Dick Cantwell - The Brewers Associations Guide to Starting Your Own Brewery

SECOND EDITION

THE BREWERS ASSOCIATIONS GUIDE TO

DICK CANTWELL

Brewers Publications
A Division of the Brewers Association
PO Box 1679, Boulder, Colorado 80306-1679
www.BrewersAssociation.org
www.BrewersPublications.com

Copyright 2013 by Brewers Association

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission of the publisher. Neither the authors, editor nor the publisher assume any responsibility for the use or misuse of information contained in this book.

Printed in the United States of America.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

ISBN-13: 978-1-938469-05-3
ISBN (mobi edition): 978-1-93846-907-7

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The Brewers Associations guide to starting your own brewery / [edited by] Dick Cantwell. -- Second edition.
pages cm
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-938469-05-3
1. Beer industry--United States. 2. Breweries--United States. I. Cantwell, Dick. II. Brewers Association. III. Title: Guide to starting your own brewery. IV. Title: Starting your own brewery.
HD9397.U52B74 2013
663.420681--dc23

2013002267

Publisher: Kristi Switzer

Technical Editors: John Harris, Chuck Skypeck

Copy Editing: Amahl Turczyn Scheppach

Production and Design Management: Stephanie Johnson Martin

Cover and Interior Design: Julie White

Cover Illustration: Bruce Morser

Interior Photos:

pg 5: iStockphoto

pg 45: Foothills Brewing Company

pg 81: Brewers Association

pg 99: Ladyface Ale Companie/Redtail Media

pg 117: Shutterstock

pg 147: Tim LaBarge

Indexing: Doug Easton

For my son, Nap, who was just getting started, and my daughter, Lucy, who was there from the very beginning.

INTRODUCTION
Finding Your Place (and Your Place in It All)

1. LOCATION
Born in the Country, Raised in Town

2. CONSULTANTS
Free Advice and Paying for Experts

3. SIZE MATTERS
How Big Should Your Brewery Be?

4. NO PRESSURE
Committing to a Concept. Or Not.

5. CO-OP BREWING
Putting Your Heads Together

6. WEATHERING DELAYS
When Time Stands Still

7. HUMAN RESOURCES
Finding the Perfect Fit

8. WRITING YOUR BUSINESS PLAN
Speculative Nonfiction

9. RAISING MONEY
Filthy Lucre

10. PRODUCTION PLANNING AND SALES PROJECTIONS
Going with the Flow

11. PLANNING NEVER ENDS
Maximizing and Adding Locations

12. THE TAXMAN
Let Me Tell You How It Will Be

13. BUSINESS STRUCTURE
It Isnt Easy Being Us

14. COMPLIANCE
Other Legal and Ethical Issues

15. BRAND IDENTITY
Marking It with Your Brand

16. PROMOTION
Promoting an Artisanal Movementa Paradox?

17. DISTRIBUTION
Bringing It to Market

18. EQUIPMENT OPTIONS
Building a Functional Mousetrap

19. FLOORS
Slopes and Surfaces

20. QUALITY ASSURANCE/CONTROL
Levels of Inquiry and Intervention

21. SECURING RAW MATERIALS
Who Are You Calling a Pawn?

22. CRAFTING YOUR PORTFOLIO
Revolt into Style

23. WASTEWATER ISSUES
Down the Drain

24. SUSTAINABILITY
Sustainability as Sensibility

25. PACKAGING AND PRESENTATION
The Tao of Your Beer

26. SAFETY
Accidents Waiting to Happen

EPILOGUE
You Can Do This

Appendices:

Many people helped in the crafting of this book, both by providing guidance along specific subject lines and by contributing to my education and experience over the years. First, theres the group Ill refer to as my Perennial Board of Advisors: Fal Allen, John Mallett, Will Meyers, Kevin Forhan, Bill Jenkins, Garrett Oliver, John Harris (who also provided extensive and valuable editing help), Vinnie Cilurzo, Tomme Arthur, Bill Metzger and the many others who have answered my calls and emails whenever Ive needed the help we all provide each other. Then there are my Elysian co-workers, many of whom helped in discussing material and a few who were forced to listen to what I deemed particularly entertaining passages: Kevin Watson, Steve Luke, Corinne McNeilly, Matt Thompson, Keegan Kubisiak and my partners Joe Bisacca and David Buhler in particular.

As co-stewards of a shining example in our industry, New Belgium Brewing, Id like to thank Peter Bouckaert, Grady Hull, Brandon Weaver, Alex Jesse, Kristin Coley, Christine Perich, Lauren Salazar, Jenny Briggs, Josh Holmstrom, Nate Turner, Dave Macon, Joe Menetre, Kelly Tretter, Jenn Vervier, the whole Northwest crew and the dozens of open-hearted others who have made our collaborations so fun, fascinating and rewarding. Greg Owsley too provided guidance for my sections on branding; Gary Nicholas of Bells Beer helped substantially with safety issues; Peter Whalen offered and provided help on the subject of insurance; Chuck Skypeck of Boscos and Ghost River Brewing executed an exemplary editing of the manuscript, as did Amahl Scheppach, who also did a masterful job of wrestling with my prose.

Many among the fine Brewers Association staff and Board of Directors helped along the way with points of information, suggestions for material and the opportunity to try some of it out in presentation to the National Homebrewers Conference: Bob Pease, Paul Gatza, Julia Herz, Kathryn Porter Drapeau and Erin and Gary Glass, as well as Chris P. Frey. Brewers Publications Kristi Switzer deserves a spot of honor all to herself. She is certainly the Maxwell Perkins of the literature of our trade. Profound thanks to Sam Calagione for, in addition to everything else he does for our industry, writing the foreword to the book. Last and foremost Id like to warmly, lovingly thank Kim Jordan, also of New Belgium, for the love and depth she has bestowed upon me for the past four years, on into the future of our life together.

I remember when I first thought of starting Dogfish Head in 1995. I was a high-energy, inexperienced, anti-establishment, pro-trouble-making 24-year-old dreamer. I was also a homebrewer. I decided Id found my lifes calling the night I served my first batch of homebrewa pale ale infused with a foolhardy quantity of so-ripe-they-were-on-sale cherries. The beer turned out awesome and I stood on the coffee table of my NYC apartment and announced to my roommates and the world, This is what I am going to do with my life; I am going to be a professional brewer! My next two batches of homebrew both sucked but I had made up my mind that I would open a brewery. I spent my evenings waiting tables and my days researching small breweries and artisanal food companies, and reading small business startup articles in the main branch of the New York Public Library. No single publication as broad and yet as detailed as this one existed.

So I mined what I could about the craft beer industry and related industries in those articles. I learned from what Ken Grossman of Sierra Nevada Brewing Company and Fritz Maytag of Anchor Brewing were doing in California but I also gathered inspiration from James Beard on the east coast and Alice Waters on the west coastthey believed that regional, local American agricultural ingredients when simply and honestly combined could yield beautiful indigenous dishes true to their local terroir. I recognized that the burgeoning craft brewing niche was really a niche within a niche of first-wave localvore restaurants and artisanal food, bread, and coffee companies. I read about the first generation of successful craft brewers who had the unenviable task of convincing beer drinkers to step off of light lager terra firma and onto this solid little bridge of flavor-forward all-malt small batch diverse beers.