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As a brewery owner, yes there are some people who like to drink beer and started a brewery but those are very few. More common is homebrewers who like making b

by jml78 4y ago

As a brewery owner, yes there are some people who like to drink beer and started a brewery but those are very few. More common is homebrewers who like making beer and decided to go pro. That is where I came from.

Sebb767 4y ago
Still the same thing. Doing some brewing for yourself and friends in your spare time is quite different from having to brew all the time and having to produce something good in order to have anything to sell. Not to mention marketing expenses, taxes and the general overhead of running a food-related business.
- monocasa 4y ago
  Scaling particularly is hard for tech employed home brewer turned pro. It's one thing when you can babysit five gallons at a time, but making quantity takes a commitment to process improvements that few appreciate before they get into it. Not to mention when one beer gets popular, then consistently reproducing it over time. Or you just sell your IPAs that have such a high IBU that only other brewers can taste all the cultures you didn't mean to be growing in there.
suls 4y ago
Have you written about your journey from homebrewer to pro somewhere? Would love to read about it! Especially about the initial sizing of the equipment ..
- jml78 4y ago
  Nah, it isn’t anything all that impressive. I actually just sold a majority of my ownership to pursue other interests. Retained a small stake just in case it goes regional. I worked full time as a software engineer(remote since 2016) while opening and running the production side of my brewery for about 3 years before I could afford to hire help. Hired a brewer, got him up to speed then Covid hit. We kept him on full time during Covid and I didn’t spend much time there. Once covid calmed down I still didn’t do much reengaging on production and just managed brew schedule and ordering shit. Went from pulling 70-80 work weeks prior to Covid to a standard 40-45 hours. Covid basically made my wife and I realize that our kids learned more with us driving their education for 2-3 hours a day than they were getting in 8 hours at school. Sold most of my ownership as we plan to move onto a sailboat and travel the world with our kids until they go to college. My wife and I both have remote jobs and plan to continue working. Yes, we are insane.

by jml78 4y ago

Sebb767 4y ago

Still the same thing. Doing some brewing for yourself and friends in your spare time is quite different from having to brew all the time and having to produce something good in order to have anything to sell. Not to mention marketing expenses, taxes and the general overhead of running a food-related business.

monocasa 4y ago
Scaling particularly is hard for tech employed home brewer turned pro. It's one thing when you can babysit five gallons at a time, but making quantity takes a commitment to process improvements that few appreciate before they get into it. Not to mention when one beer gets popular, then consistently reproducing it over time. Or you just sell your IPAs that have such a high IBU that only other brewers can taste all the cultures you didn't mean to be growing in there.

suls 4y ago

Have you written about your journey from homebrewer to pro somewhere? Would love to read about it! Especially about the initial sizing of the equipment ..

jml78 4y ago
Nah, it isn’t anything all that impressive. I actually just sold a majority of my ownership to pursue other interests. Retained a small stake just in case it goes regional. I worked full time as a software engineer(remote since 2016) while opening and running the production side of my brewery for about 3 years before I could afford to hire help. Hired a brewer, got him up to speed then Covid hit. We kept him on full time during Covid and I didn’t spend much time there. Once covid calmed down I still didn’t do much reengaging on production and just managed brew schedule and ordering shit. Went from pulling 70-80 work weeks prior to Covid to a standard 40-45 hours. Covid basically made my wife and I realize that our kids learned more with us driving their education for 2-3 hours a day than they were getting in 8 hours at school. Sold most of my ownership as we plan to move onto a sailboat and travel the world with our kids until they go to college. My wife and I both have remote jobs and plan to continue working. Yes, we are insane.