As a brewery once again turns to crowd funding I ask myself have we reached peak geek?
Once an unwanted byproduct of the fermentation industry advances in brewing science have shown that beer geeks can be used to fuel previously unseen rates of brewery expansion. The rapid exploitation of this new source of funding has allowed craft brewers to strike it rich.
But are finite geek reserves being drained at an unsustainable rate? Will future generations of brewers curse their geek guzzling predecessors as they desperately search for renewable funding sources?
Beer geek's wallets are being sucked dry at a rate faster than they are replenished. As this once unused resource has become the driving force for craft brewery expansion serious questions need to be asked about how long this can continue. With only a finite number of beer geeks available to be tapped into breweries will have to search further and further afield to find more difficult to exploit geeks. There surely must come a point when peak geek is reached and future returns will only diminish. Maybe then brewers seeking funding will have to sell more than snake oil.
You make a good point.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, beer geeks aren't the only people putting their hard-earned into these schemes. When we were last in London, some friends of ours who aren't that bothered about beer at all asked us if we thought they ought to invest in Camden -- they'd read about it in the paper and liked the idea of supporting an interesting London-based business and maybe making some money out of it down the line.
Sounds like they're still thinking with their hearts not their heads. Serious big budget non-geek investors miraculously manage to get shares at cheaper rates than people that buy via crowd funding.
DeleteIt's possible to get a 10% return per annum on a five figure investment in a London microbrewery if you do it privately. I know because I've done it.
ReplyDeleteNow that sounds like a decent investment.
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