November 30, 2020 Starting a Home Brewery Business

Everything you need to know before starting your own home brewery.

If you are interested in starting your own home brewery business, there are a few things you should consider.

If you love drinking beer, ale, or cider, you may have thought about starting your own home brewery. You may have even tried your hand at home brewing before and had great feedback on your product from friends and family. If you are thinking about starting your own home brewing business, there are a few things that you should do your research into before you start. In this guide, we will explore everything that you need to know before you begin.

Who Are Your Customers?

Before starting any business, you will need to do some degree of market research. Market research involves working out who exactly you will be advertising and selling your products to. This can even affect the design and development of your products.

In the case of home brewing, you will most likely want to sell to two specific markets. The first one will be pubs and bars. To start off with, why not invite the owners of local pubs in your area to try out samples of your product? If they are keen, they might offer to trial your beer in the bar on a temporary basis, either in bottles or cans, or even on tap if you can produce kegs of it. If you’re lucky, this can lead to a permanent client for you to supply to!

The other market that you may choose to sell to is the home consumer. This can be achieved by opening an online store where customers can buy directly, or it can be achieved by getting shops to stock your product. Convincing larger chain stores such as supermarkets will be much more difficult, and you will probably have had to have had lots of success selling your product in pubs and at beer festivals beforehand. Start out with smaller local beer shops and festivals, and you never know where this might lead.

What Is the Competition?

Unfortunately, because home brewing can be such an enjoyable pursuit, the field can also be very competitive. If you are initially selling to the local market, check out what local brews are available at the time, and try to come up with a unique product for your local market.

Nationally and internationally, the competition will be much larger. However, if you have built up enough of a local fanbase, you won’t have to reinvent the wheel to be able to sell it further afield.

What Equipment Do You Need?

A full brewing setup can vary in size and number of components. A basic home brewing setup features around 10 to 15 items (mostly small) that can fit into a single room or shed, and can be bought for less than $200 in total. When it comes to cleaning equipment, it is important to choose sanitized products like Golyath distilled water that will not contaminate the product with unwanted chemicals.

What Suppliers Will You Use?

As well as equipment, which can be purchased via online stores, you will need a steady supply of ingredients like yeast, malt, hops, sugar, and spices. Whether you choose online suppliers or local suppliers, it is extremely important to make sure that supply chains are efficient. If you are successful in building a sizeable customer base, supply chain issues such as delays in delivery or stock replenishment of ingredients can be disastrous. It never hurts to have a back-up plan in case your regular supplier of a particular ingredient is unable to provide you with it on time.

How Will You Market Your Business?

Marketing a business is essential if you want to build a customer base. As mentioned, contacting local pubs, shops, and beer festivals is an effective way of putting your brand name out there. However, you can also try other approaches, such as starting a website, social media pages, and using digital marketing strategies. There are many ways to come up with an effective digital marketing strategy for your business.

Summary

Starting and operating a successful and profitable home brewery business can be very difficult. Even if you are unable to make a living at it, however, it can still be a lot of fun and very rewarding to brew beer. Even if it is just friends and family who enjoy the results of your craft, home brewing can be a great hobby. If you do manage to develop your passion into a profitable business, it can be one of the most enjoyable businesses to own and run!

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