About Us

Levi and John Arthur

History of What's Brewin'
by John Arthur

I started What's Brewin' in early 1992 because I was a regular homebrewer and there was no store in Boulder carrying homebrew and wine making supplies. (At the same time I was tired of my then current business as a hot tub service man, "The Hot Tub Refugee.") I knew that the brewing community needed a reliable resource for information and supplies.

After months of research and planning, I mortgaged the equity in my house, found a location, and opened for business on September 4th, 1992. Our location was 1980 Eighth Street in Boulder, that was just around the corner from the American Homebrewers Association. Being so close to the AHA was a good thing and our first customer on that first day was AHA employee Susanne Price. (Ms Price later became What's Brewin's first employee and then after leaving us, resurrected the American Mead Association, which disappeared when Susanne was tragically killed in a car accident.) Another first day customer was Paul Gatza who later became operations manager and part owner of What's Brewin'.

The community responded to our efforts right away and we quickly outgrew our tiny shop. In June of 1995 we moved our store from Eighth Street to Bluff Street (where we are today). Later we decided to open a second location in Longmont to accommodate our growth. (During this period homebrew shops were springing up like mushrooms after a rainstorm all over the USA.) We opened our Longmont store in September of 1995.

A little while after our 1995 expansion the homebrew market reached its saturation point and the industry began to shrink all over the USA. We closed our Longmont store in the spring of 1998. That summer Paul Gatza resigned from What' Brewin' in order to become the director of the American Homebrewers Association. I went back to day to day operations and was the only employee for the company for about 6 months in 1998. I continued to scale back to the point of being on the verge of closing. I held on with a meager salary, and in 2000 things began to stop shrinking and start growing again. Since then, we've seen slow but steady growth -- a long way from the homebrewing craze of the mid 90s, but evidence of a growing hobby nonetheless.

Now we are approaching our 15th anniversary, we hope to continue providing you with excellent service for many years to come. Please feel free to make suggestions on how we can better serve you!

June 22, 2007: What's Brewin Founder, John Arthur, passed away. He will be greatly missed.

Our fearless leader practicing what he preaches.
(Caution: Trained professional on closed course. Do not attempt while sober.)

© 2006-2007 What's Brewin' Homebrewers Supply
2752 47th St., Boulder CO 80301, 303-444-9433

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