Hi Creating a nano brewery and beer club in Kigali Rwanda

Hi all!

I’m an expat living in Rwanda. I have been going through craft beer withdrawls for some time now. So I got this crazy idea to make beer ad start a nanobrewery(with the help of some crowdfunding of course)

One major challenge is I’m attempting to build the craft brew scene in a country where many people have been drinking the same beer(s) for 30+ years and many are not really knowledgeble about beer, AT ALL...

So I had the idea to create a beer club here in Kigali, this serves many interests but mostly to build awareness and excitement around beer and plus it will help with our R&D prior to us launching our nano-brewery.

In the beer club memebers will be sampling a beers from all over the world. But then I asked how do I get beer here... and low and behold ratebeer and beer trading... HOOORAYYY.

So I would love it if some people could help support our beer club by entertaining some beer trades. I’d love to have some Belgian ales, Lambics would be wonderful, IPA’s, stouts, and even ciders would be amazing, to be honest ANY beer will do, because it will be new for my members. So If all you’ve got is PBR or Coors Light even natty ice that’s awesome too as it’ll still be new for our members.

Any help or insight helpful advice would be phenomenal
Even if you are a homebrewer or brewery and willing to donate some beer for us to try, we would be grateful for that!

Cheers!

I wish you luck with your endeavours. However, my unfortunate experience of sending things of even modest value to war-torn (including gang warfare) parts of the world is that they simply don’t arrive. And at 13e+8e/kg postage, it’s an expensive gamble.

If you’re interested in the mindboggling colonial history of beer and beer import in neighbouring Congo, there’s a rich chapter on how the "beer wars" over there were tied to music bars, local politics, preying multinationals and NGOs etc. in David Van Reybrouck’s majestic "Congo: The Epic History of a People."

Darn. Things written like this normally advise me of how much of someone else’s net worth is waiting for me if I respond. This one wants something from me right up front? Gotta appreciate the honesty.

He just wants to trade.
But what is he offering?

Good luck.

BM sent.

Rwanda has an incredibly efficient bureaucracy and well run government for that part of the world and is incredible given the historical challenges it has faced. I would think odds are better than most that the beer arrived. My concern would be what shape it was in by the time it got there.

OP-Good luck-I can understand the desire to drink something other than Primus all the time! I would expect you’d have better luck though plugging in to the expat network there and getting friends to bring stuff in on trips back to Rwanda from their home countries, but you probably are already working that!

My guess would be to connect with expats who do a lot of travelling to Belgium. I’d suggest that you bring your idea to the Belgian consulate in Kigali. I know friends who have been able to work fairly large shipments - not of beer - through the diplomatic channel. Postal service works but you have a lot of chances someone will just open it and take the items.

Another avenue would be to seek other beers that are more local per se and available in Africa such as through the South African market.

Originally posted by MacBoost
He just wants to trade.
But what is he offering?

Originally posted by wchesser
Rwanda has an incredibly efficient bureaucracy and well run government for that part of the world and is incredible given the historical challenges it has faced. I would think odds are better than most that the beer arrived. My concern would be what shape it was in by the time it got there.

OP-Good luck-I can understand the desire to drink something other than Primus all the time! I would expect you’d have better luck though plugging in to the expat network there and getting friends to bring stuff in on trips back to Rwanda from their home countries, but you probably are already working that!