My Summer II class this semester in UNCC’s MBA program is entreprenuership. Our overall project for the semester is to build a business plan from scratch and pitch it. And, since I’ve been homebrewing for awhile now, it felt only natural to get a group together in class to create a plan for a microbrewery in Charlotte.
We’re about halfway through the process right now, and I’ve found out a great deal of information. The hardest things to find, however, are:
1. Costs for the actual brewing equipment – companies that manufacture these big items don’t list their prices online and, for the most part, have not yet responded to my various e-mails.
2. The amount of ingredients for a batch of beer as large as 30 kegs – I’m willing to bet there isn’t a linear connection from a 5 gallon homebrew batch to a 15 barrel batch at the commercial level – but no one posts many recipies for that large a quantity.
So, anyone out there know about this stuff? Any craft breweries want to open a brewery in Charlotte? I’ll run it, if you can buy the equipment and get me the recipies – every brewery needs a soon-to-be MBA graduate running their operations.
