Co-operative Brewing

Lugh Ildanach

I'm just wondering if most people on here are brewing as a hobby and solely on an individual basis, perhaps just supplying friends and family with an occasional brew, but mainly dealing with their own individual beer requirements, or if there are people out there doing this on a more organised co-operative basis.

I'm doing this with a few friends, on a co-operative basis, everyone chipping in what they can and contributing to costs etc, collectively deciding what brews we want to put on and the end product being shared out between half a dozen or so of us according to what we put in. With more people involved, we have greater capacity to get batches done and an increased selection of various brews (we have 6 brews on between us at the minute).

And also makes a good occasion for a cooperative tasting/party when each brew is ready

covey09

No else is getting their grubby hands on my brew

BeerNut

I brew outside so when it happens it's on occasions when free time and dry weather coincide. If I had to make arrangements with other people brewing would just never happen.

lil_lisa

My partner and I have been doing extract brewing for the last year together at home. We recently just moved to all grain brewing with two other friends. Just like you, Lugh, we're splitting costs/beer/time etc. For all-grain it made more sense than all four of us buying everything separately as we had done for extract brewing.

The only thing we don't split are the ingredients costs. Everyone decides what beer they want to make and we all make it (not always all of us, but no one does it alone). I can only imagine the arguments over what style of beer to make so this way we each get to decide.

We've only started recently but are pushing for 2 or 3 5-gallon batches a week.

How long have you been doing it collectively?

merc230ce

When the idea first came to me to get into brewing I said it to my brothers and suggested that we do it together, split equipment costs etc. 'Great idea!', they said.

Feckers haven't been seen since except to rob the odd 6-pack :rolleyes:

BeerNut

I'm sure there are several water-soluable laxatives you can prime with.

leggit

I'm the only brewer in my circle and of course everybody drinks it but they've put forward the idea of giving me seed money to make the beer!

Askim

merc230ce wrote: »

When the idea first came to me to get into brewing I said it to my brothers and suggested that we do it together, split equipment costs etc. 'Great idea!', they said.

Feckers haven't been seen since except to rob the odd 6-pack :rolleyes:

none of my brothers like anything i brew, which is great as i love most of them & i hate to share :)

spoofilyj

If you have the right people and you can agree then great.

Personally I prefer to do it myself, brew what I like and share it when its finished.

A couple of friends do homebrew too and we give each other tips and advice and the like but when it gets down to actually brewing I prefer to have the kitchen to myself, have everything sterilised and setup the way I like it, I dont mind sharing most of the end result but I really enjoy the process and I think I might also be a bit of a control freak so I dont want to get annoyed with anyone over a brew...

Lugh Ildanach

lil_lisa wrote: »

My partner and I have been doing extract brewing for the last year together at home. We recently just moved to all grain brewing with two other friends. Just like you, Lugh, we're splitting costs/beer/time etc. For all-grain it made more sense than all four of us buying everything separately as we had done for extract brewing.

The only thing we don't split are the ingredients costs. Everyone decides what beer they want to make and we all make it (not always all of us, but no one does it alone). I can only imagine the arguments over what style of beer to make so this way we each get to decide.

We've only started recently but are pushing for 2 or 3 5-gallon batches a week.

How long have you been doing it collectively?

Only doing it a couple of months now. We have 6 involved, and at the minute the equipment is split between two of us, although that will rotate after a while, although like some of the other posters I can imagine that when its my turn to relinquish control I may be reluctant, as it is great fun!

lil_lisa

Wow, that's a lot of people.. = a lot of beer so makes sense
We've actually started a website (www.brewingproject.com) to outline everything we're doing together (planning, money, brewing, drinking :P) if you're interested.

Yawns

Meh I just started into the whole home brewing back in the middle of September. 1 lad really liked it so much he is adamant about doing it himself. Another lad I work with wants to buy a case of beer off me.

I just enjoy doing it and have started on brew #8. I drank all the beer that was ready. The GF has nearly finished her wine. They have all been 23L batches too so quite a bit of beer for me to drink now. Quite a lot of it should be perfect over the xmas period too so happy enough with that.

sharingan

In Galway 091 Labs spawned off a sub group (091 brew masters) to do co-operative brew experiments.

This was at the cheaper end of the brewing scale, and was more about education than pooling the results. Typically though there was a fair few home brews shared at the various member events, and the off barbeque.