Nano Brewery Startup

[John Sand]

I'm glad to hear that you are moving ahead. And I will be happy to lend modest support again when the time comes.
Sharing beer is one of the great joys of this passtime. While I have a long way to go, I've had some successes at parties and dinners. People asking for my beer over commercial, even craft brew is the best.

[Funky Skunk Brewing]

I'm glad to hear that you are moving ahead. And I will be happy to lend modest support again when the time comes.
Sharing beer is one of the great joys of this passtime. While I have a long way to go, I've had some successes at parties and dinners. People asking for my beer over commercial, even craft brew is the best.

That's what it's all about to me, John. Anyone can grab a six pack of BMC off the shelf, but to have a beer that was hand made that has a story and can be identified with over some commercial beer that no one knows who made it or gives a hoot about is the selling point of craft beer to me.

Some great news I received yesterday in a conversation I had with my dad is going to take this project in a different direction after a discussion of sharing the beer I have been sending up to him in North Carolina. He is going to actual apply to get a distribution license and the brewery here in Florida is now going to not have a tap room, and we will focus on just being a production brewery (all be it small scale) to distribute through him.

The laws and licensing are a little different when we are just talking about a production brewery now and not a tap room as well. If I am reading the TTB laws correctly, I can actually have the brewery on my own property (with zoning approval) as long as it is not connected to my living space.

This new turn with the project is not geared to compete with any other breweries or anything like that ... There are several restaurants that have already sampled our beers through my dad as he knows them on a personal bases that want the beer in their restaurants now. There is another restaurant that will be opening the first of next year in North Carolina that I actually spoke to yesterday evening that wants to make an offer already to order a few beers to have in their restaurant with a standing reorder if the beer is successful with their customers.

So now we go back to somewhere near square one with licensing and zoning for a building on my property and moving forward with my dad setting up an LLC and getting approved to become a distributor. If all goes successfully, this venture will generate the revenue to move forward down the line with opening a tap room at a later date. Yesterday was a very exciting day for me and I wanted to share this with the Borg. I'm not 100% sure how we are going to work this out right now, though it's an exciting time for me and to know my parents are willing to be behind this 1,000% and be a part of it with their business contacts and channels is an awesome opportunity to move forward, just in a different way than we originally thought.

[gwcr]

Interesting development. If the laws and licensing work out, that may be a quicker path to getting things going. Then you'll have revenue building up that could fund the opening of a tap room down the road.

[RickBeer]

Since you're on top of this stuff, you probably already know this, but make sure that all parties involved are protected by liability insurance. Your Dad setting up an LLC protects him, but the LLC would not have any insurance and that MAY be a requirement including from any outlets that he ends up doing business with. Nor would anything you do in your home be covered by homeowner's insurance, and might in fact jeopardize any homewowner's claim if the business caused damage to the home or incurred liability from an accident.

[DaYooper]

If you can pull that off it would be great news! I know quite a few bars that "private label" contract with others to have their own house beer. The bonus is that if this is a success it is something to take to the bank and show them you are selling what you make and there is a market and are thus a lot more likely to lend you money as well.

On another note, regarding the pilot system, it certainly is nice to have a "hobby" that you can write off so easily and enjoyably. People think it is a hoot that I can write off my trips to the brewpubs. It is now time to talk to the tax man about writing off a conical methinks.

[mashani]

The laws and licensing are a little different when we are just talking about a production brewery now and not a tap room as well. If I am reading the TTB laws correctly, I can actually have the brewery on my own property (with zoning approval) as long as it is not connected to my living space.

There are folks in SEATAC area that have Pico breweries they run out of a garage on their property. They supply beer to local bars and you can get beer from them directly as long as you are happy with what's fresh at the moment.

[Funky Skunk Brewing]

RickBeer - Those are the parts we are looking into hammering out now. Need to make 100% sure everything is covered properly from both perspectives, his and the brewery. Reading these legal forms is like watching paint dry and it's tough to get through at times. But yes, we are making certain all of those are covered. I am also in the process of setting up my LLC and looking into the type of insurance for a production brewery I would need to have as well. And actually, thanks for the reminder

DaYooper - Yes it is a nice by product being able to write this stuff off. Yeah, we're hoping just as you said that this direction will bring in positive and recurring revenue that a bank would look upon as good business and cash flow in the event we would go looking for funding to scale or for the tap room down the road. This may be our best bet at getting it off the ground at this point. Everything seems to be (so far) well in order from what we have read and looked through. Good luck with Uncle Sam and a conical

mashani - Yes sir. That's exactly what this new direction is. If we can get something like that setup, that would be the perfect scenario. Need to do some research on those guys to see how their operation is working and running. Any names you know of out there?

[mashani]

Last time I was in Bothell (near Seattle) there I stopped at a place called "Foggy Noggin Brewing" on a weekend stay when I was out there for work. I can't tell you the exact address but it's between Bothell and Woodinville. It's literally beer served out of these peoples garage. They don't have food of their own, but there was a local food truck there when I was there with good eats. Leaving the food to others kept things simple for them, the food truck is a win-win for both.

There are a bunch of others in Woodinville that run out of warehouses and the like that we stopped at too. I think if you google "Woodinville" instead of Seattle you might find them more easily.

[gwcr]

Last time I was in Bothell ...

Is it just me, or did anyone else read this as, "Last time I was in a Brothel ...".

Man I'm glad it's Friday.

[Funky Skunk Brewing]

mashani - Thanks for that, I will be sure to check them out.

gwcr - Hahahahaha, I did actually. I thought this was going to be one heck of a story

[John Sand]

That's great Eddie. The craft beer scene in NC is hot. Will you be selling bottles or only kegs?
By the way, there is a nanobrewery here in Rocky Point (Rocky Point Artisan Brewers) and another coming. There are also a couple of others here in Suffolk that are "homebrewed" ie, the brewery is on the grounds of a home. They are sold at local distributors in growlers and at local bars.

[Funky Skunk Brewing]

That's great Eddie. The craft beer scene in NC is hot. Will you be selling bottles or only kegs?
By the way, there is a nanobrewery here in Rocky Point (Rocky Point Artisan Brewers) and another coming. There are also a couple of others here in Suffolk that are "homebrewed" ie, the brewery is on the grounds of a home. They are sold at local distributors in growlers and at local bars.

The plan as of today which can always change and adapt as needed is to bottle for now. We found a place that we can get bottles for as little as $0.15 per bottle which is about the best price we could find on buying them in bulk. A local printer here really likes our idea and even contributed to the Kickstarter campaign last month. They will be doing the labels for us at a good rate, all we have to do is supply some "samples" to their shop.

I'm hoping early next week I can actually speak to our local TTB agent here in Pensacola or at least find something somewhere on their site that says yes, the brewery can be located and zoned here at my house. If not, we'll cross that bridge if we have to. I wish Florida was as lax as say Washington state on brewery laws. I have done some research and just searching on the internet and found one brewery that operates in the guys home garage and he actually sells beer out of the same garage direct to customers. Not like that here in Florida I can tell you that.

The research continues here tonight ...

[John Sand]

Well, I'm glad you will be bottling. Maybe I'll be able to get some. I have a brother in law and a fellow former cop in NC. And if my plans bear out, I'll pass through there on a boat again.

[T8rSalad]

Good fortunes FSB...this story has me in its grasp. I hope everything works out positively for you. Due diligence and hard work will make this a successful experience for you and all involved.

[Funky Skunk Brewing]

Thank you guys again for all the support, suggestions and just listening/reading all this when I post. Plans change, directions move but our overall dream and goal is still alive and well. This new direction of being a production brewery only in the beginning may work out to be our best bet of actually moving forward down the line with a tap room as the revenue (hopefully) from the small scale distribution will feed that next step of the project.

Loads of research and paperwork reading over the weekend as far as proper/legal zoning issues of a building and with my dad on the distribution end of things. Next up, LLC paperwork next week so we can start to operate as a "real" business. Working on the grain pricing, sales and revenue projected break downs last night ... Taken from our beer with the biggest grain bill, it would cost around $145 to brew 25 gallons of beer, bottled, packaged out the door (including all costs down to the labels and caps). Enough to package 10 cases of beer, 24 bottles per case, 240 beers -- Working out to be $0.61 per bottle of beer, which could change of course once things get going. These are just initial estimate figures on current bulk grain pricing I received from our local brewing supply store. Trying to keep it as local as I can.

Tricky point is our price point and where we need to be and what we can sell the beer for per case. Even if we sold cases for $30.00 ($1.25 per bottle) the end business could easily sell the bottles for say $3.75 and still make a profit of $2.50 per bottle while giving us a profit of around $160 per batch brewed or $16.00 per case. Again, these are still early estimates and no where near set in stone. There still is a lot of market segmentation that needs to be done in order to set the price points. And, I don't want to go putting the cart before the horse or the horse before the cart, however that saying goes, if research shows the building and brewery cannot be done the way we currently envision it.

Loads more to do, read, paperwork and research .... I need a beer.