As new owner Tom Rozeske plans the future of Madison’s Wine and Hop Shop, he’s taking some cues from the past.
Rozeske, who has worked at the shop for five years, took the helm of the 54-year-old business April 1. Offering classes and events — both casualties of the COVID-19 pandemic — are one way he plans to reimagine the longtime Monroe Street shop.
The business also used to host two homebrew contests, which were likewise discontinued because of the pandemic.
Rozeske believes such offerings cultivate a feeling of community. It’s a chance for customers to share recipes, tips and tricks for the unique hobby, and will help the business thrive in the process.
“The thing about Madison is that it’s sort of a unique community, where you have people who want to shop local, who will take that time to go to their local homebrew shop,” Rozeske said. “I would love to bring that community feel back into the shop.”
Classes could include detecting off-flavors in beers, wine making at the beginner and expert level and more.
“I’m not an expert in everything, but I know people who are,” Rozeske said.
The Wine and Hop Shop sells everything a homebrew enthusiast or aspiring winemaker needs to explore hops, grains and different yeasts. From ingredients to carboys to barrels for aging liquid in, there is all the brewing equipment someone needs to begin making beer or wine.
But it’s not just about selling the latest hops from New Zealand. Rozeske enjoys when customers come in with new problems to solve.
Someone once stopped into the store with a question about raw maple sap he had gathered, and how it might be used to make a beer.
“And I was like, this is crazy,” Rozeske said. “There was just a lot of creativity in that space.”
On another occasion, a person came in looking for bread yeast for a sourdough starter, which the store does not sell. But Rozeske’s open to new possibilities.
Catering to customers who make things beer- and fermentation-adjacent is another way he could support the store. He wants to lean into the creativity of the clientele.
Homebrew history
The Wine and Hop Shop has supported Madison’s brewing scene for decades.
In 1972, Dave Mitchell and Bob Wollersheim (former founder of Wollersheim Winery in Prairie Du Sac who died in 2005) opened the business and called it the Wine Maker Shop. The name change happened in the 1990s when the store moved to its 1919 Monroe St. location, also expanding into beer.
Ben Feifarek, who also co-owns Working Draft Beer Co., bought the homebrewing store in 2012 and was the most recent owner of the Wine and Hop Shop.
Around the time he took ownership of the business, local craft breweries like Vintage Brewing Co. and Karben4 Brewing were coming online and Ale Asylum was expanding.
Not only were craft breweries booming, but so too were American Homebrewer’s Association memberships. From 2016 to 2019, yearly memberships averaged over 40,000.
In 2016, Bart Watson, now the head of the Brewers Association, wrote of homebrewing’s boon to the economy when it came to homebrew stores, equipment suppliers, raw material producers and more.
“Based on American Homebrewers Association research, 815 shops sold home beverage-making supplies to the nation’s estimated 1.2 million homebrewers in 2015, with collective revenues estimated at $764 million,” he wrote in 2016.
Current challenges
Meeting the needs of those homebrewers once was the Wine and Hop Shop, Farmhouse Brewing Supply, and Brew and Grow.
But Brew and Grow closed in 2018, and Farmhouse terminated its lease in September 2025. While it didn’t close, it moved to a fulfillment warehouse operation for online and phone orders. It has been operating since 2010.
Cannery Wine and Spirits sells homebrewing supplies, but is also a beer and liquor store, located in Sun Prairie.
And in 2025, the number of American Homebrewer’s Association memberships dropped to 19,000 members.
Rozeske’s purchase of the store comes at a time when beer sales are down nationally, and craft brewery closures are more common than ever. The Brewer’s Association said in its 2025 Year in Beer report that craft beer volume is down 5%, and closures outpaced openings for the second consecutive year.
Still, Feifarek thinks there are low-hanging fruit to grab in terms of sale opportunities, like promotions, and the classes and new products Rozeske wants to pursue.
But for his part, he knew it was time to move on and sell the shop.
“Between… wearing a lot of different hats at the brewery, trying to do the same at the shop and then have some form of personal life — just all three of those things are suffering,” Feifarek said.
“I’m not able to give (Working Draft) brewery as much time as I’d like. I’m definitely not able to give the shop as much time as I’d like and I don’t give my personal life as much time as I would like. So (I’m) trying to simplify a little bit.”
Future focused
And while Feifarek admitted the shop has a smaller customer base than what they once had, it has a lot of passionate supporters.
“Some of them really do enjoy the experience of going into the actual local homebrew shop, even if it may not be as local to them, and you’ve got some people drive an hour, hour and 15 minutes because they want to come in and scoop their own grain and talk to the person behind the counter,” Feifarek said.
“It’d be nice to see it go another 50 years,” he said of the shop.
And homebrewing still has an important place in local communities, according to Julia Herz, executive director of the American Homebrewers Association.
“If we can elevate homebrewing, we elevate beer itself,” she said in a statement. “Homebrewing is about shopping for ingredients at your local or online supply store, brewing on your stove or in your garage … and sharing that beer with neighbors when they’re celebrating or grieving.
“It’s personal, visceral and deeply human. It can be as expensive or inexpensive as you want, just like any hobby.”
Rozeske seems poised for the challenge, and to offer resources for hobbyists or those who want to pursue opening their own brewery or winery someday. Or, he’s just happy to help those who want to try tree sap in a fermented beverage.
“I’m just really excited to see everybody that comes into the shop,” he said.
