Brewing Experience
A great team
Some equipment
I think it was a good decision and we brewed a few pilot batches before going into full production. govs has a pretty good homebrew setup that was good enough to allow us to brew some great beer.
We discuss this system a little in this article.
The brew/licensed place
There are basically three options for brewing your first beer.
For us, contract brewing was the best balance between doing our own work and not taking too much risk. Since then, it’s just been the best place to be. The reasons we decided to work with Chris,Beard and Brau are
A little cash.
I probably can’t say how much it costs to brew a beer. But let’s say we sell 15 barrels for $300, there’s not much left.
That’s pretty cool, especially for our first beer. I’d almost pay that much to go to a bar and drink my own beer haha.
Logistical Considerations
There are many factors to consider when moving your beer, such as
We’re still hammering out the details of these issues, but Chris has been a big help here.
If you have questions about this sort of stuff, please ask in the comments and we’ll respond as we learn more.
ABN and business name
*Note this is general, don’t take accounting or legal advice from me.
You will need an ABN and a business name. You can very inexpensively and easily register for.
It also makes sense to register for GST, but at lower incomes (current cutoff is $75,000/year) it is not necessary to register for GST. but it is hard to predict, so if you are serious, it makes sense to do so.
Detailed recipe
Govs has worked repeatedly with Chris on detailed recipes for beer. Chris uses his own system for recipes, but if you’re a home brewer, check out the Beer Smith software.
Software isn’t completely necessary, especially if you’re working with a brewer who is heavily involved in brewing.
Community Support
The craft beer community has been great for us so far. If you want to start a business in this space, you have to cultivate support in the community. I really didn’t want to pick people out in this post because there are so many people and I haven’t asked their permission. But we are very grateful to everyone who has taken the time to chat with us and help us out.
I hope we can repay your kindness with a good beer! I also hope this blog will be a resource for others who want to do the same thing.
Packaging Materials
Once the beer is brewed, your job is not done. We have also arranged for the following activities.
We are not bottling, so we don’t need labels. But if you are, you need labels, and there are some additional considerations. Chris does have a bottling facility, so that may be an option for the future. Right now we’re just trying to keep it simple.
Here is a summary of our plans for our first beer.
Where are we brewing?
As mentioned earlier, we are happy to brew beer at Beard and Brau in Tamborine. Chris is a craft beer OG and he has a pretty wicked 800L setup. In addition, he is very flexible in allowing us to control the brewing process. Not to mention the patients with all the back and forth associated with the first appointment.
It’s great to have people and places like this to help newcomers to the industry. Maybe one day we can do the same, who knows?