Henry T's opening a brewery.....(My thoughts)

[Frank]

http://www2.ljworld.com/weblogs/town_ta ... -brewery-/

"...certain types of beer should be cheap. The big brewers are removing that idea from the culture. Part of our angle is to brew something, if not identical, better, and then charge less for it."

In my experience and research in the craft beer industry this mindset has lead countless breweries to fail. Anyone remember Barnyard? They were literally limited to a specific cost of materials per gallon because the investment group that owns the Pool Room had this mindset. The margins are so tight in this industry that the path to success is paved with passion, dedication, and creativity. Making cheap copies of existing beers is not a sound business idea.

Gerrity admits that he doesn't have a brewing background.

Seems like a smart business plan. Sure hiring "consultants" sounds like a smart idea however, the consultant brewery is itself still very young with less than 5 years of operation.

As a general thought on Herny T's. Based on my experience eating there, the current "beer program" is awful. The servers I had very little if any knowledge of the beer menu let alone the ability to talk about anything. The time I was in there I had 2 different beers from a large Kansas City brewery and both were labeled "Imports" on the menu. They arrived to the table flat telling me the bar management doesn't understand the serving system or monitor it for quality control. Finally the pale ale tasted of butter which tells me the keg has be sitting under the bar for a very long time. If they have a hard time pushing a flagship beer from the region's largest brewery how do they plan to push there own "cheaper" copies?

[schwiz]

I don't remember barnyard, all I can say is I wish them the best of luck. It would be nice to have another good brewery in town so here's hoping. I don't understand what he means by his plan to make better or identical bear and charge less. Is he talking about Freestate or just craft beer in general? I always thought freestate has excellent prices.

[Joe Yoder]

Frank,
After reading the article this morning I could not agree with you more. Looks to me to be a business plan that is doomed to fail. Where is the passion for better beer? It is not there, and that is the key ingredient for success in this kind of business. The business owner does not love beer, he loves money!
I have seen homebrewers come and go with the same attitude. "I'm going to save a bunch of money on beer" Yeah right. If you do it right, you really don't save that much, if any, but you can get much better beer and a feeling of accomplishment and pride.
Could be a great opportunity in a year for someone who wants to buy out some used commercial equipment!
Joe

[Frank]

...
Could be a great opportunity in a year for someone who wants to buy out some used commercial equipment!
Joe

My thoughts exactly, I even thought about starting a group buy to get everyone lined up.