Builders brew up a business plan to import Cayman Islands beer

TAMPA — If only it were that easy.

Go on vacation. Taste the local beer. Declare, "I should import this!" Then, to get through a recession, actually do it.

Easy it isn't. But the exclusive importers of Caybrew lager are proof it is possible.

"This beer has never been off the Cayman Islands," says importer Fritz Hofmeister. And, yes, he has a great name for a beer man. "It's like divine destiny," he says.

Mind you, he and partner Larry Glover are not a couple of drunken frat boys. Hofmeister, 38, is a general contractor who builds luxury homes in South Tampa. Glover, 44, supplies windows and doors.

There just has not been much demand for big houses lately.

So Glover went on a dive trip to the Caymans. In a bar, he sampled his first Caybrew: smooth, crisp and hoppy. He liked it so much, he started bringing six-packs to the condo.

Sitting on the deck at sunset, he had a fleeting thought that he could sell the stuff. "That lasted long enough for me to pick up another glass," he said.

A month or so later, over lunch with Hofmeister at a pub in Tampa, "we were commiserating about how poorly our businesses are doing," he said.

His buddy asked him, "Dude, what's your next career move?" He didn't have a clue.

Gazing at a Corona poster, Hofmeister mused, "Why can't we import beer?"

Glover answered, "I think I might know one that we can."

The two flew down to Grand Cayman a couple of times.

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, they convinced the brewer they could provide a better level of service than the big distributors who had approached them since the beer debut in 2007.

Hofmeister's wife, Elizabeth, researched the necessary bureaucratic steps. They needed federal and state licenses. They needed labels that warned against drinking while driving, or pregnant.

And they needed a marketing plan for a beverage unknown to most everyone but cruise ship passengers and people with offshore accounts.

They made the rounds to bars and restaurants. Appropriately dressed "Caybrew girls" handed out samples at a Super Bowl party. "Women love the beer," said Hofmeister.

So did judges at the Monde Selection competition in Brussels, said Kate Cuming, a spokeswoman for the brewer.

She's excited about the Tampa venture. "This will put the Cayman Islands on the global beer map," Cuming said. It is also marks a milestone for the British territory, which has known little in the way of production or exports.

The first shipment of 1,200 cases arrived in Tampa days ago. Look for it soon at Crabby Bill's at Indian Rocks Beach, Sloppy Joe's on Treasure Island, the Lime in South Tampa and the Bungalow on Kennedy Boulevard.

Eventually, Hofmeister and Glover hope to expand the venture nationwide. "It could be very lucrative," said Hofmeister, who might leave home building for good. "If it goes super well, heck, yeah!"

Marlene Sokol can be reached at (813) 269-5307 or sokol@sptimes.com.