Setting up a "Brew on Premise" at a Farmers or Arts market

[retheisen]

In Jacksonville FL there is a Farmers and Arts Market where local artisans and produce farmers can set up stands (some with water and electricity) to sell to the public. Has anyone here had any experience with operating an informational service for homebrewers that allows the the public to participate in a "brew day" at a public event like this? There is precedent in place per http://www.myfloridalicense.com/dbpr/abt/documents/61902REMOVE.pdf that seems to establish that Florida "brew on premise" vendors are not required to obtain a manufacturers license for this sort of activity. (I have that printed out and would certainly have it prominently displayed at the event if I pursued this further).


The idea is that I would operate and brew session on-site during the course of the market day to produce approximately 15 gallons of wort (30 gallons if I can fit two full sessions into the operating hours of the market) and accept reservations for up to 15 people to participate in the brew day and each get to take home a gallon of wort. they could purchase bottles, yeast, bottling supplies, gallon growlers, etc at the booth and learn the art of brewing in the process.

It seems like this could draw a nice crowd with the folks that frequent these events and I could stay pretty busy with it and make a decent profit and provide a valuable service to the public and the craft beer community.

I think that folks would certainly be willing to pay 20 dollars for a gallon of wort that they participated in the production of an then a few bucks over cost for supplies. Income per gallon could be $30 and could net a $800 day after expenses. Not a bad way to make your hobby pay for itself and get to meet cools folks and evangelize the virtues of craft beer.


I am in the process of building out a RIMS system that could accommodate this sort of volume and efficiency of flow and would like to know if anyone has ever tried this in the past?

Anybody have any thoughts on the matter?

 

[Phunhog]

I like the idea but I think 20 dollars for a gallon of wort is pretty steep. Especially when that doesn't include yeast, bottles, carboy, etc. It would cost someone close to 50 dollars just to ferment/bottle a single gallon of beer the first time.. Fermentation is the most important part of brewing. What will someone think if they leave there gallon of wort to ferment in their Florida garage for a week or two and it tastes like ass?

 

[libeerty]

And the risk of contamination bringing their wort home.

 

[LabRatBrewer]

if you are doing the brewing, as opposed to the customers using your equipment to brew, it seems like the Declaratory Opinion yiu cited might not apply nor protect you. But Im not a Florida Attorney. Just a thought.

 

[ktblunden]

if you are doing the brewing, as opposed to the customers using your equipment to brew, it seems like the Declaratory Opinion yiu cited might not apply nor protect you. But Im not a Florida Attorney. Just a thought.

According to page 7, which cites the ATF guidelines: BOP employees and proprietors "may furnish space, brewing equipment, ingredients, bottling supplies, and advice and expertise to customers. They may also furnish unfermented wort to BOP customers." So, that actually seems to be covered.

 

[TNGabe]

If you can find people who will pay $20 a gallon for wort, ask them if they're interested in some lovely ocean front property I have for sale here in TN.

 

[ktblunden]

Your proposed plan only controls the hot side of brewing. On the cold side, the (completely untrained and ill equipped) customer is responsible for proper sanitation and fermentation control. The vast majority of customers will end up with bad tasting beer due to infection, fusel alcohols from hot fermentation, and a host of other issues that you have no control over. When they end up with bad beer they won't blame themselves, they'll blame you. They won't return to buy more and they'll badmouth your business. A BOP relies on controlling every aspect of production, fermentation, and packaging in order to assure quality of the finished product which leads to repeat business and recommendations by past customers. If you want repeat business you need to control the quality of the finished product.

 

[LandoLincoln]

Ah, screw these nay-sayers! I say give it a try. But personally, I wouldn't go into it for the money. For $20, they should get a glass jug full of wort (with a little aquarium stick-on thermometer), a bung/airlock and a separate packet of dry yeast to pitch, with instructions on how to hydrate the yeast and pitch it and the extreme importance of sanitation and temperature control. Tell them to fill the airlocks with distilled water or vodka. Give them documentation on different options for controlling temps. A mini swamp cooler would probably be cheapest.

They still have to get some clean bottles, some sanitizer, a bottling bucket, an auto-siphon, tubing, corn sugar and bottle brush on their own. And some bottle caps and a capper if the bottles aren't flip-tops. But they need to know that they're going to need all of these things beforehand, where they can get them and how much they'll expect to pay. You may want to sell a starter kit with all this stuff if your idea proves to be popular.

 

[retheisen]

Your proposed plan only controls the hot side of brewing. On the cold side, the (completely untrained and ill equipped) customer is responsible for proper sanitation and fermentation control. The vast majority of customers will end up with bad tasting beer due to infection, fusel alcohols from hot fermentation, and a host of other issues that you have no control over. When they end up with bad beer they won't blame themselves, they'll blame you. They won't return to buy more and they'll badmouth your business. A BOP relies on controlling every aspect of production, fermentation, and packaging in order to assure quality of the finished product which leads to repeat business and recommendations by past customers. If you want repeat business you need to control the quality of the finished product.

I suspect that, even worse, if this is a customer's early experience with craft beer they may be left with a bad taste in their mouth (literally) for craft beer in general. Certainly chops the legs out from under the "evangelize the virtues of craft beer" bit.

 

[501irishred]

How many people on this site started out with a Mr. Beer kit or something like it? Sitting in our kitchen ill equipped, untrained, boiling a 2 year old can of pre hopped extract in a pot that was used to cook spaghetti the night before, pitching a no name yeast at 80 degrees, and fermenting in a closet for a whole 1-2 weeks, all without someone explaining the phrase "Don't worry, Relax, and have a Home Brew". ( I for one am raising my hand..)

A class that would give people an upfront knowledge of different ways to brew, and the importance of proper fermenting techniques is a great idea (no longer "completely untrained"). A gallon of wort would be more of a free gift that just happens to be better than a handful of pens and other crap I've accumulated from other day long classes.

 

[Phunhog]

Now what I think is a better idea is if someone came up with some sort of Mobile Homebrewing concept. You bring everything to the consumer and brew/ferment/bottle it at their house. Pretty much like a BOP except you come to them. The cool part is that the customer could throw a party for the brew session and then another one to drink the "fruits of their labor". Ideally you would want to do 10 gallon batches....(same amount of time but more beer). Heck if you want to get really creative you could keg the beers at their house( I hate bottling) and serve them via a jockey box at their party. Wow....the wheels are turning....

 

[Rhumbline]

The price does seem steep for what I'd be getting.

What about this? Could you offer to do a BOP operation on the customer's property? Businesses looking for a team building exercise, frat houses, etc. could hire you to come out for a half day, you charge x dollars a head, brew enough so each participant gets a six pack or so. Included in the price would be the primary fermenter, bottles, and custom labels.

You'd be giving them unfermented wort, and you come back in three weeks to oversee the bottling.

Now that I think about it, I'm going to suggest to my boss that we do this for our next team outing.

 

[Cathedral]

How many people on this site started out with a Mr. Beer kit or something like it? Sitting in our kitchen ill equipped, untrained, boiling a 2 year old can of pre hopped extract in a pot that was used to cook spaghetti the night before, pitching a no name yeast at 80 degrees, and fermenting in a closet for a whole 1-2 weeks, all without someone explaining the phrase "Don't worry, Relax, and have a Home Brew". ( I for one am raising my hand..)

A class that would give people an upfront knowledge of different ways to brew, and the importance of proper fermenting techniques is a great idea (no longer "completely untrained"). A gallon of wort would be more of a free gift that just happens to be better than a handful of pens and other crap I've accumulated from other day long classes.

Preach it, brother!

That being said, the Mr. Beer kit provided everything we needed (except for water and sugar.) Leaving it up to the customer to pick up the necessities for finishing fermentation might let things get a bit screwy.

I agree with the poster that said that if it turns out bad, they'll blame you and homebrew but not themselves. And they would be justified in that, because they don't have much experience to actually know they screwed up and not you. At least with my very first (and only) Mr. Beer, my beer sucked, but I drank it all, satisfied that "I made this!" Then I promptly got serious and ditched the kit.

Now, with that being said, if you take reservations, that means you have at least two hours to explain to them over and over and over, ad nauseum, the requirements to homebrew.

I think it's a good idea, and if you can afford it, give it a try; but I would walk into it not expecting it to be The Next Big Thing. Do it not to make money, but for the love of brewing.

Oh, and tell them straight up, if you're into homebrewing to save money, you should just leave now.

 

[501irishred]

Preach it, brother!

That being said, the Mr. Beer kit provided everything we needed (except for water and sugar.) Leaving it up to the customer to pick up the necessities for finishing fermentation might let things get a bit screwy.

I agree with the poster that said that if it turns out bad, they'll blame you and homebrew but not themselves. And they would be justified in that, because they don't have much experience to actually know they screwed up and not you. At least with my very first (and only) Mr. Beer, my beer sucked, but I drank it all, satisfied that "I made this!" Then I promptly got serious and ditched the kit.

Now, with that being said, if you take reservations, that means you have at least two hours to explain to them over and over and over, ad nauseum, the requirements to homebrew.

I think it's a good idea, and if you can afford it, give it a try; but I would walk into it not expecting it to be The Next Big Thing. Do it not to make money, but for the love of brewing.

Oh, and tell them straight up, if you're into homebrewing to save money, you should just leave now.

Good points! Maybe instead of $25, make it $50-$75. Send them home with a gallon of wort in a sanitized 2 gallon bucket, 3 pc air lock, a second 2 gal bucket for bottling (filled with starsan solution), and a simple racking cane with bottling wand.
I teach a home improvement/repair class for a local continuing education college. For an 8 hour class, where I give basic information about a wide range of topics and simply answer questions, people gladly pay $125 (crazy, I know). No goodies at the end, only knowledge. If you were to educate people on how to brew great beer, and send them home with the tools and knowledge to at least come up with good beer (and the knowledge of how to make it better), I think the sky's the limit!

+1 on "Oh, and tell them straight up, if you're into homebrewing to save money, you should just leave now"