August 22, 2022
Hopportunity Awaits is a brew on a mission to help highlight careers in craft beer, and inspire more of us to hold the door for the unique talent among us, creating more pathways for diversity, in every sense, across every role. Partial proceeds will benefit Craft x EDU as we work together to launch an educational grant for emerging professionals in craft beer.
On the cans, you will meet 10 industry professionals who are ready to tell their remarkable stories of how they got their start and paved their own path in craft, rules be damned.Without further ado…
Meet Sabrina Grimes, taking art, advocacy, & a love of beer to make successful retail shop, The Hoppiest Shop.
How did you discover the world of craft beer, or what inspired you to join?My friend Hayley and I would go to a new brewery in town each week and at each brewery, I would go look at the merchandise section. I really wanted to find a cute shirt that I could wear on the days we went brewery hopping but I could never find any cute beer merch that I loved.
I even went onto Etsy and searched online for cute beer tees. Still, I did not find anything that I thought was cute! I started making cute stuff for myself first then some people started to comment on my stuff and would ask me where I got it from. This is when I started making cute things for people who love craft beer!
Where did you start and what were some of the first items you made for The Hoppiest Shop?
The very first product I sold was a sticker that read, “I wish I was full of beer and not emotions”. I had the sticker on my water bottle and this girl at work came up to me and was like:
“I NEED that so bad, where did you get it?”
‘I made it’
“You HAVE to sell me one right now”
‘I don’t have any made yet, I just made this one for me’
“Well here’s five dollars, I need one by the end of the week”
I was so excited and also super nervous–I didn’t know if I was ready yet. I don’t have all this money to start making these orders and to take care of all of the possible upfront costs. But I decided to just go for it and decided that I can make it work!
It took me six months to come up with the name “The Hoppiest Shop” which is ridiculous because it’s such a simple name, but it took so long!
Then I came up with the logo of the crying hop which is a little ironic because the name is “Hoppiest” shop playing off of “Happiest” and I was crying trying to make a logo for this, so it was perfect to me. ‘Procreate’ and my ‘Cricut’ became my best friends. I now have enough orders to use a local print shop which I’m really happy to use and be supporting a local business.
The first shirt I made was a blue shirt with two pink hop cones over the chest.
When I first started, I was only creating clothes with pink and blue colors because it was very like “Oh, beer is for boys and not for girls” and “blue is for boys and not for girls” and I wanted to take what was super stereotypical and break the mold. This is how people are going to get it into their heads that beer is for everybody.
What do you love about the craft beer community? Where would you love to see it grow or improve?The beer community is no different than a reflection of our society today, which has its issues that everyone is aware of. These issues of course are seen in every community, we unfortunately can not run from them. What I love most about the beer community is that some people aren’t trying to run away from these problems. Instead, we are trying to shed light on these difficult subjects and fight them all while drinking a beer.
I try to blend my art with advocacy in my items. Particularly my “Support women in beer” shirt which is very in your face but fun. My shirt with hop cones over the chest is to support body empowerment. And my sassy ladies beer glasses that show an illustration of different sized glasses with different shade of color and faces for a more subliminal take on supporting diversity in beer.
I also do a lot of drawings of women drinking beer in different skin tones because whenever I saw someone with my skin tone, I would latch on to them, “they are my idol! They are me, I am them!”, and I always resonated with that. The hardest yet most important, I drew a woman drinking beer in a wheelchair. That was really hard to get right, but so fulfilling.
We can’t take on the whole world, but we can solve some community problems and that makes the world just a bit better. And we can do it all while drinking a beer, so it sounds like a win-win in my book.
What types of skills have helped you personally succeed in this industry?Being able to blend my art, advocacy, and love for beer is the main skill that’s helped me succeed in this industry. I feel like these are things I have always been. I was a Girl Scout, I always loved crafts, and advocacy was always important to me. My mom was my troop leader and I think she always saw these qualities in me and tried her best to raise me and surround me with activities, places, and people that would let those qualities of myself shine. She really pushed me to do what I’m doing today and would tell me, “Just do it, people love what you make, what are you waiting for?”
Who in the craft beer industry do you admire?There are way too many people to list, and I don’t know most of their names. I admire the first woman brewer who wore a pointy hat to sell her beer, she is a boss. I admire all the people who are standing up every day against countless things that have gone wrong in the community. And I admire the everyday beer drinking person who casually only buys good beer made by good people.
Those closest to me have ultimately affected my path in the beer industry, from friends and family to everyone who resonates with my designs. When this all first started, I didn’t realize how large and powerful the craft beer community was, but it’s like, “Wow! It’s so many people.”
What is the most memorable brew you’ve ever had?I honestly do not remember a lot of the beers I drink. The names and types aren’t that important to me. What is important to me is where I buy the beer from and all the memories that went along with a good beer, such as the first craft beer I shared with my mother. We went to a local brewery that was doing a fundraiser for a hurricane that had just hit pretty hard. It was a brown ale that she picked out. I remember drinking, laughing and talking to her about which beers she liked, and at this time I was just getting into beer so for me it was a really special memory!
So where are you with The Hoppiest Shop now? Do you have any advice for those with similar passions to you who want to enter the craft beer industry?I’m currently re-working the website. The shop is currently my full-time focus. Beer is life right now! And my advice would be, “Just do it” cause we need ya!
It’s something that every now and then, I wonder if it’s necessary, or if people want these products. But then people message me on the verge of tears to say that they’re so happy that I’m there. They feel comfortable in the community due to the art and they find friends through the t-shirts. So it’s just like “Okay, I am making a difference and I’m needed here.”
So make sure you tell yourself you are loved, you are needed, and you can do it! Go into it stupid and blind and don’t let not knowing everything stop you from beginning. Keep that mindset of ‘I don’t know or care what could go wrong. Let’s just DO IT’ and take the jump!’
Keep in Touch!Say hi on social and follow @thehoppiestshop on Instagram or start shopping here! The Hoppiest Shop website is currently under construction, but Sabrina has tons of hoppy merch on Søciety 6 too.
Click here to meet more of our talented rule-makers and read their remarkable stories. Once you hear what they have to say, you will realize that yes, you can brew it too.
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