Homebrew Club "Makerspace" - Experiences?

[MrMooCow]

Howdy Doodly Do!

So an idea has been presented at my homebrew club to create a local "Makerspace" for brewing. There's already a well organized makerspace in town for basically everything else (woodworking, metal working, hacking, etc), and those folks have offered to help us out with organization. So half of that side of things is basically done, the question becomes is it economically viable?

I'm curious if anyone has experience with setting up a membership driven space that's equipped with all the gear you need to brew. or just experience using such a place.

This would not be intended as a For-Profit enterprise, although there are some who see the potential for increased club revenue. The primary goal is to bring more people into the hobby by providing the space and equipment for people to brew who might not want to fully commit for one reason or another. Secondary goal is to provide more space and better equipment for the group as a whole to do group projects, including supporting other local non-profits by brewing beer for their fundraisers.

Example: I'm a supporter of the idea because I want to be able to brew on a large, semi-automated system. While I could afford to build such a system, I can't justify it because I don't brew that often. Plus I have nowhere to put it. It would be worth it to me to donate 10% of the cost of that system and have it kept over at the clubhouse.

Anyway, any experiences folks can share would be greatly appreciated.

 

[mashpaddled]

I used to be part of a homebrew club that owned a 1BBL system and they would do big brews together where the club ran the brewday collectively and then people paid for a share of the wort and took home their share at the end of the day. Club dues were saved to buy the system and then helped maintain and store it. The big brews were operated out of rotating volunteer homes which is necessary given how much space, water, clean up is involved.

There are a lot of homebrew shops, especially in larger urban areas, that do brew on premises. Basically it is a homebrew shop which also has brewing space. Often they have equipment for 5-15 gallon batches but some have considerably larger systems available. This is maybe closer to what you envision but be aware that this requires a commercial brewing permit so are basically running a brewery and your costs per batch jump considerably. There is a shop here in Denver that does brew on premises but it is also a commercial brewery to maximize value of its commercial licensing requirements.

Be aware that is almost every state you cannot brew beer for charity events to serve or sell even if you give it away to a non-profit. Check your state law.