Trying to make some extra cash with the hobby I'm best at?

Aloha,
So Im trying to be creative and think of some ways I can make a little spare cash for a side project I'm saving up for. To get it out of the way, its a guitar, a really nice one. I have a full time job and a 8 week old newborn so an additional job is not really feasible right now. Free time is pretty much non-existent. I've made a long list of items i plan on selling locally and also a list of things that I am good at in which maybe I could make some dough through services or my 'expertise'. On the top of my list is Homebrewing. Now, I am no where near claiming to be an EXPERT here, but.... I have invested more time into this hobby than anything else I can think of. My beer is good, my setup is clean and I have a pretty good understanding of what is going on.

I thought I would turn to you guys for some ideas on if its possible to take our hobby and make a little extra $. Im sure everyone could use a little cash right now, even if its to reinvest into more brewing!

Im not looking to sell my beer or anything like that. Im just trying to apply what I believe I'm best at towards making a little spare change legally, ethically and having fun doing it.

A few ideas I briefly thought of would be trying to sell homemade equipment that was made for brewing such as mashtuns, brew kettles, chillers, stir plates and so on. Easily built once you've done it a few times. One problem is there is not a huge portion of homebrewers on the island i live on. But.. There is a college . Could I make some $ teaching people to brew somehow? I also have an extensive collection of bottles, hundreds, which are de-labbled and ready to go. I plan on selling them with a few capers at maybe .10 or .15 cents a bottle? that kinda thing. Since I've been Kegging for years, i have no clue why i kept saving all my bottles but i guess now i know why

Finally, I'm not trying to get rich or rip anyone off. I'm basically talking breaking even + a few bucks. I enjoy the hobby, I love brewing and building things. Anyone have any ideas ?

I would offer private "brewing lessons". Either on their setup if they have one, or on yours if they don't.

That is something I probably would have paid for when I was starting if it was available..

All of those sound like fine ideas, and legal/ethical. It would be interesting to see if you could get any paying students for homebrew class. I like that idea a lot.

Guitar playing can be a very expensive hobby. I've kind of approached it like homebrewing - get what I want and then leave it (the equipment) alone, don't constantly try to upgrade. I've got two main instruments, a Martin 12-string and a 50-year-old Guild six string, maple back and sides, mini-jumbo size, arched back.

Good luck with the brewing, the music, and most importantly, the baby!

I am wondering though, with a town the size of Hilo if you might have to hit other cities on the island?

Would suck having to drive (with all your gear) to Kona, but you might find more students there... How big is Hilo? I stayed there for one night while on our honey moon when we went to see the volcano, and it didn't seem that big. I could be wrong though...

I love the private brewing idea, i could see offering some brew sessions / lessons on my setup and using my fermenter chambers since the heat is what makes this place so hard to homebrew when first starting out. they could keep the beer assuming they bought the ingredients i imagine?

That is awesome you've been to hilo pointerdixie! I hope you had a great time. The university is actually located in hilo and is a growing campus with around 4000 students.

This place also has an unbelievable amount of hippies so I could try to capitalize on that market some how too. I wish I had bees! Honey is ridiculously expensive out here haha

Does the University there offer community courses? A lot of colleges have some sort of community/non credit courses on various subjects like gardening, photography ect. Teachers of these kinds of classes don't need the usual degrees that faculty do. You might put together a syllabus outline for however many weeks the classes usually are and pitch the idea to whoever is in charge of that department. There may some concern of liability because of the subject but you never know. I'm pretty sure I've seen one on wine that including tasting. That would be really cool.

jsguitar said:

Does the University there offer community courses? A lot of colleges have some sort of community/non credit courses on various subjects like gardening, photography ect. Teachers of these kinds of classes don't need the usual degrees that faculty do. You might put together a syllabus outline for however many weeks the classes usually are and pitch the idea to whoever is in charge of that department. There may some concern of liability because of the subject but you never know. I'm pretty sure I've seen one on wine that including tasting. That would be really cool.

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Dude I love this idea!

Is there a homebrew shop somewhere in the state? You might be able to contract with them to provide homemade equipment or to sell equipment through them.

Hawaiianbrewer said:

I love the private brewing idea, i could see offering some brew sessions / lessons on my setup and using my fermenter chambers since the heat is what makes this place so hard to homebrew when first starting out. they could keep the beer assuming they bought the ingredients i imagine?

That is awesome you've been to hilo pointerdixie! I hope you had a great time. The university is actually located in hilo and is a growing campus with around 4000 students.

This place also has an unbelievable amount of hippies so I could try to capitalize on that market some how too. I wish I had bees! Honey is ridiculously expensive out here haha

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Sweet! Hippies are all about the home brew. Do you know how to make kumbucha? If so, you could teach that as well. Hippies LOVE Kumbucha. lol

Yeah, we loved Hilo. We spent a week in Kauai in Princeville, then 5 days in Kona and one day in Hilo.

Kauai was our favorite, but I wished we would have stayed in Hilo for the whole week we were on the Big Island. MUCH more our speed over the Kona crowd. Kona reminded me of Daytona Beach (we're from Florida) with mountains. Tons of pasty white (like, bleach for sun screen white) chubby tourists hopping from shop to shop...