How Much Does a Brewpub Owner Make? $60k Salary Plus Cash Flow
A brewpub owner can model a $60,000 annual salary plus possible owner draws if the business has cash after debt, reserves, and reinvestment In the provided assumptions, Year 1 sales are about $959k from weekly covers and average ticket, while EBITDA is $504k before personal taxes and owner distributions By Year 5, revenue reaches about $1907M and EBITDA reaches $1256M under the same planning case That does not mean the owner can spend all EBITDA loan payments, repairs, working capital, and cash reserves come first
Owner income$60kNet margin53%–64%Revenue for target pay$959kBusiness difficultyMedium
Want to test your brewpub owner income?
Owner income calculator
Estimate owner take-home and target-pay gap from revenue, margin, costs, reserves, and target pay.
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Planning note: Research-based planning estimate only. Actual owner income depends on revenue, margins, payroll, reserves, debt, and reinvestment. This is not guaranteed salary, tax advice, or owner distribution advice.
Want the six brewpub income drivers?
1
Seating Traffic
$959K-$1.9M
More covers per week drive the biggest swing in take-home because revenue rises from about $959K in Year 1 to about $1.9M in Year 5.
2
Beer Mix
2.0%-1.5%
A bigger share of house beer sales keeps ingredient cost low and lifts gross profit on each guest check.
3
Food Margin
10.0%-8.0%
Tighter food ingredient control keeps more cash from each plate and helps offset slow nights.
4
Capacity Use
80-450/day
Using more of the brewpub's seating and brewing capacity spreads fixed labor and overhead across more sales.
5
Staffing Mix
$135K-$273K
Payroll rises as service staff and kitchen help scale, so labor control matters once volume grows.
6
Fixed Burden
$46K/yr
Rent, insurance, lease, and software take cash before owner draws, so distributions depend on reserves and debt service.
How much revenue does a brewpub need to pay the owner?
If the owner wants a $60k salary, the Year 1 model points to about $959k in annual revenue for the Brewpub. That comes from about 1,020 weekly covers at mixed $15 to $20 tickets, or roughly $18,450 in weekly sales. The target is not one fixed number, though, because labor, rent, debt, and margin all change the needed revenue.
Revenue drivers
Covers drive sales volume
Average check sets ticket size
Margin sets owner pay room
Labor, rent, debt change the target
Year 1 math
$18,450 weekly sales model
1,020 weekly covers assumed
$3,800 fixed costs monthly
$135k payroll starts including owner
How much does a brewpub owner take home?
A Brewpub owner’s modeled take-home salary is $60,000 per year; any extra draw depends on cash left after debt, reserves, maintenance, and reinvestment, as covered in What Is The Most Critical Metric To Measure The Success Of Brewpub?. EBITDA, meaning profit before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, is $504k in Year 1, $734k in Year 3, and $1.256M in Year 5, but that is not the owner’s personal income.
Owner Cash
Base salary: $60,000/year
Extra draw: only from surplus cash
Debt payments reduce take-home cash
Repairs can block distributions
Profit Reality
Year 1 EBITDA: $504k
Year 3 EBITDA: $734k
Year 5 EBITDA: $1.256M
EBITDA is not personal income
Does a brewpub owner make more by working in the business?
If the Brewpub has one full-time owner/operator at $60k a year, it can replace paid management, brewing, or kitchen labor and improve cash flow fast. That helps early, but it’s sweat equity, not a scalable income model. Here’s the quick math: payroll grows from $135k in Year 1 to $2,725k in Year 5 as service staff, an assistant cook, and catering roles expand, so owner pay should be split from labor savings.
Cash flow gain
$60k owner labor replaces hires
Early cash stays in the business
Fewer paid management hours
Lower launch burn rate
Risk to watch
Owner becomes key-person risk
Workload rises as payroll scales
Year 5 payroll hits $2,725k
Separate savings from real pay
Key Takeaways
Beer margin improves when steady pint volume holds.
Food mix helps only if waste and labor stay controlled.
Covers and ticket size drive revenue past fixed costs.
Labor, debt, and reserves decide owner take-home cash.
Compare low, base, and high brewpub owner income scenarios
Owner income scenarios
Owner income moves with traffic, menu mix, and staffing as the brewpub scales from Year 1 to Year 5. The spread shows pretax operating cash before debt, capex, and reserve rules.
Compare early ramp-up, scaled operations, and high-traffic owner pay capacity.
Scenario
Low CaseEarly ramp-up
Base CaseScaled ops
High CaseHigh traffic
Launch model
This is the lower-income case, built on Year 1 ramp-up and slower traffic.
This is the modeled middle case, built on Year 3 scale and steadier volume.
This is the stronger case, built on Year 5 traffic and the largest sales mix.
Typical setup
Year 1 lands around $959k revenue and $504k EBITDA with $135k payroll, $456k fixed costs, and the modeled $60k owner salary.
Year 3 lands around $1.265M revenue and $734k EBITDA as catering reaches 15% of sales.
Year 5 reaches about $1.907M revenue and $1.256M EBITDA with catering at 20% of sales and weekend AOV at $22.
Cost drivers
Traffic ramp-up
$15 midweek AOV
12.0% ingredient COGS
4.5% variable fees
$135k payroll
Traffic growth
$16 midweek AOV
15% catering mix
10.8% ingredient COGS
3.7% variable fees
Peak traffic
$22 weekend AOV
20% catering mix
9.5% ingredient COGS
2.9% variable fees
Owner income rangeBefore owner reserves
$504kEarly ramp-up
$734kScaled operations
$1.256MHigh traffic
Best fit
Use this to stress-test opening-year pay and cash needs.
Use this as the main planning case after the first few years.
Use this to test upside if traffic and catering stay strong.
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Planning note: These scenario ranges are researched planning assumptions, not guaranteed earnings, salary promises, tax advice, or distributions, and actual owner payouts still depend on debt, capex, and reserve rules.
Brewpub Core Six Income Drivers
House Beer Sales Mix
House Beer Mix
When guests buy more house beer and volume stays steady, the brewpub keeps more gross profit. Modeled beverage COGS is 20% in Year 1 and 15% in Year 5, so each extra pint sold on-site can lift blended margin. But that only reaches owner income if covers, tickets, and other sales stay strong enough to absorb fixed labor and rent.
Track pint volume, tap yield, freshness, waste, bar labor, and overhead. High beer margin does not pay the owner if tanks sit idle or traffic drops on slow nights. The real gain is stronger gross profit and cash flow first, then possible distributions after costs are covered.
Push More Pints
Measure house beer mix by pints sold, share of beverage sales, and pour-to-sale waste. If on-site volume is steady, move taps toward the fastest sellers and brew to match demand. Use the modeled 20% to 15% COGS path to test whether a mix shift really improves gross profit.
Track pint sales by daypart.
Watch spoilage and keg aging.
Match brewing to demand.
Include bar labor in margin.
If a beer line needs extra storage, slower turns, or more staff, include that cost in the forecast. The owner should only count margin that survives waste, labor, and overhead, because that is the cash that can support owner pay.
Brewhouse Utilization
Brewhouse Utilization
Brewhouse utilization is how much of the brewery’s capacity turns into sellable beer. When production matches on-site demand, beer stays fresher and gross margin holds up; when tanks sit idle, the effective cost per pint rises and cash gets tied up in waste.
The model needs barrel capacity, tank turns, batches per month, and cost per barrel before it can claim brewing efficiency. Without those inputs, you can’t tell whether better utilization is lifting owner income or just hiding weak traffic and poor batch scheduling.
Track Demand Against Tank Use
Measure utilization against on-site demand, spoilage, batch timing, and beverage COGS. If production runs ahead of covers, fresher beer turns stale and margin slips; if it runs too tight, you miss sales and lose bar profit. The goal is smoother gross margin, not just fuller tanks.
Watch these inputs each month:
Capacity used per batch
Beer sold before aging
Waste and dump rates
Cost per pint
Sell-through by style
Seating Traffic And Average Ticket
Covers And Check Size
Here’s the quick math: weekly covers rise from 1,020 in Year 1 to 1,990 in Year 5. Average order value moves from $15 midweek and $20 on weekends to $17 and $22, so annual revenue can climb from about $959k to $1.907M.
That matters because fixed costs do not flex with a slow shift. More covers, stronger table turns, and better event nights spread rent and labor over more checks, which is what creates room for owner pay.
Track Daypart Ticket
Measure covers by daypart, average ticket, and table turns every week. Split midweek and weekend checks so you can see where the revenue comes from, and flag any event night that fills seats but misses ticket goals.
Use staffing and seating plans to protect peak periods. If a full room still produces weak checks, tighten menu mix, upsell, and turn speed; if a slow night drags, cut hours fast so owner income is not buried under idle labor.
Fixed Costs, Debt, And Reserves
Fixed Costs And Cash
$3,800 a month in fixed costs is $45,600 a year before food, beer, or labor changes. That covers $1,500 rent, $1,000 loan or lease payment, $400 marketing, $300 insurance, $250 accounting and legal, $200 utilities, and $150 software. These obligations absorb profit first, so owner pay only starts after the brewpub clears them.
The cash plan also needs $122,000 of capex across vehicle, kitchen equipment, hardware, signage, generator, tanks, smallwares, safety, and communications, plus a $839k minimum cash need. EBITDA is operating profit before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization; it is not the same as cash you can draw. If reserves are thin, distributions should wait.
Protect Owner Draws
Track fixed costs, debt service, and reserve funding separately. Here’s the quick math: if monthly fixed obligations stay at $3,800, then every slow month still burns cash before the owner sees any draw. Build the forecast from rent, loan terms, insurance, utilities, and the reserve floor, not from sales alone.
Watch rent and debt monthly
Use a 13-week cash forecast
Hold draws until reserves stay funded
Pay yourself from cash after reserves, not from EBITDA. If the account balance slips toward the $839k minimum cash need, pause nonessential spending first and protect liquidity. That keeps the brewpub from turning a busy month into a cash squeeze.
Staffing Model
Staffing Model
This staffing model is the labor plan that turns covers into service, kitchen output, and catering execution. In Year 1, payroll is $135k; by Year 5 it reaches $2.725M. That makes labor one of the main gates on owner income: the owner/operator stays at $60k, the lead chef at $45k, and the rest of the team expands to support higher volume.
The upside is more sales capacity, but the risk is simple: if labor runs ahead of covers, cash gets tight before profit turns into pay. Service staff grows from 10 to 30 FTE, assistant cook staffing to 15 FTE, and the catering coordinator to 10 FTE. Slow-day scheduling matters, because extra hours on weak shifts can erase the gain from busy nights.
Schedule to Covers
Track labor against weekly covers, event nights, and average ticket. Here’s the quick math: more FTE only helps if it lets you serve more guests or protect quality. Use hourly hours, shift sales, and daypart sales to see where staffing is paying for itself and where it is just burning cash.
Keep owner and chef labor fixed, then flex service staff around actual traffic. Review the schedule weekly and cut slow-day hours fast if payroll rises faster than covers. That is what keeps labor from eating the cash the owner needs for draw.
Food Margin
Food Margin
Food can lift ticket size and dwell time, but it only helps owner income if kitchen waste and labor stay tight. In the model, food ingredient COGS improves from 100% in Year 1 to 80% in Year 5, so the margin gap widens only if prep loss and staffing do not eat it up.
The mix also shifts from 700% sandwiches in Year 1 to 600% in Year 5, while events rise from 100% to 200%. That can improve traffic and check size, but more menu items usually mean more spoilage, more prep time, and more assistant cook hours. Food margin only turns into take-home cash when those costs stay below the extra sales.
Track Menu Waste and Labor
Watch food COGS, prep waste, and labor by menu item, not just total sales. Here’s the quick math: if higher food sales do not beat the added kitchen payroll, owner pay drops even when revenue rises. Keep a simple weekly report on food sales mix, spoilage, and assistant cook hours.
Test fewer SKUs, tighter prep par levels, and event menus with lower waste. Measure gross margin by brunch, dinner, dessert, and events, then cut the items that sell slowly and spoil fast. If staffing is too light, service slips; if it is too heavy, food margin gets spent before the owner can draw cash.
