POLL - Would you rent a grainfather?

[KegThat]

What about rent it for free if you spend say £150 on ingredients?

 

[Brewnaldo]

What about rent it for free if you spend say £150 on ingredients?

Speaking only for me, I could never brew 150 quid worth of ingredients in the rental time even supposing it was a month.

150 quid worth on one delivery would last me 6 months pribably.

Not to say they all need to be brewed in the rented GG I suppose....

In fact, if you offered me a week with a delivered GF it might incentivise me to bulk buy...

See how my mind twisted there the more I typed

 

[Binkei Huckaback]

If I didn't own one already, I might. However, I think there's too much scope for it to become a nightmare on your part.

-Unless you state there is no helpdesk, your weekends are tied up answering questions (silicon top and bottom plate seals anyone?)
- People might not want to take a day off work to take delivery and another to return it

Someone mentioned The Maltmiller and that's an extremely good idea if you have an experienced brewer to spare, but you'd have to factor in their time too.

Personally, I'd offer a discount on buying a machine if peoppe had rented one. I'd be offering the option to use it at your warehouse too as being flexible means the less chance it's got to stand idle.
.

 

[Mayor of Simpleton]

I never buy £150 of ingredients at one time. Would I be persuaded with the offer of a free gf to rent - no, probably not. If I wanted an all in one system, there is enough info out there for me to make an informed decision on what to buy. I am still really struggling to find a circumstance where I wanted to rent a system

 

[Sadfield]

You need an awful lot of people interested enough in brewing, who don't have space for kit or aren't quite interested enough to be regular brewers

I'm seeing the biggest market as, kit and extract brewers. If one was to offer that customet base the opportunity to dabble in a batch of AG at realistic price, there may be some mileage in providing the kit, ingredients and clear instructions. I'm presuming AG is where the margins are, with breaking down bulk bought ingredients, so it could give some brewers a push into going AG. Which would also drive equipment sales.

 

[gyurmaember]

It's a very good idea, but not for the G30. I think there would be more interest for bigger machines. I'd gladly rent a b80 or maybe even a g70.

 

[Galena]

Only way I would rent would be if the rental price is subtracted from the purchase price if I decided to buy it after trying it for a week.

 

[Binkei Huckaback]

I'm seeing the biggest market as, kit and extract brewers. If one was to offer that customet base the opportunity to dabble in a batch of AG at realistic price, there may be some mileage in providing the kit, ingredients and clear instructions. I'm presuming AG is where the margins are, with breaking down bulk bought ingredients, so it could give some brewers a push into going AG. Which would also drive equipment sales.

I think you're spot on. Also, I think there needs to be a very comprehensive list of terms and conditions detailing exactly what is included in the hire (no ingredients or fermenter etc) and what they're responsible for that the customer has to have read and ticked a box for before they can rent.

Also either the CFC needs to be cleaned every time it's sent out, or the customer needs to clean it before they use it. The CFC is going to be a nightmare. There will still be at best water still in it which will leak during transit or more likely over someone's new cream carpet.

Possibly the most important thing to consider after terms and conditions is electrical safety. The unit and controller will need to be at least visually checked after each hire period and then periodically tested to make sure there are no faults. Unless you're qualified and have the right test equipment, that could be quite costly.

 

[Brewnaldo]

Counterflow chiller is a good shout actually. I get put off getting one of them on grounds of cleanliness and im a brewer.

Imagine some dafty rattling a couple gundred g of hops through it then packing it up for 6 days before it gets collected....

 

[Chippy_Tea]

12 people have said no

Possibly the most important thing to consider after terms and conditions is electrical safety. The unit and controller will need to be at least visually checked after each hire period and then periodically tested to make sure there are no faults. Unless you're qualified and have the right test equipment, that could be quite costly

That is a very good point BH.

After reading that i thought about the whole subject wouldn't Ben need some kind of insurance to stop him being sued if something went wrong?

 

[KegThat]

Fortunately, someone in the family is an electrician! But yes insurance is another point!

 

[DavidDetroit]

Testing something before you buy it is a sound idea. I have no real understanding of how one works or performs. Not interested or anything but it's a good idea and would pave the way to a purchase.
Don't know why 50 pounds though. I don't know what the perfect price is for renting, but a lot of brewers are interested in saving money and making beer. It's why the price of canning is a deal breaker for me.
If the point is to drum up sales and so forth, let a potential buyer rent it for a lot less (whatever that's perceived to be). Sell the rented units, refurbished, at a later date for less.

 

[Madhouse]

Firstly I'm not your target market as I have my own kit. If a brewer is at the stage of AG brewing there's a good likelihood that they have a lot of their own kit already, so I suppose are you coming it from the angle of 'try before you buy' or just rental? I think there's legs in the 'try before you buy' aspect, spend the £50 and give it a go, if you like it we'll give you £xx back on buying one from us - that's certainly something I'd have considered when I was ready to make the move up from BIAB.

I also think there's legs in offering brew days. Plenty of people do the gin distilling thing so why not do the same with beer? While the mash & boil are doing their thing you could do tastings etc to keep the punters interested. Only issue after that is you need somewhere for all the beer to ferment out and then bottling/conditioning/getting the beer to the customer.

Another idea is some sort of brew club, you provide site, facilities and a bit of supervision and they pay a monthly/annual fee to use it. That means that they do the work from start to finish but you'd attract those that don't have the space or kit to brew their own, you could chuck brewing courses into the mix as an additional revenue stream. Thinking about it you'd probably want a nominal membership fee and then a charge to use the kit on a brewday and then a smaller weekly rental fee for the fermenter to cover the temp control and encourage them to come back and bottle/keg.

 

[Paul7189]

Firstly I'm not your target market as I have my own kit. If a brewer is at the stage of AG brewing there's a good likelihood that they have a lot of their own kit already, so I suppose are you coming it from the angle of 'try before you buy' or just rental? I think there's legs in the 'try before you buy' aspect, spend the £50 and give it a go, if you like it we'll give you £xx back on buying one from us - that's certainly something I'd have considered when I was ready to make the move up from BIAB.

I also think there's legs in offering brew days. Plenty of people do the gin distilling thing so why not do the same with beer? While the mash & boil are doing their thing you could do tastings etc to keep the punters interested. Only issue after that is you need somewhere for all the beer to ferment out and then bottling/conditioning/getting the beer to the customer.

Another idea is some sort of brew club, you provide site, facilities and a bit of supervision and they pay a monthly/annual fee to use it. That means that they do the work from start to finish but you'd attract those that don't have the space or kit to brew their own, you could chuck brewing courses into the mix as an additional revenue stream. Thinking about it you'd probably want a nominal membership fee and then a charge to use the kit on a brewday and then a smaller weekly rental fee for the fermenter to cover the temp control and encourage them to come back and bottle/keg.

That becomes complicated because if you are then allowing people to ferment on site then surely when the fermentation is finished you would technically become a small scale brewery by providing alcohol at the end.

 

[jof]

I am sure that pre Covid and pre location move (so about 4 - 5 years ago now) the home brew shop that was in Aldershot used to run courses like introduction to ag brewing using all in one kit.
You would brew one saturday & collect the next.
Always sounded busy if I went in to buy supplies when it was on.

 

[Dazzelknight]

Hi @BenParr
How successful was the the grainfarther raffle you did last year ?.. I’d be well up for another couple of loosing tickets if you were to do another draw.

 

[chopps]

@BenParr Have you considered the Nespresso model, or something like it?
They give you the coffee machine in exchange for a commitment on capsules over an agreed period.
You're essentially paying for it over time, nothing is free, but it makes the cost up front a bit more bearable.

Many customers will be brewing every month and a commitment to ingredients and consumables might not be a challenge if a machine was offered. You'd have to do the maths based on your business model.

eg. Nespresso's model
A Sage Creatista Pro Coffee Machine rrp. £679 for £1 if you commit to spend £70 a month on coffee pods for 2 years.

 

[-Bezza-]

Don't need one but at the time, I might have paid to rent one before trying. £50 for 2 weeks would be better.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Could the 19 members that voted £50 is too expensive post what they would be happy to pay as this will show Ben if this is going to be worth the effort or not.

 

[Harbey]

I have always thought a brewing experience would work well but it is the fermenting and bottling that always becomes the issue.

Best idea I have come up with is to include a fermenter (if you have some in stock that you want to get rid of), syphon, 40 pet bottles and perhaps a bottling bucket. Customer comes and does a brew, transfers to fermenter, cleans up and then takes their beer and kit to pitch the yeast, ferment and bottle at home.

Returning customers then have the option of bringing their fermenting vessel back to refill and obviously pay a reduced rate as they only need the brewing ingredients and use of the GF.

And, if the customer decides to take the plunge and buy their own system, they've already got the majority of the kit they need for their own setup.