Local stores are the heart of the Washington Homebrewing Community. The second half of this article will delve into how Miesel and Campbell are reading local tea leaves to feed the roots of Longmont’s homebrewing market.Ĭyril Vidergar is a homebrewer and attorney based in Northern Colorado.Your best bet for the freshest ingredients and selection of equipment are your local homebrew stores. The homebrewing market and craft beer in general is fractured and varied across each community. Miesel believes the role of homebrew supply shops is as much about being a resource for brewers of all stripes, whether new to the craft or preparing for a pilot commercial batch, as it is being a retailer. Miesel’s advice has helped many dabbling customers build special beers for weddings, or even take the leap into commercial brewing, e.g., 300 Suns and Grossen Bart. “The whole hobby is one big social circle,” said Campbell.Įducation and collaboration have long been hallmarks of the Bald Brewer. Rather, they’ve each succeed by leveraging the inherent social nature of the hobby and teaching customers to make beer they personally like to drink and are proud to share. Though their market presences differ, Campbell and Miesel nevertheless agree: Their customer base has never been strongly rooted in out-brewing or cloning commercial beers. The Bald Brewer remains a largely traditional retail supplier with modest online sales and no in-house taps. At the 2017 census, Longmont’s population stood at 94,341.Ĭampbell gravitated to a hybrid try-before-you-buy business model, wherein he makes a beer on site, customers have a pint, then he sells the recipe and ingredients, all in one space. They see Longmont’s homebrewing market as healthy and able beat the national ratio of local residents needed to support each successful homebrew shop: 100,000:1. While AHA data reflects a similar national correlation between these market conditions, Campbell and his business partner are not buying it. Miesel attributes several factors to this decline, including an increase in local craft breweries, making unique beer more accessible with less effort, and supply channel consolidation and price changes, following AB-InBev’s purchase of Northern Brewer Homebrew Supply and its sister company, Midwest Supplies in 2016. After that window, Miesel estimates local sales declined by 3 to 5 percent annually. He still sells a lot of IPA recipes though, for which he stocks more than 80 hop varieties.īoth shop owners noted a local market surge between 20. “We can replicate most craft beer styles for homebrewing by fiddling with yeast attenuation and grain bills,” said Miesel.Ī few years ago, Miesel noted nearly every customer wanted to make a sour now it’s trending toward New England IPA. Since 2010, Miesel said he has watched craft beer trends flow from the taproom into his shop. The shop’s eponymous, clean-headed proprietor Mark Miesel also tracks the market. North of Brewmented, off Main Street and 8th Avenue, is Longmont’s most established homebrew store: The Bald Brewer. craft beer production 52 percent are between ages 30-49 68 percent have a college degree or some form of higher education and 68 percent have a household income of at least $75,000. A 2017 market research study by 1st Resource revealed that, as of 2018, approximately 1.1 million people in the United States homebrew - and 40 percent of those homebrewers took up the hobby after 2013.Īccording to the AHA, homebrewers annually produce more than 1.4 million barrels of brew, representing 1 percent of total U.S. He said he pored over data from the American Homebrewers Association (AHA), the leading organization dedicated to advancing the hobby. Craft beer’s rise drew along many related industries, including homebrewing, yet this segment of the craft seems stalled.īill Campbell, co-owner of Longmont’s Brewmented, studied market data before opening his combination brewery-homebrew supply outlet in 2018. Inventive brewers are in demand to create fresh flavors, enliven flagships and open new style genres. Today, homebrewing ought to be relishing its journey from the cultural fringe to a mainstay step for any emerging commercial brewer. The hobby of homebrewing followed an evolution borne in the American patriot’s ingenuity, kindled by the bootlegger during temperance and revered by tomorrow’s aspiring brewing apprentice. Feeding the roots of this hobby leads to prosperity for the whole craft marketplace. The most telling proving ground for accomplished craft brewers is the 5-gallon test administered by homebrewing. Inventive craft beers and brands are not born - notwithstanding flashes of genius - nor are creative brewers who wield imagination into liquid gold “born.” Rather, these jewels of the industry are grown. Note: This is a two-part series on homebrewing in Longmont.
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