This page is about buying the EZ Caps company itself, not a brewing kit. The buyer takes over the whole business: the brand, the registered trademark, the websites, and the manufacturing. If you just want to make wine or beer with EZ Caps, kits and replacement yeast are still available on eBay.
For over 25 years, EZ Caps has made home brewing about as simple as it gets: pour juice into a plastic bottle, add yeast, screw on an EZ Cap, and wait a few days. Now the business is looking for a new owner(s).
EZ Caps is run from Hawaii, and every order ships from the islands. Shipping costs have climbed steadily, USPS rates have gone up sharply over the last few years, and USPS now sends Ground Advantage packages from Hawaii by boat instead of by air. The affordable option is now too slow for customers, and the fast option costs too much. Most recently, the USPS has made their minimum shipping weight for packages to or from outside the 48 a full pound, even if the envelope is one ounce. Running EZ Caps from here no longer works. The product still works and people still look for it. It needs an owner on the mainland, closer to customers and suppliers.
The EZ CAPS® registered trademark (U.S. Reg. No. 3303560)
10 domains: ez-caps.com, the main website and EZ Caps' primary sales channel for most of its history; brand variations e-z-caps.com, ezcaps.org, ezcapsforum.com; product names ezbeerkit.com, ezwinekit.com, easybeerkit.com, easywinekit.com; niche and category alcohol4preppers.com, distillingandbrewingsupplies.com
The product design, kit contents, instructions, and recipe guide
Archived content from the EZ Caps user forum
The EZ Caps eBay store (the product was also sold on Amazon and here on this web site)
An established manufacturer who holds the production mold and will continue producing some of the EZ Caps components for the new owner
Help getting started from the existing owners.
Basically, you get everything except past/existing customer information (we respect their privacy and they never agreed to us sharing it, so we won't).
Homebrew supply companies
Beer, wine, and cider kit makers
Online sellers in the home brewing and fermentation space
Anyone with mainland fulfillment who wants an established, easy-to-explain product
EZ Caps have not been actively marketed in over 10 years, in one year it was actively marketed it generated 5 figures a year working only a few hours per week. It was always our intention to return to this business "some day" but after 25 years, frankly we've aged out of taking on any new projects and have decided to cut back instead. Before living in Hawaii, we lived in Alaska. The shipping problems have always put downward pressure on this project, but in the last few years changes at the USPS have made conducting business from outside the lower 48 nearly impossible, and we have no desire to try and setup an operation on the mainland ourselves. The time to pass the torch was a long time ago, we're finally trying to make that happen.
One product that was immensely successful was the EZ Caps beer kit, but shipping dried malt extract, hops, and other supplies from the mainland to Alaska and back made it impossible to price fairly. This would be a good product to consider bringing back.
EZ Caps has been losing money for years, mainly on domain name registration fees, so you shouldn't consider this a turnkey business. Sales are currently near zero. Think of this as a proven but retired business idea with the intellectual property and head start for somebody on the mainland with marketing experience and something we don't have: motivation. We cut expenses as much as possible by shifting to free web hosting, retiring the user forum, and stopped paying Amazon $400/year to sell our products there (this would be easy for somebody to turn back on). In other words: don't quit your day job yet.
Absolutely, at least to start. That's what we did. We have one manufacturer that custom makes the EZ Caps insert and the rest of the process is done at home. Our original intention was to start out marketing the prototype products currently available and then license the entire production to someone else. After we moved from Alaska to Hawaii in 2012 we started a homestead on 9 acres and have been getting further behind on every possible project since. The EZ Caps project went on the back burner and stayed there. It needs somebody to love it again.
Flexible. We're looking for a modest upfront payment to prove you're serious plus a small per-unit royalty on future sales. Or whatever other arrangement we agree to. Serious inquiries only: We've already had people offer to take the business for a handshake and vague promises so please don't waste your time on that.
Email ezcaps.sales@gmail.com with the subject line "EZ Caps acquisition." Tell us a little about your business and how you'd sell EZ Caps.