Brew for Few
“Baying Hound is a prime example of a nanobrewery, a business that’s tiny even by the standards of craft brewing, where 15,000 barrels a year is the dividing line between a micro and a regional brewery. At his current pace — Rinehart brews twice a week… — he’ll turn out 96 barrels of beer during his first year in business, or about 1,300 cases of 12-ounce bottles… . Rinehart’s sole product … is Baying Hound Pale Ale … . Small-scale operations such as Baying Hound, common during the pioneering era of craft brewing in the 1970s and ’80s, are staging a comeback. The Colorado-based Brewers Association doesn’t keep figures on nanobreweries (nor does it have an official definition for the term), ‘but we certainly have noticed the business model in the new breweries we see popping up,’ says Andrew Sparhawk, the group’s craft beer program coordinator. … Nanobreweries are an inexpensive way to turn pro but are inherently unstable. Either the owners buckle under the tedious labor and mounting bills, or they expand their businesses rapidly.”
See article at: Washington Post 26Oct10: “Nanobrewers take craft brewing to a new, tiny level”
