Johnnie Bongos' Brewspace...

[andrew]

Here's an interesting looking Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jo ... reator_nav

[TheBeerNut]

You have to wonder who they reckon is the market for something like this. People who've never heard of TOG?

[andrew]

Kinda what I thought. Plus TOG membership fees are a lot lower than €900 a year.

[TheBeerNut]

Well there's something to work towards

[oblivious]

You have to wonder who they reckon is the market for something like this. People who've never heard of TOG?

But they're also running this as a business so surely revenue, Dublin COCO will all need to be involved too

[TheBeerNut]

I'd have thought they'd need a commercial brewing licence, and maybe they're getting one. Though I'd also have thought the Artisan Brew Academy would need one, and they're still going without.

[oblivious]

Probably haven't come up on there radar, bongos is quite active with the kickstarter promotion.

[jamm222]

Hi Lads

Johnnie here from JohnnieBongos Brewery. We arent competing with TOG our space is just for brewing. We believe there are 3 markets:
1: people who like craft beer and would like to learn how to brew
2: experienced home brewers who would like to brew with other home brewers using high quality stainless steel equipment and Fermenters(we will have a fermentation room and a nice place to hang out)
3: Corporate team building days, brewing beer for christmas party etc...

Our membership covers up to 5 people so the €900 kickstarter offer which is limited just to kickstarter would only cost each person €15 each per month. Members would have access to a 50 litre conical fermenter that they fill twice a month. Ingredients/bottles/kegs are extra.

Any other questions please give me a shout.

Thanks

Johnnie

[TheBeerNut]

Hi Johnnie! Are you getting a commercial brewers' licence for the facility?

[jamm222]

Yes we are working on that as we speak.
What are your thoughts on what we are doing, I would love to get some feedback.
Thanks
Johnnie

[TheBeerNut]

Personally I think the crowd-funding ship has sailed. You need a really good offer to make it fly these days and I just can't see there being the market for this. It leaves you with a lot of work to do after you've paid in order to get any return.

Regarding the facility itself, I've been hanging around with homebrewers and the homebrew-curious for about ten years and I've never met someone who wanted access to a system like this. Anyone who's serious enough to put the money in for it will already have built their own kit. You lose some of the thrill of making your own beer if you're doing it at a commercial premises on an industrial estate; and if all you want is access to the beer then it's a lot easier and safer to just buy it. On a larger scale you can get someone like Craftworks or an established brewer to contract brew it.

Sorry to be a downer. I hope I'm wrong!

[jamm222]

Hey man,
Thanks for the feedback. I completely understand what you are saying. Where we will be different is:
1. We are looking to teach people how to brew, we will provide the space, equipment, ingredients(pay extra) and the knowledge to brew a 40 litre batch of all grain beer.
2. Our facility will be kitted out with 3 faze power, a cleaning area, 6 brew stations and most importantly a fermentation chamber where our conical fermenters will be stored in a temperature controlled environment.
3. Crowd funding is tough but its working, we have raised 2k so far, our campaign is only getting going.
4. to address this 'Anyone who's serious enough to put the money in for it will already have built their own kit.' There are a lot of people who dont know how to do this or arent willing to invest in a system for something that they are only trying for the first time. Personally i used a kit the first time i started brewing years ago and the beer tasted so bad that it put me off for years. As soon as i tried Bongos all grain beer it was a different gig completely.
5. our rates are cheap enough that an experienced homebrewer that cant afford a conical or the equipment to do a bigger batch could drop in and use our system.
6. this model is big in London, check out http://www.ubrew.cc they have a waiting list for members.

Our building is in North Strand, its a very central location.
I would love to send you some beer that we made and invite you to JohnnieBongos Brewery to brew with us someday .

All the best

Johnnie

[andrew]

Question- you say that membership covers 5 people- does that mean that they can brew 5 different beers at the same time?

[oblivious]

Hi Johnnie

It would be worth posting this on your site for potential investors. Also if you have all the appropriate licenses and such there nothing stopping you approaching pubs , pub groups and business to do one off or bespoke beers from them too. An there the potential of availing of the new tap room laws as well.

Yes we are working on that as we speak.
What are your thoughts on what we are doing, I would love to get some feedback.
Thanks
Johnnie

[jamm222]

@Andy
the way it works is that each member is assigned a 53 litre (14 us gallon) stainless steel fermenter, they can fill this twice a month so an ideal scenario is that they brew, come back 2 weeks later, bottle, then brew again and so on. each member can bring 4 friends with them to help them brew, you will be assigned a brew station and can buy all the ingredients that you need from us. You will have access to grain mills, plate chillers and everything else that you need.