This investment is at lager heads.

• Position: Johnson Beer Co.'s initial public offering

Tim and Susan Johnson have always been do-it-yourselfers. Even before they opened a Charlotte microbrewery, the couple brewed their own suds on their porch at home. When they quit their jobs at Digital Equipment Corp., it was to run their own business. So now that they're taking The Johnson Beer Co. public, it fits that they've bypassed the brokers and are handling it themselves.

Their do-it-yourself public offering isn't the first in North Carolina - there have been about 35 in the last five years. But it has the biggest reach. They are using a state-administered small-corporate-offering registration to raise $1 million without having to fool with the feds. State law limits such offerings to 100 investors, but the Johnsons got a waiver to solicit as many as they needed.

They want people to be able to buy in for as little as $200 - 100 shares at $2 each. That plays to the folksy, home-grown image they've cultivated. And it has a fringe benefit. "You get a lot of small investors who realize that every time they go out and buy a six-pack they're helping the stock of the company they own," says Susan Johnson, who is heading the offering.

Getting the state's OK wasn't easy. "It took a lot of constant calling and pressure," she says. The state also made her take a Series 63 securities-law test. "It was like the whole company was riding on the stupid score." Johnson, who has an MBA from Northeastern University, needed a 70 to pass. "I got an 86 or something."

They...