[Les]

I work part time for a small craft brewery. The owner knows I am a member of the local homebrew club and wanted me to come up with some ideas on how the brew pub can help sponsor some events with/for our club. I have a message on the way to the club right now but wanted to get some feedback from the forum about ideas or collaborations you might have had or wished you could have with your local brew pub.
Thanks in advance.
Les

[yso191]

A local brewery has a 'Mega Brew' once a year for our club.  What this means is the club decides on a style, and the brewery brews the wort on their system so that the members can buy pre-made wort at $2 per gallon.  This is a great way to do some serious experimentation.

[dannyjed]

You could have a club competition with the winner getting to brew their recipe on the breweries system. You could narrow it down to one particular style.

[reverseapachemaster]

A periodic pro-am competition where the winner's recipe is brewed and sold in the taproom is always a good way to get the club involved and mix up the beers you keep on tap, especially if you normally produce a limited range of beers. One of our local breweries lets us hold big brew events and competitions where everybody brings their equipment and brews together on the brewery's property and then takes their beer home. Occasionally they also invite some of the club members to brew experimental beers for their tours.

[tommymorris]

1. Sell club members bags of grain. Maybe limit it to 2-row or something else the brewery regularly uses to keep it simple.
2. Share yeast. That is probably unworkable, but, it would be cool.

[jeffjm]

Sharing yeast isn't really unworkable. One of our local brewpubs has made it known to homebrewers that if they call ahead and then stop by with a sanitized container, they can get whatever slurry is currently available.

[reverseapachemaster]

1. Sell club members bags of grain. Maybe limit it to 2-row or something else the brewery regularly uses to keep it simple.

I really wish my club would work out a deal with a local brewery so we could buy sacks.

[morticaixavier]

my club does occasional brew days with the brewers at the local. One of the beers the club did with them is for sale right now at the local co-op as it happens.

We also did a GABF pro-am competition with the local that was pretty good.

They are free with their yeast as well. drop a container off, come pick it up later with nice lager yeast. makes lager brewing a breeze.

[realbeerguy]

Our local in Savannah brews the winning BOS from our Summer Suds competition.  (Which I won this year, I might add!)

Also, they are great about providing slurry when available.  As to sacks of grain, they do not.  They do not want to step on the LHBS's business.

[Les]

Just Thank You for all the replies so far. Please keep the suggestions coming.