Ryan Hansen Consulting

You've got the beer. The business part is the wall.

I help homebrewers going pro — plus new beverage brands and breweries that want to run better — with the half nobody teaches: licensing, what a unit actually costs, partnership agreements, and the order to do it all in.

No charge. No pitch on the call itself.

The beer isn't the problem. It never is.

The paperwork maze

Federal notice, state licence, label approval — and no one tells you the order, so the lease clock starts before the permits do.

You don't know your numbers

You've costed a pint on grain and hops. That's about half the real number, and the other half is where the margin went.

A handshake with a friend

You agree on everything right up until one of you wants out. Without it written down, that's the most expensive conversation you'll ever have.

No time and no map

You're building this around a job and a family, in the margins, with no one to ask which step is actually next.

None of it means don't do it. It means do it in the right order — which is most of what I'm for.

Three ways people end up on a call with me.

My main focus

Homebrewers going pro

The beer's good and people keep telling you to open a brewery. You need the business plan, the licensing order, the real startup budget, and the partner paperwork before you sign a lease.

Business plan and startup cost model
Federal and state licensing sequence
Raising friends & family money properly

Launching a product

New beverage & CPG brands

I built Hazard's Hop Water from a recipe to a profitable brand, around a day job. If you're taking a drink — or a sauce, or a snack — to market, I've made the mistakes already.

Co-packer search, specs and quotes
Trademark, partnership and contracts
Landed cost per unit and pricing

Already open

Breweries that want to run better

You're brewing and selling, but margins are thin, the brewhouse runs on memory, or an ownership change left a mess. That's fixable.

SOPs, brewery workflow and tracking
True cost per pint and taproom numbers
Turnarounds and new-system installs

30 minutes, no charge, and you leave with a real number.

00–08

You talk

What you make, where it's at today, whether anyone's paid you for it yet, where you want it in a year, and what's in the way.

08–25

We solve one thing

The biggest obstacle, worked properly. Your product, your state, your numbers — not a framework.

25–30

You leave with work

Your true cost per unit and one task you can finish in half an hour.

The honest part: this call is free coaching, full stop. At the end I'll offer you a second call to see how the homework went. On that one, if you want to hear how I'd work with you properly, I'll tell you. If you don't, keep the homework and go build — that's a good outcome too.

I'm not a marketer who picked beverages as a niche.

I spent eight years in the Army, most of it in Special Operations. Then a corporate job I was good at and didn't much like. Brewing was the thing I did to feel like myself again — and then it turned into a question I couldn't answer: could this be a business?

Working that out cost me more than it should have. So I went and got the credentials to stop guessing: an MBA, and a degree from the Brewing and Distilling Center in Knoxville. Then I built Hazard's Hop Water around a full-time job and a house full of kids. It's profitable. I still have the job, which should tell you this isn't a get-rich story.

Since then I've designed a university brewing centre, built a community college distilling program and got it through a board of education, rebuilt breweries after ownership changes, and got nanobreweries licensed and running.

Hazard's Hop Water

Founder. Built around a day job. Profitable.

Fresno State

Designed the brewing & distilling centre.

Madera College

Built the distilling program and curriculum.

8 years, Army SOF

Special Operations, Psychological Operations.

What it looks like from the other side.

“

Ryan is da man! Couldn't be happier to have him showing us the ropes and dialing in our system. If you ever are in need of a vast amount of knowledge from an amazing teacher, then he is your man!

Standardized Brewing Co.Ohio

“

Ryan's help got us back on our feet after ownership changes. He came in and cleaned up the whole brewery, designed us custom recipes, and figured out how to brew using our ancient boiler. Our new SOPs, brewery workflow, and tracking systems were EXACTLY what we needed.

Snowshoe BrewingTurnaround & SOPs

“

This guy was a lifesaver! We needed our new pilot system to get assembled, deep cleaned, and run so we could get our brewing license. He pulled it all off in three days while also taking time to train our staff as he worked.

Native Brewing Co.Install & licensing

The Brewery Business Plan Blueprint

The plan I wish someone had handed me. The same structure I use with paying clients, written in plain language.

The licensing sequence, in the order it actually happens

Real cost-per-unit worksheets — all nine line items, not three

The operating agreement questions to settle before a dollar moves

Financial projections you fill in rather than admire

No email required. 15 pages, yours to keep.