Building A Small Brewpub - 17
The following is a fictional description of opening a brewpub
I brewed my Irish Red Ale as my first beer. It will also be great on cask and it’s an easy beer to begin with to propagate my fresh yeast I received. From this batch there will be enough yeast for two more beers and then I’m off and running. I can safely get 10 generations out of my yeast, so if I brew twice per week, that will be 20 batches of beer from this yeast, which makes it very affordable. Of course I will also use Methylene Blue to stain the yeast when I do my yeast cell counts, to check viability. Also, I track the fermentation process and record it on a simple spread sheet. I graph that and by doing it every time per yeast I can see how the fermentation line drops, and it should be the same every time. If not, then that would be a clue that it’s time to change yeast. Of course as a habit I change it out after 10 generations anyway.
I’ll be transferring that beer to the serving tank in a couple days but will be brewing an IPA day after tomorrow. I will have other breweries beer on tap temporarily until all my beers are on tap. I don’t want to wait the 6 extra weeks it would take to have 8 of my taps ready.
Today I’m planning out my training week with the employees I’ve hired. It seems like a good starting crew, and I’ve trained a few people to help train the staff as well. I want to be free to oversee the training and give input. But here is my one week plan.
A quick staff meeting for everyone to explain the upcoming week. This will be on Sunday. I will introduce myself and everyone else will do a quick introduction. Then the meeting will be over but I’ll ask a couple to stay on and help clean and put things away.
I have divided the group in two. ‘A’ Group - Bartender, Server, Cooks, Dish and ‘B’ - Group, Bartender, Server, Cooks, Dish. This first day each will train on different aspects of their job for half they, then switch with the other group. At the end of the day group A will serve group B, then vice-versa. A quick meeting at the end to see how it went.
Tuesday we will do the same training, exactly like we did Monday. But at the end as people start to get a feel for the job, I expect a lot more feedback.
Wednesday I have invited friends and family to come in. There will be 2 shifts. A will take care of the first shift while B watches. Then we switch. This is a dress rehearsal so the staff will be nervous. I won’t charge our friends for this. They are helping us after all. There should be some good feedback and the end of this shift.
Thursday. Another dress rehearsal but this time with people from the community. I try to find the connectors, people who seem to know everyone. I can find them on Tik Tok, Instagram and Facebook locally.
Friday, exactly the same as Thursday. Only I really have to make sure we cover the door as people will want to come in, thinking we are open.
Saturday is our grand opening. I sent out invitation and we will serve free beer and wine, and employees will walk around with pizza slices. I have to stay sober and watch that front door though, for party crashers. I know to end a free event like this I just give instructions to the bartenders to leave the bar at 8:00. That should get everyone out and us cleaned up by 10:30
Sunday again, this will be my favorite day. Nothing is planned and I, with the help of two managers, will do inventory (to establish the beginning inventory, remember that?) and then at the end of the day with the place quiet and looking good, I’ll enjoy a pint of beer.
It’s important that before we open up on Monday I have all the checklists in place. I went ahead and marked the light switches so I know how bright they should be when it’s dark. I’ve also picked out the type of music we will be playing on our system. I DO NOT want the bartender picking out whatever they like.
Looking over the training week I see that we are spending quite a bit on labor and product. But there are three huge advantages to this system.
The staff is getting some of the best real world training before customers have to spend any money, so less bad reviews and better first impressions.
All the people coming in for these training nights will become goodwill ambassadors for our little pub in the community.
I haven’t spent a dime on advertising. Free food and beer are then best kind of marketing, plus the usual social media.
It’s going to be a crazy week, and what’s more it will be a crazy first year. But let me get through the week first.
