Tasting rooms are a sort of panacea for upstart breweries. If your business plan involves constantly having your tasting room packed, then you're in for a hard time because only a handful of trendy breweries will manage that with hype. Where, actually ramping up production enough to a level beyond 50 barrels is the sustainable land where then you can expand through bootstrapping or more capital investment. In other words, it's hard to turn a profit without breaking past the tasting room.
The 90's microbrewery boom was fueled by brewpubs, many of which went public because they grew so quickly. Rock Bottom, Gordon Biersch, BJs, Iron Hill, Heartland, Russian River, Pizza Port, etc. That growth was more fueled by being a place you could eat and also grab a beer, but they couldn't figure out the distribution hacks needed to reach beyond the few square miles of the shopping mall or downtown block they were located.
The 90's microbrewery boom was fueled by brewpubs, many of which went public because they grew so quickly. Rock Bottom, Gordon Biersch, BJs, Iron Hill, Heartland, Russian River, Pizza Port, etc. That growth was more fueled by being a place you could eat and also grab a beer, but they couldn't figure out the distribution hacks needed to reach beyond the few square miles of the shopping mall or downtown block they were located.