After Only 4 Batches I have an Investor? WAH?

[dontman]

While I doubt many of these ideas to brew the hell out of everything and fly inder the radar would ever take off. The fact is you can only brew a limited amount for personal use in mosts states. Now you are back to the thing someone posted earlier; It just takes one pissed off ******* or ex-girlfriend to **** it up for you.

I was thinking the same thing. Every few days someone starts this exact same thread and I think that everyone in their romantic visions of homebrewing forget about the pita WORK involved in bottling and cleaning.

When the rubber hits the road there is just no way I am doing twice or three times as much cleaning and bottling just to get a couple bucks "donation" towards the expense of the batch. And wait til you're doing 2-3 batches a week. At some point you just have to take an accounting of the hours spent doing the drudgework. Not the fun "I just do it for the love of brewing" mashing and sparging and stuff, I am taking about the endless sanitation and rinsing and schlepping equipment and taking out and putting away stuff.

Clean and sanitize and fill 150 bottles per week for two or three weeks straight and comeback and tell me it is worth it to give half of your beer away for the cost of ingredients.

I would wager big money that the vast majority of people who start down the road of supplying friends for "donations" soon enter that large group of people who say "I used to brew my own but it just to be too big a pain the butt."

 

[Baldy_Beer_Brewery]

Oh yeah. I'm not saying that one can't dream and with enough work, one could some day open a brew pub, micro brewery or be the next Boston Brewing Company. But the little "donation" tricks and whatnot likely wouldn't keep some overzealous county cop from causing you a pain in the ass.

 

[leapdog]

I was thinking the same thing. Every few days someone starts this exact same thread and I think that everyone in their romantic visions of homebrewing forget about the pita WORK involved in bottling and cleaning.

That's exactly the way i look at it...which is why my general idea is to get the friends to come over and help a bit on brew day. Put them to work doing the things you don't need to do like sanitize, or bottle a batch. Have them bring over some brews and food to drink and eat while brewing. Let them enjoy some of the homebrews you have made in the past, and hook them up with a sixer of the stuff you brewed that day. They get beer, you get beer. They help and perhaps some day start brewing on their own, you get lunch and hang out with friends. Win-win in my opinion.

 

[dontman]

That's exactly the way i look at it...which is why my general idea is to get the friends to come over and help a bit on brew day. Put them to work doing the things you don't need to do like sanitize, or bottle a batch. Have them bring over some brews and food to drink and eat while brewing. Let them enjoy some of the homebrews you have made in the past, and hook them up with a sixer of the stuff you brewed that day. They get beer, you get beer. They help and perhaps some day start brewing on their own, you get lunch and hang out with friends. Win-win in my opinion.

I think a lot of the vets here would agree that this rarely works out like you envision. In my experience I have invited many friends over for a brew day and something always come up when it comes to brew day. Sometimes you might get one to show up and when they realize that they are doing mostly scut work they lose their zeal for the hobby. Personally, out of all my invites that have gone out over time I have had one person show up and he bolted during the boil.

Other people will argue that too many brewers (and beers) in the brewery is a recipe for forgetting some step, usually a hop addition.

Mainly my point in my posts is not that you can't spread the enthusiasm for the hobby but that it is easy to burnout on any hobby if you go into it too deep and it comes to be a chore rather than a happy diversion.

 

[cytokine]

... I like the atmosphere of hospitality. No need to bring pen and paper into this.

I'm with you. Also, nicely put.

My two cents is this: Accept the compliment, refuse the money. Invite your friend over for beer often and enjoy it.

 

[shrades]

I have a couple of buddy's that buy the stuff to make the brew than we split the goods when it is done.

 

[ChemE]

Yeah... I don't know about you folks, but spending time in a federal prison just doesn't sound like fun to me.

You mean "federal pound me in the ass prison"? Office Space rules!!!

 

[theonecynic]

That's exactly the way i look at it...which is why my general idea is to get the friends to come over and help a bit on brew day. Put them to work doing the things you don't need to do like sanitize, or bottle a batch. Have them bring over some brews and food to drink and eat while brewing. Let them enjoy some of the homebrews you have made in the past, and hook them up with a sixer of the stuff you brewed that day. They get beer, you get beer. They help and perhaps some day start brewing on their own, you get lunch and hang out with friends. Win-win in my opinion.

Damnit, you're making me want to ditch the revision and go home and brew beer! Also,

TABC

? The Anti-Beer Committee?

 

[double_e5]

You mean "federal pound me in the ass prison"? Office Space rules!!!

Well, aren't you a little late to the party?

 

[user 30639]

? The Anti-Beer Committee?

Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. Although I think The Anti-Beer Committee is an equally good description.

 

[ChemE]

Well, aren't you a little late to the party?

Mea culpa; I hadn't read the whole thread before I posted that.

 

[madewithchicken]

**edit** I should mention that i did not read the thread all the way through.**edit**

2 years from now regardless of how it turns out you will be saying, "It sounded like a good idea at the time."

Can you possibly be more convenient than the local grocery store?

How much would you charge?

I did all of this complicated math to prove my point but it was confusing so I deleted it.

My girlfriend and I own a restaurant. Making money doing anything is hard. Make sure you do ALL of the math right.

You need to calculate:
Grain
hops
yeast
priming sugar
misc beer ingredients
bottles
caps
cleaning agents
propane (or electric depending)
labels?
cardboard six pack holders?

personally i do not think that there is any chance you can turn a profit without selling to the public. when i am really tight on money i will tell my friends that they need to pay for my beer, they then start bringing their own.