First off, congrats to clonebydesign 
You've embarked on a whole lot of work, but also a whole lot of reward.
I'm one of the founders/brewers of 515 here in Des Moines (well, Clive actually), and it is so much work it's not even funny, but it's so rewarding it is awesome as well.
As far as market saturation goes, I think there's a long way to go before we get there. You can look at all the statistics, but we just recently passed the number of breweries in the country that existed prior to prohibition. The overall beer market is flat, but craft beer is growing better than 10% year over year, and has been for over a decade now. We have over 50 breweries in Iowa now, and probably at least 10 or so that I'm aware of in planning, including another one, or possibly two there in the Ames area aside from Torrent. If you look at them as "bars that have beer they brew themselves", I think it changes the perception of what a brewery is and does. How many bars can flourish in a town? Quite a few. The real scalability issues come in the packaging and distribution markets where there is only so much shelf space, and only so many draft lines for beer. That's where some of the more interesting competition will be happening in the next 5-10 years.
Our goal is to make and serve the best beer we possibly can, and I think the breweries that are focusing on that, and are willing and able to put the time and effort into it to achieve it, are going to be just fine no matter what happens.
The ones who are lackadaisical about quality or just in it for the money or because running a brewery seems like fun are going to struggle in the long run, IMO.
There is a big leap from homebrewing to running a production brewery, but lots of people (including 515) are doing it, and it's pretty awesome if you're a beer lover!
Cheers!
You've embarked on a whole lot of work, but also a whole lot of reward.I'm one of the founders/brewers of 515 here in Des Moines (well, Clive actually), and it is so much work it's not even funny, but it's so rewarding it is awesome as well.
As far as market saturation goes, I think there's a long way to go before we get there. You can look at all the statistics, but we just recently passed the number of breweries in the country that existed prior to prohibition. The overall beer market is flat, but craft beer is growing better than 10% year over year, and has been for over a decade now. We have over 50 breweries in Iowa now, and probably at least 10 or so that I'm aware of in planning, including another one, or possibly two there in the Ames area aside from Torrent. If you look at them as "bars that have beer they brew themselves", I think it changes the perception of what a brewery is and does. How many bars can flourish in a town? Quite a few. The real scalability issues come in the packaging and distribution markets where there is only so much shelf space, and only so many draft lines for beer. That's where some of the more interesting competition will be happening in the next 5-10 years.
Our goal is to make and serve the best beer we possibly can, and I think the breweries that are focusing on that, and are willing and able to put the time and effort into it to achieve it, are going to be just fine no matter what happens.
The ones who are lackadaisical about quality or just in it for the money or because running a brewery seems like fun are going to struggle in the long run, IMO.
There is a big leap from homebrewing to running a production brewery, but lots of people (including 515) are doing it, and it's pretty awesome if you're a beer lover!
Cheers!
