Managing a brewpub from a second city without losing control

Hire the manager first, then step back

Remote ownership lives or dies on the person running the floor. You need a general manager who can make decisions at 10 pm on a Saturday without calling you. You also need a head brewer who owns the beer. Give each of them clear authority in writing: spending limits, hiring powers and who signs off on discounts.

If you cannot find that manager, do not go remote yet. Spend the extra months on site training one. Our guide on hiring a taproom manager covers what to look for.

Get the same five numbers every morning

You cannot manage what you only hear about on a weekly call. Agree a short daily report that lands on your phone before 10 am, built from the POS and the brewery log rather than typed by hand:

• Sales for the day, split by beer, food and other.
• Covers and average spend per guest.
• Litres of beer sold through the POS.
• Cash, card and UPI totals against POS sales.
• Voids, discounts and complimentary items by staff member.

Five numbers take a minute to read. A month of them shows trends no phone call ever will.

Track beer from tank to glass

Beer loss is the leak an absent owner misses most. Every litre leaving a serving tank should turn up as a pint on a bill, give or take normal losses from line cleaning, foaming and tasting.

Here is the check. Each week, take the litres drawn from serving tanks or kegs and compare them with litres sold through the POS. If the tanks show 2,000 litres gone and the POS shows 1,700 litres sold, 300 litres, or 15%, is unaccounted for. Some loss is normal. Set your own baseline over a few clean months, then investigate any week that jumps above it. Our guide on monthly stock takes explains the counting.

Cash controls that work without you

When the owner is away, cash needs a process that does not depend on trust alone. Use fixed floats, blind counts by two people at close, daily bank deposits and a nightly reconciliation sheet photographed and sent to you. CCTV over the tills and the cash office, which you can view remotely, protects honest staff as much as it deters the other kind.

Card and UPI money goes straight to the bank, so most remote risk sits in cash, voids and complimentary drinks. Watch those lines in the daily report.

Write down how things are done

Standard operating procedures (SOPs) matter more when you are not there to answer questions. Write short, practical SOPs for opening, closing, line cleaning, stock receipts, cash handling, brewing and cleaning in place. One page each, with photos where they help.

Then check they are followed. Ask the manager to send a photo of the closing checklist every night. It sounds like micromanagement. In practice it takes a minute and gives you evidence the routine is alive.

Watch the beer quality from a distance

Sales numbers tell you nothing about whether the IPA has gone stale or the lager picked up diacetyl. Ask the head brewer for a short weekly quality log: original and final gravity for each batch, fermentation temperatures, days in tank, any beer dumped and why. Add a dissolved oxygen or pH reading if the brewery has the meters.

Ask for a photo of each new beer in its proper glass against a white background. Colour and clarity drift is easy to spot in a photo and easy to miss in a spreadsheet. If a batch is dumped, you should hear about it the same day, with the reason. A brewer who hides dumped batches from a remote owner is a bigger problem than the dumped beer.

Visit on a schedule and by surprise

Plan a regular visit, perhaps every two weeks, with a fixed agenda: walk the brewhouse, taste every beer on tap, review the month's numbers with the manager and the brewer, talk to staff without managers present. Add an occasional unannounced visit on a busy night. Sit at the bar and watch service like a guest.

Taste the beer on every visit. Data shows what was sold. Only tasting shows whether the beer is still the beer you built the brand on.

Hold a monthly review that ends in decisions

Once a month, sit down with the manager and brewer, in person or on a video call. Go through the profit and loss account line by line: beer cost as a share of beer sales, food cost, staff cost, utilities and beer loss. Agree two or three actions with owners and dates.

Our guide on opening a second outlet covers what changes as you add sites. Running a brewpub from a distance is really running it from its numbers. That is a skill you can learn before you need it.

Common questions

Can you run a brewpub from another city?

Yes, if you have a capable general manager on site, a daily numbers report and regular visits. Without a trusted manager, stay on site until you have one.

How do I check for beer loss remotely?

Compare litres drawn from serving tanks or kegs each week with litres sold through the POS. Set a baseline and investigate weeks that jump above it.

What should a daily report from my brewpub include?

Sales by category, covers and average spend, litres sold, payment totals against POS sales and voids or discounts by staff member.