Breweries are one of the most exciting types of businesses to be involved with. You get to create delicious drinks, host a community of people, indulge in the craft of brewing and provide all sorts of additional benefits like a bar, food, music and more.
Brewery tourism is on the rise — from beer-centric cities like Portland, Seattle, Denver or Asheville, to places where beer is just another great reason to go there, like Chicago, New York or San Diego. Remember, too, that breweries encompass all sorts of different types of brewing operations — from the traditional craft beer microbrewery to cideries, distilleries or winemakers, there’s a brewery for every style and palate.
We know it can be daunting to start a brewery business, and we’re here to help. We’ve supported over 100,000 people to form their business and provided answers, guidance and support to transform them into entrepreneurs. We’ll guide you through what you need to know to start your brewery business.
To get you off on the right foot, here’s our simple guide to starting up a successful brewery business. From highlighting important facts to validating your ideas, and from choosing the right structure to learning your options for managing and running your business, you’ll find the answers you need.
Read on for some insight into creating your own brewery business and becoming an entrepreneur. In this guide we will cover:
Cideries, distilleries and winemakers have also seen excellent growth and good future business prospects.
As you can see, there are plenty of opportunities to start up your own brewery business. We’ll help you be part of that success.
Although it can be exciting to form a brewery business, there will be significant demands on you as a small business owner. Here are some of the things you can expect.
Here are some of the typical tasks you’ll be performing for your brewery business on a daily basis:
The following skills will be very useful in your role as a brewery small business owner:
Your brewery customers are looking for a variety of unique features in your brewery, including:
If you want to start a successful brewery business, it’s important to know what your options are. Here are some of the more popular business ideas.
A microbrewery by itself doesn’t have an attached bar or brewpub. Instead, they supply beer to other bars, pubs or breweries as guest taps. Later on, they may also sell prepackaged bottles and cans through retail outlets.
Making a bar or brewpub part of your brewery is a great idea. You can appeal directly to customers, sell beer to the public at better profit margins and create a reputation as a cool place to be. Naturally there is more overhead expense with having an attached bar or brewpub, but your increased revenues and profit margins will help to offset this.
Most microbreweries will produce a variety of beers: IPAs, stouts, porters, golden ales, pilsners, lagers and more. You can choose to go a different route and produce one or two types or styles of beer and do it really well — for example you may choose to specialize in sours and saisons, or beer reminiscent of a particular region like Belgium or Eastern Europe.
Hops are not the only game in town. Cider is also enjoying a renaissance with the discerning drinker, and it could be easier to make a mark in this space.
You might be interested in brewing hard spirits. Whether it’s gin, bourbon, rum, or something else, small distilleries have become much more popular over the last few years.
If you like the grape, you could produce some excellent wines. Although they are most popular in California, many other parts of the U.S. are suitable for growing grapes and producing an excellent bottle.
These areas are just starting points — there are many different types of brewery businesses. Once you’ve identified the areas you’d like to go into, you need to validate your brewery business idea.
The thing to learn here is that it’s okay to say “no” to your first, second or third brewery business ideas. Very few entrepreneurs get it right first time. In fact, getting it wrong is often a badge of honor! Still, you don’t want to waste too much time, energy or money on the wrong initiatives, so ask and answer these questions honestly to find the right way forward.
Compared to many other small businesses, microbreweries have high startup costs. A combination of a large building to brew in, the sophisticated equipment needed and special ingredients like hops, barley and malt all means a high initial capital expenditure. If you have a bar, brewpub or cafe as well, you can expect those costs to increase significantly. Here’s a (very) rough guide to what you can expect to pay:
A good business plan with accurate financial projections is at the heart of any financially responsible, well-managed brewery. You will need to define how you’re going to run your brewery business, market yourself, get sales, make a profit and grow.
You will also need a business model for your brewery. This will detail where your revenue will come from, what your profit margins are, how quickly you will pay off debts and include a thorough accounting of all your initial and ongoing brewery costs.
Brewery business plans do vary slightly, but they should all cover the following areas:
We’ve got the perfect guide to writing your business plan.
There are five main business structures you can have in the U.S., and it’s important to choose the right one. We’ve shared your options below. They are:
This is the "default" business structure and is what your brewery business will be if you decide not to create a more formal structure. We don't recommend this type of business as it doesn't give you the legal protections you need.
This is a type of business that is formed when two or more people work together without creating a more formal business entity. Like a sole proprietorship, it may not give you all the protections your brewery business may need.
The most common type of business entity. An LLC is fast, simple and inexpensive to set up and maintain. It protects your personal finances and assets and is a great way to start your brewery business.
This is a more complex type of business and isn't generally recommended for smaller organizations, like a brewery business.
These are the largest and most complex types of businesses and are typically far more than the average entrepreneur or brewery business owner will need.
Once you've legally created your brewery business, you’ll need to get some other things in place.
Your location will be essential. The space needs to be large enough for your brewing operation and prepared to handle the unique requirements of making alcoholic beverages. If you also have a bar or brewpub, you should factor in local footfall, traffic access and parking. You will also need space to store drinks, manage the business, host musicians and more.
Breweries are extremely reliant on specialized equipment. From brew kettles and mash tuns to barrels and endless amounts of cleaning fluid, this is where the majority of your capital expenditure will be in the early days.
Marketing will be a huge part of your brewery business. Naturally, you will need an awesome website, but you'll also need to get branding, newsletters, digital ads, social media accounts and other channels in place. You should also focus on local marketing and branding, especially if you are selling into retail stores.
Brewery entrepreneurs make extensive use of software; see our great list of the top apps at the end of this guide.
You won’t be able to do everything by yourself — it’s rare to find someone who can be everything a brewery needs (administrator, marketer, brewmaster, server and more). This means you will need to hire employees and have the right attitude, approach and support for your workers.
You will need a separate business bank account for your brewery business. You might also want to consider a business credit card. Additionally, you will need to keep careful bookkeeping records and file business and personal taxes. Here at Incfile we can even help you file your taxes.
