7 Craft Beer Business Success Stories [2024]

Updated: November 19th, 2023
Start A Craft Beer Business

Are you passionate about beer and ready to penetrate a niche within the alcohol industry? Craft beer is a potential business idea you may want to start.

Craft beer is an important and attractive niche consumer market with the potential to multiply profitability.

The good news is that starting your craft beer brewery is not as difficult as you think.

You can start brewing craft beer with nothing more than a bucket, a bubbler, a siphon pipe, and a kit. Eventually, you will start bottling your craft beer and delivering it to the market.

Here are some real life success stories of starting a craft beer business:

1. Varionica ($672K/year)

Davor and Matija started brewing beer as a hobby in college and fell in love with creating unique styles that couldn't be found in Croatia. Encouraged by positive feedback from friends, family, and bar owners, they took the leap and opened Varionica, becoming craft brewing pioneers in Croatia. Despite facing challenges, they persevered, adapting their business model and expanding their reach through a webshop and partnerships with retail stores. They have since won industry recognition and expanded their exports to the UK and Germany, with plans to enter more markets.

How much they make: $672K/year
How much did it cost to start: $10K
Current team size: 8

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How We Started A Six-Figure Craft Brewery [From Croatia]

Croatian craft brewery Varionica shares how they started with only 22 kegs and an old Opel Astra, grew to produce roughly 40,000 liters of beer per month, and expanded successfully during the pandemic through an online shop and retail store partnerships.

About
Matija started Varionica about 10 years ago
Revenue
Matija grew the business to $56K/month
Costs
It cost Matija $10000 to start the business
Read by 4,733 founders

So... can you actually make money with a craft beer business?

Of course. There are millions to be made in this industry.

But how?

  1. Research real, profitable businesses and see exactly how much money they make.
  2. Study exactly what works, and what doesn’t.
  3. Take action, because now you have the roadmap.

Join Starter Story and build your next big thing:

Start Now

4. Dogfish Head Craft Brewed Ales | Off Centered Stuff For Off Centered People

Dogfish Head Craft Brewery and Tasting Room is located in Milton, DE. Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats and Chesapeake & Maine located in Rehoboth, DE and the Dogfish Inn in Lewes, DE.

Where they're located: Tallahassee, Florida, United States
Website traffic: 170K/month

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5. Homebrew Academy

Where great homebrews are developed. Homebrewing education, courses, resources, recipes, and battle tested gear for the craft beer lover and home brewer.

article

So... can you actually make money with a craft beer business?

Of course. There are millions to be made in this industry.

But how?

  1. Research real, profitable businesses and see exactly how much money they make.
  2. Study exactly what works, and what doesn’t.
  3. Take action, because now you have the roadmap.

Join Starter Story and build your next big thing:

Start Now

7. Black Tap Craft Burgers & Beer

Black Tap is the new take on the classic NYC burger joint. Upscale but not fussed-up, our award winning burgers have gotten a lot of attention in a short amount of time, milkshakes have always been on the menu, and craft beer is part of our DNA.