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 Thornbridge on myBrewerytap

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!