Contract Brew Sour Program

[Njswalker]

My friends and I are dreaming up an idea for a sour program. We have two local breweries that we want to approach about contracting their equipment. Our idea is to get 3bbl of wort at a time, ferment it, and then age in barrels within a climate controlled storage unit. We figure it is low overhead cost and a way to bring in something different to our relatively small brewing scene. Any advice/warnings/suggestions would be much appreciated. At this point it is just a dream, but we are wanting to see how viable the idea actually is.

 

[beergolf]

A couple of things to consider.Many breweries avoid bug like the plague, for fear of infecting their clean beers. So, if you get turned down, that is most likely the problem.

If a brewery does agree to this then you would have to check into the licensing required if you wanted to market them. Otherwise the brewery could sell them under their license and pay you as the brewer.

Good Luck.

 

[BGBC]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like you just want to contract them to brew the wort, then you'd take it, transport it to your facility, ferment and age there. No bugs introduced at the contract brewery?

I'm not a legal expert at all, but I imagine you'd still need all the licenses of a brewery.

What's your experience with brewing sours? Do you have any you'd be turning around quickly to begin with? Otherwise, you'll need to plan for a long holding time before putting out your first product.

 

[Njswalker]

Correct. We totally understand the fear of introducing bugs and have no desire to inoculate anything at their brewery. Just transfer the wort off premises to ours.

The time issue is a factor that we realize. We have produced some sours on a Homebrew scale and project at least a year until sales.

The "pilot system" of our local brewery is 3 barrels that they use for one offs and experiments. We hope to use this for wort production. They have a new 20 barrel brewhouse they use for distribution.


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[ktblunden]

If the goal is to sell, I'm 99% sure you'll need to be a licensed and permitted brewery if you're planning on taking the wort off their premises.

 

[Njswalker]

We plan on getting a brewing license. I'm fairly certain we can brew off their equipment and collect wort without one, but the fermenting and selling of the product will definitely need a license.

Before we approach the brewery we want to have a more formed plan. We are willing to take a couple months just to get that done. Any idea what a fair price would be to contract the equipment? I'm sending emails to a couple breweries that I know have contracted in the past as well.


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