July 29, 2007
How To Get There From Here…
So the wheels in my brain have been turning, and the plans have started to form.
The first question is brewery vs. brewpub. There are advantages to a brewery, in that you have two jobs: brew and sell. Yes, like any small business, that’s probably two full-time jobs. But even if you work 12 hours a day, the ability to set your own hours would be nice. It definitely appears to allow more freedom. But there’s one disadvantage. There’s not much money there. When you run the numbers, retail price compared to brewing cost is a huge margin. But when you factor in distributor profit, retail profit, bottling, etc, it just sucks the money right out. A brewpub has a distinct monetary advantage. As Sam Calagione says in his book, restaurants with brewpubs have about 1/10th the failure rate as restaurants without brewpubs. One of the main reasons for this is that the revenue stream from the brewing side is nearly all profit. The downside, though, is that a restaurant is a 7-day a week job, and instead of starting small as a 1 or 2 man operation in a little industrial park, you need to think about location, staff, and all the headaches that are associated with the restaurant business.
That’s not easy, especially for me, as I know nothing about the restaurant business. But it still makes a lot more sense. I think the chances of success are much better with a restaurant. Of course that opens a million other questions… Do I find a partner that knows the restaurant side to go into business with? Do I try to do it myself (with the assistance of the wife, who is the only one of us that knows anything about food)? There’s a lot of learning to be done here, but at least I have an idea of what I have to learn about.
Obviously, the brewing side will need to be fleshed out quite a bit. I think I’ve worked my way through IPA’s to the point where I can make a solid IPA. I haven’t tried it yet, but I hear that the Amber Ale I brewed with my brewing buddies is darn good. I’ll have to check it myself, but it might be a good start for a recipe. I haven’t done much with wheat beers, but those are typically not as difficult. But I’ve never brewed a good stout or porter (I haven’t really tried either), and every high-gravity beer I’ve made has flopped. You can’t have a respectable brewery in SoCal and not put out a double IPA, and I’d have to have an Imperial Stout available for the “winter” months. But I’ve got time between now and then, so I’ll try to work that out.
Next, of course, is debt… Getting out of debt takes a level of self-control I’ve never really had. But I can’t get a bank loan with the level of debt that I’ve got. And I’ll be damned if I let that get in the way of this. So I’m turning over a true new leaf, and I’m going to stop being an idiot about it, and get it under control.
There’s one more thing. I need a name. I had “Revolutionary Brewing Company” all scoped out. But it appears to be taken, and by another aspiring brewery here in SoCal. I’d do the “Patrick Henry” thing, but that’s a little too close to “Samuel Adams”, and I don’t have the Virginia or farming connections to Henry. Maybe a little inside joke and call it “Spooner’s”, or just drop the politics altogether and start fresh.
So that’s where I stand. I’m working out steps 5 and 6 on a 678-step process.
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“The [whatever name] Street Brewery” always sound good and historical.
Brad,
2 things:
1) In the first paragraph, you mention a brewpub, but you talk about a brewery.
2) I’d be more than willing to offer some advice on the restaurant side.
1) Oops… I’ll fix that.
2) I didn’t know you had any restaurant experience… I guess if you ever make it out here to visit, you can write it off on your taxes as a “consulting” expense