Hey everyone, A good friend and myself are launching a subscription box service in the coming weeks called Brown Box Brew - The All Grain subscription box.
It works like most subscription boxes, each month you will receive the ingredients to make a 1 gallon experimental batch of beer. Each box comes with everything you need to produce a fine quality brew - grains, hops, yeast and instructions.
Each month there is a different brew to try, with considerations to the time of year and upcoming festivities. Example, for the month of Feb, the box might be a stout, in time for St.Patricks Day. With this being a monthly subscription, if you follow the schedule you can be drinking one as the next arrives to your door (maturing will make a difference to taste, but you get the idea ).
The site will also feature a social element, subscribers can discuss the brew, brewing methods and review the outcome. The opportunity to submit a recipe is also present, any recipe authors will be featured for that month and will also receive a token of appreciation.
You can subscribe to our mailing list for more updates and be the first to know when we launch : Subscribe Here! (http://www.brownboxbrew.com/)
*Our logo is under wraps at the minute so please excuse the font!*
I'd love to get your feedback, if you would consider signing up or if you have any questions please feel free to ask..
Cheers!
Thank you for submitted.
Eh?
Done. Best of luck with the venture!
Its all a bit mysterious at the moment.
Sounds cool to me, any idea of rough price?
Quote from: johnrm on March 31, 2015, 05:23:26 PM
Thank you for submitted.
Eh?
Done. Best of luck with the venture!
:o Thanks for pointing this out John, fixed now :)
Quote from: Qs on March 31, 2015, 05:33:52 PM
Its all a bit mysterious at the moment.
I'll be happy to clear anything up Q, the site hasn't launched yet hence the tacky landing page. But the main site looks much better, with some nice photography :)
Quote from: googoomuck on March 31, 2015, 05:51:28 PM
Sounds cool to me, any idea of rough price?
Cheers Googoomuck, still talking to couriers to negotiate a price on delivery, once we have that I'll be able to let you know. If you subscribe I'll more than likely be pinging out a mail by the end of the week to keep everyone updated.
Signed up for the mail shot. Looking forward to it.
Quote from: Acott on March 31, 2015, 06:57:57 PM
Quote from: Qs on March 31, 2015, 05:33:52 PM
Its all a bit mysterious at the moment.
I'll be happy to clear anything up Q, the site hasn't launched yet hence the tacky landing page. But the main site looks much better, with some nice photography :)
A few questions I was wondering about. Is the grain pre-crushed? Is the yeast dry or liquid. Whats the average weight of grain and hops per box? What is your baseline efficiency for recipes?
You answered googoomuck on the price question.
Its definitely interesting. If the price is right I'd certainly be interested. Also a trial might be a good idea so we could try them before committing for a year.
I'm in!
As I have just bought a half size corny what about the option of a 2 gallon batch or even a full 5.
The courier price would be the same.
I know I know !! Its great to have a brill idea and then when it goes public all sorts of fek*rs start making all sorts of suggestions to change your basic plan!!
Quote from: Qs on March 31, 2015, 07:50:57 PM
Quote from: Acott on March 31, 2015, 06:57:57 PM
Quote from: Qs on March 31, 2015, 05:33:52 PM
Its all a bit mysterious at the moment.
I'll be happy to clear anything up Q, the site hasn't launched yet hence the tacky landing page. But the main site looks much better, with some nice photography :)
A few questions I was wondering about. Is the grain pre-crushed? Is the yeast dry or liquid. Whats the average weight of grain and hops per box? What is your baseline efficiency for recipes?
You answered googoomuck on the price question.
Its definitely interesting. If the price is right I'd certainly be interested. Also a trial might be a good idea so we could try them before committing for a year.
No problem! The crushed or pre-crushed grain is one that has me puzzled due to the freshness, obviously it's better to crush your grains on the day of the brew, but not everybody has this option...taking this in to consideration we might offer both, but this has not yet been decided.
The yeast will be dry as we want the price as low as possible.
Average weight of grain and hops around 1.5lbs.
Baseline efficiency around 70%
There will be a couple of options for subscription, a once off so you can try before you subscribe, then a 3 / 6 / 12 month subscription so you aren't tied down to the full 12 months. There will be a saving depending on the subscription period you sign up for.
There's still some parts that need ironing but we are working on them. I just wanted to bring the idea forward to see if brewers would be interested. Thanks for your questions Q, I hope I've cleared some things up.
Quote from: Will_D on March 31, 2015, 08:20:00 PM
I'm in!
As I have just bought a half size corny what about the option of a 2 gallon batch or even a full 5.
The courier price would be the same.
I know I know !! Its great to have a brill idea and then when it goes public all sorts of fek*rs start making all sorts of suggestions to change your basic plan!!
Thanks for the feedback Will. Some people I've talked to have also mentioned the 5 gallon option. We thought the 1 gallon would give you a decent taste, and if you didn't like it then you weren't bogged down with a ton of brew you wouldn't drink. Perhaps in the future we can give the option of upgrading to larger boxes.
Sounds like you have it all well figured. Looking forward to see you going live. Great idea.
Never tried a 1 gallon mash and boil. Thats pretty much just some large pots I guess.
Anyway the idea is intresting and I echo the calls for uncrushed as an option.
There have been other single gallon allgrain brewkits but they don't seem to have really caught on.
I think that the success or failure of this project hinges upon the asking price and quality.
Price:
There have been other single gallon allgrain mashkits but they don't seem to have really caught on. In fact NHC members have 10% discounts with one of them for about a year now and last time I checked not single one was redeemed. From general feedback it looks like they priced themselves out of the market at €15 a pop.
The customary price point for a 5 gallon mashkit is ~€15-25, so unless you can price the kit in the region of €7-10 including delivery you probably won't see a huge take-up or continuation of subscriptions. Anything more and the delivery would be a disappointment.
Imaging receiving [1.1kg pale malt, 100g flaked rice, 7g hallertau pellets and a sachet of lager yeast]. Although it's a scaled down version of an AHA medal winning lager, such a small ingredient pack would leave a bad taste in the mouth if it was overpriced.
Quality:
The second factor is quality. If you can hook people on the idea of a monthly 4.5 liter brew, then you'll need to make sure that the quality is exceptional as a single poorly developed recipe will cause a hemorrhage of subscriptions. Anyone working on a subscription basis knows that a lost subscription is is incredibly difficult to attract back.
If you do go down the 5 gallon route later on, remember that many homebrew shops already have medal winning recipe mashkits available and you'll need to at least match their quality (and price) to be competitive. After all, the surprise of the contents removes the benefit of any choice.
Just my tuppence.
I wish you all the best with it and if the price is right I'll propbably sign up on a trial basis.
Quote from: LordEoin on April 01, 2015, 11:00:56 AM
There have been other single gallon allgrain brewkits but they don't seem to have really caught on.
I think that the success or failure of this project hinges upon the asking price and quality.
Price:
There have been other single gallon allgrain mashkits but they don't seem to have really caught on. In fact NHC members have 10% discounts with one of them for about a year now and last time I checked not single one was redeemed. From general feedback it looks like they priced themselves out of the market at €15 a pop.
The customary price point for a 5 gallon mashkit is ~€15-25, so unless you can price the kit in the region of €7-10 including delivery you probably won't see a huge take-up or continuation of subscriptions. Anything more and the delivery would be a disappointment.
Imaging receiving [1.1kg pale malt, 100g flaked rice, 7g hallertau pellets and a sachet of lager yeast]. Although it's a scaled down version of an AHA medal winning lager, such a small ingredient pack would leave a bad taste in the mouth if it was overpriced.
Quality:
The second factor is quality. If you can hook people on the idea of a monthly 4.5 liter brew, then you'll need to make sure that the quality is exceptional as a single poorly developed recipe will cause a hemorrhage of subscriptions. Anyone working on a subscription basis knows that a lost subscription is is incredibly difficult to attract back.
If you do go down the 5 gallon route later on, remember that many homebrew shops already have medal winning recipe mashkits available and you'll need to at least match their quality (and price) to be competitive. After all, the surprise of the contents removes the benefit of any choice.
Just my tuppence.
I wish you all the best with it and if the price is right I'll propbably sign up on a trial basis.
Thanks for your feedback LordEoin,
I agree 100%, price and quality are the biggest factor in this. HBC do great 23 litre kits from €15 upwards. I know The Brooklyn Brew Shop do 1 gallon kits for around $15, which seems to be the going rate for 1 gallon kits at the minute, we would love to be cheaper than this. I think the price is a major challenge for us, and can be the difference between going ahead or not.
As you say €7 - €10 delivered would be the ideal price, at the minute we can't get close to this and it's the couriers that are pushing our price. As we have yet to launch, we fall under the "potential business" category, we can express how many people who are interested but not how many will actually sign up. So most of our negotiations are done under speculation and because of this they can't really budge on price, is it any wonder why I'm bald?? So this is up in the air at the minute.
With regards quality, we intend on using the best grains, yeast and hops available. The recipes will be based on award winning brews plucked from books, the internet , clones and users. The idea behind the subscription is that you're brewing something you wouldn't normally brew. It's also an introduction for those who might want to move from extract to all grain without splurging on expensive equipment.
Everyones feedback is valuable, and the main reason why I posted here
Great idea. i've been toying around with the idea of brewing 1 gal batches for a while now especially seeing as Brewdog have just released a 1gal Punk mashkit set
Acott first off a good idea but like LE and others alluded to there are more pitfalls with what you are trying to do than say if you were a HBS selling mash kits.To be honest although it is early days yet you are giving us little to no solid information but asking us to sign up to an unknown entity,basically you are asking us to take it on faith,sorry boss but that 'aint happening.
You say you cant get near €7-€10 because of couriers but you have not actually said what your starting price is,you should have some idea and tbh it is only fair that you say what it is before asking us to sign up.
Look i wish you the best i really do but it is a bit cheeky to come on here and basically say " hey lads we are starting this new service for one gallon batches,why don't ye take out a subscription and then i will let ye know what pricing etc will be",can you see where i am coming from ? ;D
I would be interested also as i am winding down my brewing for various reasons but i certainly am not going to hand over money and not know what it is going to cost etc first. ;D
If you can't "get close" to €10 I don't think I'd be interested. You are getting very close to the price of a 5 gallon batch of beer at that stage.
Now that said if your recipes are actually unusual and interesting I might be interested if I thought I'd learning something new, or getting a flavour for something I might later do a big batch of.
Or possibly do a 5 gallon option at some stage.
Thats my feedback anyway. Hope it helps.
Is he not just asking you to sign up for more info when it comes? Surely then you can decide whether to pay?
Quote from: Greg2013 on April 02, 2015, 01:11:11 PM
Acott first off a good idea but like LE and others alluded to there are more pitfalls with what you are trying to do than say if you were a HBS selling mash kits.To be honest although it is early days yet you are giving us little to no solid information but asking us to sign up to an unknown entity,basically you are asking us to take it on faith,sorry boss but that 'aint happening.
You say you cant get near €7-€10 because of couriers but you have not actually said what your starting price is,you should have some idea and tbh it is only fair that you say what it is before asking us to sign up.
Look i wish you the best i really do but it is a bit cheeky to come on here and basically say " hey lads we are starting this new service for one gallon batches,why don't ye take out a subscription and then i will let ye know what pricing etc will be",can you see where i am coming from ? ;D
I would be interested also as i am winding down my brewing for various reasons but i certainly am not going to hand over money and not know what it is going to cost etc first. ;D
Cheers Greg, I appreciate the feedback.
At the minute I'm not asking people to register for the actual subscription :) it's a mailing list to gauge interest.
With regards the pricing, I don't want to give you a figure and then have to track back if it's more expensive, that would reflect badly.
I had to divulge the idea in order to gauge interest, I understand there is a certain air of mystery around it, and I have been trying to clear up as much as I can, I'm open to questions :)
I like the idea.
will be intresting to see how it pans out when more info is available
One cost-cut would be to do group drops.
As spread out as we are, there are clusters of us, so this may work you your advantage Mr. Stern Moustache
Remember - To go to the shop in your car for a pint of milk can cost you a few Euro.
Quote from: Qs on April 02, 2015, 01:27:37 PM
If you can't "get close" to €10 I don't think I'd be interested. You are getting very close to the price of a 5 gallon batch of beer at that stage.
Now that said if your recipes are actually unusual and interesting I might be interested if I thought I'd learning something new, or getting a flavour for something I might later do a big batch of.
Or possibly do a 5 gallon option at some stage.
Thats my feedback anyway. Hope it helps.
Cheers Q, just out of 'Q'uriosity ( see what I did there :) ) what is the maximum you would pay, delivery included?
Quote from: beerfly on April 02, 2015, 02:13:27 PM
I like the idea.
will be intresting to see how it pans out when more info is available
Cheers Beerfly
Quote from: johnrm on April 02, 2015, 02:19:46 PM
One cost-cut would be to do group drops.
As spread out as we are, there are clusters of us, so this may work you your advantage Mr. Stern Moustache
Remember - To go to the shop in your car for a pint of milk can cost you a few Euro.
True, the major thing the courier wants is numbers which I can understand...once I can get a decent price on the postage then everything else should fall in to place.
Fair enough so if it is just to gauge interest at this point i will say again i would be interested.Can i ask have you priced the cost of the actual packages minus the courier yet ? We can't really give you any substantive feedback at this point without more info i'm afraid but the idea sounds good if you can do it correctly that is. ;D
However i will reiterate a point someone else made earlier,there are plenty 5 gallon mash kits available through the stores here,some medal winning(HBC?) and they all come in around a nominal €13-€20 euro but bear in mind these are full 23 litre batches. ;)
You are offering a kit that is 1/5 of that so bearing that in mind if you can't price it at say €10 roughly then tbh i would see little point in buying one.Most of the HBS here if we ring them up and ask them to knock up a specific mash kit to our recipe are usually accomodating for the prices mentioned above(although i have never put this to the test myself yet). ;D
I would expect if your one gallon kit comes to say €15 then you will get little long term takeup as we can get a five gallon version made up for the same price from any of the home brew stores as stands. ;)
Quote from: Acott on April 02, 2015, 02:45:52 PM
Cheers Q, just out of 'Q'uriosity ( see what I did there :) ) what is the maximum you would pay, delivery included?
I'd say €12 would be the absolute max for me and that'd have to be for some interesting kits.
I'm surprised the couriers are being such a problem. You'd think they'd appreciate a business like this where the deliveries would be on a consistent schedule rather than the normal brew shops where they deliver as things are ordered.
I'll add too that although I brew AG myself I'd probably be just as interested in an extract version of your product, if not more so due to the time saving given its just a 1 gallon batch.
I will agree with Qs for such a small brew the extract is the way to go,so much easier for both vendor and brewer alike. ;D
Quote from: Qs on April 02, 2015, 08:43:53 PM
Quote from: Acott on April 02, 2015, 02:45:52 PM
Cheers Q, just out of 'Q'uriosity ( see what I did there :) ) what is the maximum you would pay, delivery included?
I'll add too that although I brew AG myself I'd probably be just as interested in an extract version of your product, if not more so due to the time saving given its just a 1 gallon batch.
Quote from: Greg2013 on April 02, 2015, 09:42:35 PM
I will agree with Qs for such a small brew the extract is the way to go,so much easier for both vendor and brewer alike. ;D
Good idea lads, I'll investigate further!
Yeah the extract is a great point. Mashing such a small amount of grains would be so damn fiddly.
Nah, it's easy.
If I do a gallon brew I use a 7liter stock pot, BIAB.
Get it to mash temp, put it on the ground on a few layers of cardboard and wrapped in a couple of sleeping bags.
It holds the temperature within about a degree for an hour, no problem.
Oh good to know. I tried once in my mash tun and it just lost temperature like a mofo!
Quote from: LordEoin on April 04, 2015, 11:03:17 PM
Nah, it's easy.
If I do a gallon brew I use a 7liter stock pot, BIAB.
Get it to mash temp, put it on the ground on a few layers of cardboard and wrapped in a couple of sleeping bags.
It holds the temperature within about a degree for an hour, no problem.
Interesting as i am about to attempt my very first BIAB in my keggle and was wondering what was the best way to get it to hold mash temp. ;D
Small batch is a lot easier than you think. As Eoin pointed out, wrapping in quilts to maintain temp works very well.
The real fun will be when it comes to ferm temp control.
A small volume will be more susceptible to temp change.
Quote from: johnrm on April 05, 2015, 11:45:59 AM
Small batch is a lot easier than you think. As Eoin pointed out, wrapping in quilts to maintain temp works very well.
I've mashed a couple of 4 litre batches in a pot in the oven. Seemed to work ok. Can set my oven in 5degC intervals so I stuck it at 65 and left if for an hour. Brought it to temp first on the hob. Used a colander and some netting to sparge.
I do the same,2 beach towels doubled on the kitchen floor, then wrapped in a winter duvet, this does the job! I haven't had much trouble sustaining fermentation temps though, insulated cubby hole in the spare bedroom is perfect for it.
Interesting!
A few niggles as I see it: 1 gallon packages means you'll be splitting the yeast. I'd be concerned about contamination at that point. There's no point in you sending enough yeast for 5 gallons with a one gallon mash kit, and you certainly can't ask us to hold onto the other 4/5 of the pack until the next month!
You might struggle to convince brewers with 25kg sacks of malt lying about to subscribe to a mash kit, but if you could source some new and exciting or hard to come by hops, or some interesting yeast or what-have-you, you could get them to subscribe to your mashkit on the basis that they provide the base malt. Then you can concentrate on really interesting brews, without worrying about crushing kilo after kilo of grain, and you'll be in a better position to offer 5gal packages.
If you're doing 1 gal kits, why not offer an extract package, and get more noobs recruited to the cause? Send out some DME, a few interesting mashable grains, pre-packed into a pair of tights, and so on.
I think it's a good idea, anyway, but have a think about who would want/use this service, and how you can tailor it to them. It's not for me, because 1 gal isn't my kinda brew, and I don't want to pay the postage once a month for, basically a half pakc of crystal malt. Sorry if this post seems negative, please find it constructive!
The email I sent out today :(
QuoteFirstly I would like to say thank you to everyone who provided feedback over the last week, it has been crucial in our decision making.
We have taken everything on board and with much discussion have decided not to press ahead with the subscription service. Due to a high postage rate we could not get the service below €20 a month, which is quite a lot to ask for a 1 gallon batch.
However there is definitely an interest in a Homebrew subscription service, and this is something we will look in to the future. Watch this space.
Thanks again for all your help and interest,
Stay safe and keep brewing
Shame we couldn't get it to work, but maybe there's something down the line.
Thanks again for all your help guys, much appreciated!
The very best of luck with whatever venture you settle on.
Thats a pity it was a really good idea. Maybe you could localise it to just Dublin if the couriers are the big problem.
Or maybe I should start a courier company. Guess I'd need a car first. :-\
Quote from: Qs on April 07, 2015, 06:38:53 PM
Thats a pity it was a really good idea. Maybe you could localise it to just Dublin if the couriers are the big problem.
Or maybe I should start a courier company. Guess I'd need a car first. :-\
Oh sure keep it all for the Dubs :P
Well it'd count me out too.