Returning to HBT with my own store ! ! !

[Jim Shellhamer]

I used to post under the handle of whip, but in the past year or so I let my supporting membership to HBT slide. As with many things, life intrudes" on our passions have to take a back seat for a bit of time. But in this case, I'm glad it happened.

You see, I've spent the last year jumping through the hoops of government red tape and financing to purchase my local homebrew store ! ! !

On Feb 27th, 2018 I took possession of Northeast Homebrew Supply in Lehighton Pennsylvania. I put the "Veteran Owned Business" sticker on the front door and started looking through my grain inventory to see what the hell I was going to brew ! ! ! !

So with this post, I would like to thank all the enablers here at HBT ! ! ! If I hadn't learned so much about brewing and wine making from the people here, I never would have gone this far with my brewing addiction. I never would have thought about buying a store when the opportunity presented itself.

Now begins the hard part ! ! ! I have to remember that I have to sell these lovely grains and that I can't brew them all ! ! ! !

 

[Kent88]

Neat! And you're already a forum supporter.

Taking a quick look at your website, I hope you expand the cheesemaking supplies you offer.

 

[cubalz]

Congratulations!! I have been thinking very hard about doing the very same thing. Best of Luck!!

 

[Jim Shellhamer]

I was a supporting member when I was here before. As a new brewer thirsting for information, (pun intended) I found to much valuable information here to not fork up the $$$. Now as a business owner, once again, I send customers here for information and recipes, so again I find this place to valuable to not fork over the $$$.

At the moment, I am sharing my commercial space with a winery. The husband and wife team that have the winery are also the people I purchased the store from. Eventually, when their new space is ready, they will be moving the winery out and then I will be expanding the store. More room for products, brewing and a classroom for brewing, wine making and distilling classes.

In addition to all that, I can brew and drink beer at work ! ! ! !

 

[Jim Shellhamer]

Congratulations!! I have been thinking very hard about doing the very same thing. Best of Luck!!

Thank you very much! I can honestly say that the last month has been one of the best in my life. If I would have known how much fun/beer I could have at work, I would have done this 27 years ago when I got out of the military !!!

 

[bleme]

Your closest homebrew club is about 40 miles away in Freeland but I see a whopping 14 homebrew clubs that should have members within an hours drive. You should reach out to them for some cheap advertising. Maybe offer a 10% discount to members?

https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/community/clubs/find-a-homebrew-club/

 

[Jim Shellhamer]

Your closest homebrew club is about 40 miles away in Freeland but I see a whopping 14 homebrew clubs that should have members within an hours drive. You should reach out to them for some cheap advertising. Maybe offer a 10% discount to members?

https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/community/clubs/find-a-homebrew-club/

I do offer a 10% AHA discount as well as an even better Veteran's discount.

 

[HopHeavy]

...you could START a homebrew club

 

[bleme]

My nearest homebrew supply is about an hour away. They offer our members a 10% discount and usually donate a prize for our annual homebrew competition. In exchange, they get a link on our website. We are a very active club, and are constantly attending festivals to advertise the benefits of homebrewing. I'd guess that less than half of the brewers in the area are club members, but all of them have visited our website, which means they all saw the link to the LHBS. Since it is an hour away, I bet many of them didn't know it existed.

I would check out the clubs in Bangor, Bethlehem, Danville, Elysburg, Freeland, Kutztown, Limerick, Montgomeryville, Perkasie, Reading, Richland, Scranton, Wilkes-Barre and Wyoming. If you can attend one of their meetings and give them a face to recognize, that would be even better.

We used to have another LHBS about an hour south that was in business for about 3 years. If you read reviews, most of the complaints were that he kept closing during advertised hours. He was a one-man-show also so he would close the shop any time he needed to run an errand, like make a bank deposit. I know it was closed the last time I went, so I'd say honoring your posted hours is probably one of the most important things you can do.

 

[Jim Shellhamer]

...you could START a homebrew club

Maybe in the future I will. But there are already a bunch of clubs around. Plus, I spent the last 27 years working in I/T so I am still wrapping my head around the business aspects so I've really got my hands full. I'm a one man show here at Northeast. Just keeping track of my stock is damn near a full time job. LOL Add to that, keeping my sample taps stocked and quality control (wink,wink) is the most pleasant aspect of owning the store.

 

[MaxStout]

Welcome back to HBT, and best of luck to your new LHBS! Very exciting!