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Like, a trendy educational beer brewing experience.

Basically, a brew on premises type place that requires beards to be trimmed and properly waxed or oiled?
 
Ha, that's a great question. We actually weren't familiar with Brew on Premises until today, but that sounds very much like what we're thinking about. Most of the similar ideas we see around us though are either focused on helping people launch a brewery or on scheduled events for those completely unfamiliar with brewing. We're thinking it might be helpful to also have an extensive collection of equipment that can be used on premises by those who are already familiar with brewing, but may not want to invest the money and space for an all-grain type of setup. No beards required of course.
 
No beards required? That would be groundbreaking.

But seriously, I think it could be pretty cool. Like a full-time brew club.

I'm guessing the focus of other brew on premises places that you mentioned had mostly to do with the people willing to pay for that kind of access.

Thinking back on my pre all-grain days, I might have enjoyed what you are talking about. But a grain bag for brewing BIAB was way cheaper than what you would have to charge to make money off of this idea. I think your market for this idea might be kind of limited, since most brewers are generally some combination of cheap, incentive, and persistent enough to figure out a way to achieve what they are looking to do. Marketed to homebrew clubs, this could be cool, though. Who knows.
 
Here you had me thinking about homebrew gadgets that might come in handy that someone designed to make their life easier... like the idea rattling around in my head for a rack to hold a case of bottles while filling so they don't tip. I fill solo and have to start the siphon and hold bottles at the same time...
 
We had a local Brew on Premises operation about 5-10 years ago. (not sure exactly when) They advertised on the radio for a while. I haven't heard anything about them for many years. I suspect they are long gone.

I don't know how successful the idea might work in a beer hot bed. But craft beer places here are few and far between.

My thoughts are that you will attract some interest. One scenario is that someone will do a couple of brews and decide it is not for them. Second scenario is someone will do a couple of brews then decide they really like the hobby. They then invest in their own equipment and brew their own. It might work as an addition to a brewpub or homebrew supply shop, but by itself it doesn't seem sustainable.

Now that I have my equipment I can brew an average batch for $25 - $50. That would give a shop about $5/hour. Unless you had enough equipment that you could have 10-20 people brewing at the same time I don't see it paying off.
 
Here you had me thinking about homebrew gadgets that might come in handy that someone designed to make their life easier... like the idea rattling around in my head for a rack to hold a case of bottles while filling so they don't tip. I fill solo and have to start the siphon and hold bottles at the same time...

No need for a siphon while bottling: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=94812
 
It might work as an addition to a brewpub or homebrew supply shop, but by itself it doesn't seem sustainable.

I have to agree with this. I've never seen a brew-your-own place last more than a few years. I suspect they're a gigantic money pit without a supporting supply business.

And of course, if you're also running a home brewing supply, you get to make money down the line by selling the new brewer their equipment and grain. :mug:
 
On 5 gallon batches I have that, 1 gallon I don't and I often have 2-3 1 gallon batches come ready the same day. Small brews for friends who want a little of a certain style and I don't want 1 1/2 cases of it in my fridge... so I am siphoning from 1 gallon fermenters...

I would still use the bottling bucket with the bottling wand attached to the spigot rather than messing with trying to bottle with a siphon.
 
You would have to really nail down your point of difference so that people keep coming back. If it's more of a maker-space then I could see it being more of a men's-shed (and ladies) type of idea where you can go to build your own brewing stuff. For example I'm in the process of building a counterflow wort chiller that I need a TIG welder for. I don't have the sort of set up to weld it, but I'd be stoked to be able to pay money to a brewing-oriented place and be able to weld it myself (rather than hand over my precious SS to a shoddy welder). Also, I would gladly pay the money to somewhere that has a nice vibe and is more of a brewing club, like someone else suggested.

I think some of the key things would be being able to do the work myself, but with help if I needed it. A good set up so I can work on electronics through to welding, through to milling my own grain/buying ingredients perhaps. Maybe somewhere I could store my vials of yeast which my wife hates having in the freezer. Also a social hub for brewing with the occasional events/tutorials/hardware development.

If you've expecting people to hand over their money then you need to offer something more/different than their own backyard/shed experience.
A place with friends to tinker. Brewing can be quite isolating, which has it's perks, but some of the other elements of the brewing process could definitely do with some other people around.

I suppose I'm thinking of it as like a physical version of this forum.

Hmmm, bit of a brain dump sorry! Hope it's helpful.
 
We had a local Brew on Premises operation about 5-10 years ago. (not sure exactly when) They advertised on the radio for a while. I haven't heard anything about them for many years. I suspect they are long gone.

I don't know how successful the idea might work in a beer hot bed. But craft beer places here are few and far between.

Same here in Oregon. I live in Beaverton (west suburb of Portland) and we had a place where you could brew small batches using very good equipment, but they up and keeled over. I just think that any serious homebrewer is going to want to have their own gear to have ultimate control over the product, and there isn't enough of a casual market to justify a dedicated business for it. I could be wrong, but if they're not super common here, I don't know...

This is the only place locally I know that still does it: http://www.portlandubrewandpub.com. It appears they are just selling capacity until they can get their brewery up and running. They charge $200/batch to do it.

FWIW.
 
It seems like a fun good time but honestly I'd rather have my friends over to my place and brew there. I'm part of a homebrew club where I can trade beer and talk shop so the communal thing has little draw to me. I'm not sure how you'd make enough money to keep this going unless you sold grain, hops, and stuff to homebrewers. I've pondered the same idea but it always ends up being a full fledged homebrew supply shop which I don't really want to run.
 
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