Erik Meyers from Mystery Brewing has done something few others have managed: he’s successfully used social fundraising tool Kickstarter to fund, in part, his brewery.  But, according to Meyers, it’s not all sunshine and roses — and it may be impossible to replicate what he did.

In a fantastic blog post, Meyers details exactly what has to happen to successfully launch your nanobrewery, complete with a cold dose of realism for those who want to try.  Opening a brewery is expensive, and it’s going to take more than the tens of thousands that realistically may be possible from your friends and family.

He says, in part:

Okay. That’s kind of glib. But consider this: I raised ~$44,000 via Kickstarter, which seems like a lot of money, right? I mean.. it is. It’s like median yearly income for an American family right now or something silly like that.

For a 7bbl brewery that doesn’t even pay for kegs. It certainly doesn’t pay for a brewhouse. It’s 6 fermenters. It’s the cost of plumbing and glycol piping. You get the idea.
Okay, now remember: You owe taxes on that money. You’re a business now and you need to pay taxes on any income that you make. So that $44,000, after the cut that Amazon and Kickstarter take is closer to $40,000, and then closer to $35,000 after you pay even the most modest of income taxes on it. Then you have to pay for those prizes that you’re sending out to people plus postage (postage is expensive – one Priority Mail package to 250 people = $1,000 minimum), so now you’re down to $30,000 or so, maybe lower. That’s more like 4 fermenters.

The point is this: You need, need, NEED alternate sources of funding. Don’t count on the SBA. Regardless of what they tell you they are not interested in funding startups unless there is absolutely no risk involved (ie – you are putting in an enormous amount of capital already), same goes for banks. You need to have a lot of your own money in the bank, ready to go, or a few angel investors willing to put up at least $150,000, probably more. The total cost to starting up a 7bbl brewery, right now, with the prices of stainless and the dearth of decent used equipment, is just north of $500,000.

He goes on to note that there are at least a dozen breweries currently looking for public funding via Kickstarter, where he had the platform all to himself.  So, if you want your nanobrewery, get saving — it’s going to be expensive, and there’s no easy way to raise money on the Internet.

John Stroh III, whose great-great-grandfather founded Stroh Brewing Co. in Detroit in 1850, and John Mallett, the production manager at Bell's Brewery Inc., had lunch together more than two years ago.  

During their conversation, Stroh mentioned a series of old wooden fermenters sitting in a warehouse in the Detroit area.

Intrigued, Mallett told Stroh he'd like to incorporate them into the planned expansion of Bell's Brewery Inc.'s Comstock Township facility. Fast forward to earlier this week when Bell's unveiled the $20 million expansion project to its production facility and Mallett's idea is a little closer to fruition.

In the B Cellar Room of the new 200-barrel brewhouse sits, in several pieces, about four of the 100-year-old-plus fermenters. Mallett said during the grand opening of the brewhouse on Monday that he plans to re-build three fermenters to make draught-only beers using an open-fermentation process. The project is large and somewhat complicated, given the age of the equipment. The company has no timeline for when — and, given the complexity, if — it will make beer.

Brewers from around the world received awards from an elite international panel of judges in the 2012 Brewers Association World Beer Cup. The ninth bi-annual competition boasted the strongest field of entrants on record, with 799 breweries from 54 countries and 45 U.S. states entering 3,921 beers in 95 beer style categories. A 17.7 percent increase over 2010, the entries were eligible for gold, silver and bronze awards in their respective categories. Judges presented a total of 284 awards.

A detailed analysis of the entries and awards can be found in the 2012 World Beer Cup Fact Sheet (PDF).

“It’s called ‘The Olympics of Beer Competition’ for good reason,” said Charlie Papazian, president of the Brewers Association, the U.S.-based trade association that has put on the competition every two years since 1996. “The event brings together great brewers from all corners of the globe. Plus, the awards are highly regarded. A brewer who wins a World Beer Cup gold award knows that their winning beer represents the best of that beer style in the world. Congratulations to all the winners of the 2012 World Beer Cup. The Brewers Association and the proud sponsors of our event thank all participating brewers for their involvement.”

Judges

The 2012 judging panel was the largest and most international in the history of the World Beer Cup. Judges from 27 countries conducted blind tasting evaluations of the beers to determine the winners. Drawn from the ranks of professional brewers and brewing industry experts, these 211 judges came mostly from international breweries, with some 67 percent from outside the U.S. In addition to the judging panel, over 250 volunteers helped sort beer entries and steward the competition. The judging criteria are exacting—some categories are not given the full slate of awards if the panel decides that the entries do not merit recognition.

Award Highlights and Trends

Highlights from the competition:

• The average number of beers entered per category was 41.
• The category with the most entries was American-Style India Pale Ale, with 150 entries. The second most-entered category was Imperial India Pale Ale, with 93 entries. The German-Style Sour Ale category had the fewest number of entries at 11.
• The 2012 World Beer Cup saw substantial growth of entries in the American-Style India Pale Ale category. Category entries grew 41.5 percent over 2010 to make it the largest category of the 2012 competition.
• Additionally, Champion Brewery and Champion Brewmaster awards are given in each of five brewery categories based on the awards won by each brewery in the given size category.

The five Champion Brewery/Brewmaster award winners are:

Small Brewing Company Category
Brauerei Michael Plank, Michael Plank

Mid-Size Brewing Company Category
Firestone Walker Brewing Company, Matthew Brynildson

Large Brewing Company Category
AB InBev, Claudio Ferro

Small Brewpub Category
Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant-Media, Iron Hill Brewery Team

Large Brewpub Category
Pelican Pub & Brewery, Darron R S Welch

The complete list of award winners is available for download.

The Brewers Association (BA), the trade association representing small and independent brewers, today released 2011 data on U.S. craft brewing1. Craft brewers saw volume2 rise 13 percent, with a 15 percent increase in retail sales from 2010 to 2011, representing a total barrel increase of 1.3 million.

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