Love2Brew is closing

[Beer-lord]

I've never purchased from them but I have heard adverts for L2B for years on the many podcasts I listen to. We're seeing more online retailers (smaller ones) close and my only LHBS almost did before someone stepped in and purchased it.

I'm writing to you today to inform you that Love2brew will be closing our retail and online sales operations on March 31st, 2019 at the latest.

It's time for Mark and myself to begin the next chapters of our journey. We founded Love2brew in 2011 excited and focused on spreading the joy of homebrewing and community in our home state and beyond. In many respects, we feel that we have succeeded in our purpose.

We will both forever be grateful for all of the support, friendship, and feedback you have offered over the years. All of you have made a permanent impact on our lives. Together we share credit for building one of the fasting growing Homebrew Supply companies ever to exist. Thank you.

We'll be winding down our inventory over the next two months with sales and discounts - we recommend not waiting too long to take advantage as we will not be restocking non-ingredient items. This sale will also apply to our retail location. You can see the sales details here: https://www.love2brew.com/Articles.asp?ID=829

It's bittersweet writing this but like any good story, every new chapter brings the present one to an end. So here we are.

Feel free to AMA. Thank you all so much for your support.

[swenocha]

We've had seven LHBS options in my area during my homebrewing decade (Rebel Brewer, Lil' Ole Winemaker, Craft Brewed, Wild Hare, Whole Foods, Worm's Way, All Seasons). Now down to only All Seasons. Will be a sad day if they ever close down their homebrewing shop. Of course Rebel still exists in name only... their name was bought by another retailer, but will be down to only the major OHBS players at some point...

[ScrewyBrewer]

This is coming as a complete shock! Our homebrew club holds our meetings at another New Jersey brew-on-premise homebrew store. I've heard rumblings that sales have been off quite a lot in 2018 because of lack of interest in homebrewing. I guess they're true.

[bpgreen]

It's sad to see a local store go out of business, but it's happening with many different kinds of stores, not just brew stores.

I try to give most of my business to my LHBS, but it's not real local, ans sometimes, it's just easier to order online.

I actually think that my LHBS will continue to thrive. They don't have much local competition (there are a couple of other stores, but they're not real competition). So therre's basically one good supplier for the state. And they also buy huge quantities of LME, most of which apparently gets resold to bakeries and restaurants. LME is too heavy for online purchases to be practical, so I think that will continue to be a profitable avenue for them.

[RickBeer]

The harsh reality is that one of the reasons for LHBS failures is the explosion of local craft breweries, as well as the explosion of craft beer available in stores. This has led to a decrease in the amount of homebrewers, which is driving LHBS out of business.

The big guys are hurting also. I expected to see Northern and Midwest, now owned by the dark side, cutting prices to drive the next tier out of business, but I haven't seen that. I have seen some price cuts by the next tier of LHBS, which I assume is in an attempt to keep market share from Northern and Midwest.

I can say that every time I've gone into Adventures in the past year or so (a handful of times), it's much less busy than it used to be, but part of that is that they setup a separate mail order processing center a few years back, whereas they used to do that in the Ann Arbor store.

I tried to get both my sons, heavy craft beer consumers, to homebrew, and neither has any interest. My younger son helped me brew and bottle one batch, and said "No thanks, I'll just buy it".

[ScrewyBrewer]

I just found out the Love2Brew in NOT closing. They will stay open under a new owner! I don't have a lot of details as of now.

[Beer-lord]

I just found out the Love2Brew in NOT closing. They will stay open under a new owner! I don't have a lot of details as of now.

I think they have been trying to find a new owner for quite some time so I'm glad they did. Same thing happened to my LHBS and it appears for me, for the better.

Hey everyone. First and foremost we are humbled by the tremendous support we have received given our announcement. It's been overwhelming, both emotionally and literally concerning our workload.

After the announcement of our closing, we were approached by numerous local homebrewers who were very interested in keeping Love2brew open to support our local and national homebrewing community. As this was always our ideal scenario, we have agreed to transfer the operation. I'm especially proud to say that long-time Love2brew team member Andrzej (Andrew) Bzdula will be stepping up to take on a leadership role within the organization alongside Tom Hasner.

Here are our next steps:

Beginning 2/4/19 we will close our retail location for one week, re-opening on 2/11/19.
We will focus on fulfilling all of the outstanding orders
We will restock our selection and continue to serve under new leadership.

Mark and I will still be transitioning out of the business as planned but will be staying on until the end of March to help the transition go smoothly.

Personally, I am excited to see Tom's vision for an even better homebrewing experience manifest with Love2brew. I am confident that our operation going forward will exceed the standards you are already used to with Love2brew.

Forgive the emotional roller coaster; we've been on the same ride as you! We'll be sending out an email shortly.

[ScrewyBrewer]

Definitely good news to hear they're restocking and opening again soon. With 40,000 AHA members and many more non-AHA members out there, things should be looking up a bit more.

[alb]

Good to hear they're staying open. I just placed a large order to help them with cash flow. I think I'm going to do some partial mashes until I get my brewing feet back under me. I took a long slow sip of a sour porter today, mashed and boiled over log fires, and it smelled and tasted sooo good. Just like my kitchen during a brew session. I've missed it the past year.