MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
I know a lot of people on here love their ale so thought you might be interested in my new business?
A friend and I are starting an online real ale business where you'll be able to buy real ale direct from small independent breweries. We've got over 130 breweries from up and down the country interested in joining the site which will go live in September.
Not sure if i'm supposed to advertise stuff on the forum but as an introductory offer we're trying to attract subscribers to our "52 week beer club" where you'll receive a different bottle of micro brewery ale for every week of the year (13 bottles delivered every quarter) for just £69.99 including delivery. This price is only available for the first 500 subscribers, after that the price will go up. If anyones interested in joining the club we've set up a micro-site to register subscribers and take details and payments before we lauch the main site in september at [url= http://mybrewerytap.com ]mybrewerytap.com[/url]
Cheers
do friends get a discount................... 😉
That is discounted mate! we need the money to help advertise the main site 🙂
This sounds quite good! I might have to subscribe 🙂
website is a bit iffy on firefox...
Who's the guy quaffing the beer on your website home page?
He looks like he's drowning his sorrows with gassy lager due to marital woes or something similar 😉
Make sure you get some Harveys sent out in your boxes. Cheers!
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Good luck with your venture and I'm sure the chaps at STW will let you off this once even more so if you pay them in kind. Looking at the deal now as seems a good offer and also like to help people who have the balls to try such things.
Site seems fine for me on Firefox.
Any chance on a list of the breweries unless I'm missing something?
on FF for me I have to scroll right to see the whole page.
Seems to be too big.
how big is that site? tell your designers not everyone runs a 42" plasma widesceen @ 16million by 14 million pixels!
and don't so popups like that, hate them
Ah that be it works ok on mine.
Get some Stonehenge Ales and Hopback on there! You know you want to!
Looks like a great idea, and a very tempting offer to start with! Can you tell us some of the breweries you've signed up so far? I'm trust they'll all be good but I'd be reassured if I could see a few familiar names before ponying up.
Great idea, and a much better fit for STW than that (frankly quite dodgy) Naked Wines site that is incessantly plugged.
My only reservation would be signing up for a subscription deal from a brand new business. How can you reassure us that you'll still be in business by Q3?
Would also be nice to see some brewery names and blurb.
Hello, thanks for the positive feedback, I agree about the size of the site, i'll get him to sort it tomorrow.
I can only give you a provisional list of the initial breweries who got back to us expressing an interest. We have service agreements/contracts out at all of these breweries which are being sent back daily. I can't guarentee all the breweries on the list will sign up, but we're getting only positive feedback so far.
After the site launches and we can show breweries the benefits we're very hopeful it'll build to be a decent comprehensive spread of small commercial UK breweries.
Ill scan some of the promotional flyers tomorrow and put them on this thread so you can see more detail.
Cheers
Interested breweries
BALLARD’S BREWERY LTD
BEER COUNTER LTD
BOWMAN ALES LTD
HEPWORTH & CO BREWERS LTD
HOPDAEMON BREWERY CO LTD
IRVING & CO BREWERS LTD
MEANTIME BREWING COMPANY
RAMSGATE BREWERY LTD
RECTORY ALES LTD
SAMBROOK’S BREWERY LTD
WELTONS LTD
WHITE BREWING COMPANY
BOX STEAM BREWERY
BRANSCOMBE VALE BREWERY LTD
COTLEIGH BREWERY LTD
COUNTRY LIFE BREWERY
DORSET BREWING COMPANY LTD
EXETER BREWERY LTD
FORGE BREWERY
GLASTONBURY ALES
JOLLYBOAT BREWERY (BIDEFORD) LTD
KELTEK BREWERY
PENPONT BREWERY
STONEHENGE ALES LTD
WADWORTH & CO LTD
BRENTWOOD BREWING CO LTD
BUFFY’S BREWERY LTD
RED SQUIRREL BREWERY
SAWBRIDGEWORTH BREWERY
SPECTRUM BREWERY
TRING BREWERY CO LTD
WBC ( NORFOLK ) LTD
BELVOIR BREWERY LTD
BURTON BRIDGE BREWERY
CHURCH END BREWERY LTD
COTSWOLD BREWING CO LTD
HIGHGATE BREWERY LTD
HOWARD TOWN BREWERY LTD
MILESTONE BREWING CO
SLAUGHTERHOUSE BREWERY LTD
SPIRE BREWERY
TOLLGATE BREWERY
WINDSOR CASTLE BREWERY LTD
BATTLEDOWN BREWERY LLP
BEWDLEY BREWERY LTD
BLUE BEAR BREWERY LTD
BRECONSHIRE BREWERY
CONWY BREWERY LTD
GREAT ORME BREWERY LTD
JACOBI BREWING OF CAIO
MAYFIELDS BREWERY
NAILSWORTH BREWERY
PENLON COTTAGE BREWERY
SEVERN VALE BREWING CO
ACORN BREWERY OF BARNSLEY LTD
ALLENDALE BREWING CO LTD
ANGLO DUTCH BREWERY
BREW COMPANY LTD
BRIDESTONES BREWING COMPANY
CUMBRIAN LEGENDARY ALES
DERWENT BREWERY
DURHAM BREWERY LTD
HESKET NEWMARKET BREWERY
HORNBEAM BREWERY
IDLE BREWERY
KELHAM ISLAND BREWERY
KESWICK BREWING CO
LYTHAM BREWERY LTD
LEYDEN BREWERY
NAYLOR’S BREWERY
NORTHERN BREWING LTD
OLD BEAR BREWERY
RUDGATE BREWERY LTD
STATIONHOUSE BREWERY
WHITEHAVEN BREWING CO LTD
WOODLANDS BREWING CO
HEBRIDEAN BREWING
HOUSTON BREWING CO
SULWATH BREWERS LTD
TRAQUAIR HOUSE BREWERY
TRYST BREWERY
THE DARK STAR BREWING COMPANY
ATLANTIC BREWERY
GREENFIELD REAL ALE BREWERY
HAMMERPOT BREWRY LTD
TRADITIONAL SCOTTISH ALES LTD
mmm PenLon beer, my local and very good 🙂
good luck with the venture, any chance of monthly payments for those who can't get £70 together for beer in one hit?
I've subscribed - when is it all likely to start ?
Sorry just curious as £70 is a good sum of money to part with. So you have a list of Breweries there but not of ones that have signed up just interested. Any guarantee on my investment that'll I'll receive 52 bottles of independent Real Ale or will I just get 12 one quarter and then maybe some more some other time or will I just get 52 bottles of crap?
sounds good. Is it a one-off £70 whack, or £17.50 per quarter?
lister - i'll have a look into monthly payments, but you will be able to buy mixed cases of 12 from the site soon after we launch in september, but they will be around £30 including delivery.
scaredypants: thanks thats great, we'll ship 52WBC Subscribers 13 bottles in September/December/March/June
Drac: we have contracts back from 8 of those breweries (they'll only got them sent a week ago) and assurances from 25+ that they're sending the contracts back, the rest are being pushed daily to sign up, im afraid I can't give you any more assurance than my word, you might prefer to wait until the site launches in september before committing to anything? I can't guarentee you'll like every beer you get obviously.
nbt: Its a one off whack i'm afraid, as i mentioned above we're trying to generate some marketing revenue to help us launch the site successully.
even a well known calderdale based mountainbike builder gives discount to friends..................... 😥
Tony - spread the word/get some folk signed up and I'll see what I can do!
Sorry - in response to chakaping: The new business "mybrewerytap.com" is trading under my friend and partner in this's business "Linq Consulting Ltd" which is an IT retail consultancy which has been running since 2004 and has accounts logged as normal with companies house. Im also employed in a successful family business and we do have a small amount of backing to get the business up and running.
Cheers
Tony - spread the word/get some folk signed up and I'll see what I can do!
(FWIW, I signed up at least in part because Ton seems like a good bloke & I've a feeling he might be a decent judge of character)
Cheers Richy yeah sure you can't guarantee I won't like them all that's how it goes. Just was curious of what was going on as it's £70, I'm going to give it some thought and have a look back.
No worries Drac, I'd think we'll try and advertise the site on here/in the magazine once we're up and running so you'll get plenty of reminders!
As promised a couple of promotional flyers we've done outlining what the main site will do when its launched and the 52wbc offer
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cheers
Email sent...
The largest number of real ale breweries on one site, is a big claim.
The largest number of real ale breweries on one site, is a big claim.
It is, but we're pretty sure it will be accurate. The site in effect acts as an agent for the breweries so we're not governed by how much stock we can afford/carry. We can potentially sign up an indefinite amount of breweries.
A couple more questions (god, I've been watching too much Dragons Den).
1. Are all the bottles 500ml? Not those fun size ones you sometimes get in selection packs?
2. Who picks the beers? You or the breweries? How do you aim to ensure you don't get the stuff they can't sell?
The bottles will be 500ml size.
We will pick the beers to be a good selection. The vast majority of the breweries who've expressed an interest are small concerns with limited brewing capacity who brew and bottle pretty much to order. They are brewing stuff that sells in order to stay profitable so we'd hope they don't use the site as a dumping ground. If you receive sub standard beer (in some way off, or of unacceptable quality, rather than just not to your taste) we'd take it up with the brewery concerned on a case by case basis, and its likely that replacements would be shipped (this is in the terms & conditions that the breweries are agreeing to).
Another question...
Why does a brand called My Brewery Tap have hops for the logo? Surely it should have a Tap.
😉
A brewery tap isn't actually a tap though is it, its a metaphorical "tap" ie, an outlet for a breweries product. 🙂
I was assuming he meant 'tap' as in tap and spile - the things used for breaking open a cask...
But if not, then fair enough 🙂
Surely a viral email with a 10% discount or the like would be a decent starting point and would cost bugger all to engineer. Facebook and other social networking sites are also available. Marketing doesn't always need to cost too much cash 🙂
HAve you thought about adding Polypins and minipins?
18 pints or 36 pints delivered next day to your door.
If you can hook up breweries who produce under or near the small beer cut off they can sell them for £1.75 / pint delivered , and you take an admin cut . So you take an email'd order , forward it to the brewer , who dispatches it direct to punter.
There is no one in the UK who can offer a worldwide export service for bottled ales, for the majority of UK micr brewers. So if for example i was a Russian importer who wanted a mixed pallet of 75 cases of Uk specialities I would not know where to go .
If you want some inside knowledge feel free to ask
will it be bottle conditioned beer richy?
toby1 - good ideas, all stuff we want to do
singletrackmind - you've more or less just explained the main business model! That's how it works, the breweries have their own free child site and have control over their products, pricing, stock. We run the parent showcase, mixed cases, subscriptions, marketing, payment and delivery in exchage for a % of everything sold. Are you in the trade?
Chunkypaul - it'll depend on the different breweries I think there'll be a mixture of bright and bottle conditioned.
Just thought i'd bump this thread for people who didn't see it first time round and give you a bit of an update.
The site is about 2 weeks away from launch. We have loads of positive interest from breweries but it's proved slightly harder than we thought to get them to send contracts back/send details of products, as many of them are flat out brewing/coping with summer demand.
It looks like we'll have somewhere between 20 and 50 breweries products on the site from launch which will quickly grow once breweries can see the site and the benefits to them.
The £69.99 introductory offer price for 52 bottles is still available so if anyone wants to sign up they can do at the temporary microsite here.. [url= http://www.mybrewerytap.com ]mybrewerytap.com[/url]
cheers
It sounds like a great idea, would make a good present for someone.
Personally I'm a little unsure about laying out £70 on a new business before it is properly up and running - lots of new businesses fold in the first 6 months etc.
Sorry to be negative.
Interested in buying any homebrew?! 😛
Hi grumm, thats fine and totally understandable.
You'll be able to buy mixed cases of 12 from the site once we launch (although obviously they'll work out more expensive than the offer), so remember to have a look back in a couple of weeks.
Richyb - I'm willing to take a "punt" on this and give you my £70. Just a quick question...when is the first case likely to be sent out? Reason I ask is that I'm moving house in about 2 weeks and don't want to lose a case of beer!
EDIT: Just read the T&Cs and seen the bit about the dispatch notification email. Excellent.
Thanks, guitarmanjon!
First mixed cases will be going out late September/early October by the looks of it, just been to sign off the boxes the bottles will be delivered in.
Cheers, thanks for letting me know. As there was no taking of my address when I signed up I ssume you'll be using the address from paypal. Better remember to change that...
Looking forward to the first case. I think this is a brilliant idea and have given you some free advertising on a certain social networking site. Hopefully the other beer lovers I know will take notice and make the most of the offer.
from your website
52 bottles of fantastic independant ales for just £69.99. Subscribe to our "52 week beer club" and receive 13 bottles each quarter for just £69.00, an average saving of over £50.00!
I don't understand, so that's a one off payment for 52 bottles @£69.99 or 13 bottles a quarter at £69.00? is that correct or just a typo.
Why are you calling it a '52 week beer club', when you're sending the beer every quarter, that's a confusing message. Why don't you call it '4 seasons beer club' or something similar reflecting the quarters.
You say it's a saving of £50, but don't quantify it in any way. If you are quoting a saving, aren't you legally required to state the original RRP or (prehaps in this case) the individual bottle prices. Considering you don't yet know what beers you are going to send out, how can you guarantee it's a £50 saving? Is it legal to make a statement like that when you don't yet have any price list to make a saving against?.
I'll fire it up on twitter - looks like a great idea
Hello B.A.Nana
The original idea was to send out a different bottle for every week of the year, which we would deliver every week but after looking into it we realised that it wasn't feasible logistically and it was cost prohibitive.
So we are now delivering 13 bottles a quarter (52 in total). The offer price is £69.99 inclusive of postage.
Through lots of conversations and research we know that participating breweries will generally sell there beers on the site for £2.00+ a bottle, so 52 would be a minimum £104. add to this 4 x £4.99 (our standard post rate for a case) = £123.96
You're correct we've made some assumptions, Im not sure if we're breaking the law, we're not intending to deceive anyone, just outline the benefits of the subscription. I can let you know the exact saving you'll be making in a couple of weeks from now if you'd like?
saving of £50
500ml bottles of real ale tend to be in the £2.40 upwards region. Take an average of £2.50 for the sake of argument (although I suspect it's more than that). 52 bottles at £2.50 is £130. That's a saving of £50 with the offer. OK, I might have made those numbers fit to justify it to myself but I reckon they're not too far off. The deal works out at £1.35ish a bottle. Dirt cheap in my experience.
EDIT: And the actual numbers from Richyb are above...
I wasn't critising, just putting my marketing head on, sounds like a good idea. You need to change that typo error tho. I'm sure the £50 saving is on the conservative side, but promotions and pricing are a bit of a legal minefield.
Heh Rich is this UK Mainland only or do you deliver to N.Ireland?
Thats cool, we're happy for any feedback.
How do you think we could word it better? ill make sure we change any more advertising although it might be a bit late, we've already given out about 10'000 flyers. To be honest though you're the only person (who's come back to me anyway) who's thought it confusing.
Hi tankslapper we can deliver to N. ireland but there'll be a premium, just in the process of finding out how much.
Good job I moved to Wales then!
I'll fire it up on the site at home for ya - poor sods have to put up with nothing but Guinness and Bass
Is it too early / commercially sensitive to drop a few brewery/beer names yet? Will there be a good range of beer styles as well as breweries? (wouldn't want 13 dark ales one quarter and 13 pale ales the next... though some seasonal variation like heavier beers in the winter might be nice I suppose).
These breweries will all be on the site at/very soon after launch. (some are only selling one or two of their beers, some a full range)
The mixed cases will definitely have a good mix of styles/breweries. Individual breweries will be selling mixed cases of their own beers too.
BRENTWOOD BREWING CO LTD
BUFFY’S BREWERY LTD
FULSTOW BREWERY
SAFFRON BREWERY
TRING BREWERY CO LTD
BRAMPTON BREWERY LTD
BURTON BRIDGE BREWERY
SLAUGHTERHOUSE BREWERY LTD
WARWICKSHIRE BEER CO LTD
WINDSOR CASTLE BREWERY LTD
ALLENDALE BREWING CO LTD
BIG LAMP BREWERY
BITTER END PUB AND BREWERY
DENT BREWERY LTD
EMPIRE BREWING
GREAT HECK BREWING CO
HESKET NEWMARKET BREWERY
LEYDEN BREWERY
OLD BEAR BREWERY
MEANTIME BREWING COMPANY
SAMBROOK’S BREWERY LTD
ATLANTIC BREWERY
BEST MATES BREWERY LTD
BOX STEAM BREWERY
COUNTRY LIFE BREWERY
PENPONT BREWERY
QUANTOCK BREWERY
BATTLEDOWN BREWERY LLP
BEWDLEY BREWERY LTD
BRECONSHIRE BREWERY
CONWY BREWERY LTD
Itchen Valley still not on board?
Not as yet, they've been sent an info pack. I think once we launch and can show breweries the site we'll get people moving faster.
Re prices - some supermarkets sell bottles of ale for around £1.30 - £1.50 a bottle. Limited range admittedly
You're right, but the point of myBrewerytap is to make accessible the sort of beers you can't get in the supermarket, the smaller breweries more eclectic/interesting stuff.
Go have a look at how the Black Isle Brewery and Organico (wine) do their mail order.
mt- thanks I will
If anyones interested we're now selling the multi award winning Thornbridge beers on the site. We now have 43 breweries (over 250 beers) listed. check it out [url= http://www.mybrewerytap.com/buy-real-ale/real-ale-by-brewery/thornbridge-brewery.html ]Thornbridge on myBrewerytap[/url]
Don't want to pee on anyone's fire, but I knew a chap who did this a couple of years ago and lasted about 18months.
Main reasons for failure? 1. You're competing with supermarkets - suicide.
2. The cost of shipping.
Not sure if that helps or not.
Hi spokebloke
myBrewerytap isn't really competing with supermarkets as 99% of the beers on the site are from small independent breweries not available in supermarkets. We also ship direct from the brewery so we don't have to hold any stock. Just out of interest what was the name of the business that went bust?
Do you ship to Italy? Love ale, and it's very rare here...
Not at the moment but we will be offering it soon. Keep checking the site!