FWIW, the local homebrew shop around me that turned into a brewery (with co-located shop) has closed their shop to focus on brewing. I assume it makes just as little economic sense (or even less) for a small brewery to devote time and space to a small retail business. But I have heard of some breweries with local ties offering group buys for bulk ingredients. Unfortunately, this further cuts into the homebrew shop business on things that tend to be high margin, i.e. grain by the pound.
And this is what I want to see the AHA investigating. Why didn’t it work? Are there alternatives?
Homebrewers are rapidly losing local access to brewing ingredients. IMO, this is something of an emergency for the hobby and an institution like the AHA has the brains and muscle (and time, which I definitely do not have) to look into it and propose solutions.
I don’t think the closing of homebrew shops constitutes a national crisis. It is simply the natural order of things. The closings simply reflect a (very) niche hobby on the decline and capitalism operating as it does. There are no villains, only economics.
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That isn’t really the AHA’s purview
Well said
Exactly – I think it should be.
I just can’t see it, but you never know. At this point, the AHA has its hands full trying to improve membership and expand membership. I think if that happens, the retail side will take care of itself.
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While it’s upsetting that local shops aren’t doing well, availability of homebrew equipment and ingredients is still at an all time high in my opinion. It’s a far cry from the days when people bought stale yeast and blue ribbon malt extract. What is important is ensuring that the hobby continues.
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Here’s the latest from FH Steinbart, via email this morning:
“We … want to share some clarity on our closing timeline. While we originally anticipated a much earlier end date, we have extended operations likely through the end of February while we continue discussions with potential buyers.
This extension does not guarantee an outcome, but it gives us the necessary time to explore options and keep serving the community during the process. We will continue to update you as we know more.
Thank you for your patience, your flexibility, and your ongoing support.
We’ll keep sharing updates as they develop.”
+1. If the AHA focuses on members, the rest follows naturally. No need to take the spotlight off meeting membership needs.
It’s a basic economic principle: demands dictate market share. If there are AHA members > members will brew > brewing requires raw ingredients and equipment > HomeBrew shops supply raw ingredients and equipment.
if a business meets demands at convenience, a competitive price, good customer service, etc, they will thrive.
Personally, nostalgia only goes so far if it’s inconvenient, higher priced, or can’t meet a demand. I find it very convenient to sit at home, shop online, and have the product delivered to me three days later.
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/craft-beer-party-canada-sales-flat-breweries-close-9.7044246
my take on this has elements from what ive seen and perceived in both canada and north america.
re: canada - there was and is a glut of people who dont understand business and/or dont understand really good beer. every microbrewery ive comes across in ontario has done the -throw everything at the wall approach, while also throw nothing truly new or interesting at the wall. the frequency of me having a beer from a post-2010 founded brewery and really enjoying it is about 1 in 50. seriously.
the article spends most of it just complaining about how “people are drinking less” and not drinking beer in particular. a single line mentions that beer is overtaxed in canada. roughly half the entire price of every portion of beer here is tax, thats insane. if even this mediocre product was universally half price (ie. the company is still making the same profit margin on it, but the price isnt artificially doubled because big govt demands its cut) sales would be through the roof. i like beer and i like the act of going out and drinking but simply have zero interest in paying $10 for less-than-a-pint (~400 to 450ml) of mediocre to okay beer.
”Co-founder Leon said in recent years the brewery has revamped its menu to focus on pizza, and it introduced a hard iced tea that has become one of its top-selling products. “
literally lol - are you selling beer? or are you selling pizza? choose one.
every single beer bar, micro or nanobrewery has these stupid brightly lit, “Friendly!!!” gigantic spaces with weird activities constantly going on. - guess what? if that isnt working for you STOP DOING IT. look at other places around the world that continue to have a real night life many days of every single week of the year. i want affordable beer, and frankly a cosier, dark, extremely small venue is literally preferrable to some bizarre fully lit place with people doing karaoke on one side and pickleball on the other.
If what youre doing isnt working, stop doing it. stop making bad beer (ie. focus on a few real, characterful styles and perfect them), get the govt to stop taxing you as much, stop selling pizza/tacos/indoor rock climbing/kids birthday parties and just sell good beer.