Homebrewing almost always starts as a hobby, but sometimes it takes people down the road to success where they make their entire income based on it.
Homebrewing is a skill that takes time to be mastered, but once you can constantly produce great beer it means that you have a product to offer. The best thing about this is the fact that you don’t necessarily have to sell beer, but rather your skills and experience.
Is there a way to make money with homebrewing beer?
There are many ways to monetize your homebrewing hobby, but you need to know where to look and be consistent once you pick your business model. It’s illegal to sell homebrewed beer without a license though.
I have prepared 7 ways how to make money with homebrewing to hopefully inspire you to turn your hobby into a source of income.
1. Open a homebrewing blog
The first thing that comes to my mind is a homebrewing blog and this probably doesn’t surprise you. A blog in this niche is a great way to connect with people and share your knowledge with them which will help them brew great beer at home.
You see, when you help someone (and there are tons of questions regarding homebrewing that need answers) that someone will appreciate that you spent time giving them information for free.
When you help others, people will help you in return if you ask them to use your affiliate links, or they will see ads, so you can earn some money for your efforts.
All of these ways of monetization are completely free for the readers, although the ads can be a bit annoying I admit. However, sometimes the reader will like the ad they see and buy something, or when you promote a product that you have tried (Amazon affiliate program or any other webshop with an affiliate program), the readers will profit from your experience.
It’s about making both sides satisfied, just be honest about the products you vouch for, do not be spammy, and always deliver honest and unique content.
Besides answering questions and making guides you can also post your own recipes, tips, and tricks to make better beer that can’t be found at other places on the internet.
Later, you can even offer to teach others how to homebrew either in real life or over a course.
If you decide to open a blog, you’ll need an hour or two each day to produce content, but you can take your time and post less frequently depending on what you want to build. I like to see more people sharing their perspectives and homebrews because this builds this community and helps more people drink good beer.
That’s why we say, life is too short to drink bad beer, let’s spread the word!
2. Open a homebrewing YouTube channel
A homebrewing YouTube channel is another option for those who would rather show their face to the camera and skip the writing.
There are people who prefer blogging (like me, although I’ll probably later open a YouTube channel as well), but making videos can be less time-consuming, especially if you only need minor editing.
With a YouTube channel, you can capture the process of brewing, or you can simply answer the questions you would otherwise write in a blog post by speaking to your audience while chugging a beer.
The philosophy is the same as it is with blogging and you can even combine both. You can create a blog for written recipes and other content that is more attractive in the written word, while the rest can be embedded in a YouTube video.
3. Write an e-book
An e-book is a great way to earn some passive money once you are at a level where you know that you can produce a worthy guide.
You can charge for an e-book anywhere between a few dollars to $20 based on quality and value. Writing an e-book is not an easy task and will take some real organizing, writing, and editing skills but once it’s done you can sell it in digital format for unlimited times.
The power of e-books is that it doesn’t cost you anything beyond the point of creating them and over time they can earn you lots of money entirely passively. However, you’ll need to market your e-book, so simply publishing it won’t make it!
If you have a blog, YouTube channel, or a page with a following on social media, you’ll be able to easily put it in front of people who need it. This will make marketing free if you do not count the time you need to build the following.
Another way to promote your e-book is by collaborating with others in a niche, so you can ask others to promote your e-book for you and make a deal where they take a percentage of each sold copy. Your last option is to publish it on popular sites such as Amazon Kindle or to run paid ads with a landing page where people can buy a copy.
4. Create homebrewing workshops
Live courses are absolutely rocking it in the crafting niches and homebrewing is not an exception. People are willing to pay to learn how to brew because there are always questions and details that only the one-on-one approach can cover.
This kind of teaching can also be charged more because it is individually based and you’ll need to meet either at a physical location or over a streaming service.
You can prepare an entire workshop schedule and invite multiple people on a given date, surprisingly this can become your primary income if you do it regularly and build your brand.
What I have observed is that every time there’s a craft beer festival, the organization also schedules a workshop, and lots of people show interest.
Following the same logic, I am sure that you can start with your friends, family, or neighbors and eventually teach people from other towns how to make the finest beer at home!
5. Open a webshop
You may need help to drive traffic to your webshop if you don’t do blogging, youtube-ing, or are not present on social networks and don’t do much offline like talking to people or teaching them how to brew.
However, if you do any of these, you’ll get some traffic you’ll be able to send to your webshop or create a real business. Moreover, in practice, paid advertising is always recommended if you want to be highly profitable. So, a combination of both organic and paid traffic can greatly boost your website.
I am talking here about selling ingredients and equipment because people will always need these for their homebrewing experience and someone who buys from your webshop once, will almost certainly buy again.
This is the beautiful side of running a webshop with consumables and beer ingredients that certainly fit this category.
You’ll need an LLC, someone to design and host a webshop and you’ll need to make a few calls to set up the distribution with local farmers and manufacturers, but it may be worth it.
This business goes great if you combine it with teaching how to brew or regularly impress people with your homebrew and get them to our side. If there’s a lack of physical stores or there are shipping limitations in your area for existing stores, those people need someone who can supply them!
6. Open a microbrewery
Brewing at home can’t be done commercially if you plan to sell the beer publicly due to necessary licenses and permits from the government. However, you do not need to open one of those huge breweries you’ve seen on TV, a microbrewery will do.
Microbreweries are still a serious business that demands investment and dedication, but you can start small and grow each year until you reach success and scale it further.
To open a microbrewery you don’t even need all the equipment at the beginning It can cost over $20,000, but you can rather rent it from existing breweries near you.
For a microbrewery, you’ll need a dedicated hall that fits all the requirements such as water supply, safety exit entrance, separation from the toilet for purposes of hygiene, ventilation system, and equipment such as fermenters, coolers, and other stuff.
This can cost quite much, but if you register an LLC, rent a fermenter, or chiller, and perhaps only own your own bottle machine and bottles, you can still produce beer in lower quantities and see how the market accepts you. There are stories of people brewing only 60 gallons by renting a fermenter from a brewery, and they eventually scaled the business to the point where they own their entire microbrewery years later.
7. Host a party
A little party never killed nobody and parties are getting popular once again after the whole situation with pandemics settled down.
Guests do not mind paying extra for drinks when the music is good and there is plenty of drinks and food at every corner.
This, however, can not be considered legal if you are charging them for drinks in the eyes of the law, yet people do it all the time when they buy cheap beers at a local store and sell them at their private parties. Technically, if you are not charging anything but rather accepting donations for the hosting it’s not that you are selling anything.
However, I am not a lawyer, so can’t get too deep into this topic and I won’t recommend nor suggest anything, you get me.