Community Supported Brewing Business

So this has been milling around my facebook, and I thought it was an interesting concept so I figured I'd share: A Community Supported Nano Brewery, like a food co-op or Community Supported Agriculture, where you buy a share and get veggies.

I think Smokehouse pub here in Minneapolis did something similar, one of the support levels actually got you free beer for life

d3track said:

I think Smokehouse pub here in Minneapolis did something similar, one of the support levels actually got you free beer for life

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Now that's a great idea! I like the concept that this guy has, it just feels like more should be offered to get people involved. I've tasted his beer, and it's good.

It's a great concept but I don't know if you can do it legally. I think as far as the feds are concerned someone has to legally own the brewery. I guess it's possible if you made the brewery a public company that people bought actual stock in. It just seems like a potential legal nightmare. Of course you could just go underground like these guys....http://brewlabsf.com/

There's a few co-op breweries/brewpubs out there. As I understand it the people who purchase membership tend to have limited voting rights, some superficial privileges at the bar but no equity value (meaning you don't get a share of profits). I may be wrong about the equity part. I remember seeing some documents about the co-op offering at black star in Austin and not seeing an upside. I think there was a discount on beer but not living in Austin that had extremely limited value.

You could likely form an LLC or LP if you had a small enough number of investors to make it feasible.

There's a pretty big inititiave here in Grand Rapids, MI to get a co-op brewery off the ground. Check out the web page here:
http://www.beer.coop/

As far as I know the only operating coop brewery is www.blackstar.coop in Texas. Currently www.flyingbike.coop in Seattle has over 500 members and has just had a members only contest to create their second beer recipe.

It's a pretty cool concept that I think will be catching on.

Yeah I don't get the whole co-op brewery idea. It sounds more like you are buying into a brewery's mug club. Actually I don't know if most people would want an equity stake. It seems like it would almost be like an HOA or something where you could be assessed for unexpected maintence/repairs since you own part of the brewery.

I think co-ops and CSA's are two different things. Most CSA models have subscriptions that then get goods based on what is available and what can be distributed evenly. Example of how this could work would be if a brewer started a brewery and paid the (round figure) $2500 a year to be a brewer to sell for off site consumption in Virginia. Then the people subscribe and get a case a month of what is available. Kind of like the beer of the month thing. It's a fairly simple model if you have enough beer, can make it financially viable and make good beer. Oh and pay the gub'ment their price.