered into lightly. If your serious about heading down this path, the first place to start is a good long chat with council planning, you want to open a business, it's something most councils want too. 

Go chat to the owners of a few of the local small breweries pick their brains, they're likely to be like most on this site, supportive and full of good information and tips.

Not something I'd contemplate without $500-750K behind me, and that's buying second hand gear.

some food for thought, good luck with your endeavors.

MJ


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## firezuki (10/11/17)

malt junkie said:


> Your ability to make a beer that is drinkable or even approaches quality is not actually a prerequisite to owning/running your own brewery.
> 
> Firstly you need a premise that is in a suitably zoned location and gain permission of the local council planning department, and health department (food safe). You will need your RSA, and make application the WA Licensing for brewery license. The federal government will require you to have your brewery calibrated for excise and you will need to show how alcohol volume for excise will be calculated (excise is paid up front upon packaging). This is not a cheap process and not one to be entered into lightly. If your serious about heading down this path, the first place to start is a good long chat with council planning, you want to open a business, it's something most councils want too.
> 
> ...



Thanks MJ. Sage advice. I'm hoping to go pretty small (mini nano!) and I spoke to some people who do something similar (except a lot larger.) They said exactly the same as you. I'm a bit staggered that in this over governed nanny country that I don't need certification as a brewer. May be good news if I can figure out the logistics of the rest. 
Thanks sincerely for your imput.


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## Lionman (13/11/17)

I have a dream of opening a brew pub in WA somewhere/sometime.

Just a small 300L or so brewery with maybe 5 or so fermenters.

The cost and bureaucratic red tape is a little more than daunting though...


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## Lyrebird_Cycles (13/11/17)

It is a common mistake to size a brewery on brewhouse capacity. Fermentation capacity is a much more reliable guide, it is possible (though difficult) to get an annual production which is 2000 times the brewhouse capacity: eg a 100 hL brewhouse can produce 20 Ml PA. 

As a rough round guide, a craft brewery / brewpub will manage a total annual production around ten times its fermentation capacity*. Your 1500 litres of fermentation space thus corresponds to about 15 kl of annual production. If you can clear $1 / litre (which is doubtful) you'd be making $15k from the brewery.

The brewery therefore cannot pay for itself unless it is seen as a marketing expense for the front of house.




* Assuming an average mix of beers. If you just make boring mass market swill you can double this but your margins go down so it's a wash.


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## Lyrebird_Cycles (13/11/17)

malt junkie said:


> The federal government will require you to have your brewery calibrated for excise and you will need to show how alcohol volume for excise will be calculated (excise is paid up front upon packaging).



If you mean volume of product: a dip chart from the producer of your equipment is acceptable but in reality most people simply count how many kegs and how many bottles they produce and base their excisable volumes on that.

If you mean ABV, up to 100 kl PA the ATO will accept calculation from wort extract and final extract, most people use something derived from the Balling formula: 

OE = 100 * (2.0665 * Aw/w + RE) / (100 + 1.0665* Aw/w)

Beyond 100 kl you can afford to buy an Alex.


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## Lionman (13/11/17)

Is $1/L all a brewpub can clear when they sell beer at $12/pint? I know exercise is high but f*ck me...

How much does a viable small to medium bar actually move across the taps/year?

I think a lot of the time, its the food that makes the coin. The beer, like you say is an attraction.


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## Lyrebird_Cycles (13/11/17)

Sorry if this wasn't clear.

The _brewery_ will be struggling to make $1 / litre*, especially at that scale. The front of house is a different proposition.

The value of the beer produced by the brewery to the front of house has two components, the replacement cost of the beer itself, eg the cost at which you could buy it from someone else (usually less than the cost of producing it yourself) and the uniqueness value: the value of attracting customers to your front of house.

The second is a marketing cost and IMO should not be factored into the production budget. It's perfectly OK to have the brewery running at a loss and supported by the front of house but it needs to be recognised as such. Not doing so will lead to bad decision making.



*This has little to do with tax. Breweries are expensive to build and to run.


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