Nobody is expecting a small, independent brewery to have a fully fledged pub attached to it, but even a relatively small area set out with proper pub furniture can help you to make the most of an on-site licence to sell alcohol.
A recent open day at Wye Valley Brewery highlights the value to be found in these kinds of events, as more than 600 people were given tours of the facility on Saturday, October 19th.
Local bakery Loafers put on a sell-out spread of pasties, sausage rolls and Butty Bach beer breads, and local butcher Gladwins laid on a pig roast, while The Cooking Cooks supplied pasta dishes too.
Best of all, over 1,000 pints of beer were served over the course of the day, with Butty Bach proving the most popular tipple at the two bars that were open to visitors.
The Society of Independent Brewers reports on the huge success of the open day, which Wye Valley Brewery's managing director Vernon Amor said had left everybody feeling on a high.
"We were delighted to see so many hundreds of visitors from near and far who turned up to look around our new energy-efficient brewhouse and to sample our beers," he said.
"I am proud of all the brewery staff who, together, worked hard to make the event such a success."
For breweries elsewhere keen to replicate the success, laying out some traditional pub furniture to give the impression of an on-site public house could be a great way to start.
Provided you have the necessary licences in place to sell alcohol for consumption on-site, a tasting session is a typical way to end a brewery tour - and some breweries even use it as an opportunity to sell off any small batches that cannot be included in ordinary customer orders for any reason.
And of course, once you have an area set out in which visitors can enjoy a pint at the end of their brewery tour, you can open it all year round, and not just for one-off occasions.
Throw in some traditional snacks like those described above, and you could soon find an entirely new income stream that doesn't take up much time, space or effort.