daveincincy wrote:There are a group of guys/friends currently organizing a brew club in my neighborhood. One of the guys has a basement (aka "the cave") in his detached garage where the brewing will take place. It's actually pretty organized (like a company) with brewing teams of two who will rotate through every weekend. With the number of guys involved it means showing up once every 2-3 months (or more if desired) to brew another batch. Each brewer will get about 4 cases of beer...4 cases of beer at my house would last an entire summer or longer (if I didn't share it). A few of the guys have been homebrewing for years, but they still want/need a Brew Meister. Each person is chipping in $135-$200 for the startup costs...with 25 brewers that should generate up to ~$5000 for tooling-up and brewing the first 100 cases of beer. As fun as it sounds, I'm still undecided, but giving it serious thought.
I've gotten back into home brewing over the past couple of years and have talked to a few folks who are involved with brew clubs. They seem like good people for the most part but I came away worried about the old "too many cooks" issue. You have folks rotating through the brewery, taking turns doing tasks, I just worry about things that can go wrong that I have no control over. Also, the issue of 16-24 or so people deciding together on what to brew? It would seem to me that, with a brew club, smaller would be better.
I guess I want to be the one doing the process right through and like having it brewing in my own house. There's nothing saying you couldn't do both but I am always concerned about chaos theory controlling any organized group in the end. But that's probably just me, I'm sometimes accused of being a bit anti-social in my older years.
My unasked for 1.5 cents.