Mix one part “more time on your hands,” one part “physical distancing” and one part “watching the bank account,” and it’s the perfect recipe for a home-brew boom.
Stores that sell beer-making supplies for the home enthusiast are seeing a substantial uptick in business since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. “About three weeks ago, we got a tremendous spike in sales,” said Brian Janzen, owner of Centennial Homebrewing Supplies in Vancouver. “We opened up and it was triple the amount of business we normally saw that day.
Since then, it’s been steadily up.” Physical-distancing rules have prompted Janzen to close the store and move to curbside pickup, where customers can get their barley, hops and whatever else they need to brew from home.