It`s helpful to think of craft beer as a fragile ecosystem and look at contract brewing as a way to strengthen that ecosystem and improve business. “You`re helping a younger company in most cases, or you`re helping someone who`s in transition, or you`re helping someone who has this thing, who has this vocation, who wants to bring it to life,” says DeLuca. The more good beer in the world, the better the world; The more breweries can help entrepreneurs bring their names and brands to the world, the better the craft beer industry will be. Making things more gnarled is perhaps the biggest hurdle contract brewers have to overcome: the lack of a physical space they can call their own. Stillwater Artisanal Ales owner Brian Strumke, a former musician and current entrepreneur, is familiar with consumer confusions when you don`t have an actual location. The start-up cost of a craft brewery can easily exceed $1 million, mainly depending on the size of the operation and its location. The cost includes the necessary brewing equipment such as kettles, kegs, boilers and fermentation tanks. Upgrading equipment to meet increased demand can also be costly. McDonald expressed the idea of one day brewing his own beer, which Trejo strongly encouraged him to do. As luck would have it, Golden Road Brewing (which had not yet been bought by In-Bev) held a homemade brewing contest, Mc Donald signed up and eventually won for his grapefruit season, which became a regional bestseller for the brewery. McDonald`s then went to Highland Park Brewery to brew the popular Timbo Pils (he went on to win a gold medal at the Great American Brewing Festival in 2019 that year).
My brewery does a lot of contract brewing for other people. What do you want to know? Al Maka, owner of AJ Maka Distributing in Bolingbrook, Illinois, founded his business because in part “the big guys, they don`t see any money sending half a pallet and selling half a pallet to people.” Its mission is to represent small breweries and contract breweries. The little guys who don`t have the muscles to move their beer into the regions for consumers to buy. It has a simplified version of how contract brewers and breweries both benefit from collaboration. “The contracted brewery only has its price, which they sell to the brewery,” Maka explains. “And the brewery has the price that it sells either to its distributors, to its retailers or to the public.” Wow, that`s awesome! Thank you all! Let them come when you know others. I`ll try to summarize all of this in a blog post about MicroBrewr. I will also try interviewing someone for the podcast to help us understand everything that is needed to start a “brewery” by signing a contract with someone else to make beer.
Contract brewing seems like a great entry point for someone who has good recipes and a proper marketing plan, but can`t afford all the equipment from the get-go. UPDATE: Please also add links if possible. This would help TON. THANK YOU! Al Maka claims that “contract breweries produce beer exactly as you would at home, with quality control and durability almost even better than breweries can make themselves.” Contract breweries continue to evolve, and as they evolve, the stigma of inferiority has begun to fade. As important as it may be for the beer itself, it is perhaps more important for entrepreneurs and breweries to share the same satisfaction in beer. For Rivera, it was the first time it worked in the contract brewing space, but there were friends who were familiar with the process. “Until then, I hadn`t had the chance to get involved in anything with Julio.” Rivera continues to understand the realities as he sees them in today`s beer market: “Drinkers don`t care where a beer is brewed, they just care if it`s good.” Rivera sees the cost benefits of the contract brewing world: “It`s a very good place because you don`t have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on brewing. You don`t need $500,000 to contract the beverage, not even nearby. Contract brewing is a great way to get your foot in the door. Other industries, such as food and wine, constantly prefer contract production. But only the craft beer world becomes nostalgic for the idea that every facet of production takes place within the walls of the brewery.
Licht is a beer veteran, and if you asked him, he could probably name more people who have signed as a producer or buyer than he has fingers. And that`s another example of stigma in action. The lack of transparency creates mistrust of the product. The cost also depends on the contract itself. Not all contracts are drafted in the same way. They vary from brewery to brewery and also depend on the needs of the contract brewer. Matt DeLuca, Norwood`s head brewer, MA`s Castle Island Brewing Co., echoes this feeling from “both sides” and confirms the symbiotic relationship entrepreneurs share with entrepreneurs. .