Three years ago, myself and 3 friends set out to reshape how craft beer lovers connect with breweries. Launching Brewser was no small feat—it took 10 months of dedication to create a never-before-seen subscription model. One that gave consumers unparalleled flexibility to plan ahead, choose from hundreds of products and directly support their favourite independent breweries.

However, starting something brand new always comes with challenges and uncertainties.

Mid-pandemic, with the whole team dedicating evenings and weekends to Brewser, I had lost my day job due to COVID so had time on my hands to hit the road in my mum’s car. Armed with little more than a PowerPoint presentation and a barrel load of passion for the industry I love, I visited breweries across the UK to share Brewser’s vision. The result? A resounding “yes” from 40+ breweries and a boot full of free beer!

Thanks to a scrappy pre-launch campaign (and plenty of determination), we welcomed 400 subscribers on day one… we were gob smacked! Fast forward three years, and Brewser now partners with over 100 breweries and producers, introducing thousands of beer enthusiasts to incredible brews while giving breweries a platform to shine.

We’ve had lots of standout moments so far and have been lucky enough to collaborate with some of the best in UK craft beer, bringing exclusive products to market and creating campaigns that keep the industry buzzing.

2 years in we welcomed our first full-time employee. Ash has become an integral part of the Brewser family and we don’t know how we ever managed without him!

From our launch in my isolated self-built tiny home in Wales (internet powered by my phones hotspot!) To 3 years on… A (slightly) more professional set up, with a growing team & driving around in my own van (thanks mum). Brewser’s growth is a testament to the power of the community, innovation, and a shared love of great beer.

As we toast our third birthday, the mission remains the same: to craft and connect the ultimate community of beer explorers.

Thank you all for being part of the journey—cheers to the next chapter! 🍻

Introducing ProjectX: 2024

At Brewser, we believe that the best things in life come from collaboration, creativity, and a good dose of fun. That’s why we’re beyond excited to announce the return of ProjectX for 2024!

For those who missed out last year, ProjectX is more than just a box of beer. It’s a celebration of the UK’s vibrant craft beer scene and a testament to what happens when passionate brewers come together to create something truly special. This year, we’ve once again partnered with twelve of the best independent breweries in the UK to bring you six outrageously good beers. But that’s not all—we’re taking it to the next level with the incredible artistic talents of Tom Moore (the man behind New Bristol’s can art), who’s designed a whole new set of can labels to match the imaginative brews inside.

What’s New for 2024?

This year’s theme celebrates “The Fun Side of Space Exploration”. Picture it: the boldness of the space race, but with a cheeky twist. Each beer in the box comes with its own lighthearted, out-of-this-world story—whether it’s an ode to a mischief-making astronaut or a quirky spin on an iconic space mission. Expect the unexpected! Our branding has always been linked to the act of beer exploration, and so this theme to accompany our biggest project of the year seemed just perfect!

Tom has outdone himself with stunning artwork that brings these space stories to life. Each label is a masterpiece in its own right, perfectly capturing the playful essence of both the beer inside and the theme as a whole.

Why ProjectX?

At its core, ProjectX is about celebrating collaboration. The craft beer industry thrives when brewers work together, exchanging ideas and experimenting with new techniques. This box of six brews represents the very best of that collaboration, crafted by and for the people who live and breathe craft beer. We toyed with the idea of a beer advent calendar, but instead we wanted to focus on the beers and breweries without the gimmicks, and give our community something truly unique and special.

And that’s the other thing that ProjectX celebrates – community. The UK craft beer scene is one of the most exciting in the world, and ProjectX highlights the innovation, passion, and creativity that define it. Whether you’re a seasoned craft beer expert, or just getting started on your beer journey, this box is for you.

Mark Your Calendars!

The wait is almost over — ProjectX goes on sale next week, and trust us, you’re going to want to get your hands on one of these boxes before they’re gone. Last year, ProjectX completely sold out, and with the buzz already building around this year’s theme, we expect these boxes to fly off the (virtual) shelves even faster.

Get ready for an epic journey into the world of craft beer and space exploration.

Towards the end of 2023, we recognised that we needed to make some changes to Brewser to keep growing the business in a way that worked for everyone involved. Those changes include evolving our tech and our team, to make our marketing more effective and efficient. Making such changes costs money, as does the growing itself. We also recognised that we had built an incredible community of people, including both brewers and drinkers. So, we decided to offer up the opportunity for that community to invest in Brewser, and become an owner in a unique business within the world of beer.

In any case, crowdfunding is easy, right? Wrong. Anyone who’s run a crowdfund will tell you it’s by no means easy. Especially in today’s economic climate. First, there’s choosing the right platform to work with, and there are bunch of options that all have slightly different propositions. We chose Seedrs because their team and their investor community impressed us – we believed we’d be most successful with them. Just as we put a lot of trust in Seedrs, they also put a lot of trust in us. As a business, you must go to great lengths to prove that you’re legitimate and are going to be a wise investment for the platform’s investor community. It took a lot of time and effort, but it was equally a useful exercise for us as a team to reflect and analyse where we’re at as a business, and more importantly, where we’re going. Then there’s the material you need to create for communications, marketing a pre-registration campaign, gathering feedback, adjusting your communications, marketing the actual campaign, answering a whole variety of questions, having calls with prospective investors, and doing everything you can to keep the campaign on track to hit its target. It’s a lot, and it’s fun, but it’s not easy.

With our campaign now closed, and the legalities drawing to a close, we are proud to say that we secured a little over £190k of investment, from over 160 investors (well above the £150k target!). It makes all that effort and stress so worth it, and really validates that we’re building an epic and trustworthy business. What validates things further for us, is the incredible diversity of investors that are now a part of Brewser. It feels very special that many of our own customers, partners and people who have no previous association with us have seen and invested in the potential of what Brewser can be. Especially in the tough times we’re in now, we are humbled and grateful to everyone who’s put their own money into Brewser, regardless of the amount.

So, with the funding round now wrapping up we can start to execute on some of our plans. It will always remain critical to us that we grow Brewser in a way that works for our customers, the breweries we work with, and those invested in the business. So, we are beginning to run some tests on how we can expand into a broader market of people, and get more people enjoying beer from the producers we work with. This involves different methods of marketing, and different onboarding flows once people reach the site. We also want to bring more marketing expertise into the team, and we’re in early discussions with some folk we think would be a great fit. Finally, we want to make Brewser even more flexible for our customers and partners, and that primarly comes down to evolving our tech to make that happen.

We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, but this crowdfund has given us the fuel and confidence we need to get it done. We would like to offer a huge thank you to everyone who’s shown us support prior to and during the crowdfund, and we’re looking forward to the onward journey together!

Disclaimer: Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high risk investment and you are unlikely to be protected if something goes wrong. Take 2 mins to learn more.

Most of you will have seen the exciting news that we’re soon kicking off a crowdfund campaign. We wanted to give you a little more insight into why we’re crowdfunding, what the future holds for Brewser, and why now is the right time to hop aboard.

First, a quick look at what Brewser is, and where it’s come since launching in November 2021. What we’ve built is a platform that connects independent breweries directly with people who want to drink their beer. Existing beer subscriptions bought beer in bulk, brought it to a warehouse, packed it up into mixed cases, and sent it on its way. Small producers either couldn’t, or couldn’t afford to brew beer on the scale required, and consumers had little choice and weren’t getting the very best beers.

Our thinking was simple. Take away those intermediary costs, and we could afford to pay breweries more for their beer, who in turn would provide their best beer, to consumers who had choice and flexibility like never before.

And so, fast forward 2-and-a-bit years, and we have a beer subscription that features over 100 of the best rated beer and cider producers from the UK and beyond, has onboarded over 7000 customers, and has an industry leading retention rate of 48% over 24 months.

That all sounds great, doesn’t it? So, why the need for a crowdfund?

We’ve achieved all of the above on very little investment. We’ve been lucky to receive angel investment from prominent industry leaders, such as Founders of Craft Gin Club and Naked Wines, as well as members of the Sainsbury and Guinness families. However, while we want to maintain our prudent approach, we’re ready to take Brewser to the next level – and we want to involve the incredible community we’ve built over the last two years.

Up to now, Brewser has been a craft beer and cider subscription service. The future will see Brewser evolve into an even more diverse and flexible marketplace. We want to give breweries, cideries and other types of independent producers even more ownership of their offerings, and consumers even more flexibility in terms of what, and how they purchase.

To execute on that vision, we need to do three things:

1. Grow our user base. The value of any marketplace or platform depends on the number and quality of buyers and sellers using it. Using Brewser as a vehicle, we want to bring more people into the craft beer and cider space, from the UK and overseas, and we want to further bolster the number and type of vendor available on Brewser.
2. Evolve our tech. Our technology is already highly scalable and flexible, but to thrive in its future state, we need to improve the UX and the flexibility of the platform to deal with the scale and reach of our future marketplace.
3. Expand our team. Up to very recently, we’ve been operating with just two employees – founders Olly and Lewis. We’re welcoming our first external hire – Ash – to the team in Feb24, but we need to further increase our capabilities in marketing, customer experience and tech, to be successful going forward.

This is the most exciting inflexion point in our journey so far. Off the back of this crowdfund, we’re targeting significant growth in the next 3 years, whilst staying true to what we set out to achieve in the first place. Pioneering the marketplace for craft beer and cider not only provides a huge opportunity for Brewser and its investors, but also to all the independent producers we work with.

Now’s the perfect time to join our mission. Register for priority access here.

Investing involves risks, including loss of capital, illiquidity, lack of dividends and dilution, and should be done only as part of a diversified portfolio. Please read the Risk Warnings before investing. Investments should only be made by investors who understand these risks. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and is subject to change in future. No communications about any campaigns on Seedrs you receive from Seedrs or the fundraising business, through email or any other medium, should be construed as an investment recommendation.

This blog has been approved by Seedrs Limited on 09/02/24 and is written by Brewser. Seedrs Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Seedrs Limited is a limited company, registered in England and Wales (No. 06848016), with registered office at Stylus Building, 112-116 Old Street, London, England, EC1V 9BG.