Brewery Setup Blog

How to make a Restaurant Brewery Business Plan

Craft breweries are booming. While not every beer drinker has yet abandoned their favorite nationally distributed domestic, many beer lovers prefer the unique flavors of small-batch brews. A brewery business begins as a passion project for many but has the potential to become a lucrative, and relatively low-risk, bar or restaurant model. 

Whether you're dreaming of an open-air beer garden or an industrial building with cans piled as high as the eye can see, or just a small restaurant space with a large back area with brewery equipment hard at work, starting a brewery requires a roadmap.

As with any writing task, getting started on a restaurant business plan can be a little intimidating, but working with a clear framework for your brewery business plan will help to guide every step of your venture. From development to distribution, your brewery will run more smoothly with a detailed business plan to guide operations.

Why You Need a Brewery Business Plan

Starting a brewery requires a complex sequence of licenses, permits, leases, and financing for everything from accounting and permitting to brewing beers to renting space to house large-scale brewing equipment. A business plan will let you get all the details sorted while acting as a resource for potential partners and investors.

A business plan will also prompt you to consider the market for craft beers in your location and how your brewery restaurant will fit into that market. Are you offering a unique experience to customers or are you hoping to compete with a robust local craft brewery scene? 

Elements of a Brewery Business Plan

Executive Summary

The first section of the business plan is an executive summary, which is a concise introduction to the concept and goals of your brewery. Use this section to introduce key elements of your business, such as the vision for the product, key information about the restaurant or public brewery space, and the distribution market.

As you craft the executive summary, imagine the investors and partners that you want this plan to attract. How might you catch their attention, get them interested in your concept, and convince them to keep reading? Craft breweries seem to be cornering the market – how will yours attract a unique share of the consumers or compete with other local brands?

Team and Management

The staffing needs for your brewery are unique to the business you imagine and the role you see yourself filling within the business. Are you a brewmaster who needs funding, or a financier with a hankering to invest in the talents of one? 

Consider, too, the staffing needs of a brewery or restaurant depending on the scale of your operation. You might start by brewing a couple of drafts in a warehouse and scale up – and need very few employees – or jump into a brewery and taphouse that requires a full management, kitchen, and front-of-house staff.

Sample Menu

Breweries offer more than just beer – where your space will fall between a brewery and restaurant is defined in your business plan. The kinds of brews your craft and serve, the space that you operate in/open to customers, and the kinds of food you offer combine to produce the trendy brewery experience beer enthusiasts want. Some breweries choose to offer just packaged snacks like chips and the like, while others have a full-service kitchen.

Many also convert their extra warehouse space into miniature arcades or provide lawn games like cornhole for guests to enjoy while they drink at the brewery. The focus is always on the brews, but offering an experience gets people to visit and stay awhile, ultimately increasing the brewery’s on-premises sales potential.

If you are planning to open a brewery. TIANTAI BrewTech could help you answer your questions and supply the brewery equipment system. We supply 2-150bbl complete beer brewing brewery equipment system including malt milling equipment, brewhouse equipment, fermenters, brite beer tanks, beer bottling machine,beer canning machine, beer kegging machine, hopping machine, yeast propagation equipment. We also supply all auxiliary brewery systems like steam heating pipe and valves, water treatment, filter, air compressor etc. Everything in brewery are all in our list.

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