Ask Dr. Frankenbrew
07/30/23
Sandy and I had a beautiful hike today up in the San Juan Mountains. It’s unusual to have so many wild flowers at the end of July, the the field was covered! We have a pretty good back yard.
I do a lot of those types of things. After 40 years of restaurants and breweries, I have been ready to accomplish less. That’s why I’m always harping to anyone opening a brewery who will listen, to start with the end in mind. I’d like some of those questions, because they are so important in business.
I still haven’t received anyones Frankenbrew pics. I’d really like some, anything really that you do, you consider Frankenbrew. Just for fun. Now for this weeks questions.
Question: What would you recommend to test co2 levels in the tank? I’m looking for an alternative to the $2000. zahm nagel.
Answer: Well first off, why do you think you even need one? I have one at Colorado Boy, but they don’t use it (Mike?). And it’s so cool looking too! It looks like one of those Swedish….pumps. Anyway, I did use it all the time when I had a packaging brewery. That’s because my carbonation levels needed to be spot-on to operate our evil bottling machine.
But at the pub level, as part of your carbonation protocol, just test at the tap until it is where you want it. After a while you’ll just know. You can see how we do it in the Colorado Boy SOP book (see below). So if you are not packaging, it’s not necessary, but, I also understand you want to make the most consistent and best product possible, which I completely applaud.
That said, Foxx Distributing has a less expensive alternative. If you don’t have a Foxx catalogue, it is a must-have for the aspiring brewery owner. You won’t get one unless you have a tax id number, but you could still look up the catalogue on line, although it has no prices. Once you have your tax id number, meaning you are a business, they will send you one complete with prices at no charge.
Question: Appreciate all the advice, I was just wondering what you think the biggest hurdles are for home brewers who want to go pro?
Answer: Probably the first is everyone out there is saying you need over a million dollars to open a brewery. If you read my past posts, you will see I totally disagree. In some instances, as little as $100,000, and there are creative ways to come up with that.
Secondly most of the students we have had are mystified by the idea of brewing on a large professional system. But all we do is home brew with bigger and better equipment. Especially with something like a 7 BBL system that we typically help our students put together. Instead of a bunch of dials and knobs, which look so neat, we use a few switches - the one that goes to the pump, one that turns the kettle on, and one that adjusts the temps on the fermenters. It’s very easy. In fact, easier than home brew, because we have swell floor drains that are sloped, so clean up is a snap.
Thirdly, and the most important, all the business side of things. From licensing, inspections, and all those government forms and taxes like 941’s, excise taxes, W-2’s, I'-9’s etc. But as in anything else, it’s just a process. You start at one point and keep plowing through. The business system, which actually controls how you run the business is THE MOST IMPORTANT. But you don’t need to go to Harvard Business School, or MIT to run a great and profitable brewery. We teach all that, but I’m not plugging our school - books maybe though.
If your desire is strong enough, you can overcome the fear in all these steps. In fact, fear of failure is your best friend. Especially if you wind up borrowing some family money. That’s a great motivator to make sure you don’t fail.
So that’s it for this week. Please ask more questions. And send pics too.
