HQ Brews - beers with a heart

Aim

Establish a Social Enterprise to brew our own beers, with profits going to organisations and charities supporting women & girls.

Hi

My name is Liz, and I have run The Harlequin (HQ) pub for 12 years. The last few years have been challenging to say the least! But as we're starting to build the business back up, and as we move from survival mode into developing new ideas, we have been given an amazing opportunity to invest in a local microbrewery and to start creating our own beers. In so doing, I'd like to set up a Social Enterprise so that we can generate funds for organisations supporting women and girls. The Harlequin has a proven track record in raising money for causes such as these (such as Refuge, Black & Blue, nia, AMAR Foundation) as well as other charities and community projects. Setting up this Social Enterprise will allow us to raise funds in a long-term, sustainable way as well.

30% of the profits will be ringfenced for organisations based in South Yorkshire, so that we can give back to our community. The rest will be open to projects of any scale, in any location. Successful projects will be nominated and chosen by you - the people who donate to our crowdfunding campaign. From just £10 you can secure yourself a voice in the process.

As well as donating the profits sustainably as above, we will also be in a strong position to brew one-off beers to support specific charities or initiatives, where an amount of money per pint sold could be donated. This could allow us to respond to emergency appeals, for example, to generate additional funds and publicity.

The intention of this project (working title: HQ Brews) is to raise money through a combination of crowdfunding and traditional finance. If we can raise the full £10,000 we will be able to do and fund the following:

• Invest in and make modifications to the existing brew kit and premises
• Pay legal & accountancy fees linked to setting up the Social Enterprise
• Purchase ingredients (malt, hops, yeast!)
• Pay for consultancy from an experienced (10+ years) brewer and brewery director to help us get established quickly
• Buy out staff time from HQ to assist with brewing, planning, research, development, and delivering
• Staff development
• Cask hire
• Initial rent, rates, utilities
• Working capital

Because staff and premises are already in place, HQ Brews would be able to begin almost immediately on receipt of funding.

Once the investments in kit and premises have been made, HQ Brews will begin brewing on a part-time basis (initially one or two trial brews per month, for the first four months, to be sold exclusively through HQ).

Following this trial period, we will sell further afield (Sheffield & surrounding areas to begin with). A relatively light brewing schedule will allow the brewery premises to be rented out to 'cuckoo breweries' (ie, those without their own premises) which will help with ongoing costs, meaning more of the profits will be available to fund the organisations chosen.

If you can help us achieve this goal by buying yourself a voice, it would be amazing.

This project successfully funded on 5th April 2022