Yes, a bigger system allows you to clear a larger profit margin. A quick look at the math makes it clear. For instance, if you have a 1 bbl brewery that ends up being six 1/6 kegs you can sell for, say, $xx a piece for a low gravity beer. That's only $xxx for one work day and you haven;t even counted in the grain and hops costs, utilities, water, or other such overhead. On top of that you haven't even counted in the time that you spend cleaning, pitching yeast, managing fermentation and cellaring, let alone packaging and cleaning kegs.
That said, it takes about the same amount of man hours to make 7 bbls as it does to make 1 bbl (not counting packaging, though the correct equipment makes that go much faster). Now you are talking $x,xxx for one days work, not counting ingredients and overhead.
Speaking of packaging, you will most likely have to keg and kegs are not cheap and corny kegs are not useable by bars in all most every case. You are talking about a 5K investment in kegs alone just to get started off on a 1bbl brewery. And everytime you grow you need more kegs. Sometime you need more kegs all the sudden and you haven't grown at all. Cooperage is a HUGE pain in the ass.
I'm not trying to scare anyone, just look at what you are getting into. This stuff is expensive.
modified to xx the proposed sale price of the beer. We cannot talk about or imply the sale price of beer here. Fred Bonjour