The biggest group buy of them all: the NHC microbrewery

[admin]

10 people needed to make this happen. Just gauging interest.

Who is interested in buying a microbrewery and associated paraphernalia (e.g. fermenters), splitting rent on a unit, etc. Call it brewery time-share.

Each person would be guaranteed the opportunity to brew at least once a week, assuming a brew takes no more than 5 hours. If 3 people form a partnership it means they can brew at least 3 times a week.

What you do with your finished beer then is your business as this is about sharing a microbrewery, not about all going into business together!

You are free to sell on your share.

Brewery would be located somewhere convenient to the most amount of people.

Cost of entry: around €10,000 per person.

[DEMPSEY]

This could be a co-op, I was going to suggest this on another forum about a year ago,but forgot. This is a good way to get into this business without too much cost and it means that you have a better pool of knowledge to draw upon. It is certainly a good idea.

[Jacob]

Hmmm ... 10k ... equipment & rent ...
What about legal side of that co-op?
Will you be able to sell your beer or each of participants will
have to register company and get all the permissions needed?

[Jacob]

What about distribution? Individual or shared?
Also, with every brew you'll still need to pay something to customs ... ?

I really like the idea of starting micro but I don't think that 10k will be enough

[Eoin]

I think it would be hard to recoup the money if there was no consistency of product. I suggest you would need 2-3 core brews that are consistent and regular and that you could then allow a guest tap style idea for the whims of the members and their personal brew time.
If you base it completely on whimsical brews I think you have a brand problem.

[Jacob]

The customs (Revenue) get about 17c per average pint.

How is it working here? In Poland customs will charge you base on your beer gravity in Plato.

It's €10,000 x 10, i.e. €100,000.

What about deposit required by customs? Or am I wrong here?

[Eoin]

I think it would be hard to recoup the money if there was no consistency of product. I suggest you would need 2-3 core brews that are consistent and regular and that you could then allow a guest tap style idea for the whims of the members and their personal brew time.
If you base it completely on whimsical brews I think you have a brand problem.

This only covers number 2 above. What people do with the brewery on their own time slot is their business: their brand, their beer, their van, their marketing budget.

I'd have said it actually hits the rest of them too, the more packaging you have the more that budget increases, also marketing, you could call it "Pop-up brewery" but to make money I think you need consistency, otherwise it's homebrew on a large scale.

[CARA]

1. Declan 

[CARA]

I nearly came when i saw this thread 

[Eoin]

I do get the idea Shane, it's the concept that I have difficulty with.

You have ten sets of fermenting equipment???
I can't see how it would work and to be financially viable I think any brewery needs to be built around a core of brews and consistency. The idea by it's very nature has inbuilt inconsistency, simply based on the fact that each user does their own thing, so effectively you have ten virtual breweries, all vying for the same space and effectively competing, this fragmentation would be an issue.

I think the way it would work would be more as a co-op producing a core of brews and guest brews.

I get the idea and I like the basic idea, but not the concept that you are mooting as I think it would be destined to failure, or at least not worth my 10k to get involved in.
I think united you could produce a brand and the guest brews could piggy back on that, otherwise it's chaos and it'd create headaches for ten people.

I'm just playing devils advocate here and taking a different tack on the base idea, not trying to rain on your parade

[Eoin]

It would also be a vendors nightmare.

[Spud395]

What size of a brewery are we proposing?

I would seriously consider something like this but think you are drastically under budget.
With 10 different brews a week you'll need a hell of a lot of vessels (of what size)

5 hours will not be enough time to prep and clean up so you can hand over to the next guy

I will have more to say but am out the door now 

[Spud395]

It doesn't have to be financially viable as it's not a business. You're buying timeshare for €10k. You're not buying into a brewing business.

Think of it this way: one of the micros does only one brew a week. If they decided to rent out their plant for the other 6 days of the week, it'd be a similar concept.

Also, Metalman was very consistent when it was sharing plant with another brand.

I'm aware of what you're proposing, I've actually spoke to people about doing similar, but I think you're underestimating set up cost.

To brew only once a week you will need to be brewing a considerable amount of beer to make it financially viable (for you as a brewer, not for the whole group) Each brewer (10) will need, well I suppose in this case you might get away with 1 fv and a couple of bright beer tanks, although 3-4 unitanks/brewer would make more sense. Thats a lot of vessels, a lot of floor area and a lot of lolly.

The practicalities of 10 guys knocking out 10 brews a week in 5 hours each, every week will not stack up.
One of the most time consuming elements of running a micro is cleaning, not just your fv's, everything, who's responsible for this?

The only way this could work is if there was a manager with a small staff that run the building and get paid by the brewers. This could work, but then you're brand starts to go well and you're restricted to 1 brew a week.

Anyone I've ever spoken to says whatever size your brew plant you really need to brew at least 3 times a week to make money

[Will_D]

Hmmm ... 10k ... equipment & rent ...

I thought Tube said 10 people at 10K a head thats 100K in my money. How big is this brerwery going to BE?

A 50L Braumiser or two and 10 connicals and bright beer conditioning tanks would be nowhere near the above

Will

[Spud395]

Who takes responsibility for line cleaning?
There needs to be some one person that everyone can kick the shit out of in the case of a mass infection.