Buy - store - sell / the traditional approach
Microbreweries pop-up like mushrooms after the rain. How come then investing in beer remains on a relatively low scale? A few intrinsic reasons:
- Blonde beers cannot be stored for a prolonged period - only dark and sour beers store well;
- The higher the percentage of alcohol, the better a beer is suitable for ripening
Traditional investors buy beer in a similar way as wine or whisky collectors / investors.
What about the prices?
According to some experts (unconfirmed) for some unique beers that stored for a few years, an investor can get six to seven times the purchasing price. Beer can be stored up to five years - for sour beers that can go up to fifteen years .
Investors and enthusiasts were hoping that investing in beer would become like investing in wine or whiskey. However, numbers point more in the direction of a out-of-control hobby. There is more volume needed to survive to pay the fixed costs such as the rent of the locations and the insurance. A lot of time and energy is required for promotion and spreading the word. For these reasons, many collectors / investors drop out.
What about crowdfunding?
Another way to invest in beer is investing in local breweries through crowdfunding. This is an alternative way to finance projects or companies: via an internet platform, capital is collected from a large group of small investors - etc. etc. . The money can be donated, possibly in exchange for a small reward, but it may also include loans that have to be repaid or participation in the capital for which investors are paid, depending on revenue or profit. (we all know the drill)
HOWEVER
Crowdfunding is usually not about return, but about marketing or possibly community formation - which is nice, but not the full package.
Beer Shares
Supposedly still the "best way" to invest in beer, through the stock exchange.
In February 2000, the Dow Jones US Brewers Index launched the only beer index in the world. The index started at 200 points and now stands at 939 points, or 4.6 times higher. American Beer Shares - including Anheuser Busch / AB InBev - delivered investors an annual price increase, excluding dividends, of 9.5 percent.
but what about (a) BeerCoin(s)?!
Let's imagine a BeerCoin ICO - a group of beer enthusiasts with a passion for blockchain join forces and decides to launch a Beer token / coin / community (a few relatively simple steps)
- Issuing an asset
- Selling the asset to users
- Allowing users to securely store and trade your asset
- Intrinsically linking the asset to product / service / #Beer
A contract / general system can be set-up where small microbrewers or home-brewers (who have a "proof-of-concept") can receive a certain amount of BeerCoins (in return for either "future beer" or as an investment, as the value of the coin would go up with every successful brewery launch.
Without going into great detail (we can get to that in the comments section) - this is basically a perfect hybrid between Crowd funding and Beer Shares mentioned above, and it is just a matter of time that this will become a reality... Decentralised Beer!