Virtual Beer Brewing

Your team brews a real batch of beer together, live, in 90 minutes. A master brewer leads on Zoom, or on Google Meet, Microsoft Teams or WebEx if that's what your company runs, while everyone works in their own kitchen: you steep the specialty grain, stir in the malt extract, bring the wort to a boil and drop the hops in on the brewer's cue, cool it down, pitch the yeast, then seal it all into the fermentation bucket under an airlock. Team engagement is built into the session, so the quiet people get drawn in rather than left watching a pot in silence.

You pick one kit for the whole group, so everybody brews the same beer and can compare results later:

• Oktoberfest Lager, smooth and crisp with balanced malt character and a clean finish. The festive one, with the broadest appeal.
• Honey Ale, light and easy drinking with gentle honey notes and a little more personality than the usual.
• Single Hop IPA, bright and hop forward, built to show off the flavor and aroma of one hop variety on its own.

That last kit is a brewing lesson in a bottle. Hops carry alpha acids that only turn bitter once they've been boiled, so hops added early in the boil are what give a beer its bitterness, while the delicate aromatic oils, the citrus and pine and tropical notes, are volatile enough to boil away in minutes and have to go in right at the end. Same hop, two completely different jobs, decided by nothing but timing. Your brewer calls each addition out loud as you make it, so your team leaves actually understanding why an IPA smells the way it does.

No, and the office beer nerd won't run away with it either, because the master brewer sets the pace and narrates every step as it happens. Beginners worry about technique, but the thing that really decides how a homebrew turns out is sanitation: wort is a sugary liquid that any stray microbe would happily move into. That's why every kit ships with sanitizer and cleaning supplies, and why brewers joke that the craft is mostly washing things. Follow the sanitizing steps, park the fermenter somewhere sensible, and the yeast does the rest of the work. Guests who don't drink can still brew along and hand their bottles to someone who will.

The kit covers the brewing side completely. Every guest gets:

• Dried malt extract, specialty grain and a steeping bag.
• Hops and yeast.
• A fermentation bucket with an airlock.
• Sanitizer and cleaning supplies.
• A thermometer strip.
• Carbonation drops, bottles and a funnel.

From your own kitchen you need a pot, or a combination of pots, holding at least 2 gallons in total, a large spoon, water, and a stovetop or other heat source. That's the entire list. Kits ship free within the US to each guest's own address, and we deliver internationally too, including Australia, the UK, Canada, Sweden, Ireland, Germany, South Africa, Mexico, India and Spain, so a team spread across cities or countries is normal rather than a problem.

No, and it's worth being straight about that: brew day ends with a sealed fermenter, not a pint. Fermentation takes roughly three weeks before the beer is ready to bottle, and bottled beer then wants about two more weeks at room temperature while the carbonation drops do their work. Call it five weeks from your event to the first properly fizzy glass.

Your brewer sends everyone off knowing exactly what comes next, and plenty of teams turn bottling day or first-pour night into a second casual call. That's the quiet advantage of this one: it's a team event that's still giving people something to talk about a month after the calendar invite ended.

Somewhere dark, still and steady, like a closet or a quiet corner away from radiators and direct sun. Alongside sanitation, fermentation temperature is what decides whether a homebrew tastes clean or rough, which is why there's a thermometer strip in every kit.

Yeast is a living organism and it changes its behavior with the thermostat. Let it run too warm and it throws off extra esters and fusel alcohols, which land in the glass as harsh, solventy, banana-ish flavors nobody asked for. Keep it too cold and it slows down and can stall before it has finished the job. That same split is what separates the two great families of beer: ale yeast works warm and fast and leaves fruity, expressive character behind, while lager yeast works cold and slow and finishes clean and crisp, which is why a lager tastes so much more restrained than an ale built from nearly the same ingredients. Your brewer gives you the target range for your kit's yeast before you log off.

Plenty, because the drinking is not the event. The 90 minutes are hands-on work, steeping grain, timing the hop additions, bringing the wort to a boil, pitching yeast and sealing the fermenter, with the master brewer explaining why each step matters as you do it. It plays as a chemistry lesson you can smell, and it lands with people who never order a pint.

It helps to know what actually arrives: malt extract, specialty grain, hops, yeast, sanitizer, bottles and the fermentation gear. There is no alcohol in the box, because on brew day the beer doesn't exist yet, which matters if your company has a policy about shipping drink to people's homes.

Tell your planner about any dietary needs before the kits ship. We accommodate dietary requests at no extra cost when they're shared in advance. One honest caveat: the kits are built on malt extract and specialty grain, so the beer itself is not gluten-free. If that matters for someone on your team, raise it early and your planner will talk you through the options.

The rate covers the whole event: a master brewer, a dedicated event planner, a kit delivered to every guest, free customization, gratuities and all service fees. Groups under five book at $795, then it's $159 per person for 5 to 30, $149 for 31 to 50, and $139 above 50. Teams run from 3 people to 600 and up, and very large groups are usually split by department or across a couple of days.

Plan on about three weeks so the kits land well before brew day, and ask about rush dates if you're tighter than that, since they're sometimes possible depending on brewer availability. A $250 deposit holds the date, payable by credit card, ACH bank transfer or check. Cancel 21 or more days out and you are refunded what you paid less any nonrecoverable costs already committed; 8 to 20 days out you choose between a 50% refund and a 100% Rockoly credit; inside 8 days payments are nonrefundable, though one complimentary reschedule is yours if you ask 14+ days ahead. Every event carries the Love Your Event Guarantee: your team should have an amazing experience, and if your Rockoly event doesn't live up to expectations, we'll make it right. Fill out the inquiry form on this page, call (617) 939-9732, or email events@rockoly.com and a planner will get to work on your date.