Selling recipes

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

nukebrewer

Brew the brew!
HBT Supporter
Joined
Oct 8, 2008
Messages
5,636
Reaction score
2,861
Location
Groton
So I know it's pretty difficult to sell the beer you brew, almost impossible on a homebrew scale, in fact. But I read on another site a suggestion to sell your recipes rather than your brew, but couldn't find any information on how one would go about it. It seems like a more feasible way of sharing your beer with the world. Does anyone have any information on this topic? Thanks.

-AJ
 
Well.... can you copyright the flavor of a beer?
If you cant then I don't know why anyone would buy a recipe really. I mean. If you drink a couple of bottles of just about anything you can start putting together a clone in your head that will be pretty close. Within 3 batches you'll be right about on. Maybe you could sell a recipe for $100 and save a someone the cost of doing those theoretical 3 batches. I don't know if any of that makes sense. :drunk:
 
But if you only give them a taste, enough to know it's really good, but not enough to remember how it's supposed to taste once they brew it themselves, it might fetch a bit more. But what you say makes sense. Besides, I wouldn't really be in it for the money. $100 for a recipe that could make the brewery quite a bit of money doesn't seem worth it. But to know that your very own beer is being brewed by a real brewery and people want to be pay for your beer. I think that would be a pretty good feeling.
 
The best way to make money off homebrew is to know somebody who works in a craft brewery. I know a guy who made his homebrew for a friend of a friend who works at a craft brewery. The guy really liked the beer, asked for the recipe, then tweeked the recipe for a larger brew, and gave the guy credit plus free beer from the brewery.

There so many recipes I think it would be hard to say "Try this," it has probably been done before. It's a lot like the music industry. But if luck is on your side, you can always get a supply of Free Beer!
 
I can't see why someone who brews professionally would buy someone elses recipe...How much would you pay for Anchor's Steam recipe? 2row and Northern brewer hops, that'll be $100 please. :D
 
Hmmm. This seems rather familiar to me. Let me see.

Brewing Classic Styles?

Clone Brews?

Extreme Brewing?

Radical Brewing?

Seems to me, these guys have pulled off selling their recipes pretty well. Bet 98% of us have all 4 books, plus others, sitting on our shelves.
 
Hmmm. This seems rather familiar to me. Let me see.

Brewing Classic Styles?

Clone Brews?

Extreme Brewing?

Radical Brewing?

Seems to me, these guys have pulled off selling their recipes pretty well. Bet 98% of us have all 4 books, plus others, sitting on our shelves.

Nicely done sir. :D
 
http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl122.html said:
Mere listings of ingredients as in recipes, formulas, compounds, or prescriptions are not subject to copyright protection. However, when a recipe or formula is accompanied by substantial literary expression in the form of an explanation or directions, or when there is a combination of recipes, as in a cookbook, there may be a basis for copyright protection.

This is why recipes are generally treated as trade secrets. Since the basic steps for brewing are fairly common you would be unlikely to meet the "substantial literary expression" in the directions that accompanied your list of ingredients. I'm not saying you can't do it, as mentioned before there are several recipe books out there. All of Jamil's recipes are also available on the net. The trick is to make recipes that are so good that people will find a compelling reason to buy your book.
 
Hmmm. This seems rather familiar to me. Let me see.

Brewing Classic Styles?

Clone Brews?

Extreme Brewing?

Radical Brewing?

Seems to me, these guys have pulled off selling their recipes pretty well. Bet 98% of us have all 4 books, plus others, sitting on our shelves.

Here's the thing though. We basically buy Jamil's book without tasting a single one of his beers first because he's a friggin Ninkasi winner. I'm yet to get ONE beer into the second round of the nationals and he gets like 25 through every year.
 
Also, as Jamil says recipes aren't necessarily that secret. Yea he "sells" them in his books, but thats a little different. On whole, the brewing industry is pretty good about sharing recipes for clones etc (as far as I've seen). Its not the recipe that counts, its the method that sets great brewers like Jamil apart from us.

I bet 10 of us could brew a SMASH with MO, Amarillo. Same mash and boil times, same hop schedule, 1056 yeast. They would all turn out slightly different.

The only other people getting away with selling recipes are AHS, Northern etc who sell kits they put together.
 
I heard that the fellow who came up with the recipe for Bell's Two-Hearted Ale sold it to the brewery.
 
Back
Top