To say that homebrewing in the U.S. has experienced a surge in the last few years would be a gross understatement. According to a 2013 American Homebrewers Association survey, there are 1.2 million brewing hobbyists across the nation, with two-thirds of them having fired up their kettles for the first time since 2005. While some parts of the country are plentiful with well-stocked homebrew shops to support the recent swell, 80% of homebrewers prefer to shop online. Getting the ingredients they need at the right time isn’t always a guarantee though.

Over the last few years, Brandon Wright, owner of Chicago Brew Werks (CBW) in suburban Plainfield, Illinois, has been able to position his shop to meet and even exceed the needs of both in-store and online shoppers. While its selection of hops and malts is considered to be the best in the Midwest, the shop is shipping orders nationwide at a breakneck pace. Much of CBW’s success can be attributed to Wright’s forward thinking when it comes to hops.

A homebrewer himself for the last 10 years, Wright and his friend, Ross Brodt, opened Northbound Hop Farms in nearby Aurora with a quarter acre of land in 2010. From this farm and his passion for homebrewing sprouted CBW only a short while later. Since then, he’s worked with some of the biggest hop suppliers in the country and reached an agreement with Michigan’s Hop Head Farms to become its exclusive dealer in Chicagoland. In addition to offering six of their highly aromatic varieties, this relationship opened the doors to an influx of experimental hops through Germany’s Hüll Research Center this past fall. Available through CBW, these hops (Polaris, Hüll Melon, Mandarina Bavaria, and Hallertau Blanc) have been used by homebrewers and local commercial brewers alike with eyebrow-raising results.

In 2014, Wright is looking forward to more German hop varieties (“only the best of the harvest,” he says) and anticipates a healthy harvest of about 400-500 pounds of hops from Northbound Hop Farm, which will produce a dozen varieties for commercial brewers and homebrewers alike. Also, after recently meeting with Slovenian farmers visiting from the eastern European area through his relationship with Hop Head Farms, he plans on offering a new selection of their hops, including new experimental varieties, next year.

As if running a successful homebrew shop and hop farm weren’t enough, Wright recently announced the opening of his own in-house nanobrewery, Werk Force Brewing Co. In just a few weeks, beers using CBW’s malts and experimental hops will be tapped and eventually bottled for sale at the shop.