>“It’s not a guarantee, but making good beer, creating a great environment for drinking beer, and staying small can still be a model for success in beer,” Chris writes.
I've been preaching this for years, the staying small part in particular. The best model for craft breweries is the taproom driven one. Most breweries are just local watering holes, and ones that potentially have a higher profit margin from making their own product - or at least making the main draw. Some distribution is always great too, of course, but if you start out looking to be the next Stone, Southern Tier, Founders or whatever massive regional brewery you aren't likely to make it. Not many of those left that are still independently owned anyways, and for good reason. The top dogs today are embracing expansion through taprooms, whether it's scaling up at home like Fidens (so far) or branching out to new cities and states like Other Half and Tree House. But again, most places are and should just be content to be a local watering hole, you need to be really exceptional to expand to the level those guys have and even if you are it's going to take time to get there.
Outside all of the usual not beer specific sound business planning, financials, and work ethic you need two things to have a successful brewery from what I've seen. A good product and a good location. Sometimes all you need is one of those two, but that's much less a guarantee. Copper Leaf comes to mind as a place that had, IMO, a really great product but failed because of their location (no street visibility, limited space, presumably very high property costs being in Pittsford, and most people coming to that area for a drink want to sit out by the canal in nicer weather and will end up a stones throw away at Lock 32 for exactly that reason). And I won't name names, but some of the recent closures were places I wouldn't have recommended for the beer alone, when I went back to them it was because the location was convenient. Obviously, taste is entirely subjective and I'm sure some loved the beer at those places, but clearly not enough to keep them going.
It's also going to be an uphill battle if you don't brew the popular styles well, particularly IPAs, even if you do excel at more niche things like a good ESB, red ale, dunkel, etc. Just the nature of business, not unique to beer. Gotta sell what people want, or at least have it available to bring them in and discover the rest of your offerings.
Couldn’t agree more on the community aspect. Always felt like family. Loved the vibe at Brindle, the staff and of course the beer! Loved bringing our dogs there! Wishing Barley and Bones the best of luck and we’ll certainly be there for your opening!
Another “muh taxes are too high” guy peddling that nonsense. Enjoy North Carolina bro. Running a business thru your bartender for five years? Insanity.
>“It’s not a guarantee, but making good beer, creating a great environment for drinking beer, and staying small can still be a model for success in beer,” Chris writes.
I've been preaching this for years, the staying small part in particular. The best model for craft breweries is the taproom driven one. Most breweries are just local watering holes, and ones that potentially have a higher profit margin from making their own product - or at least making the main draw. Some distribution is always great too, of course, but if you start out looking to be the next Stone, Southern Tier, Founders or whatever massive regional brewery you aren't likely to make it. Not many of those left that are still independently owned anyways, and for good reason. The top dogs today are embracing expansion through taprooms, whether it's scaling up at home like Fidens (so far) or branching out to new cities and states like Other Half and Tree House. But again, most places are and should just be content to be a local watering hole, you need to be really exceptional to expand to the level those guys have and even if you are it's going to take time to get there.
Outside all of the usual not beer specific sound business planning, financials, and work ethic you need two things to have a successful brewery from what I've seen. A good product and a good location. Sometimes all you need is one of those two, but that's much less a guarantee. Copper Leaf comes to mind as a place that had, IMO, a really great product but failed because of their location (no street visibility, limited space, presumably very high property costs being in Pittsford, and most people coming to that area for a drink want to sit out by the canal in nicer weather and will end up a stones throw away at Lock 32 for exactly that reason). And I won't name names, but some of the recent closures were places I wouldn't have recommended for the beer alone, when I went back to them it was because the location was convenient. Obviously, taste is entirely subjective and I'm sure some loved the beer at those places, but clearly not enough to keep them going.
It's also going to be an uphill battle if you don't brew the popular styles well, particularly IPAs, even if you do excel at more niche things like a good ESB, red ale, dunkel, etc. Just the nature of business, not unique to beer. Gotta sell what people want, or at least have it available to bring them in and discover the rest of your offerings.
Shoutout to copper leaf. I miss
them every day
Couldn’t agree more on the community aspect. Always felt like family. Loved the vibe at Brindle, the staff and of course the beer! Loved bringing our dogs there! Wishing Barley and Bones the best of luck and we’ll certainly be there for your opening!
Another “muh taxes are too high” guy peddling that nonsense. Enjoy North Carolina bro. Running a business thru your bartender for five years? Insanity.
Why the hate?