Microbrewery - Startup fact finding

[mb-squared]

might be worth a trip up to six-strings brewery. they are going gangbusters now, but if you ask around you'll hear how it took them more than 3 years to break through all the red tape. best of luck!

 

[Blind Dog]

Gage Road publish their financials on their website under Company Information / New and Reports. Its not a direct answer to your question but there is heaps of information in them. In FY12 they spent $11.2m on raw materials, consumables and delivery to brew about 10m litres of beer.

they also sold it at a little more than $2.5 a litre.

add financing costs, employee costs and the rest and they made $862k profit on $25m of sales, or about 3.5% net profit (which oddly is also the return on equity invested). thats a net profit of 8.6cents per litre - you may make more, but they're 25% owned by woolies so have direct and probably preferential access to Dan's, BWS, all the woolies owned hotels and the contract to brew woolies own label beers

 

[///]

Wonder how that $826k went with thier dumping of a few hundy thouso litres due to a brewhouse infection ...

Cents per litre on raw materials is real easy, try and do one for you services .... that aint so easy to figure out a kw/l when you have a retail and producition facility.

 

[JB]

Wonder how that $826k went with thier dumping of a few hundy thouso litres due to a brewhouse infection ...

Wow!

 

[Online Brewing Supplies]

500,000 L worth of WOW

 

[Blind Dog]

Wonder how that $826k went with thier dumping of a few hundy thouso litres due to a brewhouse infection ...

Cents per litre on raw materials is real easy, try and do one for you services .... that aint so easy to figure out a kw/l when you have a retail and producition facility.

The $826k is a major improvement on prior years - they still have $10m of accumulated losses to date.

As to the kW/l, or any other measure you want, it's just a matter of having the data. Perhaps the real issue is whether that data can actually give you any meaningful insights, or whether it's just a number for your accountant's wet dreams. If kW/l helped you brew better beer your posts suggests that me placing money on you finding a way to work it out, would be a safe bet.

 

[Cecil Brai]

Go to a brewery and chat. I work at a brewery and we get a few people a year touring brewery to brewery asking questions. Starting small is a great way to go but we did and after winning awards at aiba we couldn't and can't keep up with demand. So expansion is starting. It costs a lot to get started but if your confident in your product more is less

 

[doon]

Would a brew pub type set up be more realistic where most of the product is sold over your own bar?

Seems like the packaging/distribution and late accounts is the biggest headache for a brewery

 

[///]

Absolutely, hencewhy in the US 2/3rd of craft beer is pub brewery ...

 

[brewtrekker]

Wow chill out on the dude! He is to be first congradulated on stepping into something we all aspire to do. I am sure he knows the pitfalls.
I myself being from a city that has 36 microbreweries ( Portland Oregon ) would say most of all is prepare for the down side! Right now craft beer is on the up up and up in AUS!
However here in NSW in about 5 years or so I would say that things will reach a saturation point and people will not buy into every new craft beer.
So I think we can enjoy the ride right now its all new beer everywhere! However its the five year point that will separate the men from the boys.

 

[shaunous]

Brewtrekkers right, who cares what people ask, abusing him for asking questions on a Homebrew forum that are not directly home brew related, who cares? We are a diverse bunch and someone may be able to help. If someone asked a mechanical question or farming question I wouldn't tell them to Fukoff and get onto 4x4 forums or cattle producers.net. I'd try and help.

Good on ya, I'd love to if I had the coin and a better location, sadly people here can't afford to drink craft beer much at all, people think I'm rich or loopy when I walk out of Dans carrying a $25 6pack of craft beer. 'You know u can get a 30 pack of New for $40 you idiot' that and no one really like the taste yet. Grafton Bitter, revived by Thunder Roads bombed hard here.

 

[Phoney]

If you want to own and run a microbrewery with a premises and on-prem tasting bar; expect to pay between $380k and $550k (depending on whether you buy new or second hand kit).

If you just want a wholesaler / producers license and contract brew on site at other established breweries. Expect to pay around $10 - $20k. But, you'll be paying at least $170 to brew a keg this way and you'll be selling them for $250. ie: You'll need to sell a lot to break even and earn $50k pa.

Personally I don't think you can do it on your own. You need at least a partner in crime.

 

[Blind Dog]

Brewtrekkers right, who cares what people ask, abusing him for asking questions on a Homebrew forum that are not directly home brew related, who cares? We are a diverse bunch and someone may be able to help. If someone asked a mechanical question or farming question I wouldn't tell them to Fukoff and get onto 4x4 forums or cattle producers.net. I'd try and help.
Good on ya, I'd love to if I had the coin and a better location, sadly people here can't afford to drink craft beer much at all, people think I'm rich or loopy when I walk out of Dans carrying a $25 6pack of craft beer. 'You know u can get a 30 pack of New for $40 you idiot' that and no one really like the taste yet. Grafton Bitter, revived by Thunder Roads bombed hard here.

Read past a few of the posts and most people are trying to help, and probably getting a little sidetracked in doing so so the thread meanders. But you're right - People who get their kicks out of ranting at others are just sad.

 

[Feldon]

Marketing, marketing, marketing.

Most beer consumers buy labels, and the perceptions associated with the brand image, than buy good beer.

 

[Eumundibrewery]

to amateur brewer
Casey beer gives a great rundown on costs.
You cannot do a Bernie Power & compete with the Big 2 for retail, but can survive as a brewpub, IF you have DA & Licences from the three tiers of Government & a Tourist friendly site. .
Email me [ [email protected] ] for my 3 year fight to get a craft brewery approved
Eumundi Winery & Brewery

 

[brewtrekker]

I couldn't agree more Feldon! Beer is 1/3 product and 2/3 marketing to sell the beer! I have tasted beer from all over the world, and would say without a doubt that most Homebrewers can and do make better beer then more then 90 percent of the Craft Brewers out there! Plus we don't need a piece of paper from some flowery Uni telling us how to do it! I think if the Government did some incentive i.e.financial help for small businesses more so in this country allot more of us would be throwing our hats into the ring and starting up our own Nano or Micro Brewery !

 

[peas_and_corn]

Brew Strong on the brewing network had a series of episodes about opening a brewery, with jamil's recent experience opening heretic as the info source. They cover everything you could possibly imagine so they're worth checking out

 

[DU99]

Plus you need the people to like and buy the product.word of mouth is your best salesman.

 

[peas_and_corn]

Oh yeah, whatever you spend on the brewery? Spend the same amount on your packaging line. Beer can only lose quality during and after packaging, you need to make sure that is minimised if you want repeat customers

 

[BadSeed]

Hello everyone, I'm looking for some help!

I'm investigating starting up a microbrewwery the first step being the financial analysis of course. I'm not after world domination just a small brewery producing great beer with the smallest amount of "fuss" needed.

I'm looking at replacing my current salary with the brewery and hence working backwards from the amount of profit to the amount of beautiful beer needed to be produced. for example if i were to make 50c per liter profit and i wanted a $50,000 salary that's 100,000 L per year. This will determine equipment sizing, spare to rent etc etc.

I intend to sell to bottle shops and some over the cellar door as such. but i need to know the following, so if anyone has any experience please let me know:

1) What mark up the bottle shop typically needs
2) Cost of bulk ingredients (malt hops etc)

I'd also welcome anyone thoughts and opinions on anything to do with starting a microbrewery.

I have got nothing to add that hasn't been said, but good luck with it.