Small Dilemna

So, just over a year ago I built a single tier wooden sculpture, HERMS, polished Keggles, March Pumps, etc - quite a nice system. I built the rig with one of my friends who is a neighbour of mine and was really looking to get into homebrewing. We each invested about $500 to build the rig, had a great time building it and enjoyed brewing with it all last year/this year.

Fast forward to the end of the summer and my neighbour has more or less lost interest in brewing. Thus, I put the rig up for sale and have had some recent interest which may lead to a sale. Just to be clear, I'm not getting out of homebrewing; in fact, should the sale go through, I fully expect to build another system, maybe moving to electric instead of propane.

Here's the dilemna:

If I sell the rig, I obviously split the proceeds with my neighbour, we go our separate way (with respect to brewing that it, still good friends) and I build another system.

Or,

do I keep the rig we built, with the idea that some things certainly need improving (welded stand for one, possible electric conversion, etc) and "buy out" my friend?

It's a tough call because the keggles took a long time to find and are polished to gloss. If I were to build another system, it would likely be a two-vessel BIAB hybrid, electric of propane or both. Either way, the cost to build another compared to keeping the current rig and buying out my friend is pretty close.

Thoughts?

If you were to buy him out you would need to come to agreement on price. If you can both agree on today's fair market value then it might be easier to buy him out.

Fair market value is probably less than you have invested.

if he isn't expecting the initial $500, i would definitely buy him out assuming the system hasn't been frustrating to work with.

Best way to determine market value?

Pombe said:

Best way to determine market value?

Click to expand...

Determine a price together. Maybe each person writes what they think is a fair price on a sheet of paper secretly, then split the difference. Put it on your local Craigslist. If you get any attention, then it's probably a fair price. Sucks for the people trying to buy the system, but gives you an idea as to what people will pay.

+1 on the Craigslist test.

3 polished keggles? I would never sell those...

Do you do 10 gallon batches? Offer him 200$ and 5 gallons from the next 3-4 brews!

I would approach him and ask him his opinion. He may just want money back.

Keggles aren't terribly expensive if you can find them, but there is the fact that you already put a ton of work into them, so I'd be leaning towards buying him out and modifying the system keeping the parts you can use.

We did brew 10 gallon batches between the two of us. Keep or rebuild, I still want to maintain the 10 gallon capability. We talked and sorted out a reasonable settlement, but I have to do a cost analysis on where I'd like to take the current set up as opposed to selling up and starting again.

The keggles are nice, and did take lots of work to polish, but I've been thinking about the bayou classic pots with basket (for BIAB), with a dedicated HLT for HERMS and sparge water. What size would I need to keep the 10 gallon capability? Thoughts on going this route instead of keeping the keggles?