The Brewers Association's Guide to Starting Your Own Brewery

by Dick Cantwell

The Brewers Association's Guide to Starting Your Own Brewery distills the wisdom of craft brewing veteran Dick Cantwell into one text that delivers essential industry insight. American craft brewers have always exhibited a sense of community and collegiality but the success of the industry is embodied by the production of consistently high-quality beer at community-oriented breweries. This book is an indispensable resource for aspiring brewery owners to turn that vision into reality. At every level, brewing is about careful planning and execution of processes. The author shows that this is no different when starting a brewery. Cantwell walks the reader through initial planning, from site selection, size, staffing levels, your brewery concept, and dealing with delays, to business planning and raising capital. Regulatory and legal issues are discussed―not least a brewery's obligations to the inland revenue service―along with strategies essential for starting and growing your operation, such as production and sales planning and brewery expansion either on site or opening new locations. The author includes several example business plans that are explored in detail, and peppers the book with his own personal and hard-won insights on everything from guerilla marketing to applying epoxy resin flooring. Within this big picture, the author weaves in critical aspects like brand identity, marketing, quality assurance, and distribution, not to mention details like equipment options, securing ingredients, and installing flooring and drainage that will stand up to the demands of a busy brewery. Finally, once your brewery opens its doors, the process of brewing needs to continue smoothly. You need to plan and adapt your brand portfolio, operate sustainably, dispose of wastewater correctly, and package and present your product in a way that will appeal to customers. Craft breweries pride themselves on conscientious operation, maintaining the safety of their staff and operating responsibly within their community, all the while being profitable. From concept to operation, this book gets you on the right track to succeed in one of today's most dynamic industries.

Genres: Beer, Brewing

200 pages, Paperback

First published May 15, 2013

Reviews

[Matthew Vallely · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a nice starting point into the topics around running a brewing business. I don’t see myself referring to it again but if I hadn’t read it I wouldn’t be ready to read any books that are more in depth. Many times when it introduced ideas, they were muddied by a bunch of “it depends”, so it was challenging to paint a clear picture of how to actually make intelligent decisions at each major step in the process. It was also very expensive for how topical the material was. Definitely a valuable introductory tool, but not worth what it’s sold for.

[Matthew Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great starting point. So many things I didn’t even think to consider!

[Mark]

02 June 2016 Read Acknowledgments, Foreword (Sam Calagione, Dogfish Head), 3 Size Matters: How Big Should Your Brewery Be? and 4 No Pressure: Committing to a Concept. Or Not. both in Section I. Planning.

I like Cantwell's style, his tone, and there's a lot of craft brewing history that I haven't seen elsewhere.

20 June 2016 Have to return. Looks good and makes sense but I'm not really the audience either.

[Sam & Meg Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful place to start

This book is so full of encouragement. This is such a great starting point in the process of starting your own brewery/brew pub. Thank you, Dick. You have helped us get started. Let the researching begin. Cheers!
Sam & Meg Murphy