Home brew equipment rental

I'm opening a home brew equipment rental store in the Toronto area. Is there any suggestions on type of equipment people would want, and what a fair rental fee would be?
Does anyone know of a store that is currently renting home brew equipment in other cities?

That is an interesting idea, I just don't know how much business you will get, after someone rents once they will most likely build/buy their own. A BOP is probably a more viable option so you can teach people at the same time.

I second a Brew On Premises, combined with a LHBS.

The closest thing I've seen to some form of "sharing" of brewing equipment is when a club has something like a sophisticated and expensive large batch Herms unit, that a club may purchase and allow members to either "borrow" or rent it. Something like this.



And I've heard at times that can be a bone of contention, if one of their members doesn't take care of it, or fails to clean it properly after they use it.

But like monster said the rental of brewing gear isn't really something you hear much about....Especially rental geared towards beginning brewers....Sanitation/equipment usage, being to me the biggest drawback....I sure as heck wouldn't rent any "Post boil" gear like fermenters, and autosiphons, or bottling gear (unless it was a commercial grade bottling line that was in a location and I brought my fermenter to use, and it was constantly cleaned, maintained and sanitized properly.) I wouldn't want to risk using something that the previous user may have scratched or infected.

Except maybe a bench capper (but lots of LHBS rent those out to folks anyway, so that's nothing new.)

So that leaves pre-boil gear, which means a mash, tun brew kettle, burner and wort chiller (if you're not going high end like above) can you really make money soley renting those three pieces of kit? Maybe? But I don't think that should be the sole basis of your business...I would open a homebrew shop that makes those pieces available for rental....For a few buck. Either for the person to take home, or brew onsite...

But if it's onsite, then you'd do better making it a Brew on Premise.

What a lot of people who do BOP's DON'T do is do all grain (except I hear in Japan) most BOPs stick to the much simpler extract brewing. But I think a BOP SHOULD do all grain, and have high end, larger batch system.

If my homebrew shop was a BOP and had computer controlled 15 gallon systems to be used onsite for a reasonable rental I might even jump once in awhile. Especially with a canning/bottling line that is reasonably priced? Especially a can line? If that were the case, there's a couple of beers that I might consider brewing a huge batch of each annually and keep around canned (Maybe brew a 15-20 gallon batch of my house IPA, and Vienna Lager or Cream Ale, keg 5 gallons of each and can up the rest for the rest of the year) and then brew smaller batches of everything else I would normally brew on my own gear.

That way I'd never have a hole in my pipeline AND some of my favorite beers, those that I may actually brew a couple times a year anyway already on hand. I would do something like that if possible over the week I'm off between Christmas and New year, brew on premise a couple of my house beers and knock them off in one brew session. Then concentrate on everything else the rest of the year.

But if you're just planning to rent gear, I can't see that working, unless you went BOP.

long term rental/rent to own/lease on the big stuff might be doable.

conicals, variable volume tanks, presses, apple grinders, turnkey stands and the like.

Lowjack it like other expencive equipment rental places.

large pimped out SS pots might be rented, look at some prices from places that do short term kitchen/catering rentals

Given the location (Toronto) I can see rental and BOP being viable. the CA's have some nasty tax on beer, and doing HB/BOP saves a lot of money.

Price wise? I'd guess you have to rent a kit with deposit, and figure you will have to clean it afterwards. I mean you could rent out a carboy or a hyrometer, but more likely woudl be a whole kit set (6+gal pot, carboy, bottling bucket, etc) and then I'm guessing 20% retail with deposit? or maybe 30%? Also besides BOP, LHBS why rent the gear if you have nothing to put in it.

Alternatively if you are renting high end brewing equipemnt - something like Revy's picture or a MoreBeer scupture, that could be cool - although a sculpture lends more towards BOP I'd think.

I could kettles being something that someone rents. SS kettles are pretty much good for life and someone that is short on cash or doesn't brew that often could see a benefit in this service. You could also rent large kettles (25gal and up) for someone doing a huge batch for a party, wedding, get together etc.

I can't see renting anything other than a full-on single tier system. All the small stuff is fairly cheap if you're just brewing on a turkey burner with a cooler mash tun, or better yet, BIAB. What are you going to rent?

Thanks for the input. I was thinking more high end, all grain systems. There is no home brew shop in my neck of the woods, so that is what sparked the idea.
My target was an intermediate brewer who has maybe done some extract brewing at home with some make shift equipment.
I know of a handful of guys who said the have used the BOP, and would rather brew at home, but they don't want to invest in the equipment.

Revvy - I hear what your saying about a rental of a 15 gal system, but the licensing for a BOP makes it difficult in Canada.
Maybe a 10 gal system could be made portable in the back of a pickup, but I would want to go much bigger.

I think I would have to get some bullet proof equipment an expect to have to clean it myself after every return.

I'd recommend just opening a LHBS before opening what you're considering any day.

I think one of the issues you are going to run into logistically speaking is that most people who would rent a system will tend to do so on a weekend/holiday. So all of your demand will be for two days per week which makes it extremely difficult to scale as a business. Are you going to buy 10 systems to rent out just for those two days each week? It seems like you'd have a tough time earning enough to make it viable.

Where in the Toronto area are you?

barbapapa said:

Maybe a 10 gal system could be made portable in the back of a pickup, but I would want to go much bigger.

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a 10 gallon system with turf tires instead of casters could easily be put in a pickup with a ramp.
bigger, just mount it on a cheap premade lowes/home depot trailer and back the whole rig into their garage/backyard.

How about some engorgement for the guys business idea everyone? You bunch of naysayers.

cshann19 said:

How about some engorgement for the guys business idea everyone? You bunch of naysayers.

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Oh, I've got some engorgement for you right here.

Seriously though, that's an extremely dangerous attitude to take.

cshann19 said:

How about some engorgement for the guys business idea everyone? You bunch of naysayers.

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So you'd rather we blow smoke up his ass then actually give constructive criticism and offer him suggestions to help him succeed?

I think if he's going to drop some change on a business venture he wants and deserves more than that.


Ok, here's some "engorgement" for you, "WOW, WHAT A GREAT POST YOU MADE HERE, VERY INSIGHTFUL, AND I'M SURE THE OP FINDS IT OH SO HELPFUL!!!"

The problem here is clear.

Your target market is just not very large. It's actually most likely fractional percentage. Ive heard that 90% of the already relativity small homebrew market is extract brewers

Your most likely customer is an advanced extract Brewers who is new to ag who want brew (most likely on weekends) during the 3-5 months a year it's nice enough to be outside in canada. Just not a large enough market.

As a add on service to a hbs or bop I think it's a great idea but as a stand alone business...

OP:

If you're not yet part of the large homebrew club in the GTA, PM me and I'll set you up.

Personally, like many others here I just don't see this being a viable business, on its own. How ever, it can't hurt to do a bit of due diligence, which is why I brought up the club . With around 600 members, you can use the club forums to get a better idea of what local Torontonian brewers want and what they might pay for. It would probably be a bad idea to forge ahead with this plan without first taking the time to consult your potential customers.

Revvy

I do appreciate the no BS answer
I think the target market I'm looking for are less experienced than you, and may not have the same technical knowledge on putting their own system together.

barbapapa -
I'm thinking your rental should be more Brew on Premisis (BOP) unless there are legal/cost reasons that make off site rental better. Also you should provide gear and supplies to those who brew at home. My reasoning here is that the cost of the gear is fairly inexpensive, so after a bit people will buy their own, unless it is high end stuff. But you just suggested you were going after a 'new brewer' market for the rentals (post 20).

LD Carlson suggests that there are about 1 in 500 who homebrew in a given year, and that on average that berwer spends maybe $100 in stuff. Now 2 points on that number, 1. everyone here proobably brews more than that, but how many brew just 1 or 2x a year that don't read boards like this? 2. their data is about 10 to 15 years old at this point, so the numbers might be 1 in 300 or 1 in 700. In the US market, markup is about 45%, so for every $100 sale, 55 goes to the distributor and 45 to the retail store (again varries on product type and supplies, but working numbers here).

Wiki puts the population of Toronto (2011) at 5.5 Million. 5.5 million /500 is about 11,000 estimated customers, however I suspect that many of them like Emjay (poted at #19 and others) already have suppliers. But still 11K people who are likely brewers isn't bad. And it makes a good base for the LHBS. I was in Kingston once and they had a BOP there, seems like it was a good business (ok it was 20 years ago, so I've no idea really). But as I understand it the Canadian taxes on beer are killer, so brewing your own is very attractive. I also am aware taht space is limited, so what a BOP really does is rent space. Think of all the storage sheds around.

Anyhow, just some more thoughts for you.

What you need is a B.O.A.T. (Brewery On A Trailer) to take to clients houses to brew there. You can charge for lessons and use of the BOAT....

Monster Mash said:

What you need is a B.O.A.T. (Brewery On A Trailer) to take to clients houses to brew there. You can charge for lessons and use of the BOAT....

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I like that idea.
I was once thinking of retrofitting cargo trailers into microbreweries and leasing them. With the steady increase in microbreweries popping up, this would present less of a risk for them. With the chance to lease equipment in mobile format, the banks may be more inclined to approve a business plan for a small microbrewery.

But the BOAT idea may simplify this even more. I would have to see if it would fall under the BOP strict licensing (and taxing), or would this simply be called a 'trailer and equipment rental'

One step further would to retro a lunch truck!