Book Review: The Microbrewery Handbook
The world is collapsing. Most national economies are in shambles, or staring down the face of collapse. The main street of your childhood hometown is an endless row of empty shells filled with ghosts of commerce past and vacancy signs. Your spouse (or romantic partner) has run off to the Cayman Islands with a day trader wanted in three countries for money laundering and time share pyramid schemes.
There has never been a better time to move back home to open your own microbrewery.
Impeccably timed for the global decline, Florida’s Perfect Plain Brewery CEO DC Reeves presents The Microbrewery Handbook — a 200+ page treatise which could very well serve as a roadmap and compass to resuscitating that old abandoned gas station or Circuit City on the corner, turning it into a industrial-finished watering hole where everyone will know one another’s name. There is no doubt they will also offer infinite suggestions for witty, clever names for that Baconator-aged stout you’ve been thinking about brewing for years.
Nihilistic naysaying aside, Reeves provides a 1,000 foot overview on how to start things up (logistics and legalese can vary from state-to-state) without getting too bogged down in the details. He also provides interviews with some of the biggest names in the brewing game as a refreshing break from the process, and highlights their own paths to creativity and success.
This isn’t a book for how to brew beer, as Reeves wisely knows this isn’t appropriate context for such a discussion. However, he does touch on everything from scoping locations (of which there are plenty), financial best practices, branding, and social media in a way which is easily digestible and a bit of escapist fun for those not really interested in running a day-to-day operation of such scale. There’s plenty here to use as a safety net in case you get stuck on your adventures, including several appendices which could prove indispensable.
The Microbrewery Handbook is an estimable inside-baseball look at how to roll up your sleeves (assuming you have sleeves) and things get done. It’s a sensible tool to help rebuild and establish a local place of pride and make your microbrewery a community pillar, one pint glass at a time.
A- / $14 [BUY IT NOW FROM AMAZON]
The Microbrewery Handbook
$14
