East End Brewing Co. asks customers to chip in

You'd be investing not in beer futures, but rather in future beer, if you get in on a novel scheme to help Pittsburgh's micro-est brewery grow.

Scott Smith aims to move his East End Brewing Co. from its current home on Susquehanna Street in Homewood to a much bigger building at 6580 Frankstown Ave. in Larimer.

He has put in an offer on the warehouse, a former telecom operation, and he hopes to close by June 1. Meanwhile, there's a hearing before the city Zoning Board of Adjustment on May 19 for a variance, from local neighborhood commercial to light industrial use, that Mr. Smith needs to brew there.

He says he and his wife, Julie, will have the roughly $500,000 needed to buy and equip the new space, in part by mortgaging their Mt. Lebanon house, but need about $100,000 more.

And that's where his loyal customers and other craft beer fans can come in.

Rather than court actual investors and sell parts of the business, says Mr. Smith, "We're doing what we always do and selling beer" - only in advance.

As he lays it out, a typical customer might come in every other week and buy two growlers - refillable 64-ounce jugs - of beer. Over a year, that person would spend about $500.

Mr. Smith wants to find 100 people willing to front him for two years of beer - $1,000 each. The "investors" will get $1,000 in vouchers - in $10 increments - for East End products.

"It's like buying a gift certificate that you redeem for beer," he says. "They're never going to expire and you can use them any place we sell beer" - at the brewery or its booth at the Pittsburgh Public Market in the Strip District.

Mr. Smith says the vouchers would be transferable, and that the brewery might eventually - after three years - buy back any unused ones.

As further enticement, he's offering supporters special perks such as a private opening for the new brewery, a T-shirt, first crack at limited bottled brews, and their names on the wall as "Good Beer Investors."