We are making progress but there is still a lot of work to be done. Our next step is to secure a location and begin the formal design process. This involves taking the 400-page outline of museum contents that we have developed and making it match up with specific spaces. We need to raise about $2,000,000 from investors to complete this stage. Keep checking back for more details and get your name on our email list for important notifications.
Beer is pretty amazing stuff and there are fascinating stories about beer spanning the whole history of civilization: Why There Needs To Be A Brew Museum.
We will be within two miles of the Convention Center in Pittsburgh. That's to maximize the attendance of out of town visitors to the Museum. We need 50,000 square feet of space, so that does limit the options somewhat, but we have a short-list of possibilities we are exploring.
Are you kidding? Of course! We plan on having dozens of taps, in addition to the brewing our own beer. Beers on offer will include historical and hard-to-find options, as well as a significant number of local brews for out-of-towners to sample.
It came from our co-founder, Dr. Joe McAllister's, travels to Ireland and visiting the Guinness Storehouse museum. He was impressed by that operation and how they told their story. So back in the States, Joe looked to see what was on offer here. We have company tour and beer memorabilia collections, but he was surprised to find there was no large-scale comprehensive museum dedicated to the 10,000-year-old-history of beer.
Things got rolling soon after meeting with the CEO of VisitPittsburgh, who suggested Brew: The Museum of Beer could serve as a “first day destination attraction” that could substantially increase tourism in the City.
Brew: The Museum of Beer will be much more than that. With 20,000 square feet of exhibit space designed by experts in the field of major entertainment destinations, Brew will be a very special place. See What Make Brew unique?
Absolutely. The preliminary designs include a space for 300 to 400 people. Brew: The Museum of Beer will host a variety of events, some relating to beer, such as “meet the brewer” nights, beer tastings, festivals, and guests speakers. We would also hope to host industry meetings, conferences and fund raisers. More generally, the event space in Brew will also host banquets, balls, meetings, reunions, weddings and maybe even wakes. Personally, I hope to have my wake at Brew, though I don’t want to be one of the first.
Total implementation costs are estimated to be about $25 million. Funds will be raised in stages. The first stage was funds contributed by the founders; the second stage was the crowd funding. Going forward, funds will be raised through a combination of private equity, financing and public support.
First, we think that everyone who appreciates beer should support this. Brew will be a comprehensive museum, telling the entire, 10,000-year-old story of beer. Its purview will not be limited to any one region or brewery. In addition, there will be opportunities to combine a visit to Brew: The Museum of Beer with tours of the many great local breweries in the region (see our map of W. PA Breweries). We also think that people who don’t know much about Pittsburgh will find it a great place to visit (see http://www.visitpittsburgh.com).
There are so many reasons that make Pittsburgh a good choice at this point in time that we need more space to answer this question. See our detailed response at http://brewmuseum.com/why-pittsburgh/.
You could describe me (Joe) as a failed home brewer. When I was a poor graduate student in the late 1970’s, I couldn’t afford the kind of beers that I like to drink at that time, which were mostly imports. So I tried home brewing soon after it became legal. Unfortunately, I wasn’t very good at it, but I learned enough to admire those that were. I watched as some of them who had shared what they made in their basements and garages with grateful friends and neighbors were encouraged by those initial consumers to “sell the stuff.” Some of those early brewers then opened the initial microbreweries, which eventually lead to the 5000+ breweries we have today.
Matt: Creamy British pub ales and stouts
Debbie: IPAs
Denis: Porters and stouts
Joe: The one that is in front of me
Are you kidding? Are you trying to get us in big trouble? The truth is we have many great breweries in the area. It is fantastic being able to check them all out and sample their offering. Check out our interactive beer map of all breweries, existing and under development, in Western PA
We would like everyone to be involved in Brew: The Museum of Beer in some capacity. This might range from patronizing our events, to picking up Brew merchandise from our website, to volunteering. We can use your assistance in many different roles, whether that be in data entering, writing pieces for the website, working at our functions or helping on the technology side of things. Contact Debbie, our volunteer coordinator at Debbie@BrewMuseum.com.