Any interest in a Cornwall Brewing Club? Donor brewery offer
Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2015 11:22 pm
Just a thought, but is there enough interest out there to formalise a brewing club in Cornwall?
After a few years holiday-homing in Cornwall whilst living in Kent, I'm moving down to live in Cornwall permanently this summer. Unlike my previous plan to open a Cornish micro brewery, this plan will involve me having a normal job which will keep brewing as just a hobby. I have a 1bbl set up that is too big for just me so I was thinking of what to do with it and came up with two options 1) sell it all and buy something smaller or 2) share it with someone else to get use of it. From that came the idea of using it as a brew club facility hence the topic asking if there's any interest in a Cornish club.
I'm not a club member anywhere and don't entirely know how they work on average. However, I had in mind one which isn't just a social forum with home brewed beer the theme, I have in mind a group that brews collaboratively and shares the beers amongst its members as well.
To make it work, the group would need a dedicated brewery which would need to be hosted somewhere where we could all get to on set days for brews and someone could get to to monitor ferments etc, so probably that means someone's property or spare workspace or more extreme, renting somewhere. There would be bills to pay (lekky, grain, hops, yeast, maintenance etc), but I would happily donate the equipment under the right circumstances which might be as simple as me just contributing less than other members in the running costs until I had recovered the sunk cost. This might be of interest to would be brewers who might not yet have the option to set up their own brewery or people who are curious but aren't informed enough to jump in alone.
Anyway, like I say, it's just a suggestion to see what appetite there might be out there for such a group so I'd welcome feedback. I do have plans to eventually go commercial still in a few years and it would be amazing if this group could be the platform for that, especially if it meant a few of us took that step together... but let's not get carried away just yet....
After a few years holiday-homing in Cornwall whilst living in Kent, I'm moving down to live in Cornwall permanently this summer. Unlike my previous plan to open a Cornish micro brewery, this plan will involve me having a normal job which will keep brewing as just a hobby. I have a 1bbl set up that is too big for just me so I was thinking of what to do with it and came up with two options 1) sell it all and buy something smaller or 2) share it with someone else to get use of it. From that came the idea of using it as a brew club facility hence the topic asking if there's any interest in a Cornish club.
I'm not a club member anywhere and don't entirely know how they work on average. However, I had in mind one which isn't just a social forum with home brewed beer the theme, I have in mind a group that brews collaboratively and shares the beers amongst its members as well.
To make it work, the group would need a dedicated brewery which would need to be hosted somewhere where we could all get to on set days for brews and someone could get to to monitor ferments etc, so probably that means someone's property or spare workspace or more extreme, renting somewhere. There would be bills to pay (lekky, grain, hops, yeast, maintenance etc), but I would happily donate the equipment under the right circumstances which might be as simple as me just contributing less than other members in the running costs until I had recovered the sunk cost. This might be of interest to would be brewers who might not yet have the option to set up their own brewery or people who are curious but aren't informed enough to jump in alone.
Anyway, like I say, it's just a suggestion to see what appetite there might be out there for such a group so I'd welcome feedback. I do have plans to eventually go commercial still in a few years and it would be amazing if this group could be the platform for that, especially if it meant a few of us took that step together... but let's not get carried away just yet....