BUSINESS TRENDS
BERNIE WOODALL
Patrick Kirchner, co-founder of Mash Monkeys Brewing Co., with poster of the Sebastian brew club where
the notion of the brewery began, and the Mash Monkeys logo.
BERNIE WOODALL
Customers enjoy the offerings in the brew pub at Pareidolia Brewing Co. in Sebastian.
TCBusiness.com 31
about the beverages and others who simply
want something that tastes stronger
than what Budweiser, Miller and Coors
offer.
There are seasonal beers, year-round
ones and experiments that become favorites
— or are quickly abandoned. Customers
can go into the same craft brew pub on
successive weeks and expect the rotating
taps to offer something they’ve never had
before each time. Craft brewers like to experiment,
using customers as willing test
subjects for innovative attempts at lagers,
pilsners, porters, stouts, sours and other
varieties of beer.
“We produced 158 different flavors and
styles of beer last year,” says Dwayne Buchholz,
owner of Side Door Brewing Company
in Port St. Lucie. “Some were greeted
with enthusiasm and were overwhelmingly
consumed with excitement, others
perhaps not so much.”
There is a fellowship among Treasure
Coast brewers as well as most craft brewers
throughout the United States, notes
Mike Malone, co-founder, president and
head brewer of Walking Tree Brewery in
Vero Beach.
“I don’t know any other industry where
there is this kind of camaraderie,” says
Sean Nordquist, executive director of the
nonprofit trade association Florida Brewers
Guild, based in St. Petersburg. “The
general feeling is that a rising tide floats all
boats. By helping each other, you are helping
your own brewery.”
Chris Cischke, owner, along with his
wife, Amanda, of Ocean Republic Brewing
in Stuart, says their business would not
have been able to open in late July without
last-minute help from fellow brewers.
“Walking Tree lent us the hoses we
needed to make it” to opening night, July
26, says Cischke. He opened with a guest
tap of Walking Tree beer in honor of the
assistance.
American Icon Brewery of Vero Beach
also pitched in to help Ocean Republic
open on time, Cischke adds.
The issues that crop up in the last month
before a brewery opens lead to surprising
cost increases. But before making it that
far, beer entrepreneurs often have to convince
local governments to allow them at
all, and have to get banks to take a chance
on them.
BuShea of Sailfish says when he and his
business partners went about finding a
location for their brewery almost a decade
ago, Fort Pierce city officials were skeptical,
thinking that they were being asked to
allow another loud bar in a neighborhood.
It took some educating, BuShea says, but
the city officials came around and even
changed zoning near downtown Fort
Pierce to allow Sailfish to open. It has since
moved a few blocks to a larger location
downtown.
Some brewers say they went to multiple
bankers before getting a loan approval
for their businesses that were viewed as
quirky and overly risky ventures by some
money managers. And each brewery
owner says they wrote long, detailed business
plans before being seriously considered
for loans.
At Mash Monkeys Brewing in Sebastian,
which opened last year, co-owners Patrick
Kirchner and Derek Gerry wrote a 54-
page exhaustively detailed business plan,
because, Kirchner says, “When you are
borrowing money to make beer for living,
people want specifics.”
Rob Tearle, co-owner and co-founder
of Hop Life Brewing in Port St. Lucie, says
he and his business partners, including
fellow career firefighter Jim Kelly, also
wrote a long, detailed business plan. They
expected it would cost around $600,000
to open Hop Life, but in the end, renovations
to their building and other expenses
increased that figure to about $1.4 million.
“It’s a business. It’s not a glorified hobby,”
Buchholz points out.
LATE TO THE GAME
The Treasure Coast and Florida have
been playing catch-up to some Western,
Midwestern and New England states that
have fostered craft breweries since the
1980s and 1990s.
It’s no coincidence that Pete Anderson,
who owns Pareidolia Brewing Co. in >>
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