Why just brew beer?

A cup of Joe please

It’s early, I’m looking out the window at the tall pines and instead of snow, there’s rain. What makes it a perfect morning however is the steaming cup of coffee within reach. Now if I were typing this on my 1955 Olivetti Lettera 22 instead of my laptop, true perfection would be achieved.

I’ve been a coffee fan ever since I was a young restaurant manager and used to stop at a favorite coffee house in downtown Santa Fe. We did eventually open a coffee house of our own in Santa Fe, as an add-on to our Italian Restaurant (Pranzo) we built.

So this morning I got to thinking about coffee again and how it can relate to the brewing business. What I want to suggest is you think about adding a morning coffee component to your existing brewery. Wait, hear me out.

To get that pint of beer in front of a customer, you first have to brew it, ferment it, make it clear (or not), carbonate, and get it to the tap - all with expensive equipment and many labor hours. You will sell that pint for $6 or maybe even more. Of course you also have to pay for your liquor license, insurance, rent, utilities, beer excise tax and so on. So there is a lot to come out of that $6 before you have anything left over.

A coffee, like a latte or some other espresso drink, will be at least $3. The cost of the ingredients are less than .50 cents, and it takes about two minutes to make. A drip coffee sells for about $2 and costs about .15 cents plus creamer and sugar. That takes hardly any time to make. A really good coffee equipment package might cost $10,000, but used more like $3,000, or about the cost of a brew pump.

Most breweries are in unique buildings where there is good foot traffic. A lot are in historic buildings with beautiful brick walls and wood floors. Others are in industrial areas where there are many other businesses. Breweries also typically have a good internet connection for their customers to use. And finally, breweries are open for lunch and dinner, or maybe just a tap room open in the afternoons and evenings, leaving the space empty of customers in the mornings.

The way I see it, your space is open to serve coffee with no rent or utilities, since you are already there and paying for it. You have an attractive space with good internet for customers and room for business people to have meetings. Why not use this resource to generate more income and traffic to your brewery?

I would hire a coffee manager who would come in early, set up and work the coffee hours, say 6:00 to 10:00. If you are open for lunch there is plenty of time for the lunch crew to get ready. I would bonus the manager based on business, and what a perfect job for someone only working about five hours and making good money running their own show. I would even consider based on the location of doing it only Monday through Friday.

For food, something very simple can be offered like scones or simple pastries that are bought, or you can buy them ready to bake and the regular kitchen people can pop them in the oven. Or like the coffee house I used to go to in Santa Fe, I think they only served toast! By the way, they are still there in a new an expanded location 30 years later. Downtown Subscription

Some of our students from our Immersion Course have gone this route and it has not only increased their profitability but also their visibility. The bottom line is you have the space already, and like beer tanks, you don’t want them sitting empty. Accountants look at successful business as sales per square foot. This will enhance the value of your brewery in many ways. In a future newsletter I will get into business valuation and you will see what I mean.

My coffee cup is empty and it’s stopped raining. I better get the day going.