I’m a member of a shared maker space in Knoxville, TN called Able Trade. We have a large facility with all kinds of shared tools and equipment from woodshop, finishing booth, metal shop, CNCs etc etc etc.
we’re exploring creating a brewery in our space as well and making it available to members. The structure would be that a monthly membership would get you access to the brewhouse and fermenters. We’d also ideally offer access to bulk materials etc etc etc.
Here’s where I could use y’all’s help -
have you ever seen a model like this, and if so what are the gotcha’s we need to look out for
any legal issues around this approach? I cant think of any, it seems very much like a homebrew club - but to be clear, the business would own the equipment - members would use the equipment to make homebrew.
We have a maker space in Huntsville that one of our club members moved his brew rig into. We brewed the 2025 Big Brew there as a club and he has brewed there a few other times. We even held several club meetings there.
Unfortunately, the maker space is closing due to lack of interest and we’re heading back to the brewery where we used to meet.
One thing to keep in mind is to look at your state laws about transporting beer. In some states, Ohio being one of them, once your pitch the yeast into the wort, it is not considered beer and you might have problems with open container laws in your state. One way around it it to have anyone brewing in your “shared facility” is to tell the brewers not to pitch the yeast until they get the wort home. It is only considered basically sugar water at that point won’t violate any state liquor laws. Just a word to the wise here.