I attended a course in Microbrewing Operations in Chicago a few years back to investigate whether I should invest or actually go into the Micro/Brewpub area. I attended this course at the Siebel Institute, where Americas brewers are trained. Of course, it is full of knowlegeble professors that come out of the industry. I recommend it highly to anyone interested. It's a week of fun and drink at worse.
Anyway, we had a round table discussion about brewpubs and micros. Remember, this was 2 years ago. The general consensus from the teaching staff was that a shake out was ineveitble as people overpaid for brewery equipment, didn't know what they were doing, and the consumer came to know the difference between good beer and different beer.
Well, I guess the shakeout is upon us, and should be about over. Equipment prices are falling fast as brewpubs start to go belly up and used equipment comes on line. The knowledge base of brewers is increasing, and since there are less breweries, the breweries that survived can be more selective. Capital costs are falling and there is less competition.
So to the strong will go survival. I cannot think of any stronger than Rock Bottom. But who knows, they may have expanded too rapidly and have cash flow problems. Regardless, unless there is disaster, it has based out and should be back on its way up. |
