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"Wobbler":1cf8yqdq wrote: I think that years of exposure to advertising has programmed their minds into buying certain beers when they go into pubs.[/quote:1cf8yqdq]

I don't think it's the advertising: I think it's lack of choice. They wouldn't think of drinking something else because there was no something else. And that goes some way towards explaining why they would be open to choice in the offy, but not in the pub. Yet.

As you say, it's in the off-licence that price and alcohol levels come into play. I'd really like to see an Irish independent brewer use the excise duty incentive to compete on price, undercutting some of the cheap imports/BULs, but I doubt if the economics stack up for that.

Where advertising comes in, I think, is in reinforcing drinkers' prejudices, but I don't think it creates them. Non-advertised draught beers which are relatively common on tap, like Erdinger, Budvar or Krombacher, will always have a poncey reputation until they have ads showing something different.

It's great to hear that people are actually drinking London Pride, since it has only just started appearing in supermarkets in the last year or so. The thin end of the wedge, perhaps.

Every potential business venture needs a business plan; not only to entice potential investors but also to help persuade your bank manager to hand over that much needed capital. A feasibility survey from a respected firm can also help loosen those purse-strings.

Here is a sample business plan for a US brewpub.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="www.abtonline.com/busplan.html">www.abtonline.com/busplan.html

What I think has potential in Ireland is a cheap restaurant angled towards those who enjoy good full flavoured food and a beer without paying through the nose, a place where a guy or girl on their own doesn't feel intimidated to eat there.

Along with this resonably priced food is a selection of microbrewed beers to complement the robust flavoured food. A trick used in Italian restauarants is to get people in using a menu of nicely priced food then hit them with an expensive wine list once your ass is on the seat. In the brewpub, you get people in with good prices, then offer them beer thats perhaps different than their regular tipple. If they don't want to drink it then they don't have to, but the craft beer on offer would be cheaper than pub prices and each dish would come with a beer recommendation.

So, the real venture is a restaurant with a brewpub, while in my mind its a brewpub that sells food. In Ireland, it would become a restaurant with a wine licence that offers free craft beer with various dishes to complement the flavours. It would be a restaurant with no starters, main courses, or desserts, just a selection of tasty treats such as wings, ribs, cheese plates, salads, burgers, pizza slices, hot dogs, asian dishes such as tuna sushi, noodles, sweet and sour chicken balls even. This is food that is cheap to prepare and serve well and which goes great with a cold beer. With each single portion of food comes a beer. Order a few portions, have yourself a few beers perfect for the particular dish.

Don't drink beer? Buy yourself a glass of wine...

This idea comes from my time spent in Japan where restaurants rather than pubs where the norm. Rather than spend a few hours in the pub, friends would gather round a restaurant table and order beer and food for several hours. No main courses but many smaller ones, washed down with beer. Its a great idea and I think would definitely work in Ireland.

How do you keep prices down if you're including the cost of the beer? Surely customers who are drawn in by the food choice without thinking of the beer (your target audience) will be put off when they see how much you charge for a slice of pizza or a plate of meatballs?

&amp;quot;TheBeerNut&amp;quot;:wzroi448 wrote: As you say, it's in the off-licence that price and alcohol levels come into play. I'd really like to see an Irish independent brewer use the excise duty incentive to compete on price, undercutting some of the cheap imports/BULs, but I doubt if the economics stack up for that.[/quote:wzroi448]
That sounds all well in theory but there's the psychological aspect to the price point to consider, if a beer is priced cheaply then it will be considered a "cheap beer", no matter how well it's brewed or what the taste.

Also you are correct about the economics, consider that Tesco can sell a 24 pack of Miller for €20, it would cost a microbrewery more than this to just to produce and bottle the beer, so there's no way to compete on price considering the volumes that the big breweries operate on and the economics of scale that they can achieve. Even with the excise duty reduction considered.

Well, I wouldn't be thinking of the supermarkets as they're on an economic model all their own and are perfectly capable of selling Irish craft beer at bargain prices if they want to. Superquinn used to do that occasionally, presumably by making the brewers an offer they couldn't refuse.

But I was thinking more about your better class of off licence, where a bottle of Irish craft beer will cost you about €2.60-€2.80. A decent German import is about the same. Now, a can of Heineken or Guinness, or some of the cheaper German and Polish imports come in at €2.00-€2.15, which isn't cheap, and this is where I'd like to see the Irish beer pitched. This is where the advertisers' power can be broken, and it'd be great to have it broken by an Irish brewer rather than a Polish one.

&amp;quot;TheBeerNut&amp;quot;:1f7eo2ou wrote: How do you keep prices down if you're including the cost of the beer? Surely customers who are drawn in by the food choice without thinking of the beer (your target audience) will be put off when they see how much you charge for a slice of pizza or a plate of meatballs?[/quote:1f7eo2ou]

The actual cost of the beer to the business venture would be low, just above production cost, no excise duties, no transportation or middle man costs etc.

The type of people a venture like this needs will be repeat customers (the ones you need in order to build a loyal customer base for your craft beer) and will come back mainly for the quality beer(the food being a secondary concern, but a very tasty concern all the same!).Those who don't return can stick with their BudMillerCoors.

This restaurant idea is cutting edge and will draw people to it because it is just that....a little out of the ordinary, a little bold. Think of the Porterhouses marketing campaign when it was first established.. They were selling beers called 'Probably' and 'WeisserBuddy' in bottles that looked suspiciously like those they were poking fun at. This marketing campaign worked for them...it drew attenation to a new brewing operation in Dublin and got people into the bar.
Craft beer is specialised at the moment and the real trick is to find those who like it. Produce quality beer and they will come....!!