The microbrewery revolution is in full swing and, we must say, we absolutely love it. It’s the golden age of beer, with more hops, flavors, and varieties than, gosh, ever before? The beautiful thing about microbreweries, the thing that has prompted many to pop up from coast to coast and across the world, is that just anybody can start their own. It can be begin right at home, with a just few simple supplies. Of course, starting an actual microbrewery and selling your beer requires more of an investment. But if the taste is good and people like it, why not get into one of the coolest industries to be involved in? Here’s a few things to get your brain ticking over (preferably as you’re sipping on a nice IPA).
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Experience With Beer
Alas, by ‘experience with beer’ we don’t mean ‘able to consume twenty beers in one night’. That won’t get you very far. What we mean is, you can’t just step into the microbrewery game and expect to be a success without prior experience of making beer. As we said before, this can begin right at home with simple equipment and just a few ingredients. The beer will be ready in a few weeks, but having the knowledge and skill to make a perfect beer – which you’ll need for a microbrewery – will take years. It will also be hugely helpful to you in the long run if you spend some time working or volunteering at a microbrewery. Take a look around your neighborhood – there is probably one not too far from where you are. See the process, see what they focus on, pick up the skills and then eventually go your own way.
New Tasks
Making beer for a living is a super exciting venture, one that involves…not actually making beer. OK, we’re just joking – there’s plenty of beer being made (and drunk!) along the way, but there’s also plenty of other tasks that need to be taken care of when you’re in the process of setting up. For example, you’ll need to have premises that will enable you to actually make the quantities you need in order to be profitable. Then there’s the design…what will your beers actually look like? Do they have a traditional look, a whacky vibe, fun, serious? The front of the can is almost as important as what’s inside when it comes to first time buyers, so think long and hard about the look you want. Finally, there’s the factory side of microbrewery life: you’ll be investing in pallets and jackets, doing plenty of lifting and manual labour, learning about the forklift stability triangle and factory health and safety; all the essential details, basically, that allow you to do get your product out there for the world to taste.
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Capital
Ah, so maybe this is why you haven’t yet started a microbrewery. Money does after all dictate most of the decisions we make in life. Well, there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that you really don’t need that much money to get yourself set up with a microbrewery. If you take things slow, by say making beer at home, slowly growing and getting bigger equipment, it’s possible that you would just “fall into” being a microbrewery and wouldn’t really notice the cost. However, if you want to start from scratch and establish a profitable business, then yeah, you’re going to need a pretty big injection of cash. How big? Anywhere from $20,000 – 750,000 should do it.
…But Don’t Think About That
It would be foolish to open a microbrewery as a way to make money. Very few people who open are swimming in riches on the back of their beer profits (though some are!). You should do it for passion reasons, because it allows you spend your days doing something that you love. You can rope in friends and family and be able to provide them with a tasty beer – and you’ll also pick up some loyal customers along the way. That is one of the great things about microbreweries: they are democratic. It’s not about having a famous name or being stocked in trendy bars, it’s about what’s in the can that counts. Ultimately, you might want to your day job and look into the process of making your own beer on the side. If you’ve got a real nose for beer, you might just end up good enough where you’re able to go part-time! And now isn’t that the life…
