ST. CLOUD -- A former chef with a dream to turn his hobby into a business made that dream a reality Tuesday.

Desi Hall recently opened the The Hop Shop, a homebrewing supply store, in the Midtown Square Mall in St. Cloud.

"I really enjoy the hobby, I enjoy craft beer and I really want to get more people involved in craft beer and I think by having the store in town it's going to be a really good opportunity to bring more people into the hobby."

Hall has been homebrewing for about four years now, he says he enjoys the hobby but living in St. Cloud has made it challenging to get products for brewing.

"St. Cloud doesn't have it's own homebrew store right now, they used to have a store about a little over a year ago."

With the lack of homebrewing resources in the area, Hall decided he would open The Hop Shop. With nearly 50 types of grains in the store and more on the way, The Hop Shop has just about everything you need for brewing beer.

"We'll have all of our base malts, specialty malts, and some flakes like oaks and different additives or adjuncts that you can add into your beer."

If you're not really a beer drinker the store also has tools for making wine including wine making kits.

The store has items for all homebrewing experience levels.

"We'll have bases for people who want to make their wine from scratch and not a kit. Same thing with beer, we have beer kits for the beginners."

Hall says he plans to expand the store within a year to include space for a classroom, until the expansion he hopes to work with area breweries to host homebrewing classes.

Chrissy Gaetke, WJON
Chrissy Gaetke, WJON
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