ProBrewer

An Online Resource Serving The Beer Industry

» Operations » Professional Services

Professional Services

Find a wide range of resources on Professional Services for the brewing industry including articles, discussion board posts and more.

Beer Edge logo
Proudly supported by Beer Edge

The Beer Edge covers all aspects of the brewing industry with long-form interviews, keen insight, and expert analysis.

Download the Beer Edge Podcast and Drink Beer, Think Beer where you listen to podcasts.

Selling Your Brewery – Three Paths to Consider with Jason Sleeman of Craft Beverage Lending

posted by

When the time to retire arrives and the conditions are right, a brewery owner must decide what to do with the company. In some cases they can simply decide to close the doors, sell the equipment and walk away, living happily in consumers’ minds as a memory. In other instances a decision is made to sell the business.

There are options but the plan to an eventual sale should be a long process in an owner’s mind, thinking about what they would like to see the business become and who will be at the reins. Three possible paths for finding a suitable new owner are a generational sale, creating an employee stock ownership plan, or selling to an outside company or individual.

Jason Sleeman, the Vice President for Craft Beverage Lending at United Community Bank in Woodstock, Georgia spoke with Beer Edge editor John Holl about the three options.
Read more…

DEI: Closing the Gender Gap in Beer – an Interview with Deborah Brenner of Women of the Vine & Spirits

posted by

There are a lot of conversations that focus on closing the gender gap in the beer industry and actionable steps have been made in recent years, but more work needs to be done. It is not as simple as simply offering jobs to women. There are rooted problems in the beer industry that need to be addressed to make companies responsible employers and to set a culture that fosters inclusivity.

Beer Edge editor John Holl spoke with Deborah Brenner, founder & CEO of Women of the Vine & Spirits about initiatives and actions companies in the beverage alcohol industry can take to be more inclusive and responsible.
Read more…

The ABC’s of Trademark Law With Attorney Mark Traphage

posted by

With nearly 10,000 breweries operating in the United States, and countless beer brands available, trying to come up with an original beer name has never been more challenging. Knowing some basics about trademark law and how to protect your brands is no longer the province solely of larger breweries but all craft brewers.

Attorney Mark Traphagen agrees and sees an inevitable increase coming in the number of such disputes. “I think it’s becoming a crowded field and when a field is crowded, it’s always more likely that there’s going to be some sort of conflict between brand names, product names, and other trademarks,” he notes. Traphagen previously worked as an attorney at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the federal agency tasked with handling trademark registration for products and intellectual property identifications. Attorney Traphagen walks us through some basics of trademark law.
Read more…

Tips on Upping Your POS Program

posted by

Nick Bartelme, Marketing Manager at CANarchy, sat down with CODO Design, a food and beverage branding firm, to lay out some important insight on how brewers can raise the quality and effectiveness of their POS program.

From where to start a POS program (four pieces of POS every brewery should start with) to emergent non-beer verticals breweries should be paying attention to right now, Bartelme also describes how CANarchy roles out their POS program and differentiates between sales and marketing.

See the full story here at Craft Brewing Business.

Read more...

Deadline Nears for Restaurant Revitalization Fund Applications

posted by

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced this week that eligible businesses have until Monday, May 24, 8:00 pm (eastern) to submit applications to the Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF).

According to the Brewers Association, there are still some funds available to the small hospitality businesses such as breweries. When the legislation was drafted, Congress set aside $5 billion for applicants with gross receipts of not more than $500,000. To ensure an equitable distribution of funds, the SBA created additional funding allocations of $500 million for applicants with 2019 gross receipts not more than $50,000, and $4 billion for applicants with 2019 gross receipts between $500,000 and $1,500,000.

More details and how to apply here.

Read more...

SBA Grant Applications for Restaurant Revitalization Fund Accepted Beginning May 3

posted by

The U.S. Small Business Administration has announced that online application for the $28.6 billion Restaurant Revitalization Fund will be accepted beginning on Monday, May 3, at 12:00pm (EDT). The online application will remain open until funds are exhausted.

Businesses that may qualify for the economic relief money include any licensed facilities or premises of a beverage alcohol producer where the public may taste, sample, or purchase products. This would apply to brewpubs and breweries with a tasting room or taproom as long as onsite sales to the public comprises at least 33% of gross receipts.

You must be registered with the SBA to submit an application. You can set up an account in advance here starting on Friday, April 30th at 9:00am (EDT).

Read more...

Pandemic Hasn’t Slowed Investment Interest in Craft Brewing Industry

posted by

Although the Brewer’s Association announced this week that craft beer sales dropped for the first time ever in 2020 with a 9% decrease in volume, an article in the Commercial Observer says that the craft brewing industry continues to be a desirable investment.

“Looking forward, we predict that the landscape of craft beer will return to being healthy in the next two years, with 2020 volume losses being balanced out in the coming years,” Adam Rogers, North American research director at the IWSR, said in the article. “There will just be less breweries than there would have been pre-pandemic due to closures and reduced openings. We believe craft beer will return to growth of around 2 to 3 percent in 2021.”

And although between 300 and 350 breweries closed in 2020 according to the BA, it also estimates that more than 700 opened, about the same as in 2019.

Read more...

Safety Considerations with a Brewstillery

posted (updated Mar 2nd, 2022) by

The following article was posted on Sept. 21, 2016. It has been reviewed and updated as necessary by the ProBrewer editorial staff. 

Safety is the most important element in any manufacturing facility, and a distillery is no exception.
According to the American Distilling Institute, OSHA defines a distillery as “a plant or that portion of a plant where flammable liquids produced by fermentation are concentrated and where the concentrated products may also be mixed, stored or packaged. The main cause of distillery incidents is fire or explosion. This is caused from vapors being released into a confined space with an ignition source. The vapors can be released by leaking equipment components such as mating surfaces, leaking tanks, gaskets, valves, casks, even transfer pumps.

Ignition sources include:

Read more...

Regulation Considerations for a Brewstillery

posted (updated Mar 2nd, 2022) by

The following article was posted on Sept 21, 2016. It has been reviewed and updated as necessary by the ProBrewer editorial staff. Footnotes have been included where updated content has been added.

Craft Distillation Tax structure: Craft distillers pay a federal $2.70 per proof gallon (PG) on the first 100,000 PG, $13.34/PG on the next 22,130,000 PG sold, and $13.50/PG on anything above that.  More on the federal tax structure for craft distilleries here. (1) There are also state taxes which vary by state.

CQ – What additional licensing were you required to obtain in addition to the Federal Distillers Permit? Was it difficult?

Read more...

Nano Brewery Expenses and Funding

posted by

The first question a prospective nano brewery owner should ask themselves is not “How much money can I expect to make?” but rather, “How much money can I afford to spend?”

From equipment costs to building expenses to licensing, the cost of opening even a small brewery can be staggering. And that’s before you brew your first batch.

The equipment costs for starting a nano brewery may be significantly lower than those for a full-sized brewery – although a new turnkey 3-barrel system can still run upwards of $45,000. But just as brewing beer is but a small part of the job of owning a brewery, the equipment costs are just a fraction of the total startup capital.

Read more...

Nano Brewery Basics

posted by

The term “nano brewery” may be a fairly recent addition to the craft brewing lexicon, but the concept of small breweries with a pint-sized brew length is nothing new. Although Anchor Brewing in San Francisco might be considered the first American craft brewery, it was New Albion Brewing of Sonoma, Calif., that showed other entrepreneurs they could build a brewery from the ground up. New Albion opened in 1976 using a 55-gallon brewing system.

There is no denying that as total craft beer production continues to skyrocket, so does the number of breweries that are starting with smaller than traditional batch sizes. Just as the definition of “craft beer” can be a slippery subject, there is no definitive answer as to what constitutes a nano brewery. And, likewise, there is no comprehensive list or accounting for how many nano breweries are operating in the United States.

The most-widely accepted description of nano breweries is a brewery that produces in batches of three barrels or smaller. Based on that criteria, there are upwards of 300 breweries operating in the United States as of summer 2014 that would qualify as nano breweries. That would mean nano breweries account for nearly 10 percent of the nation’s craft breweries.

Read more...

Selling your beer – the basics of self-distribution and brewery sales

posted (updated Feb 8th, 2022) by

The following article was posted on Feb. 18, 2015. It has been reviewed and updated as necessary by the ProBrewer editorial staff. 

So far, all of the considerations we have discussed have centered on the expense side of the ledger. But there is good news: Good beer is worth money. And, once you have navigated all the red tape to get licensed, scavenged the money to build a brewery and actually brewed some beer, there are people out there willing to pay you for your efforts.

But there are still many choices you have to make. The biggest is who is going to be your customer – the consumer across the bar at your own taproom or the retailer at a pub, bottle shop or growler station.

Read more...

Self-distribution versus using a distributor – off-site draft sales for breweries

posted (updated Jan 18th, 2022) by

The following article was posted on Feb. 18, 2015. It has been reviewed and updated as necessary by the ProBrewer editorial staff. Footnotes have been included where updated content has been added.

As brewpubs continue to proliferate across the country, many are opting to sell their products through retail accounts to utilize excess capacity and increase revenue. Off-site sales can also increase your walk-in business by creating exposure and interest in your brewpub. As attractive as this may seem, off-site sales entail a great deal of time, resources and effort to successfully achieve these objectives. And in some states, brewpubs are not allowed to sell their products outside the confines of the licensed premise.

Where allowed by state law, the practice of off-site distribution has been employed successfully along a full spectrum of implementation. Some brewpubs have grown into full size production plants with the majority of their sales sold off-site through a far-reaching distribution network. This, however, is the exception rather than the rule. Most brewpubs sell their products in draft only to a handful of local accounts. Whatever the applicable scale, it is important to understand the basics of off-site distribution.

Read more...

Seven steps of branding building

posted by

by Tom McCormick

Successful beer brands require a balance of ‘push’ and ‘pull’ in the marketplace. Push is the term used for getting the brand placed on the retail shelf. This involves the many complexities of distribution and distributor management (see Distribution 101). But once the product is placed on the shelf, it must sell – or ‘pull’. If either push or pull are out of balance, you are not achieving optimum potential sales for your brand. For instance, if you have good distribution and many placements, but the product does not sell; those placements will quickly be substituted by the retailer for another brand, and your distributor will quickly become discouraged from placing your brand further. On the other hand, if you have built good brand awareness, but the consumer can’t find the product at retail, you are losing sales opportunity.

Brand building is creating pull for your brand. It is focusing on the “fourth tier” – the consumer. The foundation of good brand building is to provide a sufficient reason for the consumer to buy your product. Most craft beer consumers have a range of 5-10 beer brands that they buy on a consistent and repetitive basis. Two or three of these brands are favorites, which typically capture about 50-60% of their beer purchases. The typical consumer tends to buy beer brands that they know, recognize and are familiar with. Price and positioning also come into play. Very few craft beer consumers today buy a six pack of a beer they have never tried. Most first time sampling is done at on-premise retail or events.

Read more...

Some Words of Wisdom

posted by

by Jamie Martin, Brewmaster, Dells Brewing Co.

Controlled Experiments – As a brewer you should always be learning and trying to improve your beer. Running a controlled experiment from time to time can give you situational knowledge specific to your equipment that you can’t get from a textbook or article. First and foremost make sure you have the basics of brewing down before you start to change things; you can only learn from experimentation if you understand the process and what normally happens. A few guidelines: Only change one thing per brew. This could be anything like using 2-Row Copeland instead of 2-Row Metcalfe barley, mashing a degree or two higher or lower than normal, or adding your hop addition 10 minutes sooner or later then normal. These incremental changes are small and subtle, usually only you will notice in the final product. If someone has a pint at your brewery and then comes back two months later, they shouldn’t be able to detect a change in the beer, but if they come back a year later, they should find your beer has improved 100%. Those subtle changes may not change the flavor profile much, but our goal should always be improving the overall quality of the entire beer.

Write everything down – Everything that happens in the brewery should be written down; the good the bad and the ugly! First of all it’s the law. We produce alcohol and need to have detailed account of the process and the materials involved in producing our beer. Second, if something goes wrong you’ll need to be able to research that particular batches process and material bill to locate where the problem occurred and correct it. Recording each step also creates a great reference library for you. If you document mistakes and your troubleshooting process, then later, if a similar problem arises, you’ll have a record of the steps and missteps you took previously and you can avoid wasted time and frustration. Your record can also be used as an invaluable training tool for your support staff.

Read more...

Brewpubs and distribution – Special considerations for brewpubs

posted by

What’s wrong with this picture?

A loyal customer, one of those regulars who act as goodwill ambassadors, comes into your brewpub with five friends in tow. He adores your pale ale and he introduces his friends as pale ale lovers who have never had your beer. They are here to drink, have dinner and run up a good-sized bill.

Sorry, you have to tell them, but you are out of the pale ale. It will be back on tomorrow, but a sudden run on the beer by outside accounts has left that tap dry. You suggest that they head to the Italian restaurant down the street because you know you just sent them a fresh keg earlier in the day. You watch a sizable ticket and five potential customers head out the door.

Read more...

Join the ProBrewer mailing list

Connect With @ProBrewerPage

LinkedIn    Instagram    Facebook    Twitter

Go Somewhere Else

News • Classifieds • Help Wanted / For Hire • Discussion • Library • Contact • Advertise • Contact Details • Help