How NOT To Start A Damn Brewery: the podcast

People like to say that I don't want people to follow their dreams if they're dreaming about mash paddles and mass distribution. While that's not entirely true, I do think the odds are you'll be living on ramen noodles and stolen Netflix.  But if you ARE gonna start a brewery, the point would be to do it right and make some money. And before you get to that point, you have to figure out just...

Eddie Chimi, or Anderson, or whatever he's calling himself these days, is a craft beer industry veteran. He’s damn near an expert on getting beer from the manufacturer to the asshole waiting in line to buy a can of it. You know that I’m always on the lookout for people who’ve been around the craft beer block and lived to tell about it. And I’m fascinated to have conversations with people who are w...

Molly Ware heads up revenue production at The Infinite Monkey Theorem . I’ve long said that what other booze producers experience should inform and prepare us for what we face in beer. Molly was kind enough to step away from the highly competitive and unfairly overfunded wine industry to sit and answer my questions today. And I think if you listen to the end, you’ll be better for it. I asked her o...

You may not have heard of Kevin Abbott. But you’re not likely to forget him. He’s a guy who’s brewed at three different breweries. He was at Funky Buddha before the fairy tale exit that happened in 2017. He was the brewer back when they had a 1 BBL system in 2010, he was there for the 30BBL expansion in 2014 but he was safely gone when they sold for 80 million 4 years later. He was at Due South du...

Today’s guest got bitten by the brewery bug in 2012. Back when there were less than 2500 breweries nationwide and you could still convince yourself that there was room for one more. Like many of us he thought, start small, build it up slowly and grow incrementally over time. Invest in growth, recapitalize and add market share along the way to success. But his multiple award-winning brewery got swa...

If you’ve been paying attention over my last 20-whatever episodes you know that craft beer is an ugly place to try to make any money. You do not go into beer to get rich. Or even to pay your light bill. Well, here’s a news flash I bet you didn’t see coming: HOMEBREW SHOPS AREN’T MAKING ANY, EITHER. For today’s episode I sat down with Scott Birdwell to discuss what it’s like to own a homebrew shop...

Earthlings, meet Gene Bouck, the mad scientist from the late Genetic Brewing in Florida. Gene started as a home brewer, like many of you. Gene dreamed of the freedom of entrepreneurship like many of us. And, as part of an ever-increasing pool of dead and dying breweries, Gene watched his brewery suffer and die. The goal of this podcast has always been open and honest conversation with people who’v...

Dan Garrison is the founder and proprietor of TX’s first legal bourbon distillery, Garrison Brothers in Hye, TX. I wanted to interview Dan because I knew that there were lessons we could learn from how spirits goes to market. I was positive that there were overlaps in the cash flow model for aging bourbon vs fermenting beer. I knew that he had overcome massive obstacles on the path to building his...

What happens when a successful craft beer blogger, author and educator decides to dip her toe in the business side of craft beer? Does the SBA switch horses mid-stream? Does she get dizzy navigating the logistics of Atlanta’s city, county and local government permitting processes? Does a worldwide pandemic and a heartless landlord throw rocks at her like a sweaty bully on the playground? Jen Price...

Today’s craft beer badass is Joe at Hanging Hills brewing in Connecticut. He’s a guy that’s been run through the ringer. He’s lost a best friend to craft beer. He lost money. He was marked for pain and suffering by an internet douchebag. He’s fought and bled to build his business, only to watch it cough and die in his arms. But through all that, Joe Ploof is still a believer. He still wants to mak...

Today my friends and foes, we sit down with Adam Metcalf, General Manager and all-around cool dude at Aces and Ales in Las Vegas, Nevada. Aces represents the trail-blazing craft beer bar. You know what I’m talking about because we all have an example of one near us. In virtually every market over the last decade, someone has come on the scene with a unique take on selling beer to people. They deve...

Our guest today is Lauren Kendzierski of the late Black Rabbit Farm Brewery in Southwick, MA. She did beer the way I did. Only more authentic and actually on a farm. Sadly, we can’t taste her beer now that her brewery has closed but we can hear the story and feel the passion that went into every bottle. And I hope that both of those come through in this interview. She tells her story from inspirat...

Our guest today is Dean Brundage of New Republic Brewing Company.  Like any good drama, this is a story of love, hope, betrayal and complete annihilation. He and his business partner started their brewery together with stars in their eyes back in 2010. Only a few years later their disagreements turned into Dean being forced out of the company he helped found, create and build. New Republic ha...

Our guest today is Chad Mitchell from Mixtape Beverages in SouthEast Asia.  He shared the story of his day job, BeerVana International with us in Episode 16 so if you haven't listened to that one yet, I'd recommend you do that first.  His brewery is contract-brewed, which I'm starting to think might be one of the best business models under 10K annual BBL of production. He's got a ton of...

Welcome To Craft Beer's ONLY Voice of Reality Episode 16 Our guest today is Chad Mitchell  from BeerVana International in Vietnam , Thailand and Indonesia . They distribute beer from all over the world but have an especially strong affinity for what we call American Craft Beer. As you'll hear, they are an anomaly in beer distribution; they actually care about the art and craft of the beer the...

Our guest today is Dave Fougeron from Southern Star Brewing Company in Conroe, TX. By now you know that  my focus is interviewing struggling and failing beer businesses so that we can learn from their mistakes. I want to assure you, that’s not why I asked Dave to be on the show. No, I reached out to Dave so that he could tell us all what we’ve all done wrong and, hopefully, how we can fix it. See,...

Your best friend Harry has a brother Larry In five days from now he's gonna marry He's hopin' you can make it there if you can 'Cause in the ceremony you'll be the best man While the lyrics of that 1989 Young MC jam have nothing to do with this episode, they’ve been bangin’ around in my head while I’ve edited it so now they’re in yours. Our guest today is none other than the ubiquitous Harry Schum...

My guest today is Kris Jones, co-founder of Wandering Boots Beverage Distribution from Houston, TX. He’s one of those guys that when you meet him you immediately know two things: 1.  He’s a REALLY fucking nice guy 2.  This industry is gonna eat his lunch Unfortunately that’s exactly what happened. He was a teacher back in 2012/13 when an uncle said something like “Hey you and your wife wanna do a...

Today we are joined by Laron Cheek from the late Rabbit Hole Brewery outside of Fort Worth. Laron and his co-founders learned the hard way that owning a brewery is hard. Like really hard. During the time we shared together Laron offered advice about distribution, packaging and management. He's got opinions about the state laws here in TX, what it would take to actually run a profitable brewery and...

Our guest today is Alan Ward from Brigadoon Brewery and Brew School . Alan’s brewery is likely one of the most unique beer producers in the US. They are located on the grounds of the Texas Renaissance Festival, are only open 19 days per year, and even brew some of their beer on equipment and using techniques from 500 years ago. Alan has served as president of District Texas of the Master Brewer’s...

Hey cocks and chickens, welcome to the first episode of the second season. Today our guest is Mike from the as-yet-unopened Gather Brewing Company. He’s joined by his brother-in-law Justin also. Gather will be located in the North San Antonio suburb of Universal City. It’s going to be a medium-sized brewpub next to an airforce base that plans to offer draft, cans to go and not a thing to distribut...

Our guest today is Curt Webber from Solid Rock Brewing. He co-founded his brewery just before the craft beer scene in TX really started to take off. They had enough early success that any of us start-ups in the early 2010s would be lying if we said we weren’t measuring our potential by what they’d accomplished. Like many of us, their plan was to learn as they went. And for awhile it looked like th...

Our guest this week is non other than Jody Reyes. The founder, proprietor, marketer and all-around swell motherfucker from WhichCraft in Austin, TX. If you don’t know Jody, your life is worse off for it. The beer industry is overflowing with misguided arrogance and dripping with rampant douchbaggery. Yet somehow Jody has managed to stand right in the center of the Austin craft beer scene for close...

Today I’m doing something a wee bit different. I’m basically co-hosting a mashup of my podcast and the Hot Tub Beers podcast. Hosts Tim and Jake brought a pickup-mounted hottub to my brewery parking lot and mic’d up. So I threw on some Speedos, jumped in and kinda took a day off from my hosting duties. We’re joined by my old brewer Nathan and some unsuspecting tourists that are walking by. My wife...

John Culp was a minority investor in Audacity Brew House in Denton, TX. Towards the end of Audacity’s lifespan he started a mobile caning company that he still runs today. Beer Dudes Mobile Canning. Like many of us mis-guided souls, he had always dreamed of owning a brewery but UNLIKE us he knew he didn’t have the time to devote to it. So he settled for being a volunteer around the brewery, partic...