Ask Dr. Frankenbrew

8/27/23

These are good questions this week because they “seg” into something else that has been on my mind for quite some time.

Question: I was curious if you are a proponent of brewing science courses, I know they can be helpful, but I’ve learned quite a bit from home brewing and I didn’t want to spend money that I didn’t have to. On the other hand, I can also see the benefits that one can obtain from gaining a better understanding of the chemistry involved in the brewing process. Do you think they’re worth it?

Answer: If you have the money, yes it’s worth it. But it might not be necessary at first when you just start out IF you are already making great home brew. I think brewing education is not something you do before you open a brewery necessarily, but rather something that you always do.

I was making pretty good beer in my first company, IL Vicino, and winning GABF and World Beer Cup, but when I decided to open a packaging brewery in Western Colorado, I took the two week Siebel Brewing Microbiology Course. In the brewery I built, I added a lab and we did all sorts of tests to make sure our beer was clean and consistent, which I felt was a necessity if you are distributing. I also learned better yeast handling techniques as well, so I think it was well worth it.

Brewery education doesn’t have to be just in the form of an organized class however. I get a lot of good information simply by reading The New Brewer magazine. Also by going to brewers conferences and attending the seminars. They also provide such a great place to network.

When I started out with my first brewery, I was making so-so beer. I knew I needed to up my game so I hired a good brewer to spend two days with me brewing. He charged me $1,800 and to this day it was the best money I ever spent. That’s because it was hands on and and I learned from his years of experience some of the tricks of the trade. That was in 1994. It is not a coincidence that my first GABF medal for an IPA was in 1995.

When we do our Immersion Course, within our fist 30 minutes of discussion I typically save the student enough money to pay for the course ten fold.

Many students will hire an architect, which can charge ten to twenty thousand dollars, and just think that’s just the cost of doing business. I could charge someone $10,000 and mentor them through the whole process, including the first brews and probably save the student ten times that and perhaps not even need an architect. That’s because I have experience in building breweries in real world situations. There are lot’s of people who can do that for you.

If you pay a working brewer to spend time with you it may be some of the best education you can get, and well worth it.

Question: I am looking to buy an existing brewery that just has a counter where people can buy beer to go. Is there a way to make this more profitable?

Answer: It depends. I’d have to look at the physical space, but if we can re-arrange the layout to create a tasting room where people can sit down and enjoy a pint, then yes, this could be a good option.

Retail! Retail! Retail!

Let me elaborate. For 99.9% of folks opening a brewery, you simply want to ply your craft and make money doing it. The best way to do this is to sell as many pints by the glass as possible. While we love the idea of bars selling our beer on tap, or seeing our cans on the shelf at the local liquor store, it’s a business killer. As I’ve mentioned so many times, selling wholesale is just not profitable - period. Always be thinking about selling retail.

In fact, since you have the space already paid for and it’s sitting empty in the mornings, sell coffee and espresso. Your brewery is a great place for meetings (you have wifi) or people just out enjoying the morning. If they are comfortable in one situation (brewery) they will be comfortable in the other (coffee house). And coffee is as much or more profitable as beer.

A good friend of mine who owns a brewery that sells over 30,000 BBL’s per year is changing his business model and going towards a chain of tasting rooms, where - you guessed it - he can sell as much beer as possible by the pint.

So it’s better if you just start out this way, and if you can purchase an existing brewery for cheap that is not making it because they only sell wholesale, this can be a great opportunity if you can expand the retail area.

Is there a topic I’m not covering that you would like more info on? Please shoot me a comment.