You might want to use the auction as an opportunity to go to a company like MoreBeer and ask them if they would be willing to donate a basic home brew kit or something like that. Many businesses in my area are glad to donate literally thousands of dollars of merchandise to various schools. If MoreBeer donated a brew kit, their brand name would have a long shelf life since they plaster their name on the buckets and anywhere it would fit. More than likely, if the person enjoyed the experience and wanted to pursue home brewing, they probably would be buying merchandise and ingredients from MoreBeer. Your LHBS may very well donate merchandise.
Hmmm....now you've got me thinking about doing this, too.
i have found the more engaged people are the better experience it will be. With that said, I would solicit from them what they like to drink and what they are interested in brewing? You could narrow their choices by providing them a list to choose from... say 10-15 recipes.
I was thinking about involving the person in recipe development, but that brings an element of uncertainty to the process. Giving them a choice of recipes makes more sense to me.
What would be best would be to include a six-pack of six different bottles of beer, each a recipe they might choose to brew. That would require me to have six reasonably-fresh versions.....
Obviously, presentation at the auction makes a difference. Perhaps having pictures along with bottles of beer might be a nice touch rather just a poster board display. Maybe a basket with various items in it......brew kit, book on brewing, bottle opener, etc.
I'm thinking of how they've done this before.....typically there are a couple six-packs from some place like Potosi Brewery (Potosi is home to the national brewery muesum), then a bit of swag, some glasses, maybe a can cozy or two, a shirt or some coasters, stuff like that.
As I'm thinking of this....if I had the six-pack of beer--and maybe two six-packs would be better--I'd have that beer on ice, or with ice packs in a cooler or something. I keep my beer cold, and I want it to stay that way. I'm thinking I'd include a cooler that would accommodate two six packs, plus the ice packs. It would sit there, on the auction table, with the top of the cooler open where everybody could see the two six-packs and such.
I had some laser-engraved bottle caps made--they'd look great topping those bottles. I also have labels....
Lastly, I would suggest brewing no more than five gallons. I would also suggest giving it all to the person who won the auction. Yes, all of it. You want them to have such a great experience that they tell and show all their friends what they made so that the following year the winning bid is much higher because of all the goodwill you generated. Thus, calculate bottling a couple of 12oz cases when you are figuring your cost.
I'd had the sense that I'd include a 1.5-gallon keg with a picnic tap and one of those CO2-cartridge things to push the beer out. Nobody has extra room for a full keg, but the small one? Yeah. I'd want the keg back of course. My sense of this is who wouldn't want tap beer at home if they'd never had it before?
Bottling up 2 cases? I'm not so sure. I have half a sense that I'd want them to run out quickly, which would perhaps make them interested in making more....maybe bottling a six pack or two in addition to the mini-keg?
BTW, this has been an excellent exercise, thinking about this....
I would imagine each school is different. My wife has been a Principal for 20 years and having something like this in their auction would be welcomed. Now look what you did! All the auctions at her school serve beer and wine. So, unless you are in a dry county, I would not worry that it involves the making of alcohol.
Locally we have several of these types of fundraisers each year. Sometimes just a dinner and auction (silent auction items as well as live auction items), sometimes with a fun night ("fake" Las Vegas gambling then using the winnings to "buy" raffle tickets for other items). In every case I can remember they had items of wine and/or beer.
The School Scholarship dinner raises tens of thousands for High School scholarships. Our goal is to send off our students to some sort of further education with some financial assistance. Nobody presumes auctioning off beer or wine is going to send the wrong message. The message is that we care, a lot, about our young people and we support them monetarily in their scholastic endeavors.