Okay, I submit: it is frustrating. We’re excited for this. C’est la vie, we are making the best of it. We will launch with new kit lines, with new … okay, we’ll keep some surprises.

So what’s going on? We’re moving into a space so big, we fall into a slightly different building code than we were prepared for. Oops! So now we need a different level of precautions. We’re getting them done as fast as possible, and we’ll be very delighted to announce a new date soon. This is still happening, and in the near future, but we need a little more information before we can announce a new date. Expect the next month or two at worst.

Hey, we’re brewers and wine makers — we’re learning what we need to do to make this work as we go. Sorry for the change of plans (no, really, we’re sorry). We promise we’ll take advantage of this time to make it that much better when we get in there!

Cheers!

What you’ll get when you come into the new space: a sense of how much more we can offer. Lets be honest, we’ve needed to do this! Sometimes we can’t find everything quickly. There are still some products we don’t carry… and there will always be some we choose not to, certainly. We just don’t have room for everything we’d like right now, though.

The other projects will be ongoing, set to open at some point in April. In the meantime, the store will be even more worth the effort of finding us… oh wait, we won’t be on the back side of a building anymore! It will, indeed, be much easier to find us.

Here’s a little guide: how to get there from here

View Larger Map

March 1st is the official launch, but we should be open there Feb 28th.

Grand Opening will be thrown later when the OTHER PROJECTS launch.

We can’t wait either!

These kits run in the $150 range, a very good value for the skin addition going into the already high-quality kits. In fact, the skin packs are available on their own for $24.50 each (available in Syrah, Cabernet, or Merlot).

I would recommend trying the skin packs with other Advintage kits, or with Kamil Juices — they could be an excellent addition to the already dense-tasting juices. They will extend the aging, certainly, so experiment with that cautionary warning!

As always, limited supply of Advintage for now. Come in soon for best selection!

Next… Happy New Year!  Welcome to those new brewers who discovered they have a new hobby to play with this past holiday season. In keeping with that, we’ve got our home brew classes to offer. For the new or first-few-times brewer, our Beer Brewing Intro Class (offered Saturday mornings at 8:45 am on select dates) is perfect. It is free, and it offers tips, strategies, and logic behind the extract with grains brew process. Sure, it is just a lecture, but it is the best lecture you won’t pay for. We’ve seen much greater success early on with those who attend. Hey, that’s what we’re here for!

We will post further dates for Beer Class I, but currently Jan 14th and Jan 28th are available. Please watch the calendar, it will show new dates soon! If interested, email rich@brew-wine.com with “Beer Class I [dd/mm]” in the subject. I’d like to keep track of everyone who’d like to attend in case we run into a hint of last year’s weather! If you don’t recall, there was a fair amount of storm that necessitated our rescheduling some classes. Better I can reach you if the need should arise!

Our BEER CLASS level II is running again, thanks to Dana and his extreme dedication. This will be offered as a series of classes. It is not required to attend each class (though STRONGLY recommended for the fullest benefit). The first class is introduction to ingredients with a guided tasting of 3 beers to demonstrate malt, hop, and yeast profile extremes.  Second class will be process — introducing some beer chemistry and brewing techniques followed by the math behind recipe formulation.  Beyond that will be exploration into specific styles (four classes) making this a six class series. There is a fee for these classes of $20 per class, or $100 for all six classes (paid on first class). They will be held Wednesday evenings  starting at 6:15pm and run for about 1 1/2 hours each. Dana will be the instructor for these sessions (and is by far the most qualified to do so).

Beer Class level II starts January 25th and will run on every other Weds evenings. If you will not be able to make every week, that is no problem — pay as you go is fine! Attending all, or even the majority, will leave the brewer with the information sufficient to successfully brew their own recipes. Better still, the brewers will understand why and how their beer is successful!

For registration to either class, please email rich@brew-wine.com with the subject “Beer Class (I/II)”, and feel free to contact if you have any questions about these classes.

REMINDER: Brew & Wine Hobby is moving. March 1st we will be located at 12 Cedar St., E. Hartford.

10am to 2pm.

HAVE GREAT HOLIDAYS! …and drive safe.

Home wine makers know perfectly well that a bottle costs them between 2-5 bucks (depending on options we’ll talk about later) per bottle, after equipment is considered. What shocks most people is when they taste their first well-made home made wine and realize they’ve paid over $15 or $20 (sometimes more) for bottles that aren’t as good! The assumption is that somehow the product they buy should be superior to the ones they make.

Sure, we aren’t likely to make a bottle of wine that will compare to the cult Cabs of Napa or the best Bordeaux has to offer. They do make some big money on those wines, and the cost of those wines to produce is beyond what many of us will see in a lifetime. Thanks to “The Grapevine,” a wine industry magazine, we have a breakdown of the average bottle of wine — guess what? Our home made wines cost the same as the $20 bottles do!

Sure, you could download and read (I encourage you to do so, it is a very interesting magazine), but I will sum up a portion here. Of the $20 spent on an average bottle (assume domestic, import fees aren’t included in this analysis), under $6 ($5.83 is the cited average) is the cost of the grapes, winemkaing, barrels, tanks bottles, labels, corks, capsules, shipping, storage…

From there, the wine maker makes around 33% selling to a distributor ($8.67). The wholesale price is another 35% to 45% markup ($13.33 on average at this point to the retailer), then retail markup is around %33 over wholesale for about $20.  Side note: CT state minimum is 30% markup.  Unless something odd happens, sales/box prices/etc are still netting the store 30%.

What this means is that (regardless of how we feel about it), almost 3/4 of the price of a bottle of wine is going to people who’ve handled it, not the producers. What’s the other 1/4? Bottles aren’t cheap — I hunt for new bottles at reasonable prices, but my cost on some fancier bottles I’ve seen, even buying by the truck load as wineries would, is up over $3 each. Cheap bottles, cheap labels, … okay, let us just assume the least expensive cost on the winery’s supplies. Out of the nearly $6, half of that is going to be packing, labeling, etc., and that brings us to around (or under) $3 per the contents of the bottle.

Hm, that’s about what it costs us when we make wine, isn’t it? Only we’re paying for the labor of a manufacturing company to make concentrates, or we’re paying the wine maker to create the product that goes into the bottle.

The simple conclusion: it is better to be a wine maker.

I wouldn’t call them directions, though: the fun of these juices is that they are good without work, but with a little work and decision making they can be great. For years I have offered my suggestions (and will always continue to do so), but that doesn’t mean you are limited to what I think tastes good!

We have a smattering of every option available, come in soon for the best range of options. Many of these juices go fast!

Cheers!

We’re going to make that a little more interesting this year. We’ve got a few recipes (all grain, extract, and just wacky) we’d like to offer in honor of “Black Friday.” Yes, they are all dark beers as such. They are also between 10% and 40% less $$ than normal, if picked up Friday or Saturday this week (that’s Nov 25th and 26th if you’re putting it in a calendar).

Short version: Brew & Wine Hobby’s own prepared ingredient kits between 10% and 40% off. 

Two days only, while supplies last. They won’t, we’re sure! Partly because we don’t always make our own kits — those who’ve had them when we do tend to rave about them.

The all-grain kits will be prepared crushed so they are ready to brew. We’re hoping this means we get to break in our new malt mill, too.

See you Friday/Saturday! Happy Thanksgiving!

(Yes, normal hours here excepting for being closed Thanksgiving)

Email or call -- rich@brew-wine.com or 860 528 0592

EQUIPMENT

Blichmann Engineering’s Top Tier brewtree is now in stock (with three burners and the basic setup it runs just over $1k). It looks impressive to say the least! We’ve got a couple of Blichmann pots (15 gal) on hand as well to round out the “wow, that stuff looks awesome” experience. It does, really. The drool stains in front of them are disproportionately mine.

Coming soon, we hope to have an inexpensive “getting going on grain” system. Working out the details, but it should make the entry to all-grain brewing easier.

HOPS

Also, we’re very well stocked for the brew season. I don’t think our shop has ever had so much grain on hand at once. Or hops. To that point, look towards our webstore in the coming days to see all hop varieties we carry. Sure, some will be out of stock from time to time. That’s the nature of hops these days with new microbreweries popping up everywhere. I spent a part of yesterday on the phone with a Hopunion representative getting  a bit of a scoop. Seems they are struggling to keep up and simply realize the demand is beyond what the fields will produce.

This means if you know you really like certain hops, you should keep your eyes peeled for announcements of hops by the pound. The majority of our hops-by-the-pound offered will be packed by Hopunion using the best packing technology available. Stuff like Simcoe that we were told would be no problem this year… well, it will be. We were under the impression we would be able to grab pounds and pounds of the stuff, but it doesn’t look like anyone will be able to do so. So the point is: we’ll announce when we have certain hops by the pound, and that will be your best bet if you know you’ll want a good amount. Think Simcoe, Amarillo, Citra,  Palisades, and perhaps a few others. Most of the rest should be in good enough supply. Hey, I’m not happy about it, but I wanted to give everyone the heads up.

Also, we pledge to carry all the hops available to us. Hopunion has pledged to get more of their hops available to us. I can’t wait to see what is released next (and I have some guesses…).

NEW CLEANING PRODUCT (to us, anyways)

Oxygen Brewery Wash. Great stuff, very potent on stainless or plastic. $8.95 the first time you buy, but unlike the competing brands (that we will continue to carry), you can pay $6.95 to get your container re-filled at the shop. We love when a great product can save money, too.

FINALLY…

Congrats to all who placed or had the curiosity to enter SNERHC. http://www.undergroundbrewers.org/snerhc/results/Results_2011.htm

We see a lot of familiar names there, great job you guys!

Hope everyone is brewing something great!

Cheers!

Rich