has anyone tried donating a how to brew day to a school auction?

[owmatooth]

I really think many people are interested but intimidated by the idea of homebrewing. I know most clubs do an open house "learn to brew day", but as my kids school is always looking for interesting experiences to be donated, I thought about donating the "privledge" of hanging out with me during a brew session. I'd rebrew stuff I've got on tap, so they can pretty much taste what they've made, and throw in snacks and whatnot. dunno. can't believe i'm reinventing the wheel here, but i'm thinking in my little privileged community people are willing to donate to see how it's done. FWIW the auction for the principal coming to your house and cooking dinner for ten goes for about $1000.

 

[Sammy86]

While a great idea I don't think the school would be willing to accept. A lot of times they want to distance themselves from the drugs and alcohol...not to say it can't hurt to ask...but don't be surprised if they politely decline.

-A MS teacher for 8 years.

 

[mongoose33]

While a great idea I don't think the school would be willing to accept. A lot of times they want to distance themselves from the drugs and alcohol...not to say it can't hurt to ask...but don't be surprised if they politely decline.

-A MS teacher for 8 years.

I think it depends on the context. We have an evening adults-oriented fundraising auction and such every year for the high school scholarship fund. Among things sold are beer and wine, so in our context, I don't think there would be any problem with doing this.

In fact, I think it's a very interesting idea. I could see doing a 5-gallon batch and sending them home, after the beer was finished fermenting, with a mini-keg of that beer.

I've donated my beer to another auction environment, so it's not outside people's experience here. But then again, I'm in Wisconsin.

 

[Sammy86]

I think it depends on the context. We have an evening adults-oriented fundraising auction and such every year for the high school scholarship fund. Among things sold are beer and wine, so in our context, I don't think there would be any problem with doing this.

In fact, I think it's a very interesting idea. I could see doing a 5-gallon batch and sending them home, after the beer was finished fermenting, with a mini-keg of that beer.

I've donated my beer to another auction environment, so it's not outside people's experience here. But then again, I'm in Wisconsin.

I completely agree! I live in the NE and this type of thing doesn't fly in my part of New England...however like I said it can't hurt to ask!

 

[bracconiere]

they don't teach self-respect in school anymore....i don't think anyway. been awhile.

 

[CodeSection]

@owmatooth, what a great idea! I'm not sure if you were thinking all grain or extract. How about both?

Below are just a few of my thoughts.....

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

Good luck!

 

[mongoose33]

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.

 

[mongoose33]

If I were going to auction off a brew day.....help me think this out.

I have a pretty extensive equipment setup. Electric brewing, RIMS recirculation, conical fermenter, glycol chiller, keezer, the whole 9 yards.

I also still have my old brewing equipment--kettle, propane burner, immersion chiller, Bigmouth Bubbler fermenters, ferm chamber....

I could do a brew day on the big system, but that's not something a newbie brewer is going to relate to. It's the sort of system they might look at and say "that's way out of my reach, I can't do this homebrewing thing."

I could do a brew day with the original setup, propane, etc.


What makes more sense? Which is easier to "sell"? Should I give them a choice? Am I simply giving them an intimate exposure to a high-tech brewing approach, or am I giving them a learning experience which they could do for themselves?

 

[CodeSection]

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?...

As you know my suggestion is coming from someone who regularly bottles 10 gallons. For me, it is no big deal. You may be right that two cases may be too much. Maybe one case is plenty.

I view this auction item has two main objectives. IMO, the first objective is to raise as much as they can for the current auction item plus generating demand for it in future auctions. The second objective is to promote and educate about home brewing that may encourage others to take up the hobby.

Everyone likes to share their positive accomplishments. We all do it. It feels good. So, what better way to share their brewing experience beyond talking about and beyond showing pictures of the event than to share their actual beer they made. I bet it will make a lasting impression that will exponentially help in the bidding next year and years to follow.

Thus, it is my belief the more beer that is bottled and shared, the better it is for the school, the donor and bidders. I guess I talked myself back to recommending bottling two cases or so....

 

[mongoose33]

As you know my suggestion is coming from someone who regularly bottles 10 gallons. For me, it is no big deal. You may be right that two cases may be too much. Maybe one case is plenty.

I view this auction item has two main objectives. IMO, the first objective is to raise as much as they can for the current auction item plus generating demand for it in future auctions. The second objective is to promote and educate about home brewing that may encourage others to take up the hobby.

Everyone likes to share their positive accomplishments. We all do it. It feels good. So, what better way to share their brewing experience beyond talking about and beyond showing pictures of the event than to share their actual beer they made. I bet it will make a lasting impression that will exponentially help in the bidding next year and years to follow.

Thus, it is my belief the more beer that is bottled and shared, the better it is for the school, the donor and bidders. I guess I talked myself back to recommending bottling two cases or so....

I agree with you regarding the goals. I think I'd prefer to see people wishing they had more than have two cases of beer they might or might not drink in a timely fashion.

Merely having this kind of thing in a live auction would be a terrific amount of publicity, and I could even have a couple friends bid it up north of $100 and see where it went from there.

I agree that if you can share enough beer enough places, people may become more interested in home brewing. My concern is not being able to control it very well, including do they keep the beer in their hot and cold garage for 6 months before sharing with with friends?

I also know that if it doesn't appear as if they're getting enough beer out of it, it may not be worth it to pay up for it.

 

[snarf7]

While a great idea I don't think the school would be willing to accept. A lot of times they want to distance themselves from the drugs and alcohol...not to say it can't hurt to ask...but don't be surprised if they politely decline.

-A MS teacher for 8 years.

Sadly in our BS of a PC-to-the-max culture these days I fear you're right, they don't want to associate themselves with anything that could be remotely construed as being bad for the youth etc etc. And if you're in a churchy community it's likely to be even worse if some teetotaler mom on the PTA gets wind of it...(which is ironic since there's lots of stories in the bible about Jesus and the boys and their wine but thats where we are now so...)

 

[Sadu]

Our local school used to sell bottles of wine as a fundraiser, with label artwork created by your kid. I think they got a bulk deal from one of the local vineyards and it was a good fundraiser because most parents got a bottle or 2 and they make good gifts.
One year the police objected to the license application and the whole thing got shutdown. Usual PC crap about normalizing alcohol use with kids etc.
Way I see it is that the parents would be buying the wine anyway, but this way at least the school gets a cut.

 

[whovous]

Don't wanna be a spoilsport, but is this legal? When you get right down to it, you are brewing and selling beer, and then donating the proceeds to charity. But you are still brewing and selling beer, and you do not have a license to do that.

 

[mongoose33]

Don't wanna be a spoilsport, but is this legal? When you get right down to it, you are brewing and selling beer, and then donating the proceeds to charity. But you are still brewing and selling beer, and you do not have a license to do that.

Not selling anything. I can give it away, and I do. It's a donation.

 

[CodeSection]

Sadly in our BS of a PC-to-the-max culture these days I fear you're right, they don't want to associate themselves with anything that could be remotely construed as being bad for the youth etc etc. And if you're in a churchy community it's likely to be even worse if some teetotaler mom on the PTA gets wind of it...(which is ironic since there's lots of stories in the bible about Jesus and the boys and their wine but thats where we are now so...)

I know of a couple of Faith's that would object to any liqueur of alcohol related items. In my wife's Catholic school, that is a non-issue. At least in our town in AZ, PTAs are there only to help and NOT dictate school or Diocese policy. I would imagine any "teetotaler" complaining would hear the riot act along with Harper Valley PTA song by Jeannie Riley.

Our local school used to sell bottles of wine as a fundraiser, with label artwork created by your kid. I think they got a bulk deal from one of the local vineyards and it was a good fundraiser because most parents got a bottle or 2 and they make good gifts.
One year the police objected to the license application and the whole thing got shutdown. Usual PC crap about normalizing alcohol use with kids etc.
Way I see it is that the parents would be buying the wine anyway, but this way at least the school gets a cut.

That is so sad. Presumably it involved the interpretation of distribution rather than selling since the label was changed. No sense in fighting ignorance or "city hall". I do not believe there would be a problem doing that in our town or even in AZ. https://www.azliquor.gov/faq/charity_specialevent.cfm

Maybe a work around could be found for your situation. Such as have the child's label printed on an Every label and have that label in a clear pocket that goes with that bottle of wine. Nothing is attached but if the buyer later wanted to attach their child's label to have a keepsake, they can.

@owmatooth, there appears to be postings that may influence you to not try. I would strongly encourage you to try to make your idea come to reality. It is that good! As the saying goes....you miss 100% of the shots you do not take. Keep us posted.

 

[bracconiere]

Not selling anything. I can give it away, and I do. It's a donation.

as long as you don't brew more than 100 gals a year, of course...

 

[mongoose33]

as long as you don't brew more than 100 gals a year, of course...

That's 200 gallons. There are two adults in my household...

 

[CodeSection]

... Merely having this kind of thing in a live auction would be a terrific amount of publicity, and I could even have a couple friends bid it up north of $100 and see where it went from there....

I love it.....leave nothing to chance!

Seriously though, I realize it varies from community to community. In our community I believe they easily could raise north of $250 in a silent auction. That's about $5 per bottle....seems reasonable. Parents, neighbors and friends main purpose at my wife's school auction is to support the school while having a good time. Most of the items in both the silent and live auctions raise more money than the fair market value of the items.

 

[bracconiere]

That's 200 gallons. There are two adults in my household...

LOL! (don't tell the po-po, but i live alone and brew 500)

 

[Sadu]

With any brewing event or workshop, the trick is to focus on wort, not beer. You are selling sugary malt juice which is totally fine. The attendee pitches the yeast themselves when they get home and makes beer, that side of things is nothing to do with you.
As soon as you start fermenting anything for money you open up the floodgates of compliance, risk and extra costs.

 

[bracconiere]

With any brewing event or workshop, the trick is to focus on wort, not beer. You are selling sugary malt juice which is totally fine. The attendee pitches the yeast themselves when they get home and makes beer, that side of things is nothing to do with you.
As soon as you start fermenting anything for money you open up the floodgates of compliance, risk and extra costs.

so a malt syrup class for kids? just have to boil it longer... it should make the load easier for them to carry home on their bikes.....

 

[whovous]

Not selling anything. I can give it away, and I do. It's a donation.

You may not be selling anything, but the school is. What they are selling is not a licensed product. Somebody winds up paying money for someone else's homebrew.

 

[mongoose33]

With any brewing event or workshop, the trick is to focus on wort, not beer. You are selling sugary malt juice which is totally fine. The attendee pitches the yeast themselves when they get home and makes beer, that side of things is nothing to do with you.
As soon as you start fermenting anything for money you open up the floodgates of compliance, risk and extra costs.

I'm going to have to disagree. People have been doing these kinds of fundraisers forever--not just homebrew, but storebought, and wine, and so on. They have no license to sell alcoholic beverages period. It's a non-profit event.

However--and this is hopefully not too bad of a thread drift--my son did a thing down in Birmingham where he did a brewing demonstration, all grain, and at the end he did exactly what you suggest.

That is, they raffled off something like 19 chances to make your own beer. They had 2-liter soda bottles as fermenters (cleaned and sanitized), put a liter of wort in each one. Gave the participants a little dry yeast to add to it. A rubber balloon with a pinhole poked in it to stretch over the top of the 2-liter bottle and act as a sort of airlock. Two plastic coke bottles, cleaned and sanitized, each with a carb drop in it.

People were given instructions how to deal with the "fermenter," and after a week, carefully decanted off the finished beer into the two diet coke bottles. Put into a room-temp dark place for a couple weeks, then refrigerate. Voila! They'd fermented their own beer.

It all works. I know because before he did it, I tried it.

I've thought about doing something like this for a fundraiser, not sure that it would be that much in demand.

EDITED: BTW, if you do something like this, the bottles have to be kept in the dark, and warm enough to condition properly. Won't take long to have lightstruck beer if you don't.

 

[Jag75]

I for one am a christian . I go to church but I dont think it's wrong to drink alcohol. As long as I'm not abusing it being a drunkard and setting a bad example . Jesus turned water into wine .

 

[Spartan1979]

While a great idea I don't think the school would be willing to accept. A lot of times they want to distance themselves from the drugs and alcohol...not to say it can't hurt to ask...but don't be surprised if they politely decline.

-A MS teacher for 8 years.

It would depend on whether or not it's a Catholic school. My sons went to Catholic schools and there were no issues with alcohol at adult aimed fundraisers.

 

[CodeSection]

Not selling anything. I can give it away, and I do. It's a donation.

You may not be selling anything, but the school is. What they are selling is not a licensed product. Somebody winds up paying money for someone else's homebrew.

@whovous, I quoted your response to @mongoose33's post so that your intended point is not lost. Though, you actually proved a different point. Somehow, it appears you believe the school is selling alcohol when they auction off kits/ingredients. That is simply not the case. The school is auctioning items like a home brew kit, an extract recipe kit and/or an all grain recipe kit or ingredients. These items are using your words "not a licensed product".

None of the above items are a licensed product subject to a liquor license. No store (online or LHBS) needs a liquor license to sell those items or any ingredients. No store or LHBS requires a purchaser of those items or any ingredients to present identification to prove they are of a certain age.

I may have contributed to the confusion when I responded to post #12 above where they WERE selling bottles of wine. Hopefully, this will put to rest some questions. If you are aware of a statute or regulation that requires a liquor license to sell ingredients or kits, please provide it.

 

[CodeSection]

It would depend on whether or not it's a Catholic school. My sons went to Catholic schools and there were no issues with alcohol at adult aimed fundraisers.

Same here with my children.... Go IRISH!

 

[CodeSection]

I'm going to have to disagree. People have been doing these kinds of fundraisers forever--not just homebrew, but storebought, and wine, and so on. They have no license to sell alcoholic beverages period. It's a non-profit event.

However--and this is hopefully not too bad of a thread drift--my son did a thing down in Birmingham where he did a brewing demonstration, all grain, and at the end he did exactly what you suggest.

That is, they raffled off something like 19 chances to make your own beer. They had 2-liter soda bottles as fermenters (cleaned and sanitized), put a liter of wort in each one. Gave the participants a little dry yeast to add to it. A rubber balloon with a pinhole poked in it to stretch over the top of the 2-liter bottle and act as a sort of airlock. Two plastic coke bottles, cleaned and sanitized, each with a carb drop in it.

People were given instructions how to deal with the "fermenter," and after a week, carefully decanted off the finished beer into the two diet coke bottles. Put into a room-temp dark place for a couple weeks, then refrigerate. Voila! They'd fermented their own beer.

It all works. I know because before he did it, I tried it.

I've thought about doing something like this for a fundraiser, not sure that it would be that much in demand.


View attachment 641588
View attachment 641599

Wow, another fun idea! You are a wealth of information!

 

[paulshe]

I like the idea of auctioning off a brew day.

here is my experience. Not a lawyer. Live in the great state of CA. I would think the idea of selling a brew day that included the beer is probably against the law. Now, I doubt you'd get anyone enforcing this. In CA, we do have a relatively new exception to the homebrew laws that allows serving it at non-profit events as long as it's labeled as homebrew. Note that the law emphasizes that the beer is consumed at the event. I have 3 events a year that I serve at, two are catholic school fundraisers and one is for a private organization. I don't accept any $$ for these events. The events charge per beer. My interpretation of the law could be completely wrong.

My original idea for these auction events was to auction off cases of homebrew where the person could choose the style. Based on my read of the current laws this is prohibited. I think the "resale" of wine at these events is probably ok since the producer is following all the existing, arcane rules. If you tried selling homemade wine I think it falls into the same boat as homebrew (ie. serve and consume at event)

Here is the CA legalize: https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/homebrewing-rights/statutes/california/
see section:
§ 23356.2. Beer; manufacture for personal or family use; exemption
(3) When donated to a nonprofit organization for use as provided in subdivision (c) or (d).


But then what do i know.....

 

[CodeSection]

I like the idea of auctioning off a brew day.

here is my experience. Not a lawyer. Live in the great state of CA. I would think the idea of selling a brew day that included the beer is probably against the law. Now, I doubt you'd get anyone enforcing this. In CA, we do have a relatively new exception to the homebrew laws that allows serving it at non-profit events as long as it's labeled as homebrew. Note that the law emphasizes that the beer is consumed at the event. I have 3 events a year that I serve at, two are catholic school fundraisers and one is for a private organization. I don't accept any $$ for these events. The events charge per beer. My interpretation of the law could be completely wrong.

My original idea for these auction events was to auction off cases of homebrew where the person could choose the style. Based on my read of the current laws this is prohibited. I think the "resale" of wine at these events is probably ok since the producer is following all the existing, arcane rules. If you tried selling homemade wine I think it falls into the same boat as homebrew (ie. serve and consume at event)

Here is the CA legalize: https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/homebrewing-rights/statutes/california/
see section:
§ 23356.2. Beer; manufacture for personal or family use; exemption
(3) When donated to a nonprofit organization for use as provided in subdivision (c) or (d).


But then what do i know.....

@paulshe, thanks for your posting. Nice information about "California represents one of the most comprehensive state statutes. §23356.2 also provides for the removal of beer manufactured in the home for use in competitions, tastings, or judgings. The statute allows for donation of homebrew to non-profit organizations for use in fundraising events and to homebrewer non-profit organizations for educational events."

It deals with the manufacture and selling of beer. It does NOT deal with selling or auctioning ingredients. I'm not sure why people are interpreting things differently or bringing up items that really has not been the issue other than maybe they are not thoroughly reading the posts.

So, there are two separate issues that some seem to confuse.....one deals with auctioning ingredient kits (not beer, not selling beer or wine, just auctioning ingredient kits) which is NOT regulated. The second issue deals with selling actual beer, wine and liquor which IS regulated by state statutes. It is really that simple.....

I would love to read any statute or regulation that requires a liquor license to sell ingredients or kits. If anyone can find anything, please post it.

 

[whovous]

@whovous, I quoted your response to @mongoose33's post so that your intended point is not lost. Though, you actually proved a different point. Somehow, it appears you believe the school is selling alcohol when they auction off kits/ingredients. That is simply not the case. The school is auctioning items like a home brew kit, an extract recipe kit and/or an all grain recipe kit or ingredients. These items are using your words "not a licensed product".

None of the above items are a licensed product subject to a liquor license. No store (online or LHBS) needs a liquor license to sell those items or any ingredients. No store or LHBS requires a purchaser of those items or any ingredients to present identification to prove they are of a certain age.

I may have contributed to the confusion when I responded to post #12 above where they WERE selling bottles of wine. Hopefully, this will put to rest some questions. If you are aware of a statute or regulation that requires a liquor license to sell ingredients or kits, please provide it.

CodeSection, I think you are completely right and I was completely wrong. I was a bit buzzed when I first brought this up last night, and I think I was just being stubborn when I stuck by my guns this morning. The auction would be for a brew day, complete with ingredients. It is doubtless illegal to sell home-brewed beer, but I can think of no argument to extend that reasoning to ingredients. Whether the ingredients might become beer someday just doesn't matter.

 

[cmac62]

It is all about how you word something. If you auction an experience to brew your own beer, the winner is part of the process and brewing his own beer. This doesn't really seem like any kind of issue other than if the school is interested in this auction item/experience due to it being beer. my 2 cents

 

[mongoose33]

OK, so some people think there are potential legal issues here. I don't think so, not in my state, but OK.

What I was hoping for in this thread is some feedback about the best way to do something like this. Any suggestions?

 

[Jag75]

I dont think auctioning off a hands on brew session would be illegal. I think it's a good idea. Someone may really enjoy it and start a new hobby.

 

[Tom R]

What I was hoping for in this thread is some feedback about the best way to do something like this. Any suggestions?[/QUOTE]

How about having a six-pac at the auction, two bottles each of three recipes, and offer to brew with the winner 5 gals of the one the winner likes best?

Use whatever brewing process you use to make the sixer. I wouldn't worry about having the session be too complicated and turning off the winner, they might be very interested to see the fancy gear in operation. Just let them know that there are other methods to make great beer using simpler processes and less expensive equipment that they could use.

I think you're onto a great idea, and the not-for-profit that I work for has an annual auction, too...

 

[SEndorf]

OK, so some people think there are potential legal issues here. I don't think so, not in my state, but OK.
What I was hoping for in this thread is some feedback about the best way to do something like this. Any suggestions?

I'm following with interest.
I just can't picture this with my electric system. 60 minute mash / 60 minute sparge / 90 minute boil / and a good long time to trickle from the counterflow chiller to the fermenter. Most of my brew day is waiting...waiting...waiting....
A comparatively miniscule amount of time is actually working the brew process. Hard to imagine captivating someone's interest with the immense amount of time really doing nothing.

 

[Tom R]

Brewing is a long day for me. About 6 hrs. I could certainly speed it up, but I enjoy the process, and its nice to feel no need to hurry through it.

I think that a first-timer who was genuinely interested, and knew in advance that it would take several hours wouldn't mind the waiting. That's a good time to talk about other brewing equipment, processes, and beer styles.

 

[rkhanso]

However--and this is hopefully not too bad of a thread drift--my son did a thing down in Birmingham where he did a brewing demonstration, all grain, and at the end he did exactly what you suggest.

That is, they raffled off something like 19 chances to make your own beer. They had 2-liter soda bottles as fermenters (cleaned and sanitized), put a liter of wort in each one. Gave the participants a little dry yeast to add to it. A rubber balloon with a pinhole poked in it to stretch over the top of the 2-liter bottle and act as a sort of airlock. Two plastic coke bottles, cleaned and sanitized, each with a carb drop in it.

People were given instructions how to deal with the "fermenter," and after a week, carefully decanted off the finished beer into the two diet coke bottles. Put into a room-temp dark place for a couple weeks, then refrigerate. Voila! They'd fermented their own beer.

It all works. I know because before he did it, I tried it.

I like this idea. It's like the 80% lower receivers for building your own guns. Anyone can make an 80% lower and sell it. Anyone can buy one. No FFL license or background check needed. The buyer just has to finish the lower receiver themselves (which is brain-dead easy) and finish building the gun. No government agencies involved. Fully legal.

There have been many similar fund-raiser auctions like this, as well as groupons - for activities/lessons on glass blowing, baking, painting, other types of lessons. A great way for those of us with more hobbies than money that can donate to favorite causes.

Probably not much help, but I'd approach as just having a friend over who's never brewed before. I'd explain the process, go over the equipment, get them involved. Talk about the football season coming up, etc. Have some food/beer during the process. It will likely be a longer brew-day than normal, but this time the goal is not only the process and end result. It's making sure the auction winner has a good time, learns something and feels like they got their money's worth.

I think if it were me, I'd probably send them home with a 6-pack of something I brewed prior and had on-hand - while waiting for fermentation, and have them return when it's bottling time. Get them involved in bottling as well and send them home with what they made.

 

[Jag75]

Unless you live in Californiastan ^^^^

 

[Pappers_]

I love the idea of using our brewing hobby to help support local organizations doing good in our communities. I've donated beer for silent auctions, donated a brew day (as the OP suggests) for silent auctions, served my beer three times at a homebrew festival that supports a local arts education initiative (this is legal in Illinois, btw). I've also organized beer pairing events and am doing another in less than three weeks.

I wrote an article for Zymurgy, the magazine of the American Homebrewers Association, that was published in the November/December 2018 issue. Last May, I organized a beer, cheese and food pairing event that raised some funding for my congregation's Peace Camp and the article is focused on the event, beer and food pairings, and using the homebrewing hobby to do events to support projects or organizations you believe in.

If you're a member of the AHA, you can view the article (and the entire magazine) online. If you're not a member, I've created a PDF of the six page spread in the magazine and you can download it here.