Not something I aspire to sacsoul, but I wish you well with yours, should you ever get there.

For me, the initial outlay would be the main reason not to pursue the idea. Plus, I'd be very disappointed if people didn't like my beer.

Edit; spelling

I suspect we all go through a stage where we fantasise about owning a micro - making a living out of brewing sounds tops naturally! Usually I wouldn't reply to a thread such as this because all I would post would be a lot of warnings but having read some of your posts, you might end up being one of those brewers who has the "knack," so I wouldn't let too much discourage you yet .

I used to work for a company here that started micro-brewing in Australia. It was a team of people (mainly young) and it took off. The main guy in the team had a magic touch and went on to create cafe chains, brasseries and wineries here that were all successful. To this day, I can't put my finger on why he was so successful. In those early days we actually used 12 oz glasses to deliver a ten ounce beer as the patrons would complain that the beer had too much head! Well-brewed beers really had to be sold and they probably still do - most people still don't know what a great beer is.

This guy was determined though, he knew how to brew good beer, did nothing at all to compromise quality (many litres got poured down the drain), didn't have overwhelmingly great inter-personal skills (but good enough) and attracted huge financial backing (though the main backer did get jailed for tax evasion ).

This main guy made a friggin fortune at a very early age!!! The above guys started off as a micro, became a macro and then sold out to a major.

But, they were the first.

Most brewers don't make a fortune. Like a restaurant, they start out with a dream that often becomes a nightmare or just drudgery. All commercial brewing, at any scale, is drudgery - mashing, cleaning, sanitising, transferring, mashing, cleaning, sanitising, transferring, mashing, cleaning, sanitising, transferring.

The profit levels you have seen of 50% are a bit dubious too. The 50% will refer to some obscure gross profit margin on draught beer. The 50% will not include overheads etc. The company I have referred to above did not, if my memory serves me correctly ever do anything greater than 10% net profit - usually not anything near it. (They actually had some pretty clever accounting and back 20 years ago worked out that even the smallest order we placed - say drinking straws - cost $20 just in administration time and that's 20 years ago!)

Sorry for carrying on for so long but DangerousDave dropped in for too many beers this arvo . It's a complicated business though. I know several micro brewers in Australia - east and west - they are all excellent brewers but work long hours with little financial return, just enjoyment.

There's always one person that has the knack though SS. Anyone else, I'd say forget it but I reckon you have a knack. I'm just not sure as yet where it is yet. It could be that beer judge thing, a micro or simply brewing nice beer for you and your mates???

Keep thinking on it,
PP