phillc
Regular.
I realise this is a home brew forum, but thought it might be interesting to post about my latest adventure.
Myself and a couple of associates here in Austria have been homebrewing for a while now, sharing our beers among ourselves and friends. We decided during COVID lockdown that we're going to have a go at doing something commercial. The key question is how?
We're not loaded enough to finance a craft brewery with all the equipment that entails. We also all currently have full time jobs, which we're not quite ready to step away from (mortgages, kids etc).
Instead, we've found a small local Schloss brewery who will allow us to use their equipment to brew. What's a Schloss brewery? Basically it's a hotel brewery in this case. They normally brew for weddings, parties and events. However, due to lockdown, there's been none of those for the last 12 months or so. We're the first people they've allowed to "contract" brew with them. Of course we're paying for the privilege.
Anyway, today's the day. Our first 300 litre "pilot batch". That's the minimum that can be brewed in the equipment. We may not end up selling this first batch, as the business side of things are not quite fully in place yet. If this brew works out, the next step is 500 litres, which we will aim to sell into bars and pubs in the city. One prominent local craft beer pub have committed to taking 50 litres, so that's a start!
We're brewing Hefeweizen (wheat beer) as we believe there's a market for such a craft product in Austria. The malt and hops are all locally sourced. It's just the yeast which come from elsewhere.
The brewery doesn't want us to start until midday local time, which is about 75 minutes away. I'm about to leave the house. Slightly excited. I hope to post some pictures and updates during the day.
Myself and a couple of associates here in Austria have been homebrewing for a while now, sharing our beers among ourselves and friends. We decided during COVID lockdown that we're going to have a go at doing something commercial. The key question is how?
We're not loaded enough to finance a craft brewery with all the equipment that entails. We also all currently have full time jobs, which we're not quite ready to step away from (mortgages, kids etc).
Instead, we've found a small local Schloss brewery who will allow us to use their equipment to brew. What's a Schloss brewery? Basically it's a hotel brewery in this case. They normally brew for weddings, parties and events. However, due to lockdown, there's been none of those for the last 12 months or so. We're the first people they've allowed to "contract" brew with them. Of course we're paying for the privilege.
Anyway, today's the day. Our first 300 litre "pilot batch". That's the minimum that can be brewed in the equipment. We may not end up selling this first batch, as the business side of things are not quite fully in place yet. If this brew works out, the next step is 500 litres, which we will aim to sell into bars and pubs in the city. One prominent local craft beer pub have committed to taking 50 litres, so that's a start!
We're brewing Hefeweizen (wheat beer) as we believe there's a market for such a craft product in Austria. The malt and hops are all locally sourced. It's just the yeast which come from elsewhere.
The brewery doesn't want us to start until midday local time, which is about 75 minutes away. I'm about to leave the house. Slightly excited. I hope to post some pictures and updates during the day.
