Homebrewing demo ideas

[Endatheworld]

Guys, I need your help with a few suggestions on best way to run a Homebrewing Demo. I have managed to get the Erne Homebrew club a pitch at a local food Festival. It runs over 2 days in September(http://www.festivallougherne.com/).
My initial thinking was do a All Grain brew each of the days and also have some wine and beer fermenting and maybe a yeast starter on show as well.  I also thought of showing the raw ingredients(Grain/Hops) so people could have something to touch and smell. I would also like to give out some samples but will need to check with Custom and excise first as we don't want to break any laws!.
What you think? Has anybody ran something similar to this? Would love to hear what worked and what didn't.

[Will_D]

The NCBers and others have run a lot of Public brewdays.

Some notes (in no particular order):

Yes, you can give out samples, even on Licensed premisses [we have done it many times without problems]

By all means do an AG brew but bear in mind it will take 5 or 6 hours and no member of Joe public will hand around that long.

Have "Kit 'n' Kilo" demo when the audience is at its peak (i.e 4 people at 1pm !!)

Have examples of the basic materials: Kit, DME/LME (instead of sugar) Malts and hops for the real deal.

By all means have the basic AG equipment for show 'n' Tell.

Reminds of a story from Altech a few years ago:

We had a copper immersion chiller coil on the bench, two old guys come up (Ok Even older than me!) and ask if this is for distillation?

I explain that NO its for cooling wort, and its NOT for distilling.

"Oh thats interesting says one of the men, I had something similar in my back garden for prototyping whiskey runs"!

Oh says I, and who might ye be?

He answered  "Mr Teeling, Senior"

NJoy  Will

[Endatheworld]

Thanks for the pointers Will. I was thinking the all grain brew would actually give me something to do on the day but might be a bit ambitious. The kit brew might be a better idea. The immersion chiller always seems to get that responce when people see it! I will leave it at the front of the stall!!

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

[Will_D]

+1

The AG brew gives ye or the 2 of ye or the 3 of ye a focus for the day.

In our experience some peoples arrive on time for the mash-in (we had 3 very interested Brazilians up the Rugby club for our last brew day who stayed for most of the brew)

Joe Public just arrive at random.

Also an interesting hook:

If you are demo-ing in a 'public event (like we used to do at the RDS September fest), get a malty boil on ASAP. The smell of boiling malt and some hops will pull in the punters like moths to a flame

NJoy  Will