Today we’d like to introduce you to Rebeca Ortega.
Hi Rebeca , we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I feel in love with homebrewing close to 10 years ago, and began frequenting Shoeless Brewing to purchase supplies & get advice from the owner & their homebrew club. When the owner was ready to retire in early 2021, he asked if I’d be interested in purchasing the store & brewery. We were able to make it work and in November of 2021 we took over ownership. We are currently the only all-female owned brewery in the state, and the only homebrew supply store in the Upstate. We feature 20-25 beers & seltzers on tap – and all of them are made on-premise. We also offer homebrewing and winemaking classes for anyone looking to get into the hobby.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It’s not been a smooth road. You don’t know what you don’t know when you become a small business owner, so we’ve had to figure out a lot on our own. Amazon and the internet are our main competition, so we’re trying to promote shopping locally in order to stay open.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
We are known as the only homebrewing & fermentation supply shop in the Upstate, where people come from around the state to purchase their supplies. We also offer beer making and wine making classes on-site, and we also have a Garden Club and Mug Club that meet monthly. We’re the smallest brewery in the Upstate, and we brew extremely small batches, which means more variety and guaranteed freshness for the hop forward beers like IPA’s. We also build keezers, sell kegerators and offer anything and everything for the home winemaker, brewer, mead maker, distiller, and overall fermentation fan.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
The brewing industry has shifted tremendously of late. People’s drinking habits are evolving, which means we have to stay on top of the trends like lower ABV beers, more seltzers and offerings for our gluten free patrons. We don’t see expansion in the future at this time.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://shoelessbrewingcompany.com
- Instagram: @shoelessbrewingco
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shoelessbrewingco
