Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 9
 Worth the Money March 23, 2007
Samuel J. O'Kane (North Carolina, USA)
7 out of 18 found this review helpful
One of the more expensive books I've bought recently...but an enjoyable, inspiring, and informative read. Obviously doesn't contain all the details (cost of individual brewhouse components for example) but does a great job identifying and describing the business on the system level. Also introduced me to some required areas of expertise I had not previously considered (e.g. wastewater treatment).
Hints and Tips From People Who Have Been There, Done That February 6, 2007
John Matlock (Winnemucca, NV)
8 out of 51 found this review helpful
Before America's weird experiment with prohibition there were hundreds, maybe thousands of small breweries in the United States. Of coure the do-gooders got them put out of business. The inevitable result was that almost all of the beers produced in the United States turned out to be identical. As 'Consumer Reports' termed it, beer was produced by Milcoorweiser, and it was basically all the same. The big difference was volume production and marketing.
Then came the west coast small brewery revolution. I'm not sure just where it started, Seattle, Portland and Northern California all claim fatherhood. All of a sudden people found that: First, it was possible to go buy good ales and beers that didn't taste like Milcoorweiser. Second, by opening a small brewery you could sell beer without the big price competition from Milcoorweiser. This was assisted by far out agressive marketing with names like [...].
Business has gotten more difficult as more small breweries have started up. But the end isn't in sight yet as there is still plenty of room for more companies to get started.
This book is put out by the Brewers Association, an industry group of small brewers who have contributed some of their knowledge to describing their success and giving advice on how to get started yourself.
 Good Information, but an Incomplete Guide May 28, 2010
Gavin Guest (Kansas)
The Brewers Association's Guide to Starting Your Own Brewery is, as other reviewers mention, a collection of articles and not so much a manual.
A person who is serious about starting a brewery will need to buy more books and learn a lot more after reading this book, but it's a good start for an outsider. Anyone who ever worked in a brewery before, or has experience running (not working in, but running) a restaurant, you could probably skip most this book and move on to more detail oriented books.
However, there is a lot of very good information in this book, and it has a lot of uses. This is a great place to start for anyone considering opening a brewery or brewpub, but has no experience in either industry. This isn't about brewing beer, it's about the industry and some of the logistical headaches associated with a brewery.
Chapters include topics like choosing the right flooring for the brewery, waste water, TTB regulations and more. If nothing else, you should buy this book only to learn about all of the things that you haven't considered when you think about opening a brewery. The Brewers Association's Guide to Starting Your Own Brewery also provides a few good numbers and spreadsheets to give you some idea of how the money goes.
 The Guide to THINKING About It June 21, 2007
B. Moore (Delaware)
36 out of 37 found this review helpful
What worse way to describe a book than, 'It was OK', it's like someone telling you your best atribute is that your 'nice'. But that's just it, for what it was supposed to be 'The Brewers Association's Guide to Starting Your Own Brewery' (think about it, that's a lot of weight in that title) it was only OK. There was some nice insight from brewing professionals whose opinions I already respect, there was some rough ideas of what to expect, and some sections with great detail about things I couldn't care less about at this point - the point of 'I'm still reading books to plan a brewery'.
I would have really have liked to have seen more real money and real equipment talked about. Basically they broke it down like this: it is hard and expensive, but if you can pull it off it is sooo worth it. That's not enough for me. Oh, I will mention there was a very detailed business plan which could be a great reference to the right person, but it reads like a business plan, go figure. Real snoozer of a way to end the book.
One last thing, this is an $80 book that as an AHA member I was able to buy for $50 from the Brewers Association so I at least felt like I got a deal, but to now see Amazon with it for sale for $50 kind of burns me up. This isn't an $80 book (think college text book) nor really a $50 book (think high school text book or instruction manual), it's more of a decent $25 book (think normal informative/opinionated book). So, all in all I am not saying don't get this book, but I would only get this book if you are seriously contemplating opening your own brewery and only as one more reference, not the be-all-to-end-all.
Poorly Edited, OK Content March 22, 2007
kvh (baltimore, md)
20 out of 21 found this review helpful
Ok, so for someone who went to school for art, hasn't taken an English class in 7 years, this book has more grammatical and editing errors than I have EVER seen in a published book.
The transcribed interviews are missing punctuation needed to make it read properly. In-text notes to the designers are still present. There are typos and misspellings, as though the chapters from various brewery owners were simply copy/pasted from their e-mails to the final publication.
And I've hardly started the book! I'm on page 23....
What gets me most is that this is the second/revised version of this book. Seriously people. Next time ABA, let me copy-edit it in exchange for beer. You know I'll do it.
If the book improves dramatically by the end, I'll revise my review.
kvh
Showing reviews 1-5 of 9
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