Ideas for brewing workshop

[Sadu]

I live in a small town in New Zealand with no LHBS and I'm looking at putting together a paid homebrew beginners workshop to help people get started. I thought I'd float the idea here to see what people think (long post, skip if not applicable).

Basically I think there is immense value in being able to sit in on a proper brew day, then do a temp-controlled fermentation using loan equipment before actually having to commit to buying any gear. From my point of view it would be like a brewday but a bit slower, and getting paid for it.

Price would need to be in the range of $100-150 USD for 6 hours of brewing workshop, 1 gallon of wort, loan of some gear and questions later on.

What I was thinking was to have 1-5 participants brew a 5 gallon no-sparge BIAB batch of pale ale and while waiting for the mash/boil/cool I explain the basics of brewing and answer questions. Then at the end we pitch the yeast and transfer into 1.3 gallon demijohns. Everyone gets sent home with a demijohn, 1 gallon of beer, airlock, dryhops for later, hand capper, caps, clean bottles, spray bottle of starsan, hydrometer, bottling wand and tube, STC-1000 and swamp cooler bucket, instructions for bottling and dryhopping. All this is inexpensive loan gear.

The idea is that everyone's first brew is sanitary, swamp cooler temp controlled, proper pitch of yeast, reliable recipe, good water and they have some idea of the process when it comes to buying equipment.

I guess I'm asking if people would see value in something like this, for someone starting out. The context being a small town with no LHBS or brew club to annoy with noob questions. Since I brew regularly even if only one person showed that would be fine - my ingredients are covered for the next few batches in exchange for a slower brewday, they get one on one walkthrough with any question they want answered.

Thoughts?

 

[tgolanos]

I love the idea, but if NZ is anything like Oz, the legalities behind this could be a bi*ch. One of my LHBSs does regular How-to-Brew sessions (that's how I got started) but they make one batch of beer while the audience watches. People who sign up do not actually make beer on-site. This is where I think you'll run into issues.

Talk to your local council and liquor control authorities before doing anything. They'll be able to guide you in the right direction. My feeling is you'd need an alcohol-production licence if you wanted to do this.

Best of luck, mate.

 

[Paps]

Send people home with wort and yeast still seperate.
I don't know who would be foolish enough to pay you that much to sit in on a brew day when they could merely look up the info on the internet and watch the several brew day videos on YouTube.

 

[Sadu]

The legalities are something I need to confirm, for sure. One of the key things behind this format is that there is no fermenting done on-site. I'm selling unfermented sugary water, the participants make all the alcohol at home.

If it turned out that I had to do all the brewing while everyone else watched - that would be less interactive and not as good - but not a show stopper. Likewise if I had to send everyone home with some yeast to pitch, fine.

If I have to get any sort of liquor license that generally means massive up-front legal costs / licensing fees which will make the price point out of reach.

 

[GPP33]

In the US it's sugar water until the yeast hits it, then it's concidered "beer" and with it comes all the liquor rules. If you could figure out how to package portions of yeast you could send em home with wort and yeast and not have to worry about the regs. Assuming your laws are written like our laws.

I could see the value of this over watching YouTube, there's some things better learnt in person by getting your hands dirty. If you have a large enough population base that wants to learn and is willing to pay you may be able to do this to find your hobby. It doesn't sound like you expect to get rich on it so why not?

 

[Sadu]

I don't know who would be foolish enough to pay you that much to sit in on a brew day when they could merely look up the info on the internet and watch the several brew day videos on YouTube.

I learned to brew via the internet and it worked for me, but I don't think it's for everyone. For a start there is so much conflicting information and you really don't know who to trust. My first all-grain batch I followed a blog post to the letter but after brewing realised the author had cocked up the recipe, lol, I figured out that the water volumes and hop additions were wrong and worked myself into a mega panic.

Also being in New Zealand we don't have access to the same ingredients as in the US. Aside from getting one's head around imperial vs metric measurements things like "2 row malt" is a confusing term (we call it "American ale malt"), not everyone sells carapils, and we don't have crystal 60 (we have medium crystal). My point being that if you rock up to youtube or here for a recipe there is going to be some level of conversion and substitution needed before it's workable.

There's also a bit of local flavour I can add, knowing which suppliers are best for which products etc. Knowing which places to buy from means I can save people 50% on ingredients, and by teaching them to harvest yeast from their first batch gets them into the world of mega-savings right from day one.

 

[rusty_tlc]

No local Home Brew supply shops there? Her the local shop does demo brews fairly often and is very free with advice and help.
If the town is to small to support a supply shop your customer base is going to be pretty small.

 

[mattd2]

Which small town if you don't mind me asking? (Tauranga myself)
Have you checked out the brew on premise place in Wellington - kind of what you described but they also ferment on premise in there temp controlled cooler and you come back to bottle it once it's done. http://theoccasionalbrewer.co.nz $179 for 40 litres of Debble's pale ale (http://www.forum.realbeer.co.nz/m/blogpost?id=1500433:BlogPost:165671).
Also what is the STC-1000 for if they wI'll be using a swamp cooler?

 

[Paps]

Stuff.

If you have people willing to pay you, then by all means.
Have at it/sell away.
Allthough i might find it silly, I'm also not your target audience.
Good luck with your endeavour.

 

[Sadu]

Which small town if you don't mind me asking? (Tauranga myself)
Have you checked out the brew on premise place in Wellington - kind of what you described but they also ferment on premise in there temp controlled cooler and you come back to bottle it once it's done. http://theoccasionalbrewer.co.nz $179 for 40 litres of Debble's pale ale (http://www.forum.realbeer.co.nz/m/blogpost?id=1500433:BlogPost:165671).
Also what is the STC-1000 for if they wI'll be using a swamp cooler?

I'm in Wanaka. The brew on premise thing would be cool, but different to what I'm thinking.

STC-1000s go great with swamp coolers. Use them with an aquarium heater to keep temps dropping too far overnight or control a fan / pump for extra cooling. It's not strictly necessary but it sets good habits and is a good pathway to a fermentation fridge later. Also more accurate / easier to read than a stick-on thermometer.

 

[AntonioMartins]

I live in a small town in New Zealand with no LHBS and I'm looking at putting together a paid homebrew beginners workshop to help people get started. I thought I'd float the idea here to see what people think (long post, skip if not applicable).

Thoughts?

This is quite normal here in Brazil.

The price here is about the same you propose.

Normally is included lunch (barbecue, mostly) and some beer also.

But people don't get the fermentation at their homes. The person who is applying the workshop do the fermentation, then, when the beer is ready, the participants of the brewday workshop are invited to try it.

 

[mattd2]

I'm in Wanaka. The brew on premise thing would be cool, but different to what I'm thinking.

STC-1000s go great with swamp coolers. Use them with an aquarium heater to keep temps dropping too far overnight or control a fan / pump for extra cooling. It's not strictly necessary but it sets good habits and is a good pathway to a fermentation fridge later. Also more accurate / easier to read than a stick-on thermometer.

Would the tourist market be in mind? Maybe a cut down version with no take-aways just a 4 hours how to brew (with lunch thrown in)?
The reference to the occasional brewer was more that there is a market but I think people would be expecting more than a dozen beers for their $150. Would you consider providing them with the workshop and a basic 2 gallon BIAB starter kit (pot, bag, bucket, misc bits, maybe STC parts)? I would be much more likely to sign up for that instead of 4 litres of beer and some gear that I have to bother with taking back. You could also organise with one of the online homebrew shops for a discount on their first recipe (all pre designed by you for 2 gallons to reduce the effort on the new brewers part). Part of the workshop should be various brew soft ware (free and pay) to show how easy it is to use them to scale and swap units from online recipes.