Barriers to entry

sunnyse

I've been reading through the board here and also the one on ICB and i'm amazed how many people are brewing their own beer at a fairly professional level it would seem.

Which makes me wonder why more people haven't tried to make a business out of it. What are the barriers to entry into the micro brewery business.

I understand that taking on the monopolies in Ireland is a daunting prospect but apart from that, what else has to be faced.
Are there very strict hygiene requirements for example, like they have for commercially produce sandwiches or whatever. Or do you require an expensive licence from the courts like if you have a pub or off licence.

It just seems like a wonderful job if you could manage even to sell enough to pay your bills.

BeerNut

Barrier 1: The Irish beer market. The big breweries and their massive advertising budgets have a stranglehold on the market at the point of supply. Getting your beer out to the drinkers is an enormous struggle. At best, there's a niche, but you will never get rich brewing beer in Ireland. If you have your own outlet -- a pub, say -- then it's easier, but if you own a pub you're already well off.

Barrier 2: The Revenue. You need a suitable, secure premises which they have approved. You can't just make it in your kitchen and sell it. There's all manner of excise red tape to go through, and they can be a real thorn in your side even after you've started in business.

A licence is only a couple of hundred euro, but is subject to barrier 2.

oblivious

sunnyse wrote: »

It just seems like a wonderful job if you could manage even to sell enough to pay your bills.

Brewing is only one part, unless you are very successful and need to brew ever day, most of the time you will be cleaning, cleaning ,cleaning and some more cleaning.

Also as the lads form the porterhouse pointed out you really need an outlet such as a pub to really make a go of it. The really only exception to this rule is Galway hooker

BeerNut

oblivious wrote: »

Also as the lads form the porterhouse pointed out you really need an outlet such as a pub to really make a go of it.

The other model is to export more-or-less everything, which is pretty much how Carlow Brewing and White Gypsy work, though the former has a supermarket distribution -- keeps the capital flowing but the margins are slim and you have to be consistent -- and the latter has the Messrs Maguire brewery as a sideline

oblivious wrote: »

The really only exception to this rule is Galway hooker

I'd say there was a fair bit of money behind them at the beginning, and a stroke of luck in acquiring a fully functioning brewery premises from another defunct microbrewer. But they've done a great job carving out a niche for themselves. There's a lot of driving involved.

noby

BeerNut wrote: »

and the latter has the Messrs Maguire brewery as a sideline

Still? I thought the plan was to go it alone by the end of 2008.

BeerNut

I've not seen him in the MM brewery in a while (though I've not been in much) and apparently he is brewing his own stuff down in Templemore (100% for export), so it's perfectly possible he is brewing the MM beers there too, and drawing an income from it, obviously.

noby

I guess. I could have sworn I read here, or t'other place (so it must be true!) that MM were getting a new head brewer, possibly being trained up by his old boss.
Great for him if he is still brewing for MM in his own brewery - seems like his ideal situation.