Opening a microbrew franchise—that sounds like living the dream, right? Brewing beer every day… if you’re passionate about beer, that could be heavenly.
There’s an old phrase about turning a passion into a career. “If you do something you love for a living, you’ll never work a day in your life.”
At Bohemian Bull, we can get behind the phrase, but perhaps there’s more to opening a microbrew franchise than people daydream about. Through our relationships with our craft beer contacts, we’ve come to understand what it takes to open a micro brewery franchise, and there’s a lot more to it than simply brewing beer.
The Ins and Outs of Opening a Microbrew Franchise
Attention to Detail and Repetition
Even big differences between beer recipes likely won’t require much difference in the process, so the day-to-day method of brewing the beer itself is extremely similar. As such, if you’re considering a microbrew franchise, you’ll need to keep detailed notes to stay organized, particularly if you’ve got multiple beers on the go at once.
Even having just a few different recipes in varying stages of the brewing process at once can become hectic without a detailed and meticulous record. Having a method to stay organized and remain so is crucial for the consistency commercial production requires.
You’ll need records, records, and more records. Records of each beer, records of one batch compared to the last, records of this recipe compared to the next, records of how many recipes you’re brewing at once, records of how much beer you have in total, how much you’ll have next week, and so on. It’s a record-keeping kind of business, brewing beer.
In addition, the brewery process itself is repetitive. When you hit on a recipe customers love, that beer may become a staple of your microbrewery franchise’s offerings. You’ll make a lot of that one beer, and you’ll make it over and over for a long time.
Repetition and detailed organization will need to be something you’ll happily embrace for your microbrew franchise to flourish.
The Essential Role of Cleanliness and Sanitation in Microbrew Franchises
Brewing beer, fermenting beer, packaging beer… all of these processes leave a ridiculous amount of dirty tools, vessels, and instruments behind. Not to mention maintaining the cleanliness standards of the brewhouse itself.
Opening a microbrew franchise means a lot of cleaning, and that includes floors, tanks, vessels, kegs, glasses, hoses, parts, drains, and anything else that needs a good wipe down.
If you’re the type of person for whom cleaning can be very zen-like, then opening a microbrewery franchise may very well be your jam. There is, however, so much cleaning it can seem like that’s more of what you do than actually brewing the beer.
The Importance of Repair Skills and Equipment Maintenance in Microbrew Franchises
Brewing beer can be pretty hard on the equipment. There’s boiling water, harsh chemicals (there goes the cleaning again), and let’s not forget the equipment is in constant use. Things in a microbrew franchise are going to break.
It’s always a money saver if you can fix things yourself rather than call in a repair person or order a replacement for broken equipment. Some of the most useful skills include good small engine knowledge or the know-how of an electrician. If you’re capable of welding? You’re well ahead of the game.
If you aren’t very handy, perhaps it’s good to know people who may be able to help you, too. Otherwise, you may find yourself having broken equipment at some of the most inconvenient times in your brewing process, and it can prove a frustrating part of running any business that uses this level of equipment.
The Reality of the Brewing Process and Lifestyle in Microbrew Franchises
Well, yeah, that’s kind of the point of opening a microbrew franchise, isn’t it? Except analyzing beer flavors is a whole new animal. You sip the beer, analyze the sip, consider how that flavor came to be, compare brew logs, get opinions of fellow brewery cohorts, reference your brewing guidelines for that recipe, debate this specific flavor profile with your partners (if you have them), and sip again (from a usually warm and flat beer, by this point).
You’re not sitting around enjoying a cold brew. Brewing beer is work.
Then, when you’re off duty, you’re still analyzing beer, because you can’t just shut that part of your consideration of beer off anymore.
Not only that, your brews ferment all day, every day, so you’re always at work, always checking the beer, and always logging where the beer is in the process. When you’re not doing that, you’re cleaning or fixing something.
It’s hot, wet, dirty, and labor-intensive. It can change how you feel about beer, and that’s before getting into the heavy regulation of the alcohol industry and how tough it can be to be a salesperson for your beer.
Opening a microbrew franchise has a lot more considerations than many people realize when they’re daydreaming of brewing beer for a living.
Why Choose Bohemian Bull Beer Garden Franchise Over Traditional Microbrew Franchises
At Bohemian Bull, we absolutely love our microbrewing brothers and sisters, and we love showcasing their beers on our craft beers menu. It’s a labor of love, and we recognize the passion and dedication that goes into the business.
We also recognize that for many people, it’s about the love of the beer as a final product, and not necessarily the details in the beer’s making.
It may also be about the building of relationships around the beer, a connection to customers, an elevation of the beer through food pairings, and creating memories with friends and loved ones where the beer is part of a greater story.
In many ways, opening a Bohemian Bull beer garden franchise is an opportunity to celebrate the best of what beer can be. We curate our craft beer menu to showcase local, regional, and national brands for the most flavorful, fun beer experience we can give our customers.
We also offer custom beer flights where our guests can create their own craft beer experience to suit their tastes.
Owning a Bohemian Bull Tavern & Beer Garden franchise is an opportunity to bring out the best in beer through food, fun events, and a lively atmosphere.If you’re enamored by the entertainment side of beer and not so sure about the nitty gritty of the brewing side of a microbrew franchise, then perhaps opening a Bohemian Bull beer garden franchise is more your speed.
