Legally producing and selling beer

Cdn_Gringo

Gold
Apr 29, 2014
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Brewing in the DR is possible, obviously. The single biggest problem to overcome is the heat. Beer and wine, to produce good flavor need low temperatures so that the yeast converts sugar to alcohol at a much slower rate than would otherwise occur at ambient temperature.

Back home, a basement was usually sufficient for home brewing in the summer, but here, anytime of year it's just too hot and you end up with a runaway yeast population. Here in the DR, temp. control requires refrigeration/air conditioning and that adds a significant cost per batch for small scale production.
 

hammerdown

Bronze
Apr 29, 2005
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Brewing in the DR is possible, obviously. The single biggest problem to overcome is the heat. Beer and wine, to produce good flavor need low temperatures so that the yeast converts sugar to alcohol at a much slower rate than would otherwise occur at ambient temperature.

Back home, a basement was usually sufficient for home brewing in the summer, but here, anytime of year it's just too hot and you end up with a runaway yeast population. Here in the DR, temp. control requires refrigeration/air conditioning and that adds a significant cost per batch for small scale production.

I beg to differ, I brought a wine kit from Canada and made it here, and it turned out awesome......better than most wines you can buy at any liquor store.....
 

donP

Newbie
Dec 14, 2008
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No market for home brew

This thread was started one and a half years ago...
I do not think that it has not been updated by the home brewers because they are too busy concocting their potions... :rolleyes:

La Sirena just had their month of beers:

Biere_Pola_zpsliyvu7zb.png


I can see much better beers there than the local beers, pricey but very good beer.
{Expats can't be choosers sometimes.}

I for one do not see any home brewer being able to market his/her stuff here.


donP
 

zoomzx11

Gold
Jan 21, 2006
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need a taste tester I am available. Send me a keg and I will get back to you when its finished.
 

texan

Member
Apr 1, 2014
442
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I would look into putting the beer into kegs. My friend home brews in the US and uses kegs. It is some much easier then having to mess with the bottles. Find a good beer that has to be cold but not ice cold. Maybe some bars would buy it by the keg.

There is no doubt the DR needs some varieties of beers and locally produced would be great.
 

DRDYL

New member
Feb 16, 2014
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To the OP or anyone else interested in doing something like this, please pm me. I have posted on here over a year ago asking about water quality and options for obtaining clean water but I never mentioned what my plan was. I am working now on getting a small team of family and friends together to do some market research in the big city... I want to see if there really is strong interest in craft beer coming to the DR. I know there are a lot of poor people and also that Dominicans are partial to the presidente, but I can't believe nobody has yet to make a real attempt at even a nanobrewery. If there are any on the island they certainly don't have any Internet presence. I've looked. I want to start in the 1-3 bbl range, and as of now am thinking to sell kegs to local bars.

If 2 or 3 or 5 of us could get together maybe from different parts of the island (I'm not living there, but married to a dominican woman) and could either brew together or buy together or both. Looking up cost of importing grains hops and yeast I can see that a significant burden lies there. If I remember right though the taxes are much lower in comparison to the states which almost offsets the cost. Someone is going to do this artesinal beer thing soon, there is not real good reason why not. The question is who is gonna make the first move??? Or has it already been made and your being really quiet?

Sorry to steal the thread
 

MikeFisher

The Fisherman/Weather Mod
Feb 28, 2006
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To the OP or anyone else interested in doing something like this, please pm me. I have posted on here over a year ago asking about water quality and options for obtaining clean water but I never mentioned what my plan was. I am working now on getting a small team of family and friends together to do some market research in the big city... I want to see if there really is strong interest in craft beer coming to the DR. I know there are a lot of poor people and also that Dominicans are partial to the presidente, but I can't believe nobody has yet to make a real attempt at even a nanobrewery. If there are any on the island they certainly don't have any Internet presence. I've looked. I want to start in the 1-3 bbl range, and as of now am thinking to sell kegs to local bars.

If 2 or 3 or 5 of us could get together maybe from different parts of the island (I'm not living there, but married to a dominican woman) and could either brew together or buy together or both. Looking up cost of importing grains hops and yeast I can see that a significant burden lies there. If I remember right though the taxes are much lower in comparison to the states which almost offsets the cost. Someone is going to do this artesinal beer thing soon, there is not real good reason why not. The question is who is gonna make the first move??? Or has it already been made and your being really quiet?

Sorry to steal the thread

how much would it by your calculation cost each 330cc can at the end to produce it? as for dominican consumers, you can only get them as long as it is not significantly more expensive than their known Presidente and the already countless available imported beers. they would not care for the beer to be a special homebrew, they would just care for it/drink it because it is a brand not known to them and as long as it stays in the price range of the american and european imports. i guess exactly there may be the point why such is not done, yet, the production costs. i use for example on my boats half liter cans of german beer, at the moment it is Thueringer. they cost me just 70 pesos per half liter and i get them delivered to any spot i wish within the bavaro/punta cana/cap cana area. i would guess that bars/restaurants, who buy bigger amounts than i need for the boats, get a even significantly cheaper price than I do. that's the kind of price competition you need to take into count.

Mike
 

kapitan75

New member
Jun 3, 2005
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That would take lots of money and logistics just to get a chance to maybe take a small percentage of the beer consumer.
A long shot would be to introduce the concept to some of the upscale resorts or Hotels in the major cities ala "microbrewery" concept.

I haven't seen such brand loyalty to a national beer like the latino countries have, so it will be a tough sell. Maybe los ricos or people with some money would want to be seen in a microbrewery as a cool thing? like a hookah bar.

The ingredients needed , can they be grown in the DR? that will solve some cost issues. cant really call it dominican brew without homegrown ingredients. people want authentic.

for tourist to try microbrewery at a resort area would work. Location would be the hard part. Cant imagine how hard it would be to introduce the concept to a resort change , and sign a contract. Maybe a Dreams Resorts could use a Microbrewery since they tend to get guest with money to spend, and a cute microbrew bar may feel at home in a place like that.

or you can start small with a beach/ tourist bar in a beach town with decent traffic.

Hate to say it, if you can brew with higher alcohol content , in a good tasting beer at a low price, ala Caballo Loco in quarts, you may get many fans on the street.
 

Trainman33

Bronze
Dec 11, 2009
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I would say just do it without getting any legal papers. Pretty soon if you start getting some recognition and start getting big enough the government will come calling trying to collect taxes. Then and only then start the process of making everything legal. In the meantime you will have saved lots of money in taxes and headaches in paperwork.

According to what HB told me once when I asked about beer in the DR, someone did that in Sosua years ago at the top of the tourist trade there. Presidente sent the health department etc. there and shut them down.
 

MikeFisher

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Feb 28, 2006
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That would take lots of money and logistics just to get a chance to maybe take a small percentage of the beer consumer.
A long shot would be to introduce the concept to some of the upscale resorts or Hotels in the major cities ala "microbrewery" concept.

I haven't seen such brand loyalty to a national beer like the latino countries have, so it will be a tough sell. Maybe los ricos or people with some money would want to be seen in a microbrewery as a cool thing? like a hookah bar.

The ingredients needed , can they be grown in the DR? that will solve some cost issues. cant really call it dominican brew without homegrown ingredients. people want authentic.

for tourist to try microbrewery at a resort area would work. Location would be the hard part. Cant imagine how hard it would be to introduce the concept to a resort change , and sign a contract. Maybe a Dreams Resorts could use a Microbrewery since they tend to get guest with money to spend, and a cute microbrew bar may feel at home in a place like that.

or you can start small with a beach/ tourist bar in a beach town with decent traffic.

Hate to say it, if you can brew with higher alcohol content , in a good tasting beer at a low price, ala Caballo Loco in quarts, you may get many fans on the street.

Captain, the Resorts are the ones who purchase cheapest, as it is All Inclusive Resorts. a Microbrewery i can not imagine to come close to the cheap prices for existing Beer Imports, specially from the large us-american market. and without beating their prices, a all inclusive resort chain would not switch to a unknown new p`roduct, to pay more for something they don't know if it will even be accepted by the clientel. their customers have unlimited basic drinks(including beers) included in their cheap hotelpackages.
a Microbrewery brand needs to start at it's own place, right where the good stuff is brewed, in the house. it is for a exclusive clientel which loves to be seated in the brewery, where you can see the whole procedure for example. such clientel then is willing to pay a well higher price per liter than they would pay for a normal import or a usual local brand. that way we had many such small breweries in germany, great places, they of course marketed also extras like selling their own Beer Glasses etc etc. but even there, many "disappeared" over the decades or been taken over by the big breweries.
to start such in a country like the DR, sounds tough, very tough, as the needed Beer Friend clientel willing to pay for the product a good extra, is not present all around. the Capital City would be a better spot for such venture than the all inclusive tourist area in my opinion.

Mike
 

DRDYL

New member
Feb 16, 2014
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That would take lots of money and logistics just to get a chance to maybe take a small percentage of the beer consumer.
A long shot would be to introduce the concept to some of the upscale resorts or Hotels in the major cities ala "microbrewery" concept.

I haven't seen such brand loyalty to a national beer like the latino countries have, so it will be a tough sell. Maybe los ricos or people with some money would want to be seen in a microbrewery as a cool thing? like a hookah bar.

The ingredients needed , can they be grown in the DR? that will solve some cost issues. cant really call it dominican brew without homegrown ingredients. people want authentic.

for tourist to try microbrewery at a resort area would work. Location would be the hard part. Cant imagine how hard it would be to introduce the concept to a resort change , and sign a contract. Maybe a Dreams Resorts could use a Microbrewery since they tend to get guest with money to spend, and a cute microbrew bar may feel at home in a place like that.

or you can start small with a beach/ tourist bar in a beach town with decent traffic.

Hate to say it, if you can brew with higher alcohol content , in a good tasting beer at a low price, ala Caballo Loco in quarts, you may get many fans on the street.

These are some good ideas as far as I can tell! Maybe Los pobres can stay away and I only go after people with a little money to spend. As for the dominican theme, that is my intention for sure. Yucca beer? Lol

As for growing ingredients, the climate isn't right - except maybe rice! And it's a lot of work to malt barley, which is a heating process and germination of the barley to make the main product used in beer. I could definitely do the high alcohol brew if need be. I could see that being a hit with a lot of people looking for more bang for the buck in terms of booze content.
 

Tallman1818

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Nov 19, 2007
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It has already been tried and failed. There was a micro brewery / Bar built in Santo Domingo on Kennedy Ave. about 15 years ago or so.

The same owner also built a Miami Sub Franchise restaurant next door. It failed as well.

Of course, then again, there is the Santo Domingo Brewing Company giving it a go.

There's also Cerveceria Artes Van Stolk.

But no, other than those, no, I don't know of any.

The one on Kennedy was called Barley's I remember it well, it had all kinds of flavor beer.
 

kapitan75

New member
Jun 3, 2005
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These are some good ideas as far as I can tell! Maybe Los pobres can stay away and I only go after people with a little money to spend. As for the dominican theme, that is my intention for sure. Yucca beer? Lol

As for growing ingredients, the climate isn't right - except maybe rice! And it's a lot of work to malt barley, which is a heating process and germination of the barley to make the main product used in beer. I could definitely do the high alcohol brew if need be. I could see that being a hit with a lot of people looking for more bang for the buck in terms of booze content.

Dont know how far flavored beer has become. Tried a apple and lemon beer, didnt do it for me. Maybe a tamarindo beer, or mango? Tried an orange beer ,which had a pretty good taste.

Location wise, maybe by a cruise port, or some where thats a tourist magnate. Maybe create a small chain of mini franchise in a specific area .an independent beach bar.

Beer will have to be inexpensive, and a political hook up will make life easier.
 

DRDYL

New member
Feb 16, 2014
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Hey thanks for the heads up on the Santo domingo brewing company. We will be getting in touch with those people. Seem to be very into art, which looks cool. They have not been open very long, maybe we could work out something with grain orders etc. Has anybody been to that brewery and if so what did you think?
 

MikeFisher

The Fisherman/Weather Mod
Feb 28, 2006
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you need to step by their place and see yourself to get a feel and get in personal contact. if you have/had such small brewery abroad, they will listen. bring them some test kegs of your brew and see what is possible from there on.

Mike
 

melphis

Living my Dream
Apr 18, 2013
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I wish you the best of luck. And for God's sake do not cross the road in front of a Presidente truck.
Cheers