Does purchasing an existing brewery actually make functional sense? It could include all sorts of equipment and infrastructure that you don’t want or need – and it may not be in good shape. Our guests for Episode 027 help you to untangle these and other related Equipment & Infrastructure challenges by sharing their stories, experience, and resource…

Finance is always a critical component of business discussions, and this is no exception. We talked about the numbers in episodes 19, 20 & 23, and we do so again here with Purchasing an Existing Brewery. Our guests address determining the value of an existing brewery, what kind of financial due diligence they would recommend, how an existing busine…

Welcome back to Season II of the Start A Brewery podcast! We begin with a requested topic: Purchasing an Existing Brewery. This covers several episodes, starting with a strategic overview of legal issues and general strategies for this approach. Candace, Brook Bristow, and Jeff O’Brien offer the perfect storm of stories, best practices, situations …

What did you think of Start A Brewery Podcast Season I? In reflecting on the very first (23) episodes, Candace L. Moon & Laura Lodge, hosts of the podcast & Founders of Start A Brewery, ask that very question! They encourage listeners to share both their likes & their constructive suggestions for Season II. Episode 024 is a fun visit to different e…

If there was ever an insider’s look at brewery financing, this is it. Rick Wehner of Brewery Finance and Scott Birkner of Dogwood State Bank hail from lending organizations that are very different in their approaches. Their opinion about business plans, however, has a lot of common ground. For a good hard look at credit, partnerships, different kin…

What does it mean “to leverage your brand”? And how would you do that? Our guests in Start A Brewery Podcast Episode 022 have answers, and do an wonderful job of connecting the discussions in Episode 006: Understanding Your Market & Creating Your Brand Identity and Episode 021: Creating Your Marketing Plan as well. Covering a wide range of topics –…

Marketing plan? Who needs one? Well…you do. From understanding what exactly a marketing plan is & what it’s for to marketing budgets & target customers, our guests in Episode 021 bring it all to the table. SWOT analysis, road maps, local vs. outside market approaches, marketing budgets, and more….it’s here. It’s not just for the business plan or fo…

From business projections to everyday financials! Dovetailing nicely with our previous episode, Getting Into the Numbers, Part II recaps a bit of the groundwork prep you’ll need to start generating numbers for your business plan and then hits seasonal projections… before heading into a thorough discussion of best practices and strategies to help ne…

Proforma, Sales, and Cash Projections, oh my! Episode 019 literally “Gets Into the Numbers”, with a ton of guidance about approaches to the tasks, available templates, and other resources to help you with the financial side of your business plan. Our guests discuss the strategy around conservative plans & projections and what lenders/investors are …

What does it mean to set goals and create projections for your business plan? How do you pull those numbers out of the sky? And running your brewery, regardless of any other variable, requires setting goals to optimize your business success. Mark Boelman of Triple Bottom Line Brewery Consulting starts off Episode 018 with practical goal setting adv…

Continuing the two part conversation about the necessary – nay, essential - systems for your brewing business, our guests take a hard look at the key people who make up your brewery business team. Who are they, how did you find them, and how much of a voice do they have in the direction and decision making for your business? The conversation hits h…

Beginning a two part conversation about the necessary - nay essential - systems for your brewing business, our guests dig into their areas of specialty to talk through both the philosophy and mechanics interwoven behind the scenes. Mary Brettmann offers insight around the critical financial/Accounting hub of information gathering for effective deci…

While podcast episode 014 focuses primarily on Contract Brewing, 015 takes us down the path of Alternating Proprietorships. Jamil Zainasheff shares his experience brewing his recipes for Heretic in an Alternating Proprietorship arrangement before he had his own location, and Candace offers a wider lens with regard to contracts and the legalities of…

Episode 014 explores the business approach to opening a brewery based on contract brewing and alternating proprietorships. Alisa Bowens-Mercado of Rhythm Brewing tells her story of the search for contract brewing, while Phil Markowski of Two Roads and Matthew Osterman of Sleeping Giant share the backstory and intent behind their purpose built contr…

Episode 013 continues the discussion with Chris Leach of Wild Goose Filling, Alex Smith of ABS Commercial, and Brian Mollohan of Ruby Street Brewing about all things equipment. Where 012 was more shopping information and considerations, 013 takes us further into customized equipment, the entirety of costs associated with brewing equipment, and all …

In Episode 012 our guests weigh in on one of the most popular topics of conversation when talking about any brewery: brewing equipment. In addition to in depth advice about brewing system capacity, the group gets into what kind of questions to ask equipment suppliers, how to evaluate equipment, considering used equipment, when and how to consider m…

Episode 011 brings together decades of ingredients and processes experience for a thorough discussion of “What are you brewing?”. Neil Witte, Erik Fowler, and Niko Tonks are all brewers who in time have specialized in quality, yeast, and hops. The scope of their work within the industry and connection to both the brewing and business side is appare…

Episode 010 harkens back to Episode 003: Foundational Elements, and continues with the critical decision making of Ownership, Kitchens, and what kind of brewery approach you will be using. Beginning with a thorough discussion of strategies and pitfalls of various locations, our guests work their way through approaches to design, working with contra…

Episode 009 carries forward the critical decision making from Episode 008 into the biggest of pictures about your business, digging into the food component (kitchen) as a major factor in determining whether you’re planning a tap room (only), a brewpub, or a packaging brewery. With decades of experience individually, our guests together represent a …

Episode 008 covers one of the most obvious and essential initial topics in Ownership and Organizational Structure. Yes, you need to explain your decisions and the resulting organizational outline in your business plan, but the importance of this gets into tax implications, decision making for the company, succession planning, following legal guidel…

The 007 episode is a break to check in with three industry veterans about their craft beer journeys. Key elements of the discussion include how mission statements & values shine through their existing businesses and, overall, how business plans have or have not played a part in the various breweries they have been with over time. Their experiences …

This session is an excellent Branding 101, including finding those differentiating elements, how to avoid the hop cones and barley in your logo (unless you grow them), and understanding how this translates to your brand family development on the shelf at retail. Indeed, looking from the retail shelf backward, the group discusses being intentional w…

Episode 005 - Your Business Plan: Mission Statement, Perspective, Values & Vision brings together the very different perspectives of a mediator (“ombudsman”), employment law attorney, and diversity educator to discuss the questions “Who are you?” and “What do you collectively as a team and a business represent?” In exploring what mission statements…

Your Business Plan: The Academic Perspective is the first of a series of episodes dedicated to creating your business plan. We begin with a group of professors with a variety of backgrounds speaking to the whole of the plan, with emphasis on its importance, the approach people take, what’s effective or not, and finish with common mistakes. Each gue…

Our mission today continues the thread from our Gut Check episode, where we discussed the critical questions that you should ask yourself as you make the decision to move forward with your dream. Those were the deal breakers, the alarm bells to respect, and the signals that should be heeded lest you move forward into hazardous, potentially disastro…

This discussion bridges the dream with the preliminary steps you will need to take to create your initial business plan, and these topics - though critical – are not necessarily dream crushers. Some can inspire you to evaluate and shift in the necessary direction to find a solid path forward. Others may be of greater consequence and require a signi…

Welcome to the Start A Brewery podcast, where we discuss all things relating to start ups, open, and growing breweries from concept to execution. Our mission today is to discuss the inspiration to open a brewery, that dream as it first presented itself and began to take shape. Where did it begin, how long did you sit on that idea, and what people, …

Start A Brewery Co-Founders, Laura Lodge and Candace L. Moon, welcome listeners to their new podcast about all things with regard to starting (or growing) a brewery. Episodes will launch every other Tuesday and track the process from the original vision (The Dream) through developing a business plan and into Plan, Act, Open & Grow, mirroring the st…