Wine Shop adds craft beer taps, sees growth

As it began selling growlers of beer last weekend, Charleston’s premier fine wine retailer also added a secondary brand name: On Tap @ The Wine Shop. This change illustrates that craft beer sales are today having a big impact even in the deepest strata of wine retailers.

Ted Armbrecht, owner of The Wine Shop, says craft beer sales had simply become far too important not to embrace it more fully.

“Our beer sales have been up double digits,” he said. “I’m talking about up 40% plus each month this year over the same month last year. Just tremendous growth.”

He developed a new logo that appears on all his growlers.

“(With the new logo) we identify ourselves as a beer destination, but still tied into the tradition and reputation of The Wine Shop,” he explains.

Tradition runs deep at The Wine Shop

The Wine Shop has been an anchor at Capitol Market for 18 years. It’s roots go even deeper, back to the mid-1980s to the former wine shop at Stone & Thomas department store.

But The Wine Shop has only been selling beer since 2006.

“The better beers available in West Virginia back in 2006 could fit on two shelving fixtures,” Armbrecht said describing his then little beer corner at the shop. “It was a long slow road to better selections in West Virginia.”

And slowly, progress came.

In 2009, craft beer in WV got a boost when the state popped the cap on maximum alcohol content, raising it from 6.0 to 12.0 percent alcohol by volume. This change encouraged more out-of-state craft breweries to begin distributing to the state. But improvements in availability did not occur overnight.

“It was really interesting that when the law changed, the selection of beers didn’t dramatically change,” he noted. “It was very slow, maybe one or two good new lines a year.”

By 2010, craft beer availability and sales had grown sufficiently though to allow Armbrecht to add a couple additional shelving units and a cold box for beer when he moved his shop into a larger space within Capitol Market.

“When we expanded to the new space, people came in and said, ‘Oh, you sell beer now,'” he said, explaining that greater visibility led to increased beer sales.

However, in the last couple of years, his craft beer sales have really exploded. He credits the explosion to both the recent availability of many more high-profile regional/national craft beer brands plus the coming of age of local craft breweries in West Virginia.

“We’re now busting at the gut in terms of the space we have for beer,” Armbrecht exclaimed. “A couple months ago, I added another shelf fixture for beer, and I have a lot more stacked on the floor.

“American craft beers are going through the roof. In the last three months the increase in interest in West Virginia craft beers is fantastic.”

I expect big things for beer this year — Armbrecht

The Wine Shop was among the first West Virginia beer retailers to begin filling growlers after the law change went into effect.

He attributes the fast growing interest in WV-made beers to quality. He believes that WV brewers have matured to the point where they are putting out beer of consistently high quality, and the market is responding to it.

He also mentions that West Virginia breweries getting into canned beer has helped increase demand for their beer.

WV-made beer leads growler sales

“In our first weekend of growler sales, the two largest sellers were Charleston Brewing’s Raj IPA and Greenbrier Valley’s Mothman Black IPA,” he said.

Those two beers he named are WV-made beers. The other four Wine Shop taps featured popular national/regional craft brands or imports.

To maintain interest, he plans to keep rotating brands through his growler filling station, but the sales performance of his West Virginia-made beer certainly caught his attention.

Couldn’t have happened without legislation

Sometime last year, while talking with friends, he decided that selling growler fills would be a logical next step for his business. He quickly found out that before he could, there would have to be a law change. Last January, when the Governor Earl Ray Tomblin called for legislation to help the state’s craft brewing industry, Armbrecht knew it was time to get involved.

While he supported the WV Craft Brewers Guild initiative that would legalize growler sales at production breweries, he was most interested in authorizing growler sales at retailers.

“It was a win-win for everybody to have retailers involved,” he said.

Working with other beer retailers and restaurants, such as Black Sheep Burritos, and with Charleston attorney Rob Absten and State Senator Chris Walters, Armbrecht did his part to further the idea.

Senator Walters, who represents the Charleston area, included language drafted by Absten in a bill that would authorize all retailers and restaurants holding a beer sales license to also sell growlers. Armbrecht pushed the bill with his representatives and attended some legislative committee meetings to support the bill.

Making it through the twists and turns of the legislative process, the retailer-growler-sales concept eventually was amended into the Governor’s bill, which passed the legislature and became effective on June 12, 2015.

Helping small breweries grow

The Wine Shop is a good example of what supporters of the growler law hoped for: new investment that would support the growth of WV craft beer.  Armbrecht said his total investment to get into the growler sales business will total up to as much as $15,000—counting his keg cooler, draft dispensing tower system, installation costs, plumbing in a new sink, stock of custom growler jugs, permits, and a graphic artist to design his new On Tap logo.

Because most West Virginia breweries do not regularly package their beer in anything except kegs of draft, growler sales is the only way a retailer like The Wine Shop can sell many local beers.

That Charleston Brewing Company’s Raj IPA is Armbrecht’s best seller surely underscores that the new growler law is boosting sales at the state’s draft-only breweries.

A steep learning curve

Armbrecht says getting into growler sales has a steep learning curve, with the legal requirements, beer selection, keg ordering and storage considerations, pricing strategy, and actually setting up the new draft system and staffing it. He found a lot of hoops he had to jump through, but feels it’s been worth it.

He credits Charleston Brewing Company brewer Ryan Heastings and the bartenders at Pies and Pints (Charleston store) for helping him select the best draft dispensing system for his shop.

He is also consulting on a regular basis with Sam Walker-Matthews, a professional brewer and owner-operator of Woods Fork Beer Works. Armbrecht says Walker-Matthews has been a tremendous help.

Similarities seen in beer, wine market development

Through it all, Armbrecht feels his wine heritage has helped him better understand the possibilities of craft beer. He sees many similarities in the craft beer market of today with the wine market of the 1980s and early 1990s. Back then, the number of wine labels exploded, and wine sales grew rapidly with the new availabilities.

He believes his experience as a wine retailer helps him capture more craft beer sales. Instead of six packs, he sells his beer primarily by the bottle, in the same manner he sells wine.

“I think we’re in a great position because we sell individual bottles, giving customers the opportunity to try new beers without having to commit to a whole six-pack.”

In it for the long term

“I’ve been in this business a long time, and to see the kind of growth we’ve had in beer this year, it bodes well for the future of craft beer,” he said. “I expect big things for beer this year.”

For more information go to The Wine Shop website.