re: Baton Rouge Market for a Craft Brewery

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good thing brash was not afraid enough to make the plunge with his wife and 3 (maybe 4. i cant remember) kids

good thing head brewer of lone pint was willing to start up the brewery while still working as a successful petroleum engineer.

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Good for them. And i hear Brash is making some excellent beer and Lone Pint has a nice DIPA, haven't had their other offerings.

But everyone's situations and circumstances are different. Hell Louisiana, and Baton Rouge's circumstances are vastly different from Houston, so you can't really compare each individual or brewery to another.

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Obviously NOLA wasn't "new" when they built their new tasting room but there setup is really good,

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I agree. I love their new-ish brewpub. I went in 2013 before i got married and before that brewpub, and it was A) July so it was blazing hot, and B) the had a tiny little bar area. Now that place is fantastic and if i lived in NOLA i'd be there most weekends, my kid permitting.

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do the beer and have a space where a restaurant/vendor can cook and serve food from a window. Don't need to hire/oversee a restaurant staff this way. Or if you are in any area with a lot of food trucks, connect with that community to provide food for your customers.

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Oh yeah i agree. I think their setup with the BBQ joint works well. I just thought of the smoker setup because A) BR doesn't really have good BBQ and B) i really enjoy smoking pork shoulder, brisket, etc... and have gotten really good at it. However, if the hypothetical would happen, there would be no way 1 person can run a small brewery and smoke meat without getting burnt out in a month.

If you go brewpub, i would think the safest bet would be to do something like NOLA.

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Why ruin a perfectly good hobby by turning it into a job?

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This is another thing. Though sometimes, it would be nice not working for someone other than myself...

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I honestly think New Orleans could get close to Portland's level, with multiple successful breweries by neighborhood. You can only drink certain beers by actually going to those hoods. I think NOLA could handle at least 20 more breweries just in the city and become a wildly popular craft beer town in addition to everything else they offer.

In reference, Portland supports 58 right now and is about twice the size of NOLA.

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I agree, also, although many on here don't. Although that number of 58 is probably low (maybe that's just Portland proper and doesn't include the burbs?), the vast majority of those are small brewpubs that are more along the lines of a restaurant, and not like Parish or Abita. Some of them bottle/can their beer, but they use mobile canning/bottling services because they don't make enough beer to own their own lines.

If you think of a brewpub like you would a Pizza Restaurant, how many pizza restaurants can New Orleans support? How is it that some pizza joints make money even though their pizza sucks? Some make thick crust, some thin, and others do deep dish. Some are traditional, some have exotic toppings. Same with breweries. They are not all the same, and that's a good thing. Some will serve food, some don't. Some make sours, others make IPAs and stouts, and still others specialize in beer that smells like a horse's stall.

It would be really great if some of these distribution laws could be changed so that small brewpubs could sell their excess kegged beer to taprooms and restaurants, as well as to distributors.

Honestly, I think it is probably a great time to get into that business in LA. Most people on this board have access to a lot of really good beer, right now. Yet, the most popular beers are local ones. Most people will choose to drink a LA beer, given the choice. And why not? Parish is killing it. Parish is also making money hand over fist. Even the breweries that get no love on this message board are probably making money. If you have the right team and can make some good, if not great beer, I would think you would do well.

I've not lived in BR for a long while, but if I were opening a brewery I'd do it like this:

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Brats and pretzels for food, well crafted German beers, and a beer hall/beer garden.

You could do well on corporate events and of course Oktoberfest would be awesome

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Brats and pretzels for food, well crafted German beers, and a beer hall/beer garden. You could do well on corporate events and of course Oktoberfest would be awesome

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Two places like this in New Orleans and I don't know anyone who goes there.

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I've not lived in BR for a long while, but if I were opening a brewery I'd do it like this:

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Pizza Port

Pinthouse Pizza

these would be my brewery/restaurant guides

this is my dream set up
Jester King

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I was just talking with a friend the other day about how someone in Baton Rouge could make a ton of money by opening a Cidery.

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If you thought this was a reasonable business venture, you'd have invested. It is not.