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Drinking Beer in Charlotte

ah59396

By ah59396
in Charlotte Coffee House

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I'm working on a project to launch a Home Brewers Cooperative/ Macrobrewery Incubator in one of the historic downtowns of a small town near Charlotte. My partner has a 19th Century warehouse that we want to turn into a creative magnet for young people in the region.

 

The basic Idea would be like an Incubator for Small business, but for Home Brewers and people that have a solid business plan that are in need of some exposure. 

 
The idea would be that you would rent space, and maybe equipment on a monthly lease, just like any Incubator. The difference is, you would establish a dedicated tap room, where your brewers can showcase their newest creations and even be able to make a small profit off of it. Best "Brews of the Week" would be chosen and showcased. We would also do monthly "Tap Takeover" to the best selling brewer for that month, and for larger local breweries to join in on. 
 
I'm also thinking we would have adjoining greenspace where people, if they so desire, can grow their own raw materials. 

 

What do you guys think of this concept?

 

Do you think people will travel 30-45 min outside of Charlotte to go to a concept like this?

 

If you were going to do something similar what would you want in the project. 

 

Please don't spread that I'm working on this concept, as its in its infancy, and I really trust you guys and your input. 

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turbocraig
turbocraig

Birdsong is our go-to brewery.  Not only is it just two turns away, but they have great beer (I’m lookin at you, MexiCali), are totally unpretentious, have a friendly and surprisingly long-term staff

tozmervo
tozmervo

where's that red downvote arrow when you need it

grodney
grodney

I'm sure you all know a bill was passed into law (effective Sep 1) that allows dogs in breweries (ed. note: gross, don't at me).  But are you aware of all the other stuff that was in the same bill?  H

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InSouthPark Burg

InSouthPark

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As a homebrewer myself (however with no inclinations to "turn pro"), I think this is a great idea but distance "may" be a limiter depending on locale. Lot of daily work like gravity readings, etc that take no time to do, but not evryone will travel an hour round trip for.  Also, I think areas like Union county are more passionate about craft beer than someplace like Rock Hill/Gastonia. Word of mouth travels fast but you have to get people into the tap rooms to spread the word.

 

So if I wanted to do it, this is what I would do/want if this is a true incubator:

 

Have an experienced brewer "on call" to help these guys brain pick.  Jumping from homebrew size to commercial system is a big learning curve.

 

A few different size systems. 1.5bbl/3bbl/5bbl, etc. with (pie in the sky hopes) one full size 15bbl setup. Most full size startup breweries start at 15bbl and go up. 

 

Really good web presence for the location (with good social media presence). These startup rarely have money for a web designer so if the location had a good setup site that the renters could update with their own info like events, whats on draft, etc. 

 

Really basic tap room. I mean really basic. Nobody wants to move to their start up place and have customers say, "I really liked your old place better".  Nice but just no frills.

 

Ability to get hop/grain contracts for the brewers. 

 

 

 

Thats just a few things  but then again I have never started a commercial brewery so I am sure there are better folks to ask! 

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kermit Megalopolis

kermit

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^ Fantastic idea.

 

a few random thoughts on it:

 

1) Brewers (who sell beer) need to be licensed. Does the license go to the establishment / building owner or to the brewer? I am sure you have the licensing issues worked out but that was the first question that came to mind.

 

1.5) Some type of quality control is really critical to get people to visit more than once. Some homebrew can be gawdawful, it won't take many bad experiences turn people off (or more importantly turn off the spouses and significant others who are gonna tag along with most beer nerds to this place) 

 

2) The greenspace is a particularly great idea, I believe that there is a huge market for locally grown hops (but I am not sure its possible to grow hops in Piedmont NC in large volumes -- Triple C did grow some on site but I don't know how they turned out)

 

3) While I am a huge fan of local beer, its unlikely that I would drive 30 minutes out of town just for beer (there is plenty of great beer walking/biking distance to me already). If it were combined with some local and well regarded food then I would be much more likely to make the trip (but does significantly up your degree of difficulty). Two words: Pig Picking!  Local food might also allow you to leverage your greenspace. I might make the trip more often if there was an education and or food-shopping component to the destination. Basically when I go to a place just to drink, I like to drink enough that driving home is unwise -- so, for me, I need something there to do besides beer or a really patient designated driver.

 

Movie nights if you have enough space?

 

Checkout Saxapahaw General Store http://saxgenstore.com/. Its the middle of nowhere and its a real gas station but it has food that I have frequently made huge detours to eat. Combining something like that with local beer would be the neeplusultra of NC.

 

(I would go to this place every week if it were close to the NCDOT Amtrak stations in Kannapolis or Salisbury so I didn't have to drive home. Unfortunately the current schedule makes TOD beer unrealistic.)

 

4) Any destination like this really needs a pleasant outdoor space with shade, breeze and some type of view other than parking lot or highway (and maybe some frisbee golf). My ideal would be the current Birdsong patio with the gravel lot replaced with grass. 

Dogs, kids, groovy folk art, etc.....

 

5) Two more words: "Sour Beer!"

 

Finally, be careful. I am really getting the sense that the craft beer market is topping out. I do think that offering canning to incubator occupants would be a real value added (I have no idea how much the equipment costs)

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Guest

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Posted
Posted (edited)

As a homebrewer myself (however with no inclinations to "turn pro"), I think this is a great idea but distance "may" be a limiter depending on locale. Lot of daily work like gravity readings, etc that take no time to do, but not evryone will travel an hour round trip for.  Also, I think areas like Union county are more passionate about craft beer than someplace like Rock Hill/Gastonia. Word of mouth travels fast but you have to get people into the tap rooms to spread the word.

 

So if I wanted to do it, this is what I would do/want if this is a true incubator:

 

Have an experienced brewer "on call" to help these guys brain pick.  Jumping from homebrew size to commercial system is a big learning curve.

 

A few different size systems. 1.5bbl/3bbl/5bbl, etc. with (pie in the sky hopes) one full size 15bbl setup. Most full size startup breweries start at 15bbl and go up. 

 

Really good web presence for the location (with good social media presence). These startup rarely have money for a web designer so if the location had a good setup site that the renters could update with their own info like events, whats on draft, etc. 

 

Really basic tap room. I mean really basic. Nobody wants to move to their start up place and have customers say, "I really liked your old place better".  Nice but just no frills.

 

Ability to get hop/grain contracts for the brewers. 

 

 

 

Thats just a few things  but then again I have never started a commercial brewery so I am sure there are better folks to ask! 

What if we provided an on site Graphic Designer/ Social Media Specialist. 

 

Also if you have an on call specialist, you could teach "Home brew classes" They also could do daily gravity checks for people.

 

The Town is in Union County, and the partner has a very long history of relationships with farms.

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InSouthPark Burg

InSouthPark

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Posted

^^ all those options would be attractive to a prospective brewer.

When u get closer to planning, go pitch the idea to Carolina brewmasters at one of their meetings. I bet you would come away with tons of ideas and you would be talking to your prospective clients. Heck even invite them to a big brew day event in the prospective building. All you need for that is decent water and a bathroom and some open windows!

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ScottCLT Burg

ScottCLT

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Do you think people will travel 30-45 min outside of Charlotte to go to a concept like this?

Honestly, I probably would not go that far, at least not regularly. I have a hard enough time with a 15 minute commute to work (as opposed to my prior one minute, 48 seconds commute before I moved). I would go once, and then it would probably be a once per year thing unless it was just insanely cool. It takes a lot to make me drive half an hour. I got a new car 4 months or so ago and I just broke 1,200 miles, if that gives you an idea on how much I drive. And the sad part is, it's a car most people would love to drive as much as possible. They warned me about a 7,500 mile/year lease and the overage charges when I turned it in in 3 years, but at this rate, I'm going for 3,600/year. Not worried!
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I love the concept, but I have a hard time believing I'd travel that far very often to use it.

Maybe I should bite the bullet and start looking for investors to help bring the concept to Belmont or Optimist Park.

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elrodvt Burg

elrodvt

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I agree that it's too far for me. 

 

I also wonder if you could work in a brew your own concept to subsidize the capital expense of the equipment when not in use. 

We had a place like that where I used to live, they sold the ingredients and provided top notch kettles, coolers, filtering and bottling/kegging. Plus a lager room. Could that be worked in so that the folks trying to make a business out of it could make some extra cash mentoring more novice home brewers? It has to work out fairly cheaply and homebrewers are often, well, cheap! I went there all the time but they went out of business...

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sharkdawg Unincorporated Area

sharkdawg

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Not that this is exactly your vision, but I visited this brew on premise brewery while on a business trip in south FL.

 

http://www.longneckbrewhouse.com/

 

They have a bunch of 12.5 gallon brew stations where people can come in and brew your own.  The people there assist you with the process and control the fermentation and bottling process for you.  I could see this taking off for bachelor parties, company outings, etc. 

 

They also had a bar and kitchen serving food.

Edited by sharkdawg
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nonillogical Burg

nonillogical

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Amazing! I've been begging for something like this for years! I'm also happy it is going into a currently under-used area (that will change soon), so that it is a destination type of bar and they can just commit to that concept 100%. If it were in the heart of NoDa I'd be a little concerned that it would just blend in and get overrun by people who aren't necessarily that into the concept. 

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MilZ Hamlet

MilZ

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Posted

NICE! They're definitely all the rage in the country right now. Glad to see we are getting one, and NoDa is a perfect area for it, wish it was A BIT closer to walking distance to the rest of NoDa, but whatever.

I agree. I do wish it was closer to "downtown" Noda, but long (lonnng) term, this could go a long way towards extending the current scene from 36th to the Brew Square to Parkwood Station.
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nonillogical Burg

nonillogical

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I agree. I do wish it was closer to "downtown" Noda, but long (lonnng) term, this could go a long way towards extending the current scene from 36th to the Brew Square to Parkwood Station.

Exactly, I'm happy that its not in the heart of NoDa. Look at this and Birdsong to be major catalysts for the future Parkwood Station area. Along with the very cool stuff that is happening organically around Area 15...

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