Here Be Monsters Craft Brewery is a tiny 1-man brewery based in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire. It is run be me, Doug Scard. I produce a range of exciting and interesting modern cask and bottle-conditioned real ales.
I started selling my wares in December 2014 and was stunned by the initial interest. Since then it has been difficult to keep up with demand and I have often had to ration my beers so I can spread my stock around and keep people as happy as possible.
With my own fair hands I built my current brew kit, a 1-barrel (~200 litres) brewery, in the back of a residential garage. This brewery has served me very well but its capacity and the physical space I have available is beginning to hinder my ability to produce stock efficiently and in reasonable quantity…
…Hence my need to expand.
I have a small amount of money already available but this is not enough to set up even a modest brewery…
…Hence my need to approach you guys.
Breweries aren’t cheap, however there are a few tricks to keep the expenditure down and I will be using as many of these as possible.
Initially, depending on the amount of investment I can secure, I will invest in a single fermentor to keep the initial outlay down. This will limit me to just one brew day a week at the outset, but it will make a significant cost saving.
One of the most significant costs for a new brewery is casks – you need a surprisingly large number. However I intend to brew at half-capacity – this means fewer casks will be necessary. Once this volume of beer can be sold quickly and easily I will use working capital to buy more casks and start brewing at full capacity (approximately 1750 pints per week). Eventually a second fermentor (~3500 pints per week) and even third (~5250 pints per week) will be bought from working capital.
Using a 6 barrel brewery with 3 fermentors I will be able to produce over 5000 pints of beer per week. This is far too much for one person to be able to deal with single-handedly, what with all the brew-days, sales and deliveries necessary for such a scale of production. At this stage (if not before) there will be employment opportunities for folk in the Holmfirth area.
There are many great reasons to pledge…
Perhaps the most important reason… I spent a day wandering around Holmfirth with a Selfie Stick talking to myself. Your pledge will help me recover from such an experience!!
The money rasied will go towards:
If I manage to overfund the extra money will go to buying more casks. If a lot more money is raised I may well buy another fermentor or additional casks.
* Disclaimer. A beer a day probably doesn’t keep the doctor away.