Tampa has surpassed us...maybe Jacksonville too...and South FL ain’t far behind

Reads 3867 • Replies 48 • Started Tuesday, March 27, 2012 10:46:46 AM CT

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Message jonboy32818 beers 30 º places 8 º 07:13 Sun 4/1/2012 I think this all started a few years back when the Orlando crew decided to get together on April 1st and vote Orlando Brewing’s Kangaroo Brew as the number one beer in the world. After that the rest of the community could no longer take us seriously and the lagging behind of good beers and brewers is just punishment.
Message MlhopeTC places 20 º 08:04 Sun 4/1/2012 Originally posted by beernovice39 Great thread guys. I have often thought while having a beer at RLRL, why does Orlando not have a great brewery? The last time I was there beerlando told me the same thing GoT did about Orlando brewing but I went anyway . I do find that I now spend more time in Jacksonville than Orlando, but I am always "destination Tampa". I love O town, and the ratebeer crew is second to none. I would imagine with all the tourism the city gets that a quality brewery would have to work if funded and managed correctly. I have started, run and sold several businesses over the last 20 years. However, my beer knowledge is limited to drinking, homebrewing and drinking more . What are we talking about $ wise on a 15 bbl startup? The key is making great beer, reinvestment and slow growth. To make a long post short, a 15bbl brewer could probably be started for around $400,000 and upwards of $800,000+. I’m sure there are multiple breweries on both sides of that range, and I’m sure some below and above it, but with a limited amount of research this seems to be a fairly reasonable estimation, with most reaching a start up cost of at least a half a million.
Message GodOfThunder P beers 1364 º places 65 º 09:44 Sun 4/1/2012 If Bob Sylvester reads this thread again, and has the time to chime in, I’d really like to know more about his startup costs and work. Bob started in a pretty small warehouse area, almost like a storage garage. He had a day job, if I am not mistaken, and did Saint Somewhere on the side. I can’t imagine the startup costs for something like that, with maybe a small system like CCB uses for Ben’s "Pilot" beers, would be that bad. You’d need a location, no matter how small, a brewing system, some kegs, and a distributor willing to get your beers around town. Well, that and a good brewer. But, I think we know enough people who brew, and brew well, and we know enough distributor people (zack, troy). I’m seriously starting to think about something like this, and I know a lot of our local crew would be interested in it and more than willing to help out. I don’t know if I’ll ever have the time or money to go for it, but I’m really starting to get my thoughts together.

Message MlhopeTC places 20 º 15:12 Sun 4/1/2012 I’m guessing the lease alone would be thousands of dollars a month. Add in that those pilot brewing systems really aren’t that cheap, with complete systems going used for $20,000. Not to mention you’d need a kegging system or bottling line, not to mention ingredients, licenses, money to run it for up to the first 6 months, etc etc etc. I’d be surprised if anyone could pull it off for under $100,000. There are some other alternatives though that I’m looking into. I’ll post back when I figure more stuff out.
Message MlhopeTC places 20 º 15:15 Sun 4/1/2012 Looking a bit more I’m having a hard time finding a complete system (not just brewhouse, but fermentation tanks and cellar tanks as well) for $20,000. I know I’ve seen them for that price before though.
Message DrewTOBDG 04:20 Mon 4/2/2012 It’s not the equipment, it’s the licensing, alcohol bond and the GOVT that you’ll spend start up money on. Keep home brewing because when you get to production, mistakes cost money and nobody buys/sells bad beer(insert your orlando joke here). Plus think small, 10 guys at $1000 a piece is 10k - thats enough to get brewing and get to festivals ect.. to promote w/o the licensing. Then it’s investors, banks & distributors or play the lotto.
Message casklarderron 11:43 Mon 4/2/2012 Couldnt help changing my login and chiming in about how excited i am to start brewing again. Shackles are off and wounds have healed. Brewed with Madison and Josh at CCB this past weekend and will be brewing at Greenroom/Jacksonville this week for a collaboration with eric. Thanks to Cheeseman for providing the local citrus for this one. Hope to have a sampling at redlight someday. re. thread. please read/reread the old CCB blog (post #1-4?). http://blog.cigarcitybeer.com/2007/10.aspx I am available for questions also ... If it was easy - i would have done it already...

Message MlhopeTC places 20 º 13:31 Mon 4/2/2012 Originally posted by casklarderron Couldnt help changing my login and chiming in about how excited i am to start brewing again. Shackles are off and wounds have healed. Brewed with Madison and Josh at CCB this past weekend and will be brewing at Greenroom/Jacksonville this week for a collaboration with eric. Thanks to Cheeseman for providing the local citrus for this one. Hope to have a sampling at redlight someday. re. thread. please read/reread the old CCB blog (post #1-4?). http://blog.cigarcitybeer.com/2007/10.aspx I am available for questions also ... If it was easy - i would have done it already... Excited for the future of Cask and Larder! Can’t wait to be able to fill a growler without driving 3 hours round trip...
Message Beerlando beers 3343 º places 70 º 08:06 Tue 4/3/2012 Originally posted by MlhopeTC Originally posted by casklarderron Couldnt help changing my login and chiming in about how excited i am to start brewing again. Shackles are off and wounds have healed. Brewed with Madison and Josh at CCB this past weekend and will be brewing at Greenroom/Jacksonville this week for a collaboration with eric. Thanks to Cheeseman for providing the local citrus for this one. Hope to have a sampling at redlight someday. re. thread. please read/reread the old CCB blog (post #1-4?). http://blog.cigarcitybeer.com/2007/10.aspx I am available for questions also ... If it was easy - i would have done it already... Excited for the future of Cask and Larder! Can’t wait to be able to fill a growler without driving 3 hours round trip... +1 Ron, glad to see you on here....and glad that everything worked out. I’m stoked to see what you, James, Julie, Larry, etc. can come up with together. You make an excellent point with respect to CCB’s trials and tribulations encountered during startup. Without a doubt, an operation of any size is going to run into unanticipated challenges and delays, and any well-conceived business plan should account for such. I also don’t necessarily think Orlando needs something the size of a CCB. They are growing into a behemoth rather quickly, and I think it would be quite ambitious of someone to aspire to their size. I think the market could support several smaller breweries that don’t necessarily have dreams of global domination. Take a Russian River for example. I see that as being a fantastic model. Operating out of a small brewpub, they made their name largely on one style of beer (IPA) done exceptionally well (Blind Pig & Piny). Once established, and with the IPAs footing the bill no doubt, they were afforded the opportunity for Vinnie to pursue his true passion....sour beers. They’ve now expanded to include a small production brewery exclusively for their two IPAs. Distribution includes maybe 4-5 states, and they sell out as soon as it hits the shelves in most places. I honestly don’t think they have any aspirations beyond that, and life is good. Orlando could certainly support an operation (or a few) like that.
Message MlhopeTC places 20 º 08:16 Tue 4/3/2012 Originally posted by Beerlando Originally posted by MlhopeTC Originally posted by casklarderron Couldnt help changing my login and chiming in about how excited i am to start brewing again. Shackles are off and wounds have healed. Brewed with Madison and Josh at CCB this past weekend and will be brewing at Greenroom/Jacksonville this week for a collaboration with eric. Thanks to Cheeseman for providing the local citrus for this one. Hope to have a sampling at redlight someday. re. thread. please read/reread the old CCB blog (post #1-4?). http://blog.cigarcitybeer.com/2007/10.aspx I am available for questions also ... If it was easy - i would have done it already... Excited for the future of Cask and Larder! Can’t wait to be able to fill a growler without driving 3 hours round trip... +1 Ron, glad to see you on here....and glad that everything worked out. I’m stoked to see what you, James, Julie, Larry, etc. can come up with together. You make an excellent point with respect to CCB’s trials and tribulations encountered during startup. Without a doubt, an operation of any size is going to run into unanticipated challenges and delays, and any well-conceived business plan should account for such. I also don’t necessarily think Orlando needs something the size of a CCB. They are growing into a behemoth rather quickly, and I think it would be quite ambitious of someone to aspire to their size. I think the market could support several smaller breweries that don’t necessarily have dreams of global domination. Take a Russian River for example. I see that as being a fantastic model. Operating out of a small brewpub, they made their name largely on one style of beer (IPA) done exceptionally well (Blind Pig & Piny). Once established, and with the IPAs footing the bill no doubt, they were afforded the opportunity for Vinnie to pursue his true passion....sour beers. They’ve now expanded to include a small production brewery exclusively for their two IPAs. Distribution includes maybe 4-5 states, and they sell out as soon as it hits the shelves in most places. I honestly don’t think they have any aspirations beyond that, and life is good. Orlando could certainly support an operation (or a few) like that. 100% agree. Most of us are a bit jaded to the reality of brewing because of Cigar City. Their success is the exception, not the norm. While I do think that could happen here in Orlando, it is far from a necessity for a brewery to still perform very well and make great money and be able to easily thrive. But alas, it all comes back to the beer. There has to be fantastic beer.