Owner Henry Cook opened Cypress Grape & Grain in Tomball in December 2013.[/caption]Drawing on his college hobby of beer brewing and winemaking, owner Henry Cook harbored his passion and skills into launching his first business—Cypress Grape & Grain in Tomball.
"I [had] been working in the oil fields since 1981," Cook said. "It's a real cyclical business. I decided to step off of that for awhile. I'm too young to retire, so I said, 'Well, I'm going to do something that I want to do.' At the time I opened in December of 2013, there were only four shops like this in all of Houston, so I was the fifth one and now there's seven."
Cypress Grape & Grain offers an assortment of beer-brewing and winemaking products and equipment for customers ranging in skill level from beginner to advanced for use in their homes, Cook said. With a basic equipment kit for $120, customers can begin producing beer or wine with ingredients available for purchase at the shop, such as grain and hops, he said.
In addition, Cook hosts beer-brewing courses for $20, winemaking classes for $30, demonstrations and tastings for customers of all skill levels on varying days each month, with a full schedule posted on the business website.
Cook said he estimates 70 percent of people who have enrolled in the beer-brewing and winemaking courses have returned as customers. With the variety of resources at the shop, it is relatively easy for first-time customers to begin beer brewing and winemaking, he said.
"People [who] haven't done [home beer brewing or winemaking] before try to dive right into it, but they're just afraid to kind of take that step," Cook said. "They want somebody to hold their hand. That's what we do here—we hold their hand."
The business name implies a Cypress storefront because Cook originally registered the store as Cypress Grape & Grain with the state of Texas in 2013 and intended to open a location in Cy-Fair where he lives. When looking for a facility, Cook discovered that opening a location in Cypress would be in relatively close proximity to a similar business in Katy and instead decided to open along Hwy. 249 in Tomball in December 2013.
"I settled out here [in Tomball], and it's been good ever since," Cook said. "Most [of the customers] are from this immediate area, but I actually draw from weird places like Brenham. I'm the closest brew shop to Brenham and College Station. The next closest brew shop to me is 20 miles away."
Last June, Cypress Grape & Grain organized the Tomball Regional Urban Brewers club, or TRUB. The club is named after the sediment that settles at the bottom of a beer mix during brewing, Cook said. TRUB now has 13 paid members and meets on the third Tuesday of each month to offer an educational presentation as well as advice on a particular industry topic, he said.
"When we started [the] club, we wanted [it] to be open to everybody," Cook said. "It doesn't matter if you've been brewing 20 years or if you've been brewing a month. We're going to treat you the same."
Though Cook operates the business largely by himself, his wife, Allison, often visits the shop to help carry out beer and wine demonstrations for customers. Cook said he plans to continue growing the shop's customer base up from 30 to 35 people each week and may expand the location in the future.
"I rely mostly on word of mouth [for business]," Cook said. "I try to provide a good service. I try to provide more than [an experience of] just coming in and buying something off the shelf. I try to provide some knowledge for people buying that they can't get [online]."
