Beer cost per liter on a Brewery

[Bigbre04]

@Mastoras007,
You seem to be passionate about pursuing this and I cheer you on to follow your dreams!
My suggestion would be to create a business plan and then schedule time with a consultant to discuss things in detail.
Make sure this contains equipment, rental space, licensing information, insurance, build out costs, raw material costs, refrigeration, labor, etc.
From there you can truly assess the cost of doing business.
Also, whatever time you had planned to commit to this should be at least doubled. I'm not kidding.
Here's a good question. What is the draw? Is your beer better or cheaper or different than what's locally available?
Just brewing beer is the easy part.
Good luck,
Brian

To add to what Brian said.

You need to take the money that you think you need and double it. I have personally seen several breweries start up and fail in thier first year or even before they made a drop of beer because they did not have sufficient cash on hand for things that happen.

Also as was said above, you need to assess the demand for this project. I'm In a small beach town with a pretty heavy tourist crowd for 2/3rds of the year. We did the math and even during the slow winter months our locals and low overhead allow us to stay open. Plus a really good rep for food brings more locals.

 

[BarbarianBrewer]

Be honest with yourself...do you really feel like you are "saving" money?

I actually do. If I can drink beer I like for half the price, then hell yeah I am saving money. My beer isn't quite at the level of the pros but I do get close quite often. However saving money isn't the primary reason I brew my own but it helps justify the cost of the equipment I have...well most of the equipment.

 

[Bigbre04]

I actually do. If I can drink beer I like for half the price, then hell yeah I am saving money. My beer isn't quite at the level of the pros but I do get close quite often. However saving money isn't the primary reason I brew my own but it helps justify the cost of the equipment I have...well most of the equipment.

Man, Hobbies always morph into Expensive hobbies for me lol. Learning the craft and sharing it with friends is more valuable then the money value in the long run.

 

[Mashmellow]

I agree with The Brew Mentor. Not to get all "finance" on you, but I grew up in the Napa Wine Industry and spent my career in Commercial Banking with the last 10 years working working to help restructure wineries and breweries across the US. I have some definite thoughts and advise about what makes or breaks these types of businesses. What I believe you're asking is about input costs, which, as pointed out above, vary slightly by product but can be broken down pretty easily depending on gravity and your process. It's not different than any other producer. The margin obviously, to cover the fixed costs, SG&A expenses and debt coverage, is what makes it a business. If you were to go to any Agricultural Lending Bank and ask them, they should be able to give you some parameters and templates, and steer you in the right direction. I love talking about this kind of thing, but always risk the "oh no here comes Uncle Pete to talk about annuities again" reaction, so I'll leave it at that.

 

[Ward Chillington]

Be honest with yourself...do you really feel like you are "saving" money?

Saving or spending less? ..yeah I get ya but saving Money? Yes....Time ? Hell no! But I know what's in there, I made it myself and I have a good time doing it.