Harder Than It Looks: Turning Pro Part 15

Well, each individual aspect of running a production brewery isn’t very hard. For example, ordering supplies for brewing, not so bad. You need to make some predictions, you need to research quality and price, you need to have your timing down so that the materials are there when needed, but not so early things go stale or take up too much room in the brewery. And the brew day itself isn’t too tough. It is really just a matter of getting the right amount of grain crushed, transferred to the mash tun, starch converted and sugar extracted, boiling, chilling, pitching yeast.

But there are dozens of these types of tasks and where it gets tricky is that they are all interrelated. Your hop contracts depend on production needs and production needs depend on demand from sales and also efficiencies in the brew plant and those efficiencies also feed back to sales, since you can only sell what you have. Of course, there are more, like ordering the right kegs for your product, getting the kegs tagged with all of the government warnings and brewery branding. Making sure the kegs are clean, making sure you get it back, managing deposits collected and deposits owed.

The list goes on and on. I don’t mean to be a whiner, but I think much of this escapes the person looking to get into their own brewery. Even many head brewers are woefully uneducated about all of the other stuff that goes on to make the whole process run smoothly. Everything from working with the government to working with the public has its own set of challenges.

I have a great deal of experience in managing complex high dollar projects with lots of dependencies. I’m well versed in managing resources and timelines. I am no stranger to predicting needs, scheduling, and
accounting for the unknown. But dang it, getting the amount of beer brewed to match the timing of beer consumed is every bit as tricky.

I guess I could blame it on not enough fermenters, but I’m the person that predicted how much fermenter space we would need and how much money we would need for the fermenters. I suppose I could blame it on brewing some beers that have a longer residence time in the fermenters, but then I’m the one calling the shots on which beers we brew. Perhaps I should blame it on over-reaching on our sales, but then I’m the one telling people what they can sell.

I’m sure I will figure it all out eventually. This whole business of making beer for sale is new to me, so I’m bound to have a learning curve. I know it is possible, but now I have a greater appreciation for those out there doing it in a one man show. When I consider what someone like Brian Hunt at Moonlight Brewery has done over the years, my respect for him grows. It is trickier than it looks, getting beer made, getting beer sold, and making a living at it.

Written by Jamil Zainasheff