Brown Box Brew - The All Grain subscription box

[mcgrath]

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.

[Acott]

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.

[Tom]

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!

[Acott]

The email I sent out today 

Firstly 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!

[johnrm]

The very best of luck with whatever venture you settle on.

[Qs]

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. 

[Greg2013]

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 

[Qs]

Well it'd count me out too.