Many professional brewers got their start as homebrewers, and conversely many homebrewers get their start in the hobby inspired by great beers from local brewers. The Winemakers Shop is bridging the gap between home brewers and pro brewers by making several local brewery recipes available to their customers.
“I was talking to my dad about how to connect microbreweries with their roots in home brewing and he thought up this idea,” said Ivan Francis, Manager of The Winemaker’s Shop.
Ivan’s father is notably Scott Francis, referred to as the “Godfather of Columbus Craft Beer” by many. Scott was the original brewmaster for Columbus Brewing Company, Barley’s Brewing Company and Smokehouse Brewing Company, and is the current brewmaster at Temperance Row Brewing Co. Scott’s wife and Ivan’s mother, Nina Hawranick, owns The Winemaker’s Shop, which has been supplying the local home brewing community since 1974.
“A few of the brewers commented that they’d love to participate because Nina is the one who sold them their first kits or taught them how to brew,” said Ivan.
Elevator Brewing Company, Lineage Brewing, Land-Grant Brewing Company, Seventh Son Brewing and Temperance Row are among the breweries making their recipes available through the Clintonville shop.
“At first this may seem like [the breweries] are handing their hard earned recipes over to the public to just clone the beers and take them out of business,” said Ivan. “But after explaining the vision for what the project really is, and remembering that it is just about impossible to clone a 10-barrel batch in a microbrewery on a home brewing level, the brewers loved the idea.”
Ivan says that so far, four additional local breweries have expressed interest in having their recipes shared with the home brewing community. The local beer recipes will be available to customers at The Winemakers Shop for the foreseeable future.
“The brewing community is on a different plane in terms of protection of intellectual property,” said Ivan. “They are much more willing to be generous with their ideas. There are house tips and tricks that they hold dear, but in terms of a recipe, they are for the most part pretty straightforward.”
The Winemakers Shop is located at 3517 N High St in Clintonville.
