Home Brew Supply Store

[Rachel Lindsay]

Hi All Homebrewers,

My name is Rachel and I'm considering opening a Home Brew Supply Store. The centre of Dublin would be ideal but I live in Kilpedder Co Wicklow myself so will also be looking at locations there, like Greystones for instance. I'm only at the market research stages yet so any feedback would be appreciated. I plan to include supplies for jam pickle and chutney making too.  I hope to be up and running within a year or so all going to plan. Hope to hear from some of you,

Cheers,
Rachel.

[Shane Phelan]

With homebrew stores in Ireland I think it is very useful to be a specialist in a couple of areas, i.e. selling kits by itself isn't really going to make you stand out. You have already proposed supplying jam making equipment which in itself is potentially a specialist area. Additionally as more brewers get pressure cookers for sterilisation, they are also useful for the canning process. This type of thinking will make you stand out and you wo

A lot of brewers are looking for a brewing store in Dublin but the majority buy on-line. You would need to weigh up the pro's and cons of having an expensive city centre location v.s a much cheaper location closer to where you live. I know the last brew shop in Dublin they barely sold enough on a given day to justify the person's wages and rent so they changed location and went on-line as a result.

[Tom]

If you're good then folk will travel to a bricks and mortar shop, city centre or otherwise. Whenever I'm in Belfast I pop into Nature's Way, even though I don't make kit beers and their hops are ancient.

As for supplying stuff, I think stocking some common grains, hops and yeast would be good. Jam, chutney, cheese and yoghurt, hedgerow wines (NOT KOMBUCHA!). There are plenty of home-brewers/home-jammers in your neck of the woods.

Pity I'm not.

[Ciderhead]

I live in Wicklow and the potential for walk-ins is limited and current suppliers are all on industrial estates or low rent locations.
My bigger concern for you is the roi.
Pm me and we can have a coffee or even better still don't take just my word for it you can come to Hollands tonight meet, 10 other Homebrewers and find out what's important to HB'ers

[Tom]

Smooth.

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

Volume trading is what you need to make it. Also high quality fresh ingredients. Competition online is huge, and the only real call for a brick and mortar store is for emergency ingredient supplies (you are out of a specific item for a recipe, like fresh yeast or a particular hop). I don't think you can do it with a brick and mortar store as a primary source of income.

The frugality and independence are cornerstones of the hobby. While there are some cases where people will go to extravagant lengths to make a particular beer, (like a barrel aged strong stout, cultivating commercial yeasts from bottles etc) its a rarity in the business.

Its a badge of honour when you can make beers that completely outclass the regular commercial beers, but you do it for a fraction of the cost. For regular strength beers, experienced brewers who shop around or bulk buy, can get the ingredient and brewing costs down to about €8-€12 for a 20L batch. So we are talking about 25c per 500ml bottle. This applies to equipment also, witness all of the articles here that talk about self building brewing kettles, mashing vessels, and use cheap transfer pumps. Or who cut all the corners and use a single vessel for everything.

I know in the UK most Home Brew Shops are online only, and if they have a retail access it is in a remote area. They are also very clever in how they get revenue. Workshops are a big thing here, tasting sessions etc.

[Tom]

The fella I go to in the UK is in a portacabin tacked onto a massive garden centre. He's online mainly, I gather.

I also gather, from HomeBrewTalk (American) that new brewers go to their LHBS for advise as well as ingredients.

[irish_goat]

I always think the ideal HB shop would be attached to a brewery. Constant supply of fresh malt, hops, yeast, chemicals etc, all bought in bulk.

[Tom]

I agree, Thomas. But how many brewers could be arsed bagging malts and hops and so on, on top of the other crap that goes with brewing?

Also you'd be limited to whatever hops the brewery uses, so Cascade and Northern Brewer.  :

[irish_goat]

I agree, Thomas. But how many brewers could be arsed bagging malts and hops and so on, on top of the other crap that goes with brewing?

Also you'd be limited to whatever hops the brewery uses, so Cascade and Northern Brewer.  :

Nah I mean you still have a separate shop and staff like the current HB shops do and you'd still stock small supplies of different hops and malts. The difference would be you'd have fresher supplies of base malts and standard hops and you could have vials of yeast that are only a few hours old. Plus you'd have brewers available to do workshops etc.

And a few of the micros would have a decent spread of hops. 

[Shane Phelan]

It would actually be really cool to get an official "Metalman All grain kit" or "Hooker AG kit".

[irish_goat]

It would actually be really cool to get an official "Metalman All grain kit" or "Hooker AG kit".

Not a bad idea! And it'd not be like they'd be giving away their recipes as you'd have no idea what quantities/varieties were in it.

[Rachel Lindsay]

I live in Wicklow and the potential for walk-ins is limited and current suppliers are all on industrial estates or low rent locations.
My bigger concern for you is the roi.
Pm me and we can have a coffee or even better still don't take just my word for it you can come to Hollands tonight meet, 10 other Homebrewers and find out what's important to HB'ers

I'm definitely planning to get to Hollands but not tonight, I'll keep an eye out for next months meeting and will come along and meet you all.
Cheers,
Rachel.

[Rachel Lindsay]

Thanks to all of you for your feedback and opinions, this is all very helpful indeed,
Slainte,
Rachel.

[Greg2013]

Rachel one thing i would say is that if you go online with your shop, please try not to have 30 items for sale online and all out off stock  at the same time like most of the online shops in Ireland.

When you are setting up your software for your online shop give serious consideration to decent stock take software, also might be an idea to include a button which hides all items currently out of stock so it would save customers wasting time looking for items and them they are not there.

All i am saying is if you are out of stock fair enough, nobody can stock everything, just don't display it online

Best of luck with your new venture and hope to see you up and running real soon