I've had a surprising number of enquiries about the status of the Spiffing Ales real ale brewery so it's time for an update:

Since being rudely evicted from the Uetikon site (smell? what smell?) it's not been possible to find an affordable space in which to run the commercial brewery. Alongside this, my taking up full time employment to pay the bills hasn't helped .

We have now found a suitable premises which, with some work, could be suitable for brewing but probably not as a commercial operation. The idea now is to launch a brewing club, the Spiffing Ales Brew Academy. In a nutshell, brewing clubs allow members to use the equipment to brew up to 400L per year each without taxation. We would also run brewing and cider making courses.

Events will include a club beer competition, taking part in other competitions like the Swiss National, trips to Prague, Bruges, London, etc for beery purposes, summer bbq, etc.

However, in order to make the brewhouse as professional and useable as possible certain modifications to the premises are required and this could be expensive. There is a need to test the water, no pun intended.

So, as most of our regulars were or are EF members it would be nice to know how many would be interested in joining such a brew club? We're still working on detail but expect an annual membership of approx 80CHF plus brewing and training course costs on an ad hoc basis.

Non-profit but the idea is we (the Spiffing Ales business) will get a return on our investment by renting the facility to the club or by selling the equipment to the club or maybe both.

Attached a poll to gauge interest.

If you interested in being an officer of the club (treasurer, chair, comittee) pm me.

It would be a bit of a trek from Basel, but I know my hubby would love to do a brewing course. Great birthday gift opportunity. Weekends would be more practical for this too.

Best of luck!

would a correspondance course be a possibility?

Brewing courses are full day and usually (used to) take place on Saturdays .

Our bible as far as home and clone brewing is concerned:

Everything you need to know .

Count me in!

Good luck with the idea. I would certainly participate in some way once I am there permanantly. (In the not too distant future, I hope).

I'm game. Let me know when the first course is please.

Bob

You helped get me started. I'm three years into the hobby and I still brew at least once a month. I'm only doing extract beers (but with hops and some grains) but would love a chance to step up to all-grain brewing. What better than a homebrew club?

Count me in. I wouldn't think twice about paying CHF80 or the chance of trying someone else's homebrew. At present, I have no benchmark on which to judge my own.

Cheers

Jason

Sounds great - where are the premises that you've found?

Very interesting. Would love to know more about the location.

I am moving to Switzerland (Bern) only in October/November and would be very interested to join the club.

I am brewing all grain from time to time and bringing, of course, my pots and buckets to Switzerland, but would love the chance to join the company of other homebrewers.

Hello,
My name is Elias and I just moved here and am interested to know what became of the home brewing club. I have been brewing for 2 years now and do primarily all grain. I am still waiting for all of my equipment to arrive and am anxious to brew. Let me know if it is still happening and where. I live in Wadenswil and would love to meet up and talk beer or brewing.

Elias