Brewing beer for money is a hard, hard way to make a living. 4 out of 5 brewpubs go broke real quick. The rest are doing good if they can operate at a 5% net profit. When they're combined with a restaurant, there's more money in the food than in the beer. It's not the ingredients, though they've got 'way expensive too - but overhead just kills ya.

Microbrewery costs are much higher - it's real expensive to bottle, package, and distribute beer, and the taxes are ridiculous.

When it's a big company that's willing to lose money to demonstrate their brewing equipment, like Mueller, then they can stay in business. It's kind of like the California gold rush - very few miners made any money but the guys who sold shovels did.

When a rare micro gets real big, like Boston Brewing Co. (Sam Adams) - then economics of scale kick in and they're making tons of money. My former partner is working for a company with restaurant/brewpubs in 19 states. The economic downturn has hit them hard, but they're going to survive.

Very few brewers grow large enough to be profitable. Trying to make money making beer is a tough way to go, and that's the truth.