Sunday, May 31, 2009
Food, Wine, Beer & Spirits, "Behind the Bar", Q&A

We built this city

Hop City Craft Beer and Wine opens in West Midtown

By Hope S. Philbrick

Since its grand opening on April 2, Hop City Craft Beer and Wine has attracted both buzz and fans. The unique store appeals to folks who like to make beer, as well as those who just drink it and even those who prefer wine. The Sunday Paper recently hopped across the city to talk to owner Kraig Torres.

What inspired you to open this store?

I come from the body shop business: I founded Collision Works Auto Body Experts back in 2003—at the time it was the largest collision repair in the city; I think it still is, actually—and sold it about two years ago to my partner. I did that business not because I had a passion for cars but because I was good at it. Craft beer has been my passion for at least 20 years. At the time I sold the business, I assumed I’d just start another auto body shop at some point, but I couldn’t find the right location and just couldn’t make it work. I eventually started a business plan to open a place for people who love good beers, a place where we’d stock hard-to-find beers, and here I am.
   
Most major cities have at least one craft beer shop or more. In Chicago, there are four different stores that you can go to find the beers you want. In Atlanta, we’ve had liquor stores not focused on beer. If you go there, it’s not the level of service you expect to find: If you go to a fine wine shop, there’s someone there who can help pair your wines. But at a self-serve liquor store, you’re on your own. I felt a void in the Atlanta market.

What’s your selection like?

On the beer side, we’re right around 1,200 different beers and we get another 30 to 40 new styles in every week. We’re constantly expanding our portfolio of beers. We carry virtually every beer that’s available in the state of Georgia. The laws in Georgia have created certain limits in terms of what I’m able to carry: We are limited to beers under 15 percent alcohol. We’re trying to be as adventurous as humanly possible. Beer prices start at pennies and go up to $80 a bottle. We want to encourage exploration. You can build your own six-pack.

    We have about 800 wines. We carry those wines that we’ve tasted and liked. I’ve tried to spread variety over continents and regions, so we have wines from Japan, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, South America, and Europe, in addition to the United States. It’s designed to [offer] the kind of wines that are accessible, things you can drink every day. Virtually everything is under $25, so these are daily drinking wines, not collectibles. There are many names and brands that people are comfortable with.

What about home brewers?

We do have a pretty robust home-brewing section that can appeal to the beginner, as well as the experienced home brewer who wants whole grain and will literally mill grain to go into the beer. We do sell mills, grinders—we’re shopping for an industrial mill to have in the shop that will grind grain. We have all the equipment needed to start home brewing. We have 30 different kinds of hops.
   
We also have beer and wine glassware, and T-shirts.

How’s consumer response?

We’re very pleased. The first thing we often hear is that this is like a candy store for adults. People seem excited about our selection, and we try to create a culture of experimentation. We’ve only been open a few weeks and have a long way to go before we’re successful, but we’re off to a nice start.
  
  We want to create a collection people can enjoy every day. I’m doing this more for passion reasons than true business reasons, but I’d like to break even at some point and maybe even make money. If all goes well, I’d like to explore the idea down the road of expanding to other parts of town. SP