MicroBrewr 022: Expanding to… India!

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Matt Greff fell in love with beer while at university in Germany. He and his wife, Rene Greff, opened Arbor Brewing Company Brewpub in Ann Arbor Michigan in 1995. Since then, they opened a microbrewery in nearby Ypsilanti, Michigan and, just a year and-a-half ago, opened a brewpub in Bangalore, India!

They operate under the principle of “capitalism with a conscience.” Rather than being focused solely on profits, they aim for their business to be good for the community and good for their employees. “The best decision we every made,” says Matt, “was giving our management team a lot of autonomy.”

Do you want to open a brewery? This is Matt’s advice for you to start doing tomorrow:

Develop a vision
Do your homework
Get experience

Matt also talks about:

How his love affair with beer started
How to use geothermal cooling to reduce energy costs
How being named “best brewpub in the Midwest” affected their sales

Support Arbor Brewing Company’s crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo

ABC Microbrewery Needs a Kitchen

(Deadline: September 4, 2014, 11:59 p.m.)

UPDATE: They met the goal of their fundraising campaign. Woohoo!

Listener question:

From Tanner Munro: Have you thought about pairing beer to food, as a compliment beverage to food?

Book recommendation:

Building a Business the Buddhist Way by Geri Larkin.
There’s GOT to be an easier way to run a business: How to have a successful company — and a life! by Bill Marvin.

Check out the entire list of recommended books, click here.

An upcoming beer style:

Session IPA

Other resources:

www.indiegogo.com crowdfunding.
The Lunchbox (2013) movie.
Earl & Tiffany on Vine.
My continuing battle against perfectionism—part 1 of ? by Nathan Pierce, July 28, 2014.
Arbor Brewing heads to India by Chris Staten, DRAFT Magazine, June 25, 2012.
Arbor Brewing Company: India’s First American Craft Brewery by Craft Beer, February 27, 2013.
MicroBrewr 008: Raise Money for Your MicroBrewery Without Having to Give Away Any Ownership w/ CrowdBrewed, April 22, 2014.
Six Session IPAs Ranked by John Verive, Paste, April 9, 2014.

You can reach Matt Greff and Arbor Brewing Company at:

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