ANNABELLE TOMETICH

ATOMETICH@NEWS-PRESS.COM

Local craft breweries seem invincible.

The past four years have seen 13 microbreweries open from Punta Gorda to Naples, with two more coming soon, and more in the works.

So far it’s been opening after opening, success after success.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a fail-proof industry,” said Jen Gratz, co-founder of Fort Myers Brewing Co., which became Lee County’s first craft brewery when it opened in March 2013.

“It’s just appeared to be fail-proof because we started so far behind the rest of the nation.”

Breweries are batting 1.000 in Southwest Florida, leading more and more home brewers and craft-beer enthusiasts to contemplate entering the market.

But what’s it really like to open a brewery?

We talked to three local brewery owners — two of the area’s oldest, and one of the newest — to learn the day-to-day struggles of life as a craft beer maker in Southwest Florida.

Jen Gratz co-founded Fort Myers Brewing Co. in Gateway with her husband and brew master Rob Whyte. Will Lawson owns the area’s oldest microbrewery, Naples Beach Brewery, which he opened in December 2012. Ryan and Marianne Bowen are building Palm City Brewing in San Carlos Park, which they hope to open this spring.

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Turns out, the beer-making life isn’t always what it’s hopped up to be.

But if you’re passionate about beer and have a knack for business and hospitality, it can be a worthwhile pursuit.

When people come to you saying they want to open a brewery here, what’s your advice?

Lawson: My advice is go for it. It’s definitely an industry where, if you’re making good beer and you’re excited about what you’re doing and you can give that vibe off to your customers, then absolutely do it. But at the end of the day it’s a business. You have to keep your expenses in check relative to what your realistic goals are and what you want the brewery to be.

Gratz: The first thing is, you have to make great beer. It’s always better to have some commercial experience, if possible. Brewing on a larger scale for the purpose of a business is much different than brewing for yourself and your friends at home. Also, this market isn't like Michigan or Denver. You have to have equipment that can get you through the peak of season in March, and then the understanding of how to make it during the rest of the year.

Mainly, though, you need a consistent product. And aim for organic growth rather than forced growth — that’s my simple advice.

Ryan Bowen: Definitely do your research. Obviously start by brewing as much as you can, but I listened to a lot of podcasts and read a ton on brewing and the process. You have to talk to other brewers and learn from them, work with them if possible. The brewing community here is amazing. And if you have a passion for it, they can help you achieve it.

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What’s been your biggest hurdle or learning curve?

Bowen: Preparing myself to be a business owner and not just a brewer. Making beer is one thing, but the licenses and permitting and paperwork and zoning codes, those are a whole different thing. The passion of being a brewer has to be separated from the business side.

Gratz: It’s not easy figuring out your growth. We could have grown very fast. And people think we’ve grown fast, but we could’ve grown even faster. You have to be comfortable from an equipment standpoint, and from a finance standpoint, and from a leaving-your-day-job standpoint. There’s a tendency to want to grow really quickly, but you look at us and we were only open two days a week to start. You have to be comfortable with your growth, and it has to make sense for you.

Lawson: I mean, we’re still trying to navigate the distribution waters. We’re still, four years later, trying to figure out how we can work most efficiently with our distribution partners to where it benefits both of us the most. Distribution is tricky. It’s not that much of a money maker, but it’s a necessity if you want to grow. I look at it almost like marketing; distribution gets your name out into the community. It gets people to see you, and hopefully come to the taproom, which is where you make most of your money.

Did you have investors?

Gratz: No. We were completely self-funded. That’s why we started so small.

Lawson: My uncle invested in getting the original small operation we had going, but he was very much a silent investor. He let me, knowing my education and background, really just do my thing.

Bowen: We’re self-funded, which has made things a little bit easier. We didn’t have to do crowd funding or meet with investors. But it’s also taken us a little longer to get things going because we are still working other jobs, so it’s been a balancing act.

Any regrets?

Lawson: Oh, definitely. I would go back and do the taproom first without a doubt. I couldn’t initially get the approval for it, so we went ahead with distribution long before we opened our taproom. We did it completely backwards. A good taproom can fund bigger, better equipment, which can fund more distribution, which can fund a better taproom. That’s how the cycle works. I just started wrong.

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What’s the biggest misconception people have about your work?

Gratz: I think when people look at this industry, they don’t see the years of struggle. It just comes off as a big party. Someone comes out on a Thursday night here and they think: Oh I can do that; I can put on a food truck rally and pour beer. But there are years of hard work behind that party, years of sleepless nights and thankless cleaning. It’s never as easy as it looks.

Are you making money?

Bowen: (laughs) Hopefully one day, but definitely not yet.

Gratz: We are profitable. Since we didn’t have any loans, we were profitable pretty much from the day we opened our doors. We have consistently reinvested that profit into the brewery, which is how we’ve grown from a small brew system made out of repurposed dairy tanks to what we are today.

Lawson: We are making money in the sense that we have four fulltime employees and we provide them a great health package, paid vacation time, and can pay them a wage that’s honest and livable. But we’re not quite in the position where we’re as profitable as we’d like to be.

There’s always something else we need to add on, or some renovation, or some new item that takes priority over me earning a full salary. But that’s just the nature of being an entrepreneur.

Connect with this reporter: @ATometich (Twitter)

A BREWER'S DOZEN

A look at the 13 craft breweries that call Southwest Florida home.

Big Blue Brewing Co.: 4721 SE 10th Place, Cape Coral; 471-2777 or bigbluebrewing.com

Bone Hook Brewing Co.: 1514 Immokalee Road #106, Naples; 631-8522 or bonehookbrewing.com

Bury Me Brewing: 4224 S Cleveland Ave., Fort Myers; 332-2337 or burymebrewing.com

Cape Coral Brewing Co.: 839 Miramar St., Cape Coral; 257-1033 or capecoralbrewing.com

Fat Point Brewing: 611 Charlotte St., Punta Gorda; 800-380-7405 or fatpoint.com

Fort Myers Brewing Co.: 12811 Commerce Lakes Drive, #28, Fort Myers; 313-6576 or facebook.com/fmbrew

Millennial Brewing Co.: 1811 Royal Palm Ave., Fort Myers; 271-2255 or millennialbrewing.com

Momentum Brewhouse: 9786 Bonita Beach Road SE, Bonita Springs; 949-9945 or momentumbrewhouse.com

Naples Beach Brewery: 4120 Enterprise Ave. #116, Naples; 304-8795 or naplesbeachbrewery.com

Old Soul Brewing: 10970 S. Cleveland Ave., Fort Myers; 334-4334 or oldsoulbrewing.com

Point Ybel Brewing Co.: 16120 San Carlos Blvd., south Fort Myers; 603-6535 or pointybelbrew.com

RipTide Brewing Co.: 987 Third Ave. N., Naples; 228-6533 or riptidebrewingcompany.com

South Cypress Brewing: Inside The Brass Tap, 895 Wiggins Pass Road, Naples; 631-6397 or southcypressbrewing.com

COMING SOON

Palm City Brewing: 7887 Drew Circle, San Carlos Park; facebook.com/palmcitybrewing

Scotty’s Bierwerks: 901 East Industrial Circle, Cape Coral; find it on Facebook