Anyone who knows me is well aware of the fact that I am very interested in brewing beer. I'd love to do it professionally, and if Sierra Nevada comes to town, my ass is gonna be in line with a resume. Of course, most every home-brewer harbors a desire to be the brewmaster of their own brewery. Some great books have been written about it (Beer School is one I would recommend), and I'm certain there are faqs/blogs galore out there about the subject. My brewing partner David Suits and I have discussed it many a time (both sober and inebriated), and I will admit, he is much more motivated than I.
In any event, I happened to be listening to a Brewing Network show that featured an interview with Jim Koch, founder of Samuel Adams. In it, he discusses his program to loan money to small/start-up breweries. Great interview, and well worth listening to. During the interview Koch mentions that a good place to start (before applying for that milion dollar loan to start Bigbrew LLC) is by starting a nano-brewery. Now, granted, I have heard the term before - though admittedly it just kinda went into the warehouse of trivia in my head. Listening to another show a day or two later, I happened to hear the term again in regards to a new craft brewery that had started out as a nano and rapidly grown to a craft brewing level.
So, me being me... Research ensues... Gonna link a few interesting articles below. Seems the concept is to have a small brewery running on the side while you still do your day job. Interesting idea, and definitely something to look into. Though admittedly going through all of the hoopla to get your permits/licences/etc... could be a bitch...
Top Fermented - looks like someone got curious a few years ago like me ;)
Government Regs concerning what constitutes a nano and the laws/taxes associated there-with...
Nano-wiki - a nifty site that pretty much tells you how to do it from start to finish.
Nano/Partner Brewing - a rather good show about the subject on the Brewing Network
Enough for now I think... Though odds are I will update it as time goes on ;)
It's a cool idea, small enough to be no more than a minor risk, big enough to get an idea of what its like. And learn a lot about brewing, to boot.
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