Target reached!
Our stretch target would allow us to complete our outdoor beer garden with pizza ove...
Campervan Brewery Community Taproom
Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
Aim
We plan to create a community taproom which is wheelchair friendly and socially inclusive, to welcome more of our fellow wanderers.
Our taproom's been open just over a year now and we’ve already reached capacity. The Guardian recently described us as one of the top 10 taprooms in Europe. We need your help to welcome more Wanderers. We’re planning to create a community taproom by building a mezzanine level, creating a meeting and exhibition space and improving disabled access.
Since launching Campervan Brewery, we've produced over 60 new beers. On a shoestring budget, and with the generous help of the volunteers from Edinburgh Tool Library, we opened the first taproom in central Edinburgh. It's located within the walls of our working brewery, so customers can see and smell the beer in production. We are delighted to be in the heart of Leith, where the local community has welcomed us with open arms. Campervan Brewery has the best of Leith, both its no-nonsense industrial roots that produce quality goods, as well as its open-minded creative genius that allow the arts to flourish. We want to embrace this more.
We are inundated by community groups and charities looking for a venue or event space. Manning the taproom ourselves means we can only open 2 days a week so we are struggling to fulfill their requirements. The industrial space is difficult to heat and the current bar and toilets aren't ideal for wheelchair access. The whole concept of the taproom is to have a social space that EVERYONE can access. We need to create an environment where the needs of all individuals, and groups, are met.
So next year, we plan to launch our fully inclusive Campervan Community Taproom:
- A private, bookable space for local charities and community groups.
- We will donate 5% of the sales from our biggest seller ‘Leith Juice’ to local charities, where you decide on the charity of choice.
- Regular events to support local artists: exhibitions, live entertainment, and musical performances with the aim of promoting that ‘community spirit’.
- Convert a shipping container into a fully equipped kitchen to give local street food concepts a base to showcase their skills.
- The launch of a training scheme where those who are out of work or disadvantaged learn brewing, catering, business or marketing skills as a support back into work.
To bring this vision to life we plan to:
- Install a mezzanine for extra seating and create a bookable space for local community groups to meet.
- Install heating in the taproom to make sure we can stay warm and welcoming all year round.
- Develop our barrel ageing project. With the extra floorspace provided by the mezzanine, we can utilise one wall downstairs to stack 50 wooden casks.
- Convert a shipping container into a fully equipped kitchen. With this, we can help give local street food concepts a base to showcase their skills and focus on collaborative projects such as bespoke food and beer pairings and other unique events for the community to take part in.
- Knock through the connecting wall between the brewhouse and taproom, so that you really are sitting amongst the stainless steel of the brewhouse, seeing where your beer is being made.
- Obtain a public entertainment license to allow a wider variety of events.
- Additional toilets and adequate fire exits to accommodate our increased capacity.
Increase the size of the taproom to allow easier wheelchair access.
1. Our fellow Wanderers got behind the Campervan concept from the outset and we want to show our appreciation. We aren’t going down the usual route of equity and shares to watch you spend the next 10 years looking at the financial times. Life’s for living now, so instead these are real, tangible gifts for you to enjoy straight away.
2. We want to welcome more Wanderers to our community. Everyone who pledges will receive their own membership card, making them an official member of the Campervan family, as well as allowing first access to special events, unique discounts and the ability to vote for the charities Campervan donates to.
3. Currently, any free cash we have is ploughed back into the business to help us meet increasing demand. We are investing in new brewing equipment and fermentation tanks to increase capacity. We will be unable to fund the Taproom expansion and do this at the same time, hence the need for help with funding.
On 23rd November 2018, we will launch our Crowdfund campaign which will run for just 4 weeks. This is an all or nothing campaign so we need you to believe in us, back us and big us up. Together we can make this work!
You won’t need to look any further for your Christmas presents as we’re taking all that stress away from you this year. From beer yoga to becoming a brewer for a day - we have everything on your Santa list. Join us on the next stage of this journey
Wandering, but not lost
This project successfully funded on 22nd December 2018