How to Start a Craft Brewery

There’s no denying the massive boom in the craft beer industry. The nation now boasts over 5,500 small, independent breweries, and that number continues to grow. You, too, can tap into this trend by starting your own craft brewery. How might you go about doing that, though?

Define Your Equipment Needs

Breweries are equipment intensive, and you’ll need to know going in just how much you’re going to spend. At the low end, you could shell out $100,000 or so for a used one barrel system. At the other extreme, you could pay $1 million for a 30-barrel system. You’ll also need other equipment, including kegs, kegging tools, bottles, a labeling system (or a canning line if you prefer), and more.

Know the Where

Where will you set up your brewery? What’s the competition like in the area? What about the market sentiment – do the locals really want a brewery in the area? You also need to know about the logistics of the physical location. How easy is it for delivery trucks to reach? How much will you spend on building the brewery itself? What about space for expansion?

Permitting and Legal Issues

Breweries face significant hurdles in terms of legal hoops to jump through. You’ll need to obtain federal permission to open a brewery, but you’ll also need state permission, and possibly even local permission. All of these require permits, and getting them takes time and costs money.

Finding the Money

Starting a brewery can be very expensive, but you can cut some costs out with savvy planning. However, you’ll still need to figure out where your money is coming from. Depending on the amount you need, and the number of people going into the project with you, it might be possible to get loans from friends and family, or to take out a home equity loan. You may also need to tap into your retirement savings.

Ready to make your brewery dream a reality? Contact Speritas Capital Partners today.


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