Are you looking for something to do? Do you consider yourself an excellent real ale drinker and connoisseur of a great brew? Well look no further than setting up a microbrewery....

There are around 600 microbreweries in Britain, and 70 of them started last year. The industry had a huge surge in the 1980’s but declined because of a flood of poor tasting beers. Once again however the industry is gathering steam and it could be an excellent time to sink your teeth into an industry which can be very rewarding.

Craft Brewing, the art of making beer in small scales, refers to a brewery which focuses on experimentation, customer support and loyalty as well as an inventive and additive free way of brewing. You will need 4 ingredients, a garage, great taste buds and hard graft. It is estimated that setting up a small scale microbrewery will cost you around £50,000. It is also much easier to ease production in your plant rather than expanding the infrastructure you have, so it could cost you up to £120,000-£150,000 to set up a decent sized brewery!

“Whoa.. That is a huge amount of money!” I hear you scream. Well yes, but you need to cover the basics.

• A decent and impeccably clean space to brew the beer, or just a garage.

• The brewery equipment; depending on how ambitious you are, will be your main expenditure, http://www.brewplants.com/.

• Ingredients; water, barley malt, hops and yeast; Prepare for some serious experimentation and market testing before you commit to a mix.

• Licences; Customs and Excise licence to produce beer, registration with the Environmental Health Officer and informing the Trading Standards (they will all expect to visit the brewery, so get them over as soon as possible!)

• Casks, to transport your beer and potentially outsourcing bottling to sell online or at fairs.

It is not all doom and gloom though. There are a large number of grants available for start-ups employing local people, starting non-tourist based enterprises and sustainable development funds (i.e. run your plant on bio fuel or recycle everything especially the bottles)

This is still a lot of money, will I make a profit?

Well a large number of breweries that start fail, and apart from being incompetent it is normally down to market research. Neil Morrissey set up a microbrewery and pub. After a large influx of fancy celebs he went bust in 18 months. The pub never turned a profit! Not only was Morrissey far too arrogant and not really too bothered about the costs of revamping a pub and brewery, he also ignored the locals. 80% of your beer sales will come from 20% of your customer base. Therefore you must find out what they want, if there is room for your brew in an increasingly competitive market place and where you will sell your beer. I cannot stress highly enough that market research is the key to developing your business. Go to pubs in the area and see if they will take your home brew. Check out the competition from local ales in pubs, farmers markets and local shops. Remember your ale will not travel far on natural ingredients and so you need to rely on the locals and seasonal tourism to keep you going. Join up to the Society of independent brewers, SIBA at http://www.siba.co.uk/ they are incredibly helpful and contact other microbreweries for advice. It is a friendly community and most breweries are willing to share their experiences, if not their hop mix!

Then the fun times...

You get to try a lot of beer! The best brews come from trial and error, get the crowds in to try your first brews and see which ones are the best. You must win a few awards for your beer so get it into the competitions, CAMRA is a good start. Be creative in your marketing, branding and sales pitches and be adventurous, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/north_east/8278312.stm.

Remember it will be hard work and fun times and not a commitment to take on lightly, but the research is probably one on the best “research assignments” you will ever take on!


Related articles:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8513072.stm

http://www.fwi.co.uk/Articles/2006/09/12/97733/So-you-want-to.Start-an-on-farm-brewery.htm