Expanding our craft beer another isle over....

i am no way near that area but i think this is an awesome effort to please customers. I wish my local bottle shops came on here and asked up what we wanted. Great Customer service!

 

If you're going to expand to another isle, I'd recommend going somewhere warm. Perhaps the Caribbean or the Mediterranean?

 

Do you ship?

 

Since you are reaching out, I'd like to offer up an opinion. I am no where near your area either but think you will score big with beer geeks too if you really take care of the beer you sell (not saying you don't! , just speaking from my experience down here in FL). I can't tell you how many times I walk into Total Wine down here in FL and see big Imperial Stouts and ageable beers in the cooler space while seasonal IPA sit out on the warm shelves.

I've come around to the thought process of more doesn't equal better if it can't be kept right. I often see beers that are past the best by date, pale ales over a year old, corked and caged bottles sitting upright, etc.

I think that proper keeping of beer is just as good as the selection. Good luck on the expansion and new brews, cheers!

 

were are u located sir

 

You'd need a ship to get to the isle.

 

Get yourself on over to the Midwest aisle (forum) and watch which beers are being discussed. You can learn a lot on this site, but you have to look as well as ask. You might as well also go look at your competition and see what is on their shelves. Any bottles that might be dusty probably are brands that you don't want in your store.

 

don't overextend yourself. Better to keep what you chose to offer fresh.

 

I was under the impression that corked beer should be stored upright...am I wrong?

 

You'll get arguments for both but upright is probably preferable.

 

Pun intended, right?

 

ABout 20 replies and little "advocacy": Here is my shot…Go to the Beer Styles section of this webpage. Try to hit styles that your biggest competitor doesn't. Ask for modest stocks….avoids stale beers. Try to allow customers a chance to by beer as part of a mix a six if your state allows that. It's ok to charge a little extra if you let customers break a six.
Last but not least, have one of your employees read the posts here as to what is hot and new…

one personal bit of advice…..758 varieties of IPAs isn't really what I call a good selection.

 

Since I have no idea what beers you could sell in MN I can't help you. As someone else has already posted more does not mean better. Good luck in any case.

 

Not sure how big your store is or what type of customers you have, but I'd probably start with looking at what type of customers you have. If your customers are largely pulling a way 30-packs of Bud Light (not that there is anything wrong with that) you may want to stick with the getting the bigger name craft brews (e.g. DFH, Stone, Founders, some local craft, Surly, etc.). I'm not sure that jumping straight to the highest rated beers is the best move as they often cost more (customers get sticker shock) and your current customers may not know what it is leaving it to stay on the shelves longer than necessary. You could then start to trickle in some of the "good stuff" little by little to start the buzz of your store being a hidden jewel that craft beer addicts like myself seek out. The case study for this is the liquor store down the street from me, by in large they pump out 30's of bud light and have a smaller craft area - every once in a while I find a hidden gem and its got me going back regularly just to see what they have or if anything catches my eye (this is a place I stumbled upon Vanilla Rye when all of my other go-to craft beer stores were either having lotteries or running out.

Just my two cents. Also, if you're liquor store is along the main highway between Minneapolis and Duluth I'll be sure to stop by when visiting my sister in Duluth to see your offerings!

 

i appreciate this thread from the point of view of store reaching out to customer, but unless you live in Minnesota you're not going to know the distribution map of many breweries. We can all suggest great beers, but we don't even know if they are distributed to your area.

 

Get a reputation for quality. I used to work in a quality grocery store and every morning the produce guy would go through the produce and cull out the bad stuff and pitch it into the dumpster. Gussie Busch, as much as we love to dis him and his beer, had a mania for quality and would go through retail and restaurant stocks of his beer and pull out the out of date stuff. I doubt InBev does that now, but I have heard that Sierra Nevada has empowered any employee to remove out of date stock. Don't buy 2 to 3 year old Uerige from your distributor and don't let a distributor talk you into buying more than you can sell.

Keep the lights dim. Keep green and clear bottles away from bright fluorescent lights. Refrigerate the hoppy beers and watch their best by dates.

When you have done this, then expand your stock.

You want my business? Put a sing in your window supporting Sunday liquor sales. Contact your state legislators and lobby them to allow you to sell growlers like they do at the Casanova in Hudson. It would be nice to see Minnesota join the 21st century.

 

I was always under the impression to store them upright, especially if you have a chunk of yeast in the bottle.

Distribution is a huge factor! I guess maybe the OP is asking what styles to get? One thing I would say is support your local breweries in Minnesota, especially those that are just getting their first cans/bottles out into distribution. A lot of the session beers I buy tend to come from the local shelf.

 

This is to reinforce some of the points made by others.

Since I have no idea what you get there, the Styles lists can be your friends. For example, look at the German style pilsners (which I'd expect to move well in MN) and order them by ratings (there's a link that does that for you, giving you the top X easily seen) and then focus on getting 3-4 of the most highly rated versions that are distributed to MN in stock. (And avoid the top 250 list as a source of information since it is a basically a popularity contest where most of the "voters" are interested in rarity and variety rather repeat buying. If your distributor offers you the chance to buy a rare or hard to find beer that happens to be on that list, be sure its one that can stand up to a bit of aging under your storage conditions, e.g., a hi ABV stout, etc.)

Worry less about space and re-double or even triple your efforts to focus on freshness. I personally won't buy undated beer and have found one or two places where I know I can trust the owner to give me accurate freshness information (despite the fact the both sometimes slip into, "we just got it in stock" trap rather than knowing when it was brewed). Store it out of direct lighting and keep as much of it refrigerated as humanly possible. Part of what you have to sell is both beer and confidence of the customer in your product. You wouldn't get me as customer if I visit your shop 3-4 times and find lots of out of code beers on your shelves.

Finally, a suggestion of my own.

Something I think you might be able to make work well for you. Let your customers know that if they are willing to buy a full case of a beer they like you can order it for them if it gets into MN. While occasionally someone will change their mind and you'll get stuck with having ordered something that has to be put into stock, generally this extra work can pay off in building customer loyalty.

 

The city I used to live it had a cool bottle shop that basically had a wish list/waiting list. You could request a beer or if there was a special release coming you could put your name down and they would call you when it came in.