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Author Topic: Nonprofit Brewery - not just a tax deduction  (Read 2360 times)

Offline tsarran

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Nonprofit Brewery - not just a tax deduction
« on: September 15, 2015, 07:27:33 pm »
I have a pretty extensive background in the nonprofit industry, co-founding one nonprofit while also serving on several boards. In my current day job I also have assisted several brewers guilds in implementing membership management software and also am good friends with many Chicago brewer owners of all sizes. That gave me a great insight into the hardships and rewards that a brewery can be. In short, I understand what it means to launch a business. Finally as the adage says, no one starts a brewery to get rich.

For a split second, my mother in law was going to own a farm and I got obsessed with the idea of a farm brewery.  But that fell through and I also feel I'm not fully committed to owning a for profit brewery. I am fully aware that its a lot of work and I've gone through several permutations in my head so here goes...

I feel that the biggest way to help support the growth of the craft beer industry and the overall organic farming movement will come from supporting agencies that can help educate the public and connect people and organizations with similar interests.

The issue - I have been doing a lot of research into local and national organizations that can help connect farmers, maltsters, brewers, and the general public and am coming up short. I just don't see anything that is on par with an organization like Slow Food.

The question - do you folks feel it is worth exploring establishing a nonprofit institute dedicated to the education and support of creating locally sustainable networks between farmers, brewers, researchers, and the public?

I am aware of organizations like the Northeast Hop Alliance, Siebel Institute (Chicago!), the Craft Maltsters Guild, the Brewers Association (obviously!), UMass Extension, and many more. However I feel none of these connect together in a cohesive way.

My ultimate vision is having a dedicated space on land that will be used for training farmers and brewers together while also giving the general public access to understand why this is so important.  Basically a research brewery but with an explicit focus on education of the public at large. If you've ever heard of The Bread Lab, think of this as a beer focused version of it. In short, this could be the Slow Food of craft beer. And I can of course explain more of the business side of things and the plan is to base it in Massachusetts.

I also know that the beer needs to be great, the farming part needs to be sustainable and organic, and all of it needs to be economical and not some silly pipedream. This is about building a movement, not pretending to be a brewery.

Am I crazy? Am I missing something that already exists? Would people care? 

Offline pete b

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Re: Nonprofit Brewery - not just a tax deduction
« Reply #1 on: September 15, 2015, 07:38:02 pm »
are you familiar with Valley Malt and/or FarmerBrewer? You might want to e-mail Andrea at Valley malt. Umass might be involved but I'm not sure.
Don't let the bastards cheer you up.

Offline tsarran

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Re: Nonprofit Brewery - not just a tax deduction
« Reply #2 on: September 15, 2015, 07:41:57 pm »
are you familiar with Valley Malt and/or FarmerBrewer? You might want to e-mail Andrea at Valley malt. Umass might be involved but I'm not sure.

QUITE familiar! Going to be honest, part of the post I wrote above was from an email I sent to her. She was interviewed in a video for GrowNYC where she mentioned she had no resources to draw from when starting out. I want to ensure that doesn't happen. She would be a great partner for this but she doesn't know me from Adam.

Offline cascadesrunner

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Re: Nonprofit Brewery - not just a tax deduction
« Reply #3 on: September 15, 2015, 08:54:10 pm »
That is a pretty heavy lift out of the gate.  It's not that there wouldn't be people interested in the movement, the key is finding enough of them in the same place to support it.  You could touch base with the groups at Ex Novo and The Oregon Public House up in Portland.  They can definitely speak to the business aspect of a nonprofit brewery.
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Offline morticaixavier

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Re: Nonprofit Brewery - not just a tax deduction
« Reply #4 on: September 16, 2015, 06:03:08 pm »
I like the idea.
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