I have put a lot of thought into this, you know, like how your mind could wander if someone said what would you do if you won 20 million in the lottery!
If was to take a hobby that I love and turn it into work I think that this is how I would go about it. This is assuming that I have a blank check available to set this up. I think what you need to do to really make it is to make the craft brewing part of it secondary. I think you need to offer much more than just a kind of exclusive beer snob haven. You need mass appeal.
I think the failing of many of the "smaller" local craft brewers are one of the following scenarios.
A)They have 8 brews on tap, they brew what "they" like, and they are mostly all just "okay", they cater to the "I want you to offer me a bunch of different beers, but they all need to be kind of the same" crowd.
B)They have 4 taps, and they are all great beers, but they only have 4 taps, and brew maybe 4-6 great brews, there is never really anything new or unusual. These brewers attract people like me, but don't attract the people that aren't beer snobs.
First thing I would do would be to have a marketing company analyze my market to see where my business idea would work most successfully. My plan would be to create a brew pub, to have amazing food, and areas with different types of experiences. The Pub/Bar experience, the roadhouse experience, a more elegant dining experience, and a straight up fill your growler and chat with the brewers while having a sample or two experience. The three most important parts about a new business are location, location, and location. I would need a multi-level facility to create the necessary separation of these themes. There is a restaurant that is set up a bit like this not far from me. Each level has a different name. Charcoal’s, is a fine dining steak house, Martini’s is a trendy Martini Bar, and I forget what the other one is called, but it is an Italian style restaurant. They are not craft bewers, but do have some local craft brew on tap.
Second order of business would be to hire all the right people.
Business Manager
Restaurant Manager
Whatever other Managers you need to make a business succeed.
A Brew Master who would bring the technical skill that must be required to brew at a larger scale.
The first pill that I would need to swallow would be that I would need to brew beers that aren't my favorites, and, you would need to nail them to be taken seriously. An alternative to that would be to have Bud light Lime and PBR (or the like) on tap. It would probably be necessary to have 4-8 commercial beers on tap. The only tough part with that may be politics. Most restaurants with taps here are “in bed” with one brand, or the other (Molson’s or Labatt’s).
There is a Brew Pub establishment that I believe was doing very well about an hour and a half from where I am. They have a number of sku’s in our state run beer and liquor outlet, so they have large production capacity. To get shelf space and a sku you have to have a contract, and when they order beer, you have to ship beer. The thing is their beer just isn’t really all that good if you ask me, but they have been, and continue to be very successful. The same business plan would work near me, and probably be far more successful… if the beer was also great!
Craigerrr’s Craft Beer Outlet
Stewart's Roadhouse Brew Pub (my middle name is Stewart)
Jackson’s Landing Steak House (my Dad's name was Jack)
Hit Me Up! (or some kind of a trendy name for a trendy place where the kids [20 somethings] would want to hang out)
I would want to boast 40+ beer taps, and 100 Bottle’s of Beer on the Wall.
Every beer style imaginable, you will just have to come back again, and again, and again.
The only problem with all of this is that I don't buy lottery tickets
