Focus

Given that the name of our store is "The Glass Jug," several people have asked us if we are focusing on growlers.  Or, if we are only filling growlers.  We are doing much more than filling growlers, but the idea of having a focus provokes some thought. Any specialty retail store needs to establish a niche.  You need to give people a reason to walk into your store as opposed to the other specialty stores or the big box stores.  Why go here as opposed to going there?

For beer bottle shops, it has always been about two things:

1. Having a better selection of craft and local products than the big box stores
2. Being located closer to your home/office than the other specialty bottle shops

That's it.  Sure, there are some exceptions, but if you take a poll and ask people why they shop at the craft beer store they do, they will tell you these two things 90% of the time.

So, back to focus.

Why do we need to have a focus, if all we need to provide are the two items above?  I can guarantee we will have a great selection of beer (and some wine and cider) that you can't find at Wal-Mart or Harris Teeter - our selection may not be as large as Total Wine, but it will be more unique.  And our location is central to RTP, Durham, Cary, and Apex.  This, in and of itself, should make us the beer store of choice for a lot of people in the area, right?

Right... for now.

But, as more breweries keep opening up (there are now over 3,000 breweries nationally, and over 100 in NC) and as more people become interested in craft beer, we are going to continue to see growth of independent craft beer stores opening up, along with existing shops opening up additional locations.  So, 5 years down the road, that two-item list above will still be important, but there will likely be plenty of stores that fit that criteria.  My guess is that we'll start to see new items added to that list of what people look for when choosing a bottle shop.  Things like:

1. Having all of the beer you need, and all of the different package types, in a single shop (so you can get beer for any occasion)
2. Having an owner/manager who understands your specific taste and can recommend (or even hold) new beers for you to try
3. Having an atmosphere that is generally welcoming and not overwhelming - a place where you genuinely enjoy spending time

So (for real this time), that brings us back to our focus.

Our focus, to put it as succinctly as possible, is to be your one-stop-shop for craft beverages.  You can swing in for a pint on draft after work, while picking up a couple of six-packs for the weekend. While you're here, you may find something unique on tap that strikes your fancy, and you can fill a growler of it to share with some friends who are coming in town to visit in a couple weeks.  You can also buy an affordable bottle of wine that you haven't seen at the grocery store, and snag a bottle of local craft cider for your gluten-sensitive neighbor.  We want you to do all of this while building relationships with our team, while we work to provide you an atmosphere that makes you want to come back.

So yes, to do all of that, we have to focus on growlers, to some extent.  We couldn't be your one-stop-shop if we didn't.  Other beer stores aren't filling growlers.  Or, if they are, they are being filled from the tap - often times not being properly purged with Co2 or filled under counter-pressure (here's more on why we think this is really important).  Or, they don't provide the more limited and special-release beers for growler filling.  Very few are offering the selection of beer in growlers that we will be offering, filled in a high-quality fashion.  We will focus on growlers because we think that it is the missing piece from a lot of other stores in NC.  And by having this focus, we can better do our job of making high-quality craft beverages available to you in your preferred package type, whether that be growlers, cans, bottles, or a freshly poured pint.

Construction Update

The big question that everyone has been asking us over the last few months has been "so, when is The Glass Jug going to open up?" That's a fair question, and I wish I could answer it better.  The good news is that we are getting to a point where we'll be able to answer it soon with much more confidence (but not today, so don't get too excited)!

The big hurdle to the "when are you opening" question has been construction.  Our little store is not a big construction project, and for each individual contractor, it's just a small portion of their schedule.  Because of that, our project has been subject to shifts in schedule.  Additionally, there are always some unforeseen setbacks, like accidentally cutting a water main that wasn't buried at the correct depth in the concrete slab floor.  But that's a story for another day.

The good news is that we have turned a corner, and the rest of the process should go much faster from here on out.  A lot of the work that has been done to this point has been the stuff you don't see or notice, things like electrical, HVAC, and plumbing.  But our contractors began building the new wall today, and we'll be installing the bar, sinks, dishwasher, and the draft beer system in the coming weeks.

Above is a short photo gallery that shows you what's happened thus far (You can click on the images to see larger versions).

We're hoping to post another update in a few short weeks with the back wall finished, and the bar and equipment in place.  And, since you read all the way to the end, I'll let you in on a little secret...we're currently aiming for a grand opening by mid-September.  ;)

No Skunky Beer Here!

One of the biggest challenges facing any retail store where beer sits on the shelves is avoiding beer becoming light-struck, or "skunked." [symple_heading style="" title="What is skunky beer?" type="h3" font_size="" text_align="left" margin_top="30" margin_bottom="30" color="undefined" icon_left="" icon_right=""]

Beer that has been skunked is simply a beer that has come in contact with UV rays, which causes alpha acids (the chemical compound in hops that adds bitterness to your beer) to break down and create a sulfur-based chemical (3-methyl-2-butene-1-thiol). That produces a mercaptan smell that can be off-putting. It smells (and even tastes, to a smaller extent) like skunk.

In fact, the chemical created in this process is almost identical to what you find in skunk spray.

Note that light is the only thing that can skunk a beer. Storing beer at room temperature or changing the temperature of a beer from warm to cold will not skunk a beer, though these are common misconceptions (and still probably not ideal for your beer).

Beer that is in clear bottles has no UV protection, and green bottles only block about 20% of the UV rays, which means that these beers, if left under sunlight or fluorescent light, will start to become skunked within a day. Brown bottles, however, protect against about 98% of UV rays, and canned or kegged beers block out 100% of UV rays.

Thus, the issue that bottle shops face. They need beer to be out on the shelves, and they need light for people to see. At The Glass Jug, we're taking a few measures to help prolong the shelf-life of our bottled beer inventory and help you, our customers, be more confident in the quality of the product you are purchasin, and avoid opening up a beer that smells like a skunk.

[symple_heading style="" title="What are we doing?" type="h3" font_size="" text_align="left" margin_top="30" margin_bottom="30" color="undefined" icon_left="" icon_right=""]

For starters, our space has a great wall of windows in the front of the store. We like this, as it makes the store feel warm and inviting. So to keep this atmosphere without putting any beer in danger, you'll notice that we never store any beer in the very front of the shop. That area will be reserved for seating and enjoying beer. Also, due to the orientation of our space, we will never see direct sunlight come in through these front windows. We are also going through lengths in laying out the store to make sure that the beer closest to the windows are in cans, or at the very least, brown bottles.

So, while we can't (and wouldn't want to) turn off the sun, we can fix the larger issue that most retail stores face - fluorescent light. Our space, as it sits now, has lots of fluorescent light fixtures, so we're going to rip them all out. Let's be real - fluorescent light kinda sucks anyway, even if it didn't skunk your beer.

We will be replacing all of the fluorescent light fixtures with brand new LED fixtures. This is better for the environment, more energy efficient, longer lasting, and produces very little UV rays, of which only a very tiny percentage are emitted.

The goal is to light our space in a way that is still warm and inviting, without worry of compromising the quality of any of the beer you come to buy. And, obviously, we think it's pretty cool that it's more energy efficient and good for the environment.

Reclaimed, Reused, & Recycled

Being green has always been a priority for Katy and I.  So naturally, so we want our business to be environmentally friendly, as well. The great thing about serving beer in growlers is that it's already inherently green.  You only need to purchase a few growlers and you can reuse them many times, which dramatically cuts down on waste as compared to traditional bottles and cans. And, if you ever tire of your trusty growler, it's recyclable (as are beer bottles and cans)! As far as growlers go, one big question people ask is whether we'll only fill growlers with our own logo on them. But we figure, "Why create more waste when we know many of you already have a perfectly good growler sitting at home?" We are focused on growler filling, not selling growlers themselves. While we will have some (pretty awesome) growlers available for purchase, we will fill any clean growler you bring in.

We are also doing some really great things with the upfit of our space to be kind to the earth.  Yesterday, I spent the day over at Braeburn Farms. Why?  I was busy picking out a stack of reclaimed wood from a 100 year old barn.  This wood will eventually be used as the front of our bar (and maybe some other places throughout the store), and trust me, it's going to look awesome.  A BIG BIG thank you to the generous folks at Braeburn for letting us have this lumber for free.  And an especially huge thank you to Jonathan Romm for crawling through the wood pile with me and helping to find the best, most interesting pieces, and cutting them to size.

Also, on Saturday, I took a drive up to the beautiful countryside of Virginia where my (very generous) uncle had set aside some cherry boards he had cut from a fallen tree in his yard a couple years ago.  These are fantastic hardwood planks - I mean really fantastic, heavy, high quality boards.  They will soon be cleaned up, plained, sanded, and sealed to be used as a gorgeous bar top for you to set your beer on while at The Glass Jug.  And there look to be enough pieces with a live edge that we can use that on the front of the bar, which will give it a great look.

We are so thankful for everyone who has donated materials, and building this very custom bar ourselves will make it even more special.

Additionally, a lot of the equipment we'll be using (outside of the draft beer serving equipment) is used equipment purchased from other businesses.  So far, this includes our sinks, table legs, a walk-in cooler, and some chairs.  This list will likely grow as we get closer to the grand opening.

While we know our efforts are a mere drop in the proverbial bucket, we hope to continue making strides to do our part in caring for our planet, all while enjoying delicious hand-crafted local beer!

Ok, enough hippy tree hugging for one day. ;)

Sneak Peek: Glass Jug Apparel

We just put in our first apparel order, which means we will soon have Glass Jug t-shirts and tank tops ready for you to purchase! You could be the coolest kid on the block, sporting some Glass Jug swag before we open. Details coming soon regarding when they'll be ready to purchase and how to buy.  In the meantime, below are a few teasers of what we've got in store.

Let us know what you think, and if you would like to be notified as soon as shirts are available for purchase, just sign up for our mailing list (there's a nifty little form over to the right) and we'll make sure you are the first to know.  We're also going to have some pretty sweet growler carriers, koozies, and coolers in stock as well - so you can keep your beer cold wherever you take it.

We're not (really) brewing our own beer

As we have begun telling people (read: everyone we've ever met) about The Glass Jug, one question that keeps coming up, given that we're homebrewers, is whether or not we will be brewing our own beer at The Glass Jug. That is actually a more complicated question than most people realize.  While we would love to brew our own beer, it would require a much larger space and upfront investment in equipment, in addition to extra labor, and could possibly land us in trouble with the ABC commission.

The US beer market operates within the three tier system.  This basically means that:

1. Breweries make the beer & sell it to distributors
2. Then, distributors sell it to retailers
3. And only then can retailers sell it to the public.

There are some common exceptions for small breweries, allowing them to self-distribute and operate their own tap rooms.  However, from our understanding of the law, a retail beer store cannot also own a brewery, because we would have too many "guest taps" to be considered a brewery tap room.

Beyond this, we have opted to open a retail bottle shop and growler filling station because we have seen the massive growth in craft breweries in North Carolina - to the tune of a 30%+ increase in the number of craft breweries in our state last year alone!  NC now has roughly 100 craft breweries.  Yes, seriously.  And all of these breweries need places to sell their beer.  While we have seen several bottle shops open over the past few years, it has not yet matched the growth we've seen in breweries.

But, back to the main question - we are still homebrewers at heart, so we are working on ways to get some of our own recipes into the store without necessarily brewing it on-site.  The first will be the Berlin Menagerie, which is my berliner weisse beer that I brewed alongside the crew at Raleigh Brewing Company after winning the Carolina Quarterly Brew-Off 2013.  And while we cannot legally co-brand any beer with breweries (back to the three tier issue), we do have plans to work with some of our favorite local breweries to craft some special limited release beers to put in your growlers.  We're not ready to release any details yet, but be on the lookout for some fun and unique brews for our grand opening and on a regular basis throughout the year (trust me, we've already got several brews in the works we're super excited about)!

Designing our Space

Designing a store can be overwhelming.  There are so many details and things to consider.  And what if we make a poor decision and are stuck with a layout that doesn't work well for us our our customers? But designing a store is also exciting.  Having (almost) total control of the layout and being able to plan for all of the little things that are going to make it feel more welcoming and enjoyable for our customers is a lot of fun.

In all honesty, we have found a great location (more about that in a later blog post) and a space that is already laid out so we don't have to do much (relatively) to make it work.  But all of the small details add up, and we're trying to pay attention to each one to make it really awesome.

1. The bar will be built long enough to have room for several people to sit comfortably at the bar, and there will be a separate counter section for retail purchases. The goal is to avoid the awkward experience of squeezing between people sitting at the bar to order drinks and pay your tab and to make it easy for folks who just want to stop in quickly and grab some beer to go.
2. Almost all our tables will be high-top, oversized cocktail tables, allowing up to 4 people to sit comfortably at each and accommodate standing. We think this will go a long way to help the flow when we're crowded. We will also have one or two standard-height tables to accommodate handicapped guests and others who will be more comfortable at a standard height table.
3. We're making room for retail shopping away from the seating area, so you don't have to squeeze between tables to get to the beer on the shelves.
4. There are two bathrooms, so hopefully you won't have to wait in line very long, even when we're busy.
5. We're adding a (very small) walk-in cooler, big enough to keep a handful of kegs cold.  This means that if we run out of a beer, we can easily and quickly swap it out without having to wait 24 hours for the next keg to cool down to serving temperature.
6. All of the lighting will either be LED or have UV filters installed, helping to prevent any of the beer on our shelves from getting light-struck and skunky.
7. With so many beer styles out there, we know it will be hard to implement an organization structure ideal for every customer. We're planning our shelving layout to make it as easy as possible to find the beer you're looking for, and it's a priority of ours to have clear signage.

Below is a quick snap snot of the preliminary plans.  Let us know what you think or what features you most enjoy about a craft beer store/bar, as some things are still a bit fluid at this point!

Also, here's a photo that Richard Mitchell snapped for us at the space.  A true "before" shot.