pdantas
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So, I'm not sure this is the right forum to post this thread but I couldn't find anywhere better to put it. Moderators please feel free to move it around.
I have an idea for a business and would love to hear feedback. I'm an experienced homebrewer from Brazil, now living in Lisbon, Portugal. Portugal is definitively a wine country but the craft beer market here is growing and I want to join in. But instead of starting my own brewery, like a lot of people are doing, I'm thinking differently: I want to help foster a local homebrewing community, which is somewhat lacking.
One of the big obstacles to whoever is starting to brew, in my opinion, is that it requires a huge commitment of capital before you even brew your first batch - when I moved out of Brazil I sold all my equipment and realized how much I had invested over the years. Other problem is space - people in big cities usually live in tiny apartments and we all know that storing all the equipment can take quite some space, for something that you're probably using a couple of times a month, at most.
Perhaps even more importantly, I think the community is very important to homebrewers - most people don't brew alone but like doing it surrounded by friends and other beer enthusiasts. Brewing is just a gregarious activity, and it's a big part why it's so captivating.
So, my idea is to set up a brewing club, a place where homebrewers can gather and brew their beers. It'll have everything you might need: a brewhouse, fermenters, bottling/keging equipment, etc. The idea is that you can come in, brew, and then just come back a few weeks later to take your beer, at the same time interacting with people that also love beer. Also, I plan on offering side activities such as brewing classes, workshops, and off course there'll be a bar/taproom, after all we all know that brewing makes a man thirsty - although the bar is not the focus of the enterprise.
I actually don't know of any similar venture in the world. I know that in the US and Canada you have a lot of Brew Your Own operations, but as far as I can tell they're usually run as a side business to a regular brewery. Also I know that there are a lot of brewing clubs, but they usually don't have the kind of facilities I'm talking about. The only place I know that offers something similar is UBrew in London. I plan on visiting them as soon as I can.
The set up I'm currently planning on having is:
- brewhouse: I'm thinking about starting with an automated vessel, between 30 and 50 liters. Later I can add other brewhouses.
- fermenters: I'm thinking about offering 2 or 3 fermenter sizes. For example, if I use a 50 liters brewhouse, I can make half a batch for 25~30 liters or a double batch for 100 liters, and therefore can have all 3 sizes of fermenters.
- business model: members will pay a monthly fee based on the size of the fermenter they choose. After all, fermenting space will be the bottleneck of my production process. So each member will have their own fermenter that they can choose to use as they see fit and the brewhouse will be shared among all.
So if you want to brew a very light ale, you may be able to make 2 batches a month. However, if you decide to brew a very potent imperial stout or quadruppel that will demand a long time of lagering, that's your choice, but your fermenter will be taken for a longer time and you won't be able to do another brew in the while (unless, of course, you rent another fermenter).
One of my big questions right now is how to deal with the fermenting. Off course the ideal would be to each fermenter to have it's own temperature control, but I don't think that's feasible - or, to put it more precisely, it would be too expensive. So I'm thinking about 3 cold rooms: one for /ale fermenting, and for lager fermenting, and one for lagering.
Off course this means some level of compromise, so I'm thinking the ale fermenting room will stay at about 20ºC (68 F), the lager fermenting room at 12ºC (55 F) and the lagering room about 2ºC (35 F). I'll have conical fermenters so the fermenting and lagering can be made in the same vessel.
So, I would love to hear some feedback. Actually my business plan is a lot more complex than presented here, but I believe this post is already long enough. Would something like this interest you? What do you think about the process? What else would you like to see in a business like this?
Thanks a lot!
Pedro
I have an idea for a business and would love to hear feedback. I'm an experienced homebrewer from Brazil, now living in Lisbon, Portugal. Portugal is definitively a wine country but the craft beer market here is growing and I want to join in. But instead of starting my own brewery, like a lot of people are doing, I'm thinking differently: I want to help foster a local homebrewing community, which is somewhat lacking.
One of the big obstacles to whoever is starting to brew, in my opinion, is that it requires a huge commitment of capital before you even brew your first batch - when I moved out of Brazil I sold all my equipment and realized how much I had invested over the years. Other problem is space - people in big cities usually live in tiny apartments and we all know that storing all the equipment can take quite some space, for something that you're probably using a couple of times a month, at most.
Perhaps even more importantly, I think the community is very important to homebrewers - most people don't brew alone but like doing it surrounded by friends and other beer enthusiasts. Brewing is just a gregarious activity, and it's a big part why it's so captivating.
So, my idea is to set up a brewing club, a place where homebrewers can gather and brew their beers. It'll have everything you might need: a brewhouse, fermenters, bottling/keging equipment, etc. The idea is that you can come in, brew, and then just come back a few weeks later to take your beer, at the same time interacting with people that also love beer. Also, I plan on offering side activities such as brewing classes, workshops, and off course there'll be a bar/taproom, after all we all know that brewing makes a man thirsty - although the bar is not the focus of the enterprise.
I actually don't know of any similar venture in the world. I know that in the US and Canada you have a lot of Brew Your Own operations, but as far as I can tell they're usually run as a side business to a regular brewery. Also I know that there are a lot of brewing clubs, but they usually don't have the kind of facilities I'm talking about. The only place I know that offers something similar is UBrew in London. I plan on visiting them as soon as I can.
The set up I'm currently planning on having is:
- brewhouse: I'm thinking about starting with an automated vessel, between 30 and 50 liters. Later I can add other brewhouses.
- fermenters: I'm thinking about offering 2 or 3 fermenter sizes. For example, if I use a 50 liters brewhouse, I can make half a batch for 25~30 liters or a double batch for 100 liters, and therefore can have all 3 sizes of fermenters.
- business model: members will pay a monthly fee based on the size of the fermenter they choose. After all, fermenting space will be the bottleneck of my production process. So each member will have their own fermenter that they can choose to use as they see fit and the brewhouse will be shared among all.
So if you want to brew a very light ale, you may be able to make 2 batches a month. However, if you decide to brew a very potent imperial stout or quadruppel that will demand a long time of lagering, that's your choice, but your fermenter will be taken for a longer time and you won't be able to do another brew in the while (unless, of course, you rent another fermenter).
One of my big questions right now is how to deal with the fermenting. Off course the ideal would be to each fermenter to have it's own temperature control, but I don't think that's feasible - or, to put it more precisely, it would be too expensive. So I'm thinking about 3 cold rooms: one for /ale fermenting, and for lager fermenting, and one for lagering.
Off course this means some level of compromise, so I'm thinking the ale fermenting room will stay at about 20ºC (68 F), the lager fermenting room at 12ºC (55 F) and the lagering room about 2ºC (35 F). I'll have conical fermenters so the fermenting and lagering can be made in the same vessel.
So, I would love to hear some feedback. Actually my business plan is a lot more complex than presented here, but I believe this post is already long enough. Would something like this interest you? What do you think about the process? What else would you like to see in a business like this?
Thanks a lot!
Pedro
