Nano breweries are the ultimate goal for many homebrewers. Starting a nano brewery is quite a big decision. If that’s something you want to achieve, we’ve put together a step-by-step guide to help you get started with nanobrewery.
What is Nano Brewery?
A Nano Brewery means that it is a brewery or brewpub that produces far fewer than 15,000 barrels of beer per year. The annual cap for nano degrees is not as clear as others. A New Hampshire law states that nano breweries must produce fewer than 2,000 barrels of beer per year, but such rules do not exist in every state.
Can Nanobreweries Be Smaller?
In theory, it is possible. Some people with brewing flair run microbreweries instead of microbreweries. There is no official brewing industry definition of this distinction, but most people think of a microbrewery as one that produces fewer than 500 barrels of beer per year. If it’s below that, you’re brewing a beer for yourself and a few friends.
How to Start a Nano Brewery
know local laws
Before you plan to turn your brewing hobby into a nano brewery, check your local laws. Because there may be laws that prohibit a brewery of a certain size (or any size) from existing in your area. Also to this, there may be regulations about shipping brewed craft beer off-site.
If you don’t see anything about nano breweries (or nano breweries are not allowed), try talking to your local authority. There’s no guarantee they’ll help legalize your brewery, but they may reconsider as long as they remain within state law.
Learn how to run a business
Some formal business management education is invaluable in achieving success. You can take classes in regular schools, online classes, or even self-study. Previous experience managing a food service establishment is good for learning how to operate it.
As part of this process, make sure you understand local zoning laws, licensing, and accounting to legalize your brewery. Running a business involves a lot of paperwork, so you can’t be brewing and serving drinks all day long. Learning how to manage time is also helpful.
Better brew
Learn how to run a business first, and a good brewery second. Unless you’re already a professional, you need to learn how to brew great beer to attract customers. When it comes to brewing, there is no substitute for experience. You can follow the online guide all you want, but after the first few tries, you may not be able to get a beer of commercial value.
Decide how much to produce
It’s important to decide how much to make from the start, as ingredients and craftsmanship will depend on how much beer you’re brewing.
If you’re scaling up from a home brewery or microbrewery, no problem. But, before scaling up, you have to decide how much money you want to make.
If you keep changing the quantities, you’ll also end up introducing errors and messing up the flavors.
Budgeting
Place
Instead of using a mixed home/commercial facility, you can lease or buy your own space.
If you are renting out, you have to worry about security deposits, utility deposits and pre-opening rent.
You can try to negotiate a few months of rent-free occupancy to get your nano brewery up and running.
Device Selection
Here are some things you should have when purchasing brewing equipment:
- Fermentation tank
- Bright tank
- Cooling system
- Brewhouse equipment
- Brewing pump
Develop a business plan
To better realize your brewery vision, develop a comprehensive craft brewery business plan.
- Executive Summary
- Company Introduction
- Market analysis
- Marketing and Sales
- Financial forecast