Brunswick Beer XChange Co Serves Up Fun
One of the best parts of publishing Leland Magazine is getting a front row seat to the area’s growth, and getting to meet the people making it happen. As a former beer salesman myself, I was excited to meet the owners of the new Brunswick Beer XChange Co. at 113 Village Road, next to the Waffle House. If you remember this building being a bank, you’ll love seeing how the vault has been incorporated into the business now. If you’re a fan of local craft beers, you’re sure to find something to love on the wall of taps. We spoke to owners Shannon Mims and Monique Haslam about their new enterprise.
Your draught selection focuses on local and regional breweries. Why is that important to you?
We want to support the craft beer industry and especially our local ones in North and South Carolina. We have fallen in love with so many different beers, breweries and people we have met over the years in the industry.
How do you select which beers will be sold in the XChange?
Well, I knew what many of the local favorites were. We also asked on our Facebook page for suggestions for others we may have not thought of to give those a try. So far most are doing well and other taps are staying on rotation. We keep five of them for seasonals only.
Aside form beer, what else do you offer?
We have a very good selection of wine, seltzers, and ciders. Very soon we will also carry a selection of Mead as well.
What challenges did you face opening a new small business? How did you overcome them?
One of the biggest challenges we found was trying to find a location that we thought would work well for our vision and plan that we had in mind. We looked for a few months until we found this location, which turned out to be perfect for what we wanted. The building needed some TLC and as usual we found some unforeseen issues, but nothing we couldn’t handle. It was fun seeing our vision and dream come to life.
What has the community response been like in the short time you’ve been open?
Unbelievably welcoming and so positive! We have the best customer base anyone could imagine having. Especially in the short time we’ve been open.
What are your plans for the future of Brunswick Beer XChange?
We have to see how it goes the first year and then we may tweak some things here and there. But for now we are working on getting food trucks in on a regular basis, doing trivia nights, live music, comedy nights, wine tastings, tap takeovers from breweries, and weekly cornhole tournaments.
Please feel free to add anything I might have missed that you’d like to share!
The only thing I would add is that we cannot say thank you enough for the support and love that we have been shown and given from everyone in the community. We already have a large customer base and regular customer base here in Leland as well as some that are coming from across the river in Wilmington even. We look forward to what the future holds and giving people something different in the Leland area. Also, if you have a favorite beer that you want and you cannot get it anywhere come ask us and we will get it for you if we can. We’ve already been able to do this for a few customers. And if you have a home bar with draught beer then let us know what you want for kegs and we will gladly get you the supplies you need for your home kegerator. We want to be able to serve this area in every way possible.
