An Old Article - Perfect Topic

I was going through my old MySpace account and was looking through my dozen or so blog posts (I left MySpace because I had a limited audience) and found a very appropriate topic that I thought I would share with everyone. This was from 2006 so I must have had this on my mind at the time. Some things persevere.

Sunday, July 23, 2006 (This article was originally posted in All About Beer Magazine Volume 24 Number 5 November 2003)

What makes a great beer retail store? We asked our beer friends about the best places to buy beer, and their comments read like a how-to list for any beer retailer who aspires to be the best.

Broken down to the basics, here are the elements of greatness, in order of rarity:

Diversity: The retailer offers lots of choice. Locals are happy to find rare domestic and imported beers, and visitors are happy to see local beer well represented.
Beer Care: Beer is kept cool and out of harmful light. The beer is fresh, never outdated.
Customer Service: The store hires great staff who are passionate and knowledgeable about beer. The staff will place special orders, or contact beer enthusiasts when special beer arrives.

Education: The store hosts beer tastings for the public. There is information wherever you look. The store stocks a selection of beer literature: books, magazines, newspapers. The retailer supports experimentation by encouraging mixed six packs or single bottle sales.

Other Products: Great food doesn't hurt. Kegs, party planning, food and beer advice are all welcome additions. The store stocks appropriate beer glassware and other breweriana.

Exceptional Education: The store conducts tastings to educate its own staff, and helps out staff members who want to improve their beer credentials through homebrewing, judging, or travel.

Service Above and Beyond: The dream store stocksand lovingly tendsa range of choice of vintage beers. It reaches out to customers through the web or newsletters. It supports visiting speakers, lends it name to festivals and beer events, organizes beer dinners, serves as a catalyst for beer advocacy, and offers classes in cooking with beer or homebrewing. The store is a resource for local restaurant and bars that are interested in the best in beer, as well as homebrew clubs. A great retail store has a welcoming atmosphere that is fun to visit!

Blog #20 - Tasting #8

Friday night was a ridiculously good time tasting beer. Not only was it the first time Nikki and I had hosted an event since Tasting #1 a year ago, we sampled more beers than ever before and we added new friends who brought knowledge, discerning palettes and energy to our tasting event.

I continue to wonder if I should introduce more organization and structure to each tasting but as I look around at each group as they are conversing about a wide range of beer related topics I think at that moment how relaxed everyone is and how rules and form might disrupt the natural flow of the evening. If i knew what particular bottles were going to make an appearance at each tasting i could do research on the brewery and the style. I might try asking each attendant to do just a tad bit of homework before they arrive and then give a quick spiel when we pour their beer. Is that information you would want to hear if you attended?



Here is our delicious lineup for Tasting #8:
-Ommegang: Witte
-Hofbräu: Maibock (Urbock)
-Unibroue: Blanche De Chambly
-Marin: Hefe Weiss
-Einbecker: Mai-Ur-Bock
-Hopf: Helle Weisse
-Hacker-Pschorr: Weisse Bock
-Paulaner: Weissbier
-Ayinger: Ur-Weisse
-Lost Coast: Tangerine Wheat
-Samuel Adams: Imperial White
-Sierra Nevada: 30th Anniversary- Charlie, Fred And Ken's Bock
-Schneider: Weisse Weizenhell (Hefeweizen)
-Weihenstephaner: Hefeweissbier Dunkel
-Dogfish Head: 90Minute IPA
-Darren & Kris' IPA
-Schneider: Aventinus
-Paulaner: Salvator Doppel Bock
-Grand Teton: Tail Waggin' Double White Ale
-The Bruery: Hottenroth Berliner Weisse
-Fuller's: Vintage Ale 2007
-Ballast Point: Wahoo Wheat
-Spaten Franziskaner: Hefe-Weisse
-Russian River: Blind Pig
-North Coast: Blue Star
-Eudaemonia: Creamed Brunette

SMART Objectives

This section was as easy as the Mission Statement. This is kind of a wish list, but not unreachable. These are very reasonable goals...even the last one. I did not include any mention of profit or revenue because I haven't even began to broach that subject. SMART Objectives are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and have a Timeline.

-Send out distribution/company dossier to every brewery (that bottles) on the West
Coast within 6 months.

-Draft 10 educational lessons by end of the first year.

-Double our bottle selection within the first year.

-Begin construction on tasting area by beginning of year 2.

-Complete the Belgian Region display (completely stocked) by end of year 2.

-Reach 500 individual beers by end of year 2.

-*Bonus - Bring in Charlie Papazian, Fred Eckhardt, Jim Koch, Tomme Arthur, Vinnie Cilurzo, Kim Jordan, Sam Calagione, Greg Koch, Ken Grossman, Kurt/Rob Widmer, Fritz Maytag, Charles Finkel or Garrett Oliver to speak at the store. (If anyone is unfamiliar with any of these names let me know. I would love to fill you in)

Blog #19 - The Battle Cry

Both the West Coast and the East Coast have had an effect on my interest and connection with craft beer and the brewing industry. The West Coast has tempted me with reachable beer tasting events and amazing craft beer cities like Portland, San Francisco and San Diego that deliver Imperial IPAs, sour styles and amazing history connected to the rebirth of the industry.

The East Coast on the other hand has opened my eyes to well established beer stores, weekly podcasts and insane special release dates such as Dark Lord Day by three Floyds, Kate Day by Portsmouth and Darkness Day by Surly.

I don’t know about you, but watching videos that show people coming together to talk, trade, discover and drink some unbelievable styles and concepts that were unheard of even 20 years ago gets me excited. I decided after watching some of these (Bruisin Ales, Finger Lakes Beverages Center, Westmere Beverage) that I want to seriously see what it takes to get a store going and keep it running while making at least a minor profit.

So since I started the tasting group last year, put serious effort into updating my 12 year tasting list that is nearing 1000 entries, tasted beer in 6 countries, driven thousands of miles on pubcrawls, worked with every group in Fresno that brews in Fresno (BJ’s doesn’t count) and attended Beer School...I figured I would put the resources of the Central Valley Business Incubator to the test and see if there is any way in hell I can turn my hobby into a viable business. Starting this last Monday I have been staying up every night working on a business plan, step-by-step.

The road is long and trecherous, but it must be traveled. Who’s with me? CHAAARGE!

Vision Statement

While I am working on the next part of my story, here is the Vision Statement I have crafted so far for the Business Plan I am writing:

The Emporium will grow from a small, possibly strip-mall located, 200 bottle shop into a destination craft beer center that is up-to-date with brewing industry news, history, releases, tastings and education. There will be a weekly combination of visiting brewers (in-house and video conferencing) discussing their usually humble beginnings, work history, upcoming brewing sessions, and brewery events, to in-house history lessons on everything from early Egyptian recipes to European influences to post-Prohibition effects on the industry. Knowing that a trip to the Emporium can be as easy as in-and-out, grab-and-go or they can make a day of spending time with others who share their passion, will be enticing factors in drawing business away from larger chain stores.

Blog #18 - The Resurrection

Throughout my life my interest in any particular subject rises and falls like the tide at the Bay of Fundy. I seem to have trouble focusing and the cause is usually a lack of money. I had tossed aside the idea of a specialty bottle shop within hours of dreaming it up and would take years to bring the idea back to the table.

Fast forward to 2009 and the beginning of local beer tasting group. This would force me to have beer on my mind all year round by keeping up with brewing industry news, planning tasting events and attending more brewfests. In December a few of us traveled to Russian River in Santa Rosa for the day. Pliny the Younger release party was our reason and even though the availability of the beer turned out to be a bust, we had a great time and even stopped at a few stores on the way back.





Looking back now, I am not sure it even registered in my slightly intoxicated little brain that these might be specialty bottle shops. Monument Wine & Spirits was the first stop and I was not expecting the amount of bottles that dominated the back wall of cold cases and made up the horseshoe of wine crates in the center of the store. Having learned soooo much more about the industry and what brews had become valuable for trade; it hit me like a sobriety check point. And to think...as much as I loved this place for the selection of bottles and clever use of wine crates...it really was just a liquor store with a better than average selection. They still sold Johnny Walker, Mike's Hard Lemonade, enough Bud Light to choke a hippo and cigarettes behind the taped together counter. In fact the only thing appealing about the entire store was the beer.



We spent about 20 minutes browsing & purchasing and then hit the road headed for Livermore. I believe our next stop was Perry's Liquor and they had 1/4 the selection of Monument. I still wish our local liquor stores had this quantity and quality of beer, but this place was a waste of space as far as I was concerned. I guess my problem is that amazing beer that had serious effort and thought put into it by genuinely good people from around the country is mixed in with 5 Hour Energy Drink and malt liquors that punks will use as an excuse to beat their girlfriends.

This was the beginning of the dust being blown off of the rusty gears in my brain and the thought process really beginning to pick up speed. Several times a week I would ask myself as I sat down with a cold pale ale, "If I had a location like that...what would I do? How would I theme it, how would I layout/organize the selections, how would I advertise?" I didn't have exact answers...that would have to be thought out over many nights sitting in front of the computer or tossing around ideas with Dad. But the most important thing was...don't let this idea fade like last time.

Next...YouTube and the East Coast.

Blog #17 - The Reality

The drive from Chico to Madera is a long, flat and unimpressive 4 hour waste of time. Yes the Sierra Nevada mountains can be beautiful during the winter and spring, but the rest of the year they are clouded in a dirty mixture of agriculture dust and carbon monoxide. To pass the time, I subjected my dad to nonstop ramblings of how exciting it would be to run a specialty bottle shop in Fresno. Imagine every week working with a distributor and trying to obtain the latest and greatest releases from everyone's favorite breweries: Stone, Three Floyd's, The Bruery, Sierra Nevada, Russian River, etc.

In true 'father' form, my dad put my dreams to the test by playing devil's advocate and asking every question possible regarding location, inventory, distribution, bookkeeping, & demographics. Well, most of the questions I came up with at least a halfway decent answer, good enough for the car ride home. But none of them would hold up under scrutiny let alone convince an investor or bank rep to loan me money. And I hadn't even begun to crunch real numbers. Electricity costs were probably high because of the refrigeration units. Inventory had to be expensive because of all of the single bottles that had to be purchased. And most important, I had no idea if the Fresno/Clovis area could even support a craft beer retailer.

By the time we arrived home, the idea had faded into a faint memory and although I would think back on the possibility every now and then over the next 7 years, I would never seriously re-examine it until 2010.

Next...Resurrecting An Idea