Commercial Question

Northern Brewer General
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Does anyone have a quick link to cost analysis for marketing and selling your beer? Alcohol licensing and distribution aside…

I was browsing the web and looking at custom labels/bottle caps, buying bottles, and the obvious cost of brewing the beer itself (both man hours and kit costs), and i came to a whopping $2.88 a bottle of beer (not counting the time it takes to do it). I was calculating buying things at about a 200 quantity.

Obviously if you compare that to a $5-9 6 pack you see in the store, there is no winning.

I’m not trying to get my beer into a store or anything at this stage, but I did want to decorate my home brew bottles as a sort of badge of honor and keep it economical, especially for beers I share with friends and family.

My math puts it at having to be $1.50 a bottle in order to have custom labels, caps, and the beer itself in order to make a $9 6 pack. Which makes me wonder how breweries make a profit if thats what they are selling for in stores. Obviously doing things by bulk mass helps, but still.

Rant aside, I’m just looking for help in where to read up on this stuff. Thanks!

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Don’t have any quicklinks but going to your city hall and get business information will help. Some/most cities and counties will have a small business development company that has LOADS of information that is free to use and they help with business plans. Sorry that I can’t remember what they are called but they are out there and is a start.

As for breweries turning a profit and cost effective? All in mass quantities and quick turnout. A lot of breweries and their equipment are setup for quick and efficient so 100 gallons of beer doesn’t take much more effort than homebrewing 5 gallons. Same with bottles and such. Most are going to keg since in the long run it is cheaper and quicker but they can buy labels and bottles for pennies respectively.

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It’s illegal to sell homebrew - the feds don’t like it when they can’t collect taxes.

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[quote=“Lazifox”]Does anyone have a quick link to cost analysis for marketing and selling your beer? Alcohol licensing and distribution aside…

[color=#0000FF]I think the cost is all man hours. That will only depend on how much time you need to meet with the retailers. And meet with distributors if you live in a non self distribute
state. [/color]

I was browsing the web and looking at custom labels/bottle caps, buying bottles, and the obvious cost of brewing the beer itself (both man hours and kit costs), and i came to a whopping $2.88 a bottle of beer (not counting the time it takes to do it). I was calculating buying things at about a 200 quantity.

Which is it, including man hours or not?

Obviously if you compare that to a $5-9 6 pack you see in the store, there is no winning.

I’m not trying to get my beer into a store or anything at this stage, but I did want to decorate my home brew bottles as a sort of badge of honor and keep it economical, especially for beers I share with friends and family.

There are programs you can use on your computer to make the labels. Take the file to Kinko/OfficeMax/Staples to have them printed with a laser printer so the ink doesn’t run.

My math puts it at having to be $1.50 a bottle in order to have custom labels, caps, and the beer itself in order to make a $9 6 pack. Which makes me wonder how breweries make a profit if thats what they are selling for in stores. Obviously doing things by bulk mass helps, but still.

The smallest commercial brewery is going to be in the 10bbl. That a little over 3000 bottles per batch. So you will be getting into a better price point the bottle/caps/labels/man hours. Also in the cost of ingredients. Buying a 50lb bag vereses a 2000lb bag. Hops by the ounce verses buy the 144lb box.

Rant aside, I’m just looking for help in where to read up on this stuff. Thanks![/quote]

[color=#0000FF]Like Shadetree mentioned, the State/Feds will want their cut. The last I heard, the Fed license was only $50.

You need some type of calibrated vessels to keep track of your production to pay the per bbl fee. That is not to difficult to do.

Likely you will not be able to do this in your kitchen either. You will need a separate place.

If your friends/family want to buy you the ingredients to make them beer, that fine. How you go about that is up to you. :wink:
[/color]

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[quote=“Nighthawk”]Like Shadetree mentioned, the State/Feds will want their cut. The last I heard, the Fed license was only $50.[/quote]Neighborly of you to give him all that info, but the OP stated that he wants to sell his homebrew, not start a microbrewery or brewpub. :wink:

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bottom line, this.^^^

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