Ask Dr. Frankenbrew

Can I make enough money to support a family?

I received some great questions last week, so I will try to answer them here and in the next couple weeks. As always though I love questions and they often come from an angle I am not expecting, so I learn quite a bit as well. Se let’s dig in.

Q. Hey Tom I would love some additional discussion and numbers on the take home profit of a good brewpub or taproom brewery. I want to do it, but would like some idea of is there enough profit etc to support a family on. Thanks!

A. I think the best example of this would be our Colorado Boy in Ridgway. I’ve talked a lot about it in the past and of the 7 breweries I’ve owned, it is the sweetest set-up of all.

First, it’s only 1,000 sq. ft with an additional 200 sq. ft in a basement. The town let us get away with just one restroom and a super small kitchen. I realize that is unusual, but if you had this set up with say about 1,800 sq. ft, that would allow a bigger kitchen and two restrooms.

The original plan had a storage area that I later turned into a kitchen. The plans below show a separate restroom but in fact I put a combination washer/dryer there to handle our aprons and bar towels.

Downstairs has a small office and grain storage.

A typical shift has a bartender/shift manager, one server and two cooks working a staggered shift. It is only open at night from 4 to 9, seven days a week. The brewer works during the day brewing once or twice per week. In the summer when we can use the outside there is an extra server and someone to come in and do dishes. We serve pizza, beer and wine.

So assuming yours is a family operation, let’s say you are the brewer and your spouse does the deposits and books, and maybe you take a bar shift (but you don’t need to in this scenario). This is what a typical slow season month would look like.

This shows total sales. COGS means Cost of sales in each category. About the slowest month would be in the low $40,000s, and in July about $85,000. That’s not bad for a town with a population of 1,000.

I don’t know how much money you need to live off of, but if you are paying yourself to work in your brewery, and also making this net profit, I would think that you should have no trouble supporting your family? Not only are you making a decent living but you are also building equity in a business that has some real value.

I’ll answer the other questions next week. But in the mean time think of me as a Dear Abbey. It’s way more fun to answer questions than think up a topic every week, though I will do that as well. Just address your questions to me, Dr. Frankenbrew!