Tony, I am one of your customers though I don't think we've ever met. I switched to your shop shortly before Mountain went out of business. You were a little closer to home, but had a much bigger variety of hops and I think a better selection of grain. You have more equipment also, but I am at that phase in the hobby where I rarely need to buy hardware any more.
> What would you like to see from your local shop?
I would like to see more club-like activities at the shop, like a homebrew tasting/critique event. To advance in the hobby I need to meet more people, try their beer, and get comments on my beer. Maybe the shop can outright host/sponsor a new club, but there may already be adequate club coverage of our area. I'm not sure. (When I have looked at
this directory most of the nearby clubs appear to be dead, though
cascadebrewersguild is apparently alive and has had meetings at your store.)
I would like it if your web page had an event calendar. I know you do things at the shop but I don't use Facebook, if that is where they are discussed. If there is a calendar, please copy it to the web site. I'd also sign up for a mailing list if you had one.
The only gripe I have about your shop is the yeast selection. I wish it was bigger, though I know if I plan ahead you can get what I need. I realize yeast is perishable and you are trying to find the right balance.
I also would prefer it if you carried the more inexpensive Wyeast/White Labs versions of things that you now only have in Imperial. I'd rather have $4-5 back in my pocket than an extra 100B cells.
> How can we as a shop and you as brewers bring more people into the hobby?
To get more people into the hobby, maybe the shop can put on a "learn to brew" event. This is a half-baked idea but it would be something like this:
- Interested people sign up, show up
- People watch as staff/patron volunteers do an on-site brew demo. Do an AG demo, but when you get to the boil step, discuss extract too. Let people taste the ingredients and smell the hops. Let people use a hydrometer and refractometer.
- Brew process can be radically shortened -- mash for 10 minutes while talking about enzymes. Demo hop additions without waiting for a real boil, etc. Run an immersion chiller for just a few minutes, not 30. Show how to make a yeast starter, but don't go through the boil/chill step.
- Maybe you can even do it without a heat source and chiller water. Just seeing the parts in use, even if they are not live, will be illuminating.
- After the "wort" is put in a fermenter for demo purposes, demo the bare essentials of bottling and kegging.
- Make the whole thing take 45-60 minutes.
- Unveil the bottles/kegs that have THE SAME BREWS READY TO DRINK. Do tastings. Look guys, you can make this and it's good!
- Ta da, all the fun of brewing with none of the work.
- Attendees get some kind of deal on newbie equipment packages.
- Give out the recipes, equipment lists, link to Palmer's free book, maybe sell the book at a discount for the event.
To reactivate lapsed brewers, maybe you can identify the pain points that chased them away, and develop plans to address them with workshops and sales. I suspect there are 2 big issues... One, your beer might suck because you don't have temperature controlled fermentation. There are inexpensive and "Cadillac" options to demo and sell there. Two, bottling is a pain in the ass, so you can demo kegging and sell a starter kit. Of course, reaching the lapser brewers is its own challenge.
