Homebrewing has become a common hobby among beer fanatics. Over time, you may have asked yourself whether it can be a sustainable method to earn money.
Most homebrewing experts will say it is not possible. However, most people have come up with startup businesses that originated from personal hobbies.
Therefore, I believe when you know your true costs of homebrewing, you can work backwards and start to actually make money from brewing beer.
Here are some methods on how you can gain income from home brewing.
What Do You Need for Homebrewing Beer?
Before we go over the different procedures, let’s brush up on your background knowledge of home brewing beer. Not being knowledgeable enough may lead to some difficulties for you and those who buy your product.
First, you need to have a homebrewing beer kit. The more beer you can produce, the more money you can generate. Investing in top-notch homebrewing beer equipment will result in large amounts of beer, more buyers, and entrepreneurs. Besides your personal kit, you need a liquor license to avoid breaking the law.
Besides, the last thing you want is your customers to feel intoxicated from you and other unauthorized home brewers.
Fortunately, if you are treating beer brewing as a side project, you don’t need the complete liquor license that costs $12,000-$14,000. A $3000 beer and wine license should allow you to brew beer without complications. This is obviously for selling what you make directly.
Let’s talk about some other ways to earn from that obsessive hobby of ours.
Game Plan First, Execute Later
A business plan is your building block to make any enterprise successful.
Before diving impulsively into your startup brewery service, you have to weigh in the pros and cons of your homebrewing project.
Jumping straight to action without any plan isn’t advisable. After all, it’s called an action plan for a reason, right?
You may end up losing money in the long run if you don’t establish a clear sense of direction. Don’t worry. The business plan will help you provide that.
It also illustrates the different objectives, steps, resources, and a tentative timeline of all the results. All these components have to address how you intend to make your beer brewing enterprise prosper.
7 Ways to Make Money From Homebrewing Beer
Writing is Key
Now that you’ve finished conceptualizing and visualizing, it’s time to put your content out there. An excellent approach is by writing about it. I suggest investing in copywriting courses and reading about copywriting in general.
Not only does this apply to the beer industry, but any market in general.
Times have changed, and with social media just a click away, your consumers consume content through words and media. If you can deliver engaging, empathetic, and purposeful content, your home brewery business is guaranteed to grow.
Books, podcasts, videos, and articles are all forms of content that you can create that can be monetized. Here are some writing tips you can apply to make money.
Creating a Blog Site
If you’re thinking about earning money on the side, you should consider putting up a blog page or a website. One of the vital steps here is to create a portfolio of written articles and share your content with other people online. Do note, however, that it’s crucial to create a balance of quality and quantity.
A homebrewing beer article that merely lists down the facts and other technicalities will not draw the audience closer to you and your work.
Come up with articles that are both informative and engaging. By doing this, you are not only presenting your material but inviting your future clients to interact with you. The Homebrew Challenge is an excellent example of the balance of enging and informative content you’ll need to show in your own work.
Over time, commissions will start heading your way. You can make money on blog sites such as WordPress, but in the meantime, patience is key to creating a blog site. Don’t expect big commissions early on. Instead, focus on the value your site can provide and to the audience that you are trying to build.
Partnerships
The next step is to find partner sites, editors-in-chief, and research studies that delve into homebrewing services and products. By reaching out to these people, you allow yourself to get paid on the side for every article you publish.
How does this affect your online brand? By writing and featuring their services and products (ex. craft beer, kegerator, etc.), you give yourself a chance to get sponsored blog posts. Through this process, online traffic will start to build up, and more people will start reading your content. The higher your page view count, the higher your chances of getting paid online.
Affiliate Programs
Once you’ve set up your website, I suggest delving into affiliate marketing. It’s the process of advertising products and services from other retailers. In return, you gain a commission, which results in money.
Promoting beer brewing commodities via affiliate links results in income earned through commissions. Here’s an example:
Easy to rotate and easy to clean 304 Stainless Steel fermentor. We'll take 2, wait, make it 3.
One of the most common affiliate programs you can try is Amazon.com Associates. It’s an affiliate advertising program that allows your website to generate revenue via advertising fees and Amazon’s product lists.
Of course, Amazon isn’t the only affiliate program. You’ll find a lot of websites in the homebrewing and beer niche that offer their respective affiliate programs. We recruit affiliates to promote our own courses here at homebrew academy too.
The amount of money you make from homebrewing beer depends on your commissions’ performances, meaning how many people purchase what you sell on your blog site. The affiliate links and programs determine these. More affiliate link clicks leads to better performance, which results in a higher income rate.
Now, how do you get more clicks? Traffic. As mentioned earlier, if you focus on delivering content value and obtain more traffic, this increases your chances of getting more clicks. However, it’s not as simple as merely focusing on traffic. You’ll have to engage in other technical activities like this one here.
On-Site Classes And Demos
Most beer fans would love to understand the different types of equipment, procedures, and nuances of brewing beer. This is where you can incorporate your teaching and communication skills.
If you want to bring out the teacher in you, you can tutor people on the history and art of brewing beer. The first and most important is to design a course on homebrewing. Pursuing a teaching gig is another viable option to make money.
Before you get started, you need to handcraft your syllabus and course material. Make sure you can connect with your students while giving them the information they need.
The next step is to create or find an environment conducive to learning. You need to ensure the students will be able to analyze every single step you demonstrate.
It would also help if you provide them with instruction manuals and homebrewing kits to make it easier; however, that may be a costly expense if you’re still new to this approach. A lot of colleges and universities offer free electives. You might want to consider applying as a homebrewing instructor while earning money on the side.
Online Tutorials
It’s completely understandable if teaching on-site is not for you. There are many logistical concerns that you have to address.
Some of these include the availability of students and the cost of homebrewing kits. You also have to take into account that some schools don’t allow alcoholic beverages inside their premises.
Fortunately, the internet never stops innovating. Online teaching has become not only an alternative but the new norm to make money. Therefore, why not try out teaching beer brewing skills online?
All you need to do is develop a solid course with occasional updates to get the class started. Online learning can be done either through synchronous or asynchronous sessions.
Both you and your students don’t have to follow a uniform schedule. You still get to earn money even if you are employing a remote format. Udemy is an online learning platform where you can present and sell your own home brewing course.
By investing in the proper tools and preparing well-crafted modules, you’ll be on your way to making sufficient side money. The wider the audience, the higher the income.
Incorporating YouTube Videos
Blogging allows you to earn money, but reading articles may not be the best method for some. There are many ways to create content, and blogging is only one way in an ocean of possibilities.
However, vlogging on YouTube can elevate your experience as a content creator, thus resulting in more views, more engagement, and more money. You can make videos about anything related to homebrewing.
These can range from going over the online course material, homebrew recipes, product reviews, you name it. If you log around 4000 minutes of view time, you will be eligible for monetization.
You can also incorporate affiliate marketing through your videos. Since YouTube has been “spamming” videos with advertisements, you have the opportunity to cash in by allowing ads on your videos for additional revenue. Do take note that YouTube prioritizes driving traffic from the affiliate links you provided rather than your actual channel.
In addition, the homebrewing niche has its limitations due to the influence of alcohol. As a result, YouTube may flag it as either “adult” or “inappropriate” content. They still pay, but not in substantial amounts. Fortunately, YouTube can be more lenient when you sell your homebrewing beer products on your website.
All in all, YouTube is a solid place to generate long-term revenue. Although it has its limitations, expressing yourself, showcasing beer products, and getting paid for your videos are win-win scenarios.
Direct Selling
If you are not used to these new methods for earning money, you can always go old-school and sell your products to other homebrewers and beer fanatics. Don’t underestimate the power of marketing by word-of-mouth.
You can sell home brewing kits to give your customers everything they need for the production of beer. Create a new product or improve on an existing product you can sell is also an option.
You can use these and other forms of brewing equipment on your website. This gives you more control because you can manage the quantity and quality control of your products. Since it’s your website, you need to be proactive in all aspects, from contacting customers and suppliers, designing your online shop’s layout, and shipping the products.
If these steps are too tedious for you, third-party websites are feasible options for selling your products. Alternatively, you can hire an account manager to help you or even a homebrewing partner and split the sales.
You have the opportunity to sell your beer equipment on sites with high traffic and algorithm scores. These will result in more potential buyers. Not having any control over how much you want to sell these brewing tools can be a disadvantage.
Apply for a Brewing Job
Thinking about turning your passion for homebrewing into a career? Then why not try working at a brewery. Although you have less control, you’ll still gain a lot of benefits and earn some money while you learn more.
Since you’d only be starting out, expect to fulfill the most basic tasks. A part-time brewer or intern may have to carry out blue-collar duties. These may be unattractive to you at first, but as you go up the ranks, expect to shoulder more homebrewing tasks. As you continue progressing, the money will continue to come your way.
Brewing jobs are not suited for everyone, even the beer fanatics. Therefore, you have to seriously consider whether or not this profession is for you.
Brewery Tour Guide
One of the brewery jobs you can apply for is that of a tour guide. With the holiday season upon us, most tourists flock to the breweries of Napa Valley, Chianti, etc.
Large crowds visit most brewing sites with a tour guide who lectures them about beer brewing processes. Therefore, brewery tour guides are in high demand during vacations and Christmas breaks.
All you have to do is contact your local brewery to share your homebrewing knowledge and your interest in being a tour guide. If not, you can ask them to consider including you in their staff.
Is Homebrewing Beer a Practical Option to Make Money?
All these steps prove there are multiple you can make money out of homebrewing. This begs the question, “Is homebrewing feasible enough for you to earn money?”
First, it’s important to establish the importance of investing in high-quality equipment. Many homebrewing experts believe that buying cheap tools or pursuing methods that require less money will backfire.
If you’re serious about making a living out of this hobby, you have to be committed to spending top-notch brewing kits and supplementary pieces. These are essential to make your personal interest in homebrewing flourish into a successful project.
Although pursuing the brewing industry is a viable option, you shouldn’t do it only for the sake of money. If that becomes the primary objective, you might start losing interest. Therefore, it may even hurt you financially.
Homebrewing should be something you enjoy doing as a hobby or something that makes other people happy. On the contrary, you don’t even need to be a brewing expert to enjoy making beer.
What you do need, most importantly, is the willingness to learn and have fun throughout the whole homebrewing process.
Conclusion
So there you have it. These are some of the various ways you can make money from homebrewing. The beauty of pursuing a brewing career is being paid to do what you love. Indeed, if you play your cards right and follow at least one of these procedures, you can turn your lifelong passion for beer into a primary means of income.
The best part is, you won’t have to pay high prices for your own beer anymore. With 4 packs of micro-brew hitting the $25-30 mark, learning how to brew beer at home is finally starting to turn into a money saving hobby.
Lead marketer, brewer, dad, and husband. Pretty much an all-round awesome guy. I’ve been homebrewing for +20 yrs, an aspiring pro-brewer and micro brewery owner!