Using the GI Bill for Brewmaster School (I want to make my hobby a profession)

[Uncle Fester]

Spirits don't have a ghost of a chance of taking over the market.

Ba-dumm-tss.

 

[Pags]

Are there any other good "hobby into a profession" routes you could go funded by the GI Bill? They used to be pretty tight-fisted when it came to 'professional training and licensing' but I hear it's loosened up of late. I def would never have thought Brewmeistering would be paid for.

I think brewmaster would be an easier sell because it's courses you can take at a college towards a major as opposed to some random hobby.

I thought the Post-9/11 GI Bill had loosened the constraints on what you could use it for.

 

[zab1001]

http://fermentation.appstate.edu/

 

[LuckyMcFly]

You realize that a lot of analysts think that the brew market is at a bubble point, right? Way too many brewers for a market that's not growing anymore.

Not to burst your bubble, but have you considered wine and spirits? Those markets are going to do better going in to the future.

Without Bubbles your craft beers would be flat. Clearly you need to sign up for Brewmaster school.

 

[rotorhead1871]

Be careful trucking that Colorado beer east of the Mississippi - but if you do, make sure you get a fast car for a blocker..... (always did love that black Trans Am)

Postscript: Just saw this last night as Turner Classic Movies - can't believe Smokey and the Bandit is 39 years old. Thought a trailer might be appropriate for those who have never seen or heard of it.

what a great flik: "only 2 things I am afraid of: women and the police"

them were...the daze!!

 

[nittany03]

You realize that a lot of analysts think that the brew market is at a bubble point, right? Way too many brewers for a market that's not growing anymore.

Not to burst your bubble, but have you considered wine and spirits? Those markets are going to do better going in to the future.

The market could do for a correction; there's a lot of outfits out there who, once I taste what they're selling . . . ain't all that. Either not brewing to style, obvious faults, or other newbie mistakes. And while I'm a brewer, I'm not an eminently credentialed palate, either. So if I can tell, well . . .

Hipster cred > brewer cred == bad juju.

 

[Uncle Fester]

Eh. The CO hipster brewers will just convert to growing the marijuba once the beer bubble bursts.

Hey there's an idea...use your GI Bill to get your pot-growing schools and certs. It'd be worth it for the irony alone.

 

[Ektar]

I'm in the camp that the micro brewing industry is in for a correction in the next few years. I don't think the market will collapse by any means, but the breweries that will survive are the ones that meet a few criteria:

• They must make a good product. If @nittany03 or other non-eminent palates can pick up faults and mistakes in the final product, that is bad juju for the future of that brewer.
• The brewery needs the "it" factor. It has to have something different to attract customers. This is why you are seeing breweries specialize beyond just being a brewery into specific sub categories like belgian ales, sour ales, wood aged beers, etc.
• It has to have a decent marketing/events team. Used to a micro-brewery could attract customers because it was the only game in town. If you wanted a good beer, you want to your local brewery. Now, with multiple choices in every city (My town, Gainesville, FL with a population of 125k, has 2 established with another 3 in the works.) a brewery has to work a bit more to attract customers. Hosting live music, special events, and groups helps.
  
• It will need to have a good business plan/team on the non-brewery side of the house. A lot of breweries struggle on the business end aspect of running a brewery, making poor management choices that lead to lost opportunities or money.

The industry is also going through a consolidation phase with the Bud, Miller, Coors buying up prominent micro breweries on the premise that it is easier to buy the competition than develop your own brands and following. It's good to be the 600 lb gorilla in this industry, unless you are a gorilla named Harambe, then that's a bad sign.

All in all, there is room for success if a start-up chooses the right market and can create a good product. The days where a brewery was an instant success because it was on the leading edge of the movement are long gone, it takes work and grit to make a successful business in this industry.

Street Cred: accomplished home brewer that has spent three years as a coordinator for a 1600 patron craft beer festival working with multiple breweries and distributors. I'm actively courting a local brewery for a position on the business side of their house. So, I've educated myself about the industry....

 

[scoolbubba]

Eh. The CO hipster brewers will just convert to growing the marijuba once the beer bubble bursts.

Hey there's an idea...use your GI Bill to get your pot-growing schools and certs. It'd be worth it for the irony alone.

Not the worst idea I've ever heard.

 

[Uncle Fester]

Not the worst idea I've ever heard.

One of the local colleges around here recently began offering a course that sounded pretty much like it was "Legal Weed Business 101". Took a while for the school to work up enough nerve to offer it, from what the article said.

If there isn't already, I'm sure some school will offer an MBA or CPA subspecialty in the MJ business. Harvard offered a seminar on "Tax Planning for Marijuana Dealers." Demands a lot more knowledge of the law and accounting than microbrewing or small-batch bourbon. So yeah...you would totally be able to use your GI Bill to become a dirt merchant. Or at least accountant to dirt merchants.

 

[nittany03]

I'm in the camp that the micro brewing industry is in for a correction in the next few years. I don't think the market will collapse by any means, but the breweries that will survive are the ones that meet a few criteria:

• They must make a good product. If @nittany03 or other non-eminent palates can pick up faults and mistakes in the final product, that is bad juju for the future of that brewer.
• The brewery needs the "it" factor. It has to have something different to attract customers. This is why you are seeing breweries specialize beyond just being a brewery into specific sub categories like belgian ales, sour ales, wood aged beers, etc.
• It has to have a decent marketing/events team. Used to a micro-brewery could attract customers because it was the only game in town. If you wanted a good beer, you want to your local brewery. Now, with multiple choices in every city (My town, Gainesville, FL with a population of 125k, has 2 established with another 3 in the works.) a brewery has to work a bit more to attract customers. Hosting live music, special events, and groups helps.
  
• It will need to have a good business plan/team on the non-brewery side of the house. A lot of breweries struggle on the business end aspect of running a brewery, making poor management choices that lead to lost opportunities or money.

The industry is also going through a consolidation phase with the Bud, Miller, Coors buying up prominent micro breweries on the premise that it is easier to buy the competition than develop your own brands and following. It's good to be the 600 lb gorilla in this industry, unless you are a gorilla named Harambe, then that's a bad sign.

All in all, there is room for success if a start-up chooses the right market and can create a good product. The days where a brewery was an instant success because it was on the leading edge of the movement are long gone, it takes work and grit to make a successful business in this industry.

Street Cred: accomplished home brewer that has spent three years as a coordinator for a 1600 patron craft beer festival working with multiple breweries and distributors. I'm actively courting a local brewery for a position on the business side of their house. So, I've educated myself about the industry....

What are your thoughts on undercapitalization? Seems to be a common theme of the "two guys starting a picobrewery in their garage" stories, and those are the outfits I think will get bit. I read somewhere about $2M being a safe amount of startup capital, but I have nothing to gauge the credibility of that.

That's the advantage of getting bought by a macro; you've now got all their infrastructure at their disposal. I mean, let's face it; if Bud's brew team wanted to brew a killer IPA or porter tomorrow . . . they could probably do it. Because as insipid as the taste is, light American adjunct lagers are a style where there's absolutely no room for error, and they make millions of barrels of that piss.

 

[Ektar]

What are your thoughts on undercapitalization? Seems to be a common theme of the "two guys starting a picobrewery in their garage" stories, and those are the outfits I think will get bit. I read somewhere about $2M being a safe amount of startup capital, but I have nothing to gauge the credibility of that.

@nittany03, this is my two cents...

That's the advantage of getting bought by a macro; you've now got all their infrastructure at their disposal. I mean, let's face it; if Bud's brew team wanted to brew a killer IPA or porter tomorrow . . . they could probably do it. Because as insipid as the taste is, light American adjunct lagers are a style where there's absolutely no room for error, and they make millions of barrels of that piss.

I think under capitalization needs to be considered within the scope of the brewery's goals. If the brewery's goals are to be the nano-brewery and pub with 40 taps, then bootstrapping is a lot easier. If that same brewery has delusions of grandeur, then it will be way under capitalized. Starting a brewery with enough capacity to distribute takes a couple of million dollars. The amount to start has gone up because finding used brewing set-ups is near impossible and patrons expect cool "hip" tasting rooms, so money has to be invested in the atmosphere of the tasting room. Most people don't realize it, but a brewery's tasting room is where they make money. The margins on a pint at their own tasting room is 3 to 4 times that of a pint that is distributed. Distribution will keep the lights on for a brewery, but the tasting room will be the brewery's cash flow and profit center.

Finding that capital to start a brewery is getting harder. Yes, there are VC firms that are funding start-ups, but they are picky and aren't going to go with two "bros" that have 4 years of homebrew experience. In addition, finding a distributor for a micro-brewery's beer is getting harder. Distributors are getting pickier about their selections. For a bit, it was a brewers market for distribution, with distributors wanting to distribute micro-brews because of the demand and increased margins. That has switched, now it is a distributors market. The distributor has lots of choices and more bargaining power with the breweries.

The macro guys have some interesting experimental programs, especially Bud (https://byo.com/stories/issue/item/3241-beyond-budweiser ). They brew tons of beer for experimental purposes and have the know how to brew anything. And yes, most people don't realize the difficulty in brewing a light American lager. There is nothing to cover up a flaw. The fact that the big guys can brew thousands of gallons at a time and achieve absolute consistency from batch to batch is a testament to their skill and quality control programs. As a homebrewer, you have to know how hard consistency is to get nailed down. Over 10 years into the hobby, and I'm still working on improving my consistency from batch to batch so I can replicate my good beers exactly.

By the way, for those out there who want to be brewers, the work isn't all glamour. Brewing is about 80% cleaning and 20% brewing. It's hard, hot work and you have to have a passion for it. I've thought about going professional, but I'd be afraid making a hobby my profession will kill the enjoyment I get from it. So, I'm looking for jobs in the industry that keep me close to it.