Business Update - Feb 2025

by Bart van de Kooij, on Feb 28, 2025 11:25:04 AM

Screenshot 2025-02-21 at 12.30.17 Minibrew_fullswing_shipment

On February 24, 2025, we announced via email a bold shift for MiniBrew that ensures we can survive and thrive without relying on hardware sales. I want to share the changes here.

Update Subscription Plan

In the last months, we scaled down—working unpaid, cutting costs wherever possible—to keep the servers running, provide support, and manage logistics for you. But this isn’t sustainable.

We’re not giving up, but we must create a stable foundation.

We knew the email of February 24, 2025 would spark conversation. Your honest feedback, constructive criticism, and unwavering support have shaped what comes next.

First, I want to acknowledge that the timing and communication could have been better. This plan was not developed overnight, but we recognize that rolling it out to you all at once may have felt abrupt. That was never our intention. We tested the idea with a small group of users beforehand, but we now realize we should have engaged a broader audience before making the announcement. That’s on us.

Secondly, our lawyer has carefully reviewed our terms and conditions and the EU Digital Act. Adjusting prices during an active subscription is allowed, but we recognize that there is room for interpretation. The real question is whether we focus on a strict legal interpretation that could ultimately lead to MiniBrew shutting down or whether we work together to ensure its future.

We understand that updating to a new plan so soon—especially if you just paid €89 weeks or months ago—feels sudden. If we had more time, we would have preferred to let the existing plans run their course. But if we did that, there wouldn’t be enough liquidity to pay the bills in March.

That’s why we’re offering a voucher for the remaining months of your subscription—to acknowledge your commitment while giving MiniBrew the chance to survive and thrive. We’re doing everything possible to make this fair, and I hope you’ll stand with us.

For those with outstanding months in any subscription, we will provide a voucher that can be used for physical and digital products in our shop (www.minibrew.io).

To make this shift fairer, we have added extra days to the trial and monthly and annual accounts set to renew between February 15 and March 1. This way, you won’t be asked to make another payment on March 1, which wouldn’t feel fair.

What matters most is that we’re listening—and adjusting based on what you’ve shared. Here’s what’s changing:

Your Feedback, Our Adjustments

Pro Plan Stays Pro– The “Expert” plan will revert to its original name, Pro.
A Free Tier for Everyone – There will be NO mandatory €5/month subscription to keep your MiniBrew running.
Pay-Per-Use for Occasional Brewers—Based on our data, some users brew between one and eight times a year. We’re introducing a pay-per-use model with a €15 service fee per brew to support this group. Once you reach nine brews within a calendar year, we’ll remind you that upgrading to a PRO subscription could save you money. This service fee helps cover servers, support, and maintenance, ensuring a smooth brewing experience whenever you choose to brew.
Pro & Legend Plans Continue – If you're already on a Pro plan, it will transition seamlessly to the new pricing of the same level.
Legend Plan Upgrades – If you’ve expressed interest in Legend, we’ll add you manually. Our website hasn't changed yet. Please let us know through this form - let us know before March 1, 2025

Screenshot 2025-02-27 at 23.07.54

Why This Matters & What’s Next

We understand that some of you are still concerned about the "what if" scenario—what happens if MiniBrew doesn’t make it? While we are fully committed to making this work, we also recognize the importance of a contingency plan. Our mission has always been to revolutionize home brewing, and that vision hasn’t changed.

To safeguard the future of the MiniBrew ecosystem, we are already exploring ways to develop a stand-alone server solution. This would significantly reduce operational costs and ensure that MiniBrew owners can continue brewing independently and retain control even in the worst-case scenario.

With the support of our Legend users, we can take proactive steps toward this goal, creating a more self-sufficient, community-driven future for MiniBrew.

Keeping MiniBrew alive and improving requires tough choices. Just as an airline relies on a few business-class seats to keep the whole flight running, we need a strong Legend user base to sustain the MiniBrew ecosystem. If we can grow our Legend community, we can survive and thrive to roll out the features you’ve requested.

Our Roadmap for the upcoming three months

The features in the Legend plan are not just empty promises—we are fully committed to making them happen. We know that good developers are expensive, and you might wonder how we can afford to deliver on these plans while trying to survive and thrive. The truth is, we’re incredibly fortunate. Our full-stack developer, Guido, is working under the payroll of our investors, allowing us to secure top-tier development at an Eastern European rate—something that would typically cost a fortune.

Because of this, we can make meaningful progress within the budget we aim for. We’ve already done significant groundwork, and here’s a list of features ready for testing. Your support in transitioning to Legend will help us bring these to life even faster.

These features will first launch within the Legend plan for testing and refinement. Once they’re rock solid, we’ll also roll them out to Pro users.

Rolling Out Subscription Changes

With March 1, 2025, approaching quickly, we’re rolling out subscription changes in phases to ensure a smooth transition. Most users will remain in their current plan, with only adjustments to pricing and billing intervals.

If you’d like to switch from Pro Monthly to Pro Annual or Pro (monthly/annual) to Legend (monthly/annual), just let us know via this form. We’ll handle the switch manually.

Since our system doesn’t yet support automatic upgrades, we must make these changes in our back end.

To build a sustainable future for MiniBrew, these new subscriptions come with an initial commitment period:

Pro users commit to 6 months before the next renewal cycle.
Legend users commit to 3 months to prove the value of this new plan.

Think of it like a streaming membership—once subscribed, you’ll have access to everything within your chosen plan for a period, and you’re free to upgrade anytime. However, there’s no option to downgrade to the free Starter plan.
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These commitment periods are a one-time adjustment. After that:

Pro subscriptions will automatically renew on October 1, 2025, with the option to cancel in the final month of your term.
Legend subscriptions will renew on June 1, 2025, on a flexible monthly cycle. Please feel free to continue or cancel as needed.

We know this is a big change, and the price increase in the legend plan is significant. As a gesture of goodwill, we offer more flexibility to switch plans after three months.

These measures will enable the company to become solvent and deliver according to our plans.

FAQ: Subscription questions

We understand you may have questions about the upcoming changes rolling out on March 1, 2025. Below are some answers to the most common ones. If you need assistance, feel free to contact our support team.

1) How can I check or update my credit card details for my subscription?
Our system does not allow you to check or update your credit card details. We plan to migrate subscriptions to a new system, which will take approximately 20 days. If you need to verify your payment method, we can look it up for you—just let us know.

2) I’m part of an occasional brewing group. How would pay-per-use work?
For occasional brewers, we offer a pay-per-use model where you pay a small service fee per brew instead of a monthly subscription. This is ideal if you brew only a few times a year, but like a gym pass, a full subscription becomes the better value if used frequently.

Our current subscription tool isn’t set up for pay-per-use. This requires some time from our side.

3) What happens if I don’t want to continue with my subscription?
If you choose not to continue, you can cancel your subscription before March 1, 2025. You will fall back to the Starter level, which does not require a subscription. You are only required to pay a €15 service fee for each brew.

4) What happens with the remaining time on my current subscription?
For those with outstanding months in any subscription, we will provide a voucher that can be used for physical products or our warranty in our shop (www.minibrew.io). This is valid till July 2026. You will get a voucher in March 2025. When you don’t use your voucher, it can be used for subscriptions from March 2026, when the financial situation hopefully is better

5) What does the service fee cover?
Your subscription helps cover essential services that keep MiniBrew running, including:
✅ Server maintenance and cloud storage
✅ App and software updates
✅ Technical support and customer service during weekdays and weekends
✅ Logistics and ongoing improvements

Without these fees, we couldn’t continue offering a seamless brewing experience.

6) What are the benefits of upgrading to Legend?
Legend users help sustain MiniBrew and, in return, get access to exclusive features and early releases, including:
🚀 Real-time brewing control (adjust fermentation temperature, switch stages remotely)
🚀 API access (public availability, solid documentation, and test functionality)
🚀 Deep cleaning kit and access to workshops about how to brew top-quality beers

We will begin rolling out new features in phases. Our roadmap provides more details.

7) I was charged twice within two weeks—what happened?

With the subscription changes taking effect on March 1, 2025, we’ve prevented double charges between February 15 and March 1. However, if an unintended charge occurred, it was purely accidental. Please reply to this email, and we’ll review and resolve the issue for you.

8) What if I signed up for a lifetime subscription?

If you are a lifetime subscriber, we appreciate your early support. We will offer a custom plan exclusively for you, which will be shared on February 28, 2025. Since this is short notice, you’ll have one week to decide what works best.

Your subscription will remain unchanged unless you opt into the new plan. If you already know what you prefer, please let us know by filling out this form.

GEN 3 Delivery Update for Non-EU Countries

For our global customers, we’ve been making steady progress despite some logistical hurdles. We’re happy to share that we’ve successfully delivered another 20 units to non-EU customers and are preparing to ship the following 20 units.

We appreciate your patience and support as we navigate international shipping challenges. We aim to get your MiniBrew to you as soon as possible, and we’ll keep you updated on our progress. Thank you for being part of this journey!

🇹🇭 Thailand: Successful Deliveries

🇰🇷 South Korea: Successful Deliveries

🇨🇳 China: Successful Deliveries

🇦🇺 Australia: Awaiting Shipment to you

First and foremost, we sincerely apologize for the delay in delivering your MiniBrew units. We understand how frustrating this wait has been, and we genuinely appreciate your patience and trust.

Expanding into a new market like Australia comes with unique challenges, especially as our primary focus remains on the EU. However, we’ve always been transparent and committed to delivering your orders. Here’s what’s happened so far:

✅ Q1 2024: Hardware production was completed.
✅ Q2 2024: Recipe kits were shipped to Australia.
✅ Q2 2024: A local distributor was secured to assist with shipments.
✅ Q3 2024: GST was collected and set aside in a separate account.
✅ Q3 2024: Missing items from the starter packs were sourced.
✅ Q4 2024: The foundation for a local repair service was established.

We originally planned to ship in November/December 2024, but unforeseen delays arose due to the need to manage EU operations and ship our U.S. production.

We work with four people on our team and have realised that shipping worldwide is too ambitious. That's on us. We are grateful you are sticking with us.

Your products are not stuck in customs—they are safely stored at our Australian distributor’s warehouse. We are incredibly grateful to them for their help keeping the goods secure and navigating local regulations.

While shipping costs and GST have already been covered, MiniBrew isn’t funded enough to pay all upfront charges simultaneously. We have found a solution to move forward and expect to start shipping in March 2025.

We acknowledge that we could have provided more frequent updates and a more precise timeline, and we are committed to improving communication moving forward. We are working closely with our distributor to finalize the logistics and will provide a confirmed shipping timeline as soon as possible.

🇸🇬 Singapore: Almost at completion

We decided to expedite delivery and shipped individual orders directly to customers. Once the Men Cave is ready, we will ship the remaining products.

🇯🇵 Japan: Almost at completion

In Japan, we expedited delivery and ship individual orders directly to customers.

🇦🇪 UAE: Seeking a Distribution Partner

In the UAE, we have opted to ship some individual orders directly to customers to avoid delays.

🇺🇸 USA: First units are shipped

In 2024, MiniBrew took an essential step by setting up Exobrew, a dedicated U.S. entity to bring MiniBrew to American customers. This initiative sparked great interest, and thanks to the support of early backers in the U.S., we were able to make the first 110V pre-UL certified CRAFT GEN 3s a reality.

We’re thrilled to announce that the first units have officially landed in the USA. Your patience and orders made this defining milestone possible. We’ve allocated machines across Exobrew and MiniBrew orders for this first batch to ensure fairness. Exobrew will handle the shipment of MiniBrew orders. We are in close contact with the Exobrew team and local shipment companies. The exobrew team will reach out for address confirmation or any other information.

Looking ahead, Exobrew paid the shipment and taxes. The second production run is planned for Q2 2025. This will allow us to deliver the remaining 65 Exobrew orders and complete 18 MiniBrew orders. We appreciate your patience and can’t wait to get CRAFT GEN 3s into more hands across the U.S.! 🚀

Please check the Exobrew website for regular updates.

Thank you

Thank you for being part of this journey. Your passion, feedback, and support fuel us every day. We’re building this together, and we’re grateful you’re here.

Let's make Minibrew Great Again.
We believe in you. Let's do this together.

Cheers

Guido, Rolf, Richard & Bart