I actually have some experience with this...my friends and I from college started an LLC in 2008 with the intention of starting a brewery, with one of the members of the LLC being the head brewer. 10 of us total kicked in $300 a month into a brokerage account, which we invested until we had a large enough nut to start a brewery. Long story short, life happened (kids, houses, etc) so we modified our plan and invested in 2 startup breweries instead. In both cases we did combo debt/equity investments, with 5-year promissory notes with coupons of 8 and 10% secured (in writing) against several conditioning tanks. In both cases the breweries dramatically underestimated the permitting requirements, start-up time, cash flow, etc, and have had to raise additionally equity. While both subsequent equity raises didn't dilute minority shareholders and the stock priced above our buy-in price, I consider it a long shot about ever getting our equity back unless the breweries are purchased by a big brewing concern. As a minority shareholder, you have little in the way of access to company profit because you lack decision making ability. Moreover, in one case, the majority owner has racked up a ton of construction debt for tenant improvements not related to brewing, but more just trying to make the brewery appear as catnip for bearded hipsters, and there's not much the minority shareholders can do. Luckily, both breweries have been able to meet their debt obligations to our LLC, albeit one is several months behind on payments.
If we had to do it again, my group would go 100% debt, rather than any equity. Let me know if you want anything more in depth, and I can email you the specifics of the breweries, their capacity, time to positive cash flow, etc.