Market research

[Greg2013]

You don't need to know how to brew, you just need to know about beer. You can pay someone to brew, the same as you can pay someone to do the books etc.

Would have to disagree with you there Tube, how can you claim to know about beer without knowing how to basics of brewing even on a home brew scale?

[delzep]

Anyone fancy buying me a few pints for 'research' purposes?

[Rossa]

There may be some revenue issues if you  were paying someone to brew beer not to mention health and safety even if it is a pilot batch.

[BrewCity]

There are plenty of cases of business people who start a brewery and hire in a brewer. Dingle Brewery is a good example.

You might just want to flesh out your plan a bit:
Do you already have a recipe?
If not, are you going to hire someone to create a recipe for you?
Are you looking to sell these initial bottles of beer, or are you going to give free samples to participants in a tasting session? The answer to this question will affect what channels you must go through. To sell beer you will need to contact a brewery who has a manufacturing licence and the beer must be distributed by someone with a distributors licence, and there are excise bonds... in short there is a bit of red tape. (Personally I would make sure you have a drinkable beer first before worrying about marketing, labels, and producing large volumes for sale).

[irish_goat]

You're absolutely mental to be sourcing equipment when you don't even know what you're going to be brewing or how. 

Hiring a brewer is grand but you should at least know a little about beer, brewing and the industry itself. There are much easier ways to make money if that's your goal.

[irish_goat]

They won't get grant money without a business plan and they won't have a business plan without an idea of what beer they're going to make.

[mr hoppy]

I think the glass ware is probably the key.

Once you've got that down the bottles should be easy.

[Covey]

Great Idea for a TY project alright. :

[irish_goat]

I reckon you could do up a business plan without knowing how to brew though.

Without knowing how to brew yes, you can simply state that you're going to hire a brewer for X number of euros a year but without knowing what beer you're making you can hardly make predictions on sales.

[Greg2013]

I reckon you could do up a business plan without knowing how to brew though.

No doubt but as home/craft brewers should we really be encouraging opening up a brewery when the person has no interest in brewing ? Looking at it purely as a money maker without the love of the craft coming first is what has brewing fubar in the first place and why craft beer is like hens teeth compared to the big boys IMHO.

[Ciderhead]

You're absolutely mental to be sourcing equipment when you don't even know what you're going to be brewing or how. 

Hiring a brewer is grand but you should at least know a little about beer, brewing and the industry itself. There are much easier ways to make money if that's your goal.

+1

[RichC]

I don't really mind who made it, micro, macro, Michael O'Leary, or Ian Paisley... if it's good I'll drink it.

Ye wouldn't really drink a beer made by paisley, would you?

[mr hoppy]

Funny thing about this thread is, if OP knows nothing about the sector and wants to do market research on craft beers they should really just themselves down to the RDS this weekend.

They might even get their bottles as well.

[beer novice]

Again thank you and no offence taken deadman,just because i cant brew doesn't mean i don't have an understanding about running a business or marketing a product.I don't except anyone to waste their time or money,i am of course willing to pay someone to do this and in the process learn.Of course i also intend doing a course and yes have bought a home brew kit to experiment with,which i intend to start using this weekend.I just want to get some brew made and to get an understanding of whats involved. thank you for all your comments good and bad.

[brenmurph]

get up to any of our (south kildare) many and multiple brew days you will learn a lot...theys why we do it... otherwise go to any other brew day that pops up in other regions