Growing a brewery is a straightforward equation with no easy answers. When business is going well, consumers can’t get enough of your beer, which creates demand, which means that you need to make more beer. Ideally you can match your increased output with forecasted demand so that one shipment runs out just as you’re ready to release the next with no bottlenecks anywhere in the system. And maybe rauchbiers will surpass IPAs as the nation’s next big brewing craze!
True and lasting growth requires capital investment, whether to add more fermentation space or packaging equipment or to build out an entirely new facility. For mid-sized breweries and beyond, those numbers become very large, very quickly. It’s also highly likely that they won’t even begin to use the full capacity or see a return on their investment for quite some time.
As the market and the options for contract brewing—and less so, alternating proprietorship arrangements—increase, more expanding breweries are finding ways to put that added capacity to work before they need it themselves. Often all it takes is putting the word out to a few friends or a post on ProBrewer.com to start a conversation. If the terms are right, it can be a mutually beneficial arrangement that helps both breweries grow.