You love craft beer, so you start home-brewing. You brew a couple good batches in a row and your friends start raving about your beers. That’s when the inner voice begins.

Try as you might to go about life as normal, the voice becomes louder as you brew more and more.

Owner Mark Dunkerley with the first bottle of Jubilee

You start to do a little research and learn that craft beer is hot. Really hot. 10-12% sales growth hot.

You read Sam Calgione’s book, Brewing Up a Business. The voice consumes you.

It’s time to start your own brewery.

You start putting together a business plan. The marketing section looks great…you’re going to sell unique, high quality ales and your packaging is going to be awesome.  The financials? Wait…something has to be wrong here. That’s a big number. $1.5-2 million big. Making it back at $3-4 per case. Ouch.

“How the hell am I going to do this?”

And then you hear about another way. A way to bring your beers to market without having to invest all that money in a brewery.

Eureka…I’m going to contract brew!

You google “contract brewing” and find…well, not much (here’s a link to Lion Brewing that does a nice job of laying out the steps you’ll need to take).

Unfortunately there isn’t a nice list of breweries you can contact about brewing your beer. The ones you find seem a little…well, dauntingly large.

So…how do you find a smaller brewery to brew for you?

Network.

I met the owners of BBC through a mutual family friend.  I got pretty lucky on that one.

Who should you target?

If I were starting from scratch, here’s what I would do

1) Look for breweries that are either starting up or expanding.  Most existing craft breweries are struggling with capacity issues, so they likely won’t give you the time of day.  Breweries in start-up or expansion mode have excess capacity and will be more likely to welcome some extra $ in the coffers.

2) Attend beer festivals as a volunteer (you can meet local reps and sometimes owners), join the local beer geek group (homebrewer’s association), get to know the bartenders at the local craft beer bar (but don’t be a douche about it), meet with local distributors. 

3) Volunteer to work at your local brewery if you can

4) Organize a beer festival of your own (this takes some planning and $, but it can be done)

5) Travel to some of the beer conferences

A couple things you should consider when looking at breweries:

1) Shipping- ideally, you will be able to piggyback on the existing brewery’s shipments…by putting your beer on their truck, you will both be lowering costs.

2) Quality- take a close look at the quality of the beers the brewery currently produces.  If an existing local or smaller(15bbl and under) brewery has a lot of capacity, there’s probably a reason.

3) Mininum quantity- figure out your breakeven point and set that as your minimum quantity…go higher if you can.

Contract brewing can be a fantastic way to get into the beer business. But it’s not easy.  Hopefully these tips will help you.

Oh, and expect to make about $2 a case if you’re lucky.

Here’s one reason why Nashville needs Oasis…a look at their Emergency Shelter.

Emergency Shelter at Oasis Center from Oasis Center on Vimeo.

Mark your calendar for Saturday, July 16th from 4-7 PM at Paradise Park for Jubilee’s Hot Chicken and Jorts II.

Last year's Tater Tot eating contest

What’s Hot Chicken and Jorts?

Randy "putting out the vibe"

It’s a tribute party to one of the best and one of the worst aspects of Nashville: hot chicken and jean shorts.

But it’s much more than that. Hot Chicken and Jorts is your chance to release your inner redneck for an afternoon of hot chicken, spam carving and tater tot eating contests. It’s a day where you can throw caution to the wind and let your muffin top hang with pride. And best of all, it’s a party where you can feel good about being white trash, because all of the proceeds go to the Oasis Center.

What: Jubilee’s Hot Chicken & Jorts II

When: Saturday, July 16th. 4-7 PM

Where: Paradise Park

All proceeds go to the Oasis Center

Since starting Jubilee, I have been amazed at the number of friends I didn’t know I had in Nashville.  People out of the blue calling or emailing to “check in” and oh yeah, their cousin’s school has a fundraiser and they’re wondering if I’d be willing to donate beer for 500 people.

“It’s a great cause and I think it will be a great way to get some exposure for Jubilee.”

Since I’m in development for my real job, I know how it goes.  You sit in a committee meeting for your charity of choice’s annual fundraiser.  You’re going around the room trying to figure out how you’re going to add value without actually having to ask your friends for money, so you boastfully spout out “I know the guy/girl that owns (insert beer company name here)”.  You get immediate kudos from the group and walk away without having to commit yourself to really doing much of anything.  Don’t feel bad, everybody does it.

But here’s what you need to know if you’re going to get free beer successfully:

1) You actually need to be friends with someone at the brewery (not Facebook friends)

2) If you don’t know someone, be supporting a cause we believe in or be in a position to help the company in some way (there’s so many great causes…give us a good reason to support yours)

3) If you have one of the first two, present an opportunity that what would be beneficial to the company.  Believe it or not, we’re don’t have much trouble giving away beer on our own, so we’re not going to jump at the “free exposure” angle.

4) If the company does donate beer, follow up after the event and say thank you.  I can count on one hand the number of those calls I’ve received.  Rest assured, if you don’t follow up with a thank you, the likelihood of getting the donation a second year is pretty small.

For every case of beer we donate, we have to sell 6 cases to make up for the loss.  So if we donate 10 cases, we basically lose a pallet of beer’s worth of value.  That’s a lot of money for a small company.

So what can you do that will add value for the company?  For starters, try focusing on beer education.  Everyone in the craft beer world is fighting the same battle…converting light beer drinkers to craft beer drinkers.  The best way to do that is through educating them on why craft beer is better, and letting them feel, smell, and most importantly, taste the difference.

So maybe offer a craft beer tasting station…feature 3-4 different styles and let the brewery talk to people that are interested….maybe put some malt and hops on the table so people can see what goes in to beer and why each style is different.  I promise your guests will enjoy it and the beer company will get value from it.

Get creative…think of unusual ways to tie the product into the event (maybe your caterer could make “Jubilee beer bread”) and think about ways to get the beer company involved in more than just donating product.

If you do that, you’re well on your way to getting free beer.

Oh yeah…one more thing…Jubilee is out of stock right now, so we’re not able to donate any beer for a while:)

*This post is on behalf of small beer companies everywhere

Mark your calendar for Saturday, July 16th from 4-7 PM at Paradise Park for Jubilee’s Hot Chicken and Jorts II.

Last year's Tater Tot eating contest

What’s Hot Chicken and Jorts?

Randy "putting out the vibe"

It’s a tribute party to one of the best and one of the worst aspects of Nashville: hot chicken and jean shorts.

But it’s much more than that.  Hot Chicken and Jorts is  your chance to release your inner redneck for an afternoon of hot chicken, spam carving and tater tot eating contests.  It’s a day where you can throw caution to the wind and let your muffin top hang with pride.  And best of all, it’s a party where you can feel good about being white trash, because all of the proceeds go to the Oasis Center.

What: Jubilee’s Hot Chicken & Jorts II

When: Saturday, July 16th. 4-7 PM

Where: Paradise Park

All proceeds go to the Oasis Center

Why is it that every guy out there thinks he’s an expert in tapping a keg?

As soon as a keg needs to be changed, it’s like we’re all taken back to senior year of high school.  6 or 7 of us gather around, watching whoever is trying to prove he still “has it” fumble around with the tap while we offer to take control.

With keg properly tapped thanks to Neil at Yazoo, we were able to convert some light beer drinkers at Taste of Music City

Add me to that mix of donkeys.

Yesterday at Taste of Music City I rushed over to show our volunteers “how it’s done” when we finished our first keg.   With d*ck swinging in hand, I took the tap, cranked up the handle and went to work.

In a scene from a Will Ferrell movie, beer erupted from the keg like Old Faithful.  It went straight up into my eyes, covering my face and dousing my shirt.

“Need a little help, Mark?”

Once I could see again, I looked up to see Neil from Yazoo sitting in front my booth, trying not to laugh.

Undeterred, I tried again.  Same result, slightly less beer on me.

“Winning” cracked one of the volunteers.  “Winning”

At that point Neil mercifully took the tap handle and tapped the keg.  Apparently you don’t pull the handle and crank it up, as that opens the keg without a seal.  Lesson learned.

I quickly left to use the restroom and find my pride.

When I returned, I vowed never to be “that guy” again.

So fellas, repeat after me, “it’s okay not to know how to tap a keg.”

Before starting Jubilee, I met with a lot of different brewery owners, brewmasters and marketing reps. They all had a different story of how they got to where they were, and each person’s opinion was understandably biased towards the way they went about building their company.  I thought I would share some of the lessons I learned from my “research.”  I am leaving off the common theme of “don’t get into the beer business to make money”, but please make note of that as well.  Hope these help:

Blackstone Brewery (Nashville, TN)- owner Kent Taylor
1)    Order the smallest quantity of packaging materials if you’re contract brewing unless you sign a long-term contract.  Kent has a storage facility full of mother cartons and carriers leftover from his first attempt at contract brewing (the brewery sold, leaving him high and dry)
2)    Don’t order your labels until AFTER the TTB has approved them
3)    Don’t follow Sam Calgione’s method of starting with a SABCO system

Blue Mountain Brewery (Ashton, VA)- owner/brewer Taylor Smack
1)    A tasting room is essential to most start-ups staying afloat.  His tasting room (set against a beautiful mountain backdrop) generated a lot more money than he thought…money that was crucial in the first years.
2)    Do a lot of research on your distributor.  Visit bars, groceries and stores and ask people about them.
3)    Don’t start with anything smaller than a 15bbl system if you’re distributing

Bluegrass Brewing Company (Louisville, KY)- owner Scott Rousell
1)    Contract brew to start if you can
2)    Expect $4-7 a case if you have your own brewery in profit
3)    Contract brewing and a small brewpub is the ideal way to start

Georgetown Brewery (Seattle, WA)- owner Manny Chow
1)    Know your market niche and don’t try to be everything to everyone (they do draft only)
2)    If you have a partner, make sure you put job responsibilities and expectations in writing, ESPECIALLY if your partner is a friend

Top of the Hill (Chapel Hill, NC)- owner and CFO Rebecca Thomasini

1)    Raise enough money to have adequate working capital in your first year or two of operations
2)    Understand your market niche and keep it in mind when you look to expand

Yazoo Brewery (Nashville, TN) – owner Linus Hall

1)    Avoid contract brewing if possible b/c of quality and consistency concerns

Jubilee coming off the line

2)    Brew with at least a 10 bbl system
3)    Get our personally and establish the first 50-60 accounts
4)    Self-distribute if you can to save money and get to know the accounts

In the end, I decided that contract brewing made the most sense for me.  My dream wasn’t to actually brew the beer myself, so I didn’t mind giving up that piece of the creative process.  I also didn’t have a lot of funders lining up, nor did I want to open a restaurant.  So for me, contract brewing was the perfect fit.   I still think that the best way to start if you’re somewhat cash strapped is to open a 7 bbl brewpub/tasting room that does draft only while contracting bottles.  That way you get the best of both worlds (cash from tasting room and exposure from bottles).  But that’s just me.

Hopefully these were helpful tips to anyone out there considering starting your own brewery.  Let me know what you think in the comments and let me know if there are topics we should consider writing.  Feel free to email me at mark@jubileebeer.com.

Cheers!

This past month Jubilee celebrated its one-year anniversary, so I thought I’d go back and talk about what it was like starting up.

For starters, I was scared sh*tless.  I didn’t know anyone who had started a business, so I had this giant mental hurdle to overcome about how hard it would be and how risky it was.

The first draft of Jubilee's art

In May of 2009 I moved back to Nashville and was looking for a job after trying to find every way possible to start a brewery in Richmond in the middle of the Great Recession.  I was looking for marketing positions, but I might as well have been looking for unicorns.

So after a couple of fruitless months and a lot of psychological masturbation concerning my future, I decided to start Jubilee.

The first step was finding a brewery.  I reached out to BBC and they were interested in contract brewing (a mutual family friend put us in touch).  Probably the hardest part of contract brewing is finding a brewery…so I lucked out on that one.  Thanks Bunny.

Then I met with Lipman, my distributor.  I wasn’t sure what to expect going into the meeting.  I was prepared to sell them on Jubilee and figured as a start-up beer company I would have to make a compelling case for why they should spend time helping a little guy get off the ground.  After giving them an initial overview of Jubilee, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the rest of the meeting was spent with them selling ME on why Jubilee should go with them.  I would like to attribute the direction of the meeting to my amazing business savvy, but the reality is that craft beer is so hot right now that distributors will take a chance on a new brand…especially one with a social mission.

So I had the brewery and the distributor on board, but how was I going to fund it?

After thinking about getting family friends to invest and agonizing over the decision, I decided to cash out the small amount of money I had left and go for it on my own.

Putting money into a brewery is a bad financial decision in any circumstances, but cashing out stock in the middle of the Great Recession put me in line for a Darwin award.  So to justify the decision, I decided that I would learn more from the experience than I ever would going back to school…even if Jubilee went tits up, it would be a great real world education in business.

Did I mention that starting Jubilee also meant I didn’t have enough money to rent an apartment?  Yep, I had to live with my parents while I got it off the ground.

Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t all bad…having a chance to spend time with my parents as an adult was actually a pretty cool experience.  For the first month.  But no matter how cool your parents are (and despite what I thought in high school mine are pretty cool), there’s just something ego deflating about moving back home.

When friends would ask how I was doing, I commonly responded that I was “living the dream…32, single, unemployed, and living at home with my parents.”

I kept telling myself that 10 years from now I could look back and either say “I lived in an apartment for 8 months” or “I started a beer company”.    Now that I’m paying my own bills again, I know I made the right choice.

Almost there...

For the past couple years I had very lofty visions of what “starting your own business” looked like.  I imagined a complex web of obstacles that only the brightest and the best could overcome.

Those visions took a big hit as I gazed around the waiting room at the Secretary of States’ office.   After overhearing several conversations from people waiting to form their LLC’s, I couldn’t help but think, “they’ll let any idiot with $300 start a business.”

I started to feel a little more confident in my ability to start a company and I quickly realized that there really wasn’t anything to be intimidated by…my friend Charlie Malone helped me realize that I didn’t need to spend $1000 for an attorney to file my LLC paperwork.  At Mojo Grill he pulled out the single piece of paper you need to fill out.  The hardest thing on there was spelling out your business name.  Seriously.

The most confusing part about the beer world is that every state is different in terms of permits and licenses, so there’s not a definitive website with a simple checklist.

So I walked down to the ABC office to see what kind of permits I would need to contract brew.  Swing and a miss.

Apparently beer isn’t alcohol in Tennessee, at least not until it reaches 6.3% ABV.  The nice woman at the ABC office directed me to the Department of Revenue.  I’ll admit, I was pleasantly surprised by how friendly she was.  And when I got to the Department of Revenue, the lady at the reception desk greeted me with a smile and went out of her way to help me.  This isn’t how “government” is supposed to work…these folks need to go to the DMV and learn how to treat customers as nuisances.

Tennessee is set up to handle breweries, distributors and retail….contract brewing doesn’t really fit nicely into one of those boxes.  Luckily for me David Thomerson, who oversees beer permits, could not have been a nicer guy and he worked me through the proper permits that I needed, including pointing me in the right direction for a federal wholesalers permit (another example of how contract brewing doesn’t fit nicely in a box).

Really the only big pain in the ass of starting Jubilee was waiting on label approval from the federal government.  Every label on a beer bottle has to get the seal of approval from the federal government…and while I’m sure this started out as a way to protect consumers, it seems to have become an artwork judging panel.  When my label came back to BBC after 120 days of waiting (they promise 60 days max), they told us that the red dress of the lady in background could cause someone to mistake the word Ale that was also in red.  You serious, Clark?

Original Label

So if you look at Jubilee’s label, you’ll notice our designer had to blur out part of the background.

Once the labels were approved, the final piece of the puzzle was a general business permit in Davidson County.  As I anxiously waited in the lobby to receive my business permit, a rush of excitement came over me.

I was actually doing it.  I was starting a business.

The excitement level took a nose dive as a walking wet blanket came over and handed me the permit.  The best way I can describe the woman is a female version of Stanley from the Office.  With a speech pattern that would make Eeyore sound excited, she said “Mr. Dunkerley, here’s your permit…congratulations…I guess you can start making millions.”

That woman undoubtedly pops balloons at little kids’ birthday parties.

Label Approved

Despite the lackluster sendoff I received, when I walked out of the county commissioners officer, Jubilee was officially a business.

It wasn’t anywhere near as hard as I thought to actually start a business…like most people, my fear of the unknown overtook me at times and I turned relatively simple processes into big mental hurdles.

The hardest part was getting out of my comfort zone and actually deciding to go for it.

If anyone reading this is in a position of doubt about whether they can start a business, just remember the realization I had in the Secretary of State’s office…

“Any idiot with $300 can start their own business.”

What’s stopping you?

(This post is the 3rd in a series about my experience starting Jubilee.  Next up I’ll be talking about the lessons I learned from talking to other breweries.  Please feel free to email me at mark@jubileebeer.com if you have questions or suggestions on topics)

Jubilee celebrated its one year anniversary last month.

When I started Jubilee, I had two goals in mind.

1. Get the experience of starting a company and trying to grow a brand

Spreading the word on Jubilee's Taco Truck Tour!

2. Introduce Oasis to a new group of Nashvillians.

I’ll talk about the first more in later posts, but it’s the second that I’m really excited about now.  Having been in the smoke and mirrors field for most of my life, I’m overly sensitive to the debate over the effectiveness of marketing.

Does it really matter if someone is talking about your product if they’re not buying it?

I’ll be honest, for the first few months Jubilee was out there, I spent a lot of time thinking of how do you go from name recognition (I think the high-priced ad agencies call it brand awareness) to action?

It’s great to have more people talking about Oasis, but to really make a difference, we need to get those people involved (which is also now my day job, so I think about it a lot).

After a year of getting the name out there, three things happened in the past month that really excite me.

The Ladies of Whiskey Kitchen promoting Jubilee

First, the staff at Whiskey Kitchen, Virago and Tavern had a party where they raised money for a local charity…and they chose Oasis…raising over $500.

Second, Dan, a local restaurant owner of Freshii, offered to provide food for Oasis youth if we ever needed it…that’s a huge expense savings in the non-profit world for a youth event!

Finally, Sam, the owner of J&J market said that he was entering a triathlon this summer and had raised $700 towards his $1000 goal, all of which he was donating to Oasis.

Pretty cool of them, eh?

So here’s my challenge to you…what can you do to help?

Start small.

Post a link to Oasis’ new website on your Facebook page.

Then maybe do something a little more creative.

Maybe get your friends to meet at someone’s house for drinks, but you have to take the bus to get there and once there everybody gets online and buys a bus pass for a young person at Oasis as well (don’t worry, you can take a cab home).

Get a couple friends together and host a party…tell people to bring something from Oasis’ wish list instead of gifts.  If you get 15-20 people and each one brings a $10-25 item, you can really make a big difference quickly.  And I promise you every single guest that comes will say “this was a great idea- thanks for doing this”.

These are just a couple of ideas.  What are yours?  How will you make a difference?

Post your ideas!