BeerBorg

http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott ... er-revival

Based on this article it appears the number of breweries are now at about the pre-Prohibition level.

Excellent point, Crazy Climber. I'll drink anything Brooklyn makes. Same with Lagunitas, Victory, Saranac, Defiant, and a bunch of others. Is it going to be the best IPA, or Amber Lager, or Blonde Ale in the world? Maybe, maybe not, but I do know it's going to be good beer, and money well-spent.

If it's just *meh*, I'd rather go with something else.

There's a couple of brewpubs near me, where I've sampled most of their offerings. I can say without reservation that every beer I've tried from each pub has been a rock-solid example of the particular style.
There's another brewery nearby, which makes a couple of absolutely fantastic beers....but yet I've had other beers of theirs that were, IMO, clunkers.
I'm very comfortable recommending (or trying something new, myself, from) the two brewpubs. As you said, Dave, it would be "money well-spent" with total confidence.
The other brewery, not as much. I would recommend them--with certain caveats. And when they brew something new, I'd want to try a sample before plunking down coin for a whole growler or 6-pack. Which is kinda too bad, because as I said, they brew some wonderful stuff.

Shifting gears just a little....
Skunk, you raise another interesting topic: the lineup of beers that are must-have's for any professional brewer. This is the second prong of my two-pronged Basic Strategy for a brewery. 1) Make your beers well. 2) Make beers that people want to drink. Sure, experimentation and limited-release/seasonals are cool down the road, but you've got to have that half-dozen or so taps that cover the "basic food groups" of the craft beer world.

To me, those include: IPA, a lighter offering from the Kolsch/Blonde/Lite Lager/Cream Ale realm, and a Porter or Stout. A Wheat is probably a good other choice. Depending on what the IPA and lighter beer are like, fit an APA in between if there's enough differentiation. If not, maybe an Amber.

Anyone else have any opinions on what staples should be in any craft brewer's lineup?

Staples should include:
American Pale Ale
IPA
Stout
American Brown Ale
Wheat Ale
Belgian Ale
Pilsner Session Ale

That's right, seven year round ales, with specials and seasonals periodically.

Rebel_B wrote:Staples should include:
American Pale Ale
IPA
Stout
American Brown Ale
Wheat Ale
Belgian Ale
Pilsner Session Ale

That's right, seven year round ales, with specials and seasonals periodically.

You forgot Berliner Weisse and Gose

IPA/APA (They sort of overlap, IMO, and many beer drinkers just want hoppy beer)
Blonde ale/Session Ale (For people new to craft beer who may be intimidated by something more exotic than Heineken)
Wheat
Lager and/or Pilsner
Stout/Porter
Imperial or other high ABV
Seasonal staples (Nobody wants a tap devoted to pumpkin ale 365 days a year, but for a couple months in the fall, it's a good idea)

I also believe that there should be room in the rotation for Limited Editions and even experimental recipes. The former, if played right, can become something people look forward to, and the latter can expand your offerings if they're diverse enough and good enough.

It also helps to know your market. It seems to me, Defiant does better with their Muddy Creek Lager (an amber lager) than they do with their Pilsner, and sometimes the Pilsner isn't even in the rotation, whereas the Muddy is always available.

My take on what brews a brewery should have as main stays on tap all the time or as all the time as they can. At times, even for well oiled machinery breweries, the brewing day(s) timing can be off due to [insert issues here]. So at times, it becomes difficult to have all the "main stays" on tap 100% of the time. With that, this is what we will begin with once the doors open and some of my own justification behind those beers.

Amber: A lot of breweries I know and visit have this as their best seller in tap rooms. This is also one that has won many awards for us.

IPA and/or APA: Hop heads eat these up, as Dave already stated.

Wheat: Light, easy drinking beer for those not ready to take the plunge into other craft beers. Also, easy to use a Randall, etc. to infuse flavours to create another different tasting beer out of the same keg(s).

Stout and/or Porter

Brown Ale: Many people do not like Brown Ales though again, this brew has won us many awards so it's a must for our brewery. It's not "just" a Brown, as it is a Hazelnut Brown Ale with better offerings of flavour than any off the rack Brown I have tried. Plus, this is the brew that got us involved with potential investors in North Carolina. It would look bad if this beer was not in the brewery if they invest in our dream

Those are what we will be going with plus seasonals and one off small batches (test batches) to see how it is and received by customers. To each their own of course, though I believe these beers will need to be ready at all the times they can be in our brewery.

Also, as Dave stated ... Having the beers your market/customers are drinking and wanting more of is always key No. 1. Why have 10 beers on tap if you only ever sell out of five? Wasteful and counterproductive in my opinion.

I really emphasize with the little guys in the brewing industry, they have to be multi-talented and really hard working to make a go of it. Entry level brewing means having a 10 barrel system at minimum to turn a profit and we all know how challenging the federal, state and local licensing process is. I love brewing beer, it's been my passion for years now, but in truth the brewing is only a small part of running a profitable brewery. Granted it still remains the most important part of running a brewery because it's the direct interface to your customers, bad beer equals no customers therefore no business.

I love the fact that my local breweries employ workers from the community and stimulate our local economy, imagine that we're seeing locally made products once again! Will trends change, of course. Will there be eventual shakeouts where some will fail, sure. Do I think the growing number of local breweries will eventually reach a peak, I sure hope I don't live to see that day. The only thing I want to see saturated in the craft beer industry is me.

Kind of off subject.....did anyone see the new show Dark Horse Nation last night? It really wasn't much about beer and reminded me more of a planned, Duck Dynasty show based on the little I've seen of it.
I was hoping we'd get to see much more of how they run a small, craft brewery.

Beer-lord wrote:I was hoping we'd get to see much more of how they run a small, craft brewery.

Viewership wouldn't justify it. The brain-dead public wants reality shows that appeal to the lowest common denominator of stupid. We don't watch reality shows in our house, although I watched a few episodes of Deadliest Catch and Ice Road Truckers to see what they were. "Her truck is close to the edge, hundreds have gone over". Commercial, then "when we last saw Mary, she was about to plunge over the edge and die. Closer, closer, whew! She made it.".

It's unfortunate that so many of our fellow citizens are dumb as fire hydrants.

RickBeer wrote:...so many of our fellow citizens are dumb as fire hydrants.

That explains a lot.

What's the old saying? Oh yeah -- "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people."

Someones gotta be the boss I suppose. Better it be the fire hydrant than the dog.

This was a good thread to read.

Yeah, I was disappointed with Dark Horse, too.

Eddie, you don't seem to have a lager in your planned rotation, unless I missed something, and the Amber is a lager and you just didn't mention it. No pilsners?

FedoraDave wrote:Yeah, I was disappointed with Dark Horse, too.

Eddie, you don't seem to have a lager in your planned rotation, unless I missed something, and the Amber is a lager and you just didn't mention it. No pilsners?

You didn't miss it, Dave ... Nothing of those as of yet. In doing all this research and reaching out to other brewers and breweries near the location we will be, they were on the bottom of their list as far as sales were concerned. Now it did fluctuate of course from brewery to brewery. Though the Pilsner was never high on any breweries list and most of the time, lager was either mid pack or towards the bottom.

Will we ever have those? Yes, of course. Though we feel after the research that the beers we have moving forward with are our best bets for driving sales over other styles at this time. If that changes and requests come in, then we will of course re-evaluate what we are brewing. Being on the smaller scale with the brew house/brewery, we have to choose our battles if you will, wisely. And like I said, based on research we have done, the beers we chose seem to be our best direction. Unfortunately, there will be some trial and error with styles. Nature of the business I suppose.

Most breweries had sales from top bottom that were similar to these styles, without going into too much detail (in order of sales):

1. IPA/APA
2. Amber (close second in most cases)
3. Stout
4. Brown
5. Wheat
etc.
etc.

Just wanted to share this brewery tour someone at the brewery shot them selves when visiting Community Beer Works near Buffalo, NY. This is a 1 BBL nano that has been operating for around three years I believe. Interesting to see their set up is pretty much just larger scale home brewing to be honest.

Obviously some things are not "home brew" equivalent, still, their set up is something that is not over the top complex or high dollar comparatively speaking to other systems and rigs that are out there in the market. I have actually had communication with the owners and they have been very helpful in getting a lot of my questions answered and just general chat on what it took/takes, etc.

These guys are just another example of what smaller systems and breweries can do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2aauAB2poc