Let’s face it homebrewing is an expensive hobby. With all the ingredients and equipment that goes into brewing a delicious beer you can rack up quite a bill.
This is the biggest barrier when it comes to homebrewing, aside from the technical aspects and sometimes complex chemistry. That’s why Frugal Homebrew seeks to find ways to make homebrewing fun while still affordable to as many people as possible.
There comes a point where you may even become so invested in your beer that you wonder to yourself, can I recoup some of my costs or even make money from my homebrewing hobby? The answer to that question is a resounding yes.
So here are 10 ways you can monetize your homebrewing hobby.
1. Repair Corny Kegs
Homebrewing requires a lot of skill, many skills gained can be put to good use and even become very lucrative. One of these skills requires you to know the ins and outs of your homebrew serving equipment.
Corny Kegs are often used to serve homebrew and require much less work than bottling. But, sometimes Corny kegs break and parts wear down. Many of these broken corny kegs end up on places like Craigslist or Ebay.
If you are familiar with changing out the parts in your corny kegs you can buy these corny kegs cheap, fix them up and resell them. A lot of online brew supply stores sell refurbished corny kegs, so why not you?
You can buy extra parts from places like Kegco or Adventures in Homebrewing to make sure they are quality.
If you get good at fixing corny kegs you could even do your own kegerator conversions to sell locally. Mass produced kegerators while efficient and quality, have little differentiation. Many people have made some pretty cool setups and some questionable ones, like this trash can.
Shipping these heavy items long distances can be a killer so providing a local service is definitely lucrative and in demand.
2. Start a Website or YouTube Channel
The irony is not lost on me, since of course I am doing the above as you read. But, I can tell you that it is very possible to make money this way and the niche is not too saturated.
Starting a website or YouTube channel can take a lot of work, and like any business takes a while to really pay off. So if you are willing to put in the long hours and work required, than this can be a great way to make money from homebrewing.
Here are a couple tips I can share that might help you out.
- Share your recipe’s unless you plan on opening a brewery tomorrow. These are essentially worthless unless you have a way of monetizing them, recipe’s cannot be copyrighted.
- Provide useful information to help other brewers out. Nobody cares about what you have to say unless you are telling others what they want to know.
This way of monetizing your hobby while difficult and long term can pay off as you find more ways to monetize your homebrewing hobby. Check out the Frugal Homebrew YouTube Channel for more information.
3. Create Your Own Homebrew Competition Festival
Ok, I have to admit this one is pretty involved. It will take a lot of planning and preparation. But, if your good at that sort of thing this could be a great idea and a lot of fun.
There are far too many festivals sponsored by and highlighting microbreweries without the homebrewer in mind. This idea flips the script and focuses on homebrewers.
Hoppy Possum homebrew festival became very popular and Brew Together wrote a great article on how they did it.
In order to do this you will likely need the approval from the homebrewers association. Since you can get certified homebrew judges to judge winners. Which is great since you will even get some free advertisement, as there is a calendar listed.
The homebrew festival really doesn’t even have to be that large, all you need to do is provide an outlet for homebrewers to compete and possibly have prizes available for excitement.
4. Win A Homebrew Competition
This is sort of related to the above but with a little bit less work. If you can find a great homebrew competition that offers cash prizes to the winners you can monetize your tastiest recipe.
This is a great way to get people excited about your beer and see if you have what it takes to take your passion to the next step, opening a microbrewery. Don’t be upset if you don’t win though, there are still plenty of other ways to cash in.
5. Sell Homebrew Ingredients
I know this seems a bit involved, also with so many online homebrew supply stores how could you possibly compete?
Well the answer is to start small and carve out your own niche. Maybe you love growing your own hops? You might be able to start your own little hop farm and sell specialty hops.
If your interested in growing your own hops and using fresh hops in beer you might like my article on how to add fresh hops to beer.
Or you can do what Hop of the Month Club has done and become a wholesaler and sell specialty hops from small family farms on a subscription basis.
This niche is far from saturated as most of the large entities focus on the most popular and mass produced beer ingredients. The same can be done for malt and even water salts.
6. Sell Fermented Hot Sauce, Dog Treats or Pizza Dough
It doesn’t have to be hot sauce but it could be anything fermented and non-alcoholic. Homebrewing teaches you a lot of about the process of fermentation so it would be silly not to use that knowledge.
So why did I say hot sauce? Well that’s because Freaky Ferments is funding their very own brewery by making hot sauce. Check them out and try it for your next gathering.
The opportunities can really be endless since there are a number of waste products that can be turned into usable products that people will pay good money for.
You know those spent grains after a full brew day? They can actually be used to make a few things. Some examples include: Dog treats, bread or even pizza dough.
This very talented father daughter instagramer duo made their very own pizza dough and it looks delicious.
7. Brewery Consultation and Advertising
While this might not seem like it is something that a homebrewer is capable of, being a homebrewer has its advantages. The ability to understand what makes a good beer and connecting with the homebrewing community is an asset any brewery would want to grow their brand.
Homebrewers, ironically, are some of the biggest customers of craft breweries, so being hip to consumer trends will help. Also if you have grown a following on social media you can utilize that to assist in promoting any craft breweries.
If you are good on the advertising side you may even be able to take over their social media and advertising for a fee and let them focus on making great craft beer.
8. Roast and Sell Your Own Specialty Malts
Specialty malts are popular and numerous, but are often in limited supply. After diving deep into roasting my own grains I found out that most specialty grains are actually just basic malt grains like 2 row that have either been roasted or malted and roasted.
This got me wondering what the price difference was between the two. After running the numbers I found out that you could buy the base malt roast it yourself and sell it for far less than specialty malts are being sold for on any website!
This is great news for craft malters. So if you were interested you could set up your own roasted malt company. There are so many coffee roasting machines you can buy to get you started.
I can imagine craft roasting becoming more popular as time goes on. This seems to be the last untapped bastion of unique beer brewing.
If your interested in learning more about roasting your own malt check out my article on roasting your own specialty malts to save money.
9. Open Your Very Own MicroBrewery
It is illegal to sell beer directly so opening your own microbrewery will have the biggest barrier to entry. You will need to get a license to brew and sell your beer.
There may also be a learning curve when it comes to producing your own beer. However, there have been a lot of microbreweries that have been able to utilize the Brewha equipment which is as close to homebrewing as you can get.
The great thing about this equipment is it is good for small spaces. Allowing for a larger tasting room to get as many sales as you can.
10. Teach Homebrewing Classes and Entertain Tourists
Travelling for beer is becoming increasingly popular. It is likely it will get to the level of wineries. It could also become more prevalent since it can become more widespread than grape growing regions.
With these beer tourists comes an interest in beer. So it may be fun to set up some homebrewing classes to teach potential homebrewers about the process.
You can teach any level of brewing classes, beginners or even expert classes. This can depend on your skill level but it is likely there will be an array of skilled and unskilled brewers traveling for beer.
Alongside the homebrewing class you can also talk about the regions famous beer styles and any great brewery recommendations you would have of your local region.
Don’t Let Your Hobby Hold You Back
Brewing is a worthwhile and rewarding passion. Often times it will suck your bank account dry, but you don’t have to let it. The homebrewing community is full of so many talented and exciting ways to interact, build relationships and potentially profit from your passion.
So many homebrewers dream of owning their own brewery one day and the market is becoming increasingly saturated, but we don’t all have to open a brewery since its super expensive anyways. Just network and carve out your own niche in the homebrewing world and have fun doing it!
If you have any questions about homebrewing feel free to Email us at Frugalhomebrew@gmail.com. Also check out our recommended gear page for ideas and recommendations.