Rental brewery facility

[Bikeworks]

Anyone have any experience with a "commercial" homebrewing facility that a person can rent equipment to use on site to brew their own? I'm interested in how this might work on a small scale with the right equipment. Have you or would you use a space that allowed you to hone your skills with minimum investment?

 

[iijakii]

There are a couple u-brew places around me. I've never been in because I think it's an odd practice.

 

[jkovac]

I used one once in Mountain View, CA years ago. The place is no longer open. They gave you basic directions and the ingredients (extract-only, no all-grain) and kind of half-supervised you. Then you came back a few weeks later and bottled. The beer came out pretty good, considering it was an extract recipe.

But I think for what we paid, we could have bought our own basic equipment, at least for extract brewing. So no, I wouldn't do it again.

 

[Snowden]

The Brew Kettle in Strongsville, Ohio, in addition to having an awesome line up of beers (Google White Rajah), also has a very popular brew-on-premises operation. I've never personally done a batch there, but from what I have read they are booked out about a year or so.

 

[TheHappyHopper]

Same as some of the replies above - we have the Brew Lab here in KC, i just go there for ingredients, but you can pay to brew on their equipment (i think its a 10 or 15 gallon system). The guys that work there are super helpful and knowledgable about brewing - I have some friends that have paid to brew there a few times and they have really enjoyed it. Since I already have the equipment, I don't see the point in paying to use someone else's stuff. Those big shiny kettle do look sexy though...

 

[madscientist451]

There's one at a homebrew shop near where I work in Hagerstown, MD.
They have a licence from the state, don't know if they have a federal licence. They do brew on premises for beer and also do wine. I don't think they make much money on it, but use it more for
introducing people to brewing, selling supplies and advertising/public relations.
It really doesn't take very much investment to hone your homebrew skills at home, so as a business model, I'm skeptical brew on premises alone can be sustainable. You need to have something else with it to make it worthwhile.

 

[Chrisl77]

I don't think brew on premises is targeting people that already brew. I think At least here I think they are targeting people that think they may be interested in home brewing but want to try it before they invest in equipment, and bachelor parties. In my area they seem to price it for a one shot deal. They make a good profit on the session not planning on the person coming back for A second time. The places here also sell supplies so I am sure they bank on some of the people brewing on there own and coming back to buy supplies.

 

[Bikeworks]

I don't think brew on premises is targeting people that already brew. I think At least here I think they are targeting people that think they may be interested in home brewing but want to try it before they invest in equipment, and bachelor parties. In my area they seem to price it for a one shot deal. They make a good profit on the session not planning on the person coming back for A second time. The places here also sell supplies so I am sure they bank on some of the people brewing on there own and coming back to buy supplies.

Yeah, I think I asked the wrong way Chris. You are exactly right. It would be a place to learn basics to see if it was for you. Not for the homebrewer that already has experience.

 

[LarMoeCur]

The only time...I've ever been in one was for a bachelor party. Kind of like the Drink and make a painting thing the ladies like. But better...it was drink and brew beer. The cool part was we planned to serve it at his wedding. I ended up doing the most of the brewing because the bachelor wasn't accustom to drinking good beers. He kept say how he "could drink like 20 bud lites...why am I wasted after 8 craft beers". I digress...

Anyway, the beer turned out good. They had some really cool steam kettles. Fun to do once but that's about it. Now my fool friends just come to my house to watch me brew...drink my free beer...and comment "how my brewing saves them money".