You were driving on Blake Avenue in Albert Lea near the Walmart Supercenter, cruised past Blake’s Auto Body and saw a yellow sign on a fence touting a store for home brewing. You asked yourself: Why is there a home-brewing store in Albert Lea?

It all began when Brian Kalis of Alden took Kevin Blake to Mankato five years ago and they bought kits to make wine at home. He liked the results and since made his own wine.

“It was so good. I never had a bad batch,” he said.

And this summer, he tried making beer. The first batch was not very good, he said, but he got better fast.

“I was just trying to get different flavors in beer,” Blake said.

Making wine and beer at home was less expensive than buying from stores, but it was frustrating to travel to the Twin Cities or Rochester to get ingredients. He and Deb Hemmingsen, a friend who has been brewing beer for a couple of years, had been talking about opening a store for supplies. One day, Hemmingsen just up and got a tax ID number. Blake then turned a garage he used for a parlor into a store. The land already was zoned for commerce. The store, Collective Spirits, opened April 1 and, he began publicity in September.

Blake’s partners in the enterprise are Hemmingsen, Kasey and Lance Tufte and Justin and Beth Blake.

“We’re pretty excited about it,” Kevin Blake said. “We all have real jobs, too, but is the fun one.”

At first, the store had mainly wine-making supplies, but in recent months Blake expanded the beer-making products.

Business: Collective Spirits

Product: supplies for making wine and beer at home

Where: 1507 Blake Ave., Albert Lea

Contact: 379-2337

He said the store was filled on Black Friday with customers seeking gifts for fathers.

The store has grape juice that, with the kits, ferments into 30 bottles of wine in four to eight weeks. The juice comes from grape-growing regions around the world, from Napa to Tuscany. People can make wine to their liking — dry, sweet, aged.

Beer brewing has many variants, too. In fact, home brewer Ron Krebsbach will give a class at 1 p.m. Jan. 23 (no NFL playoffs that day) on how to brew beer at home. Blake and Krebsbach hope a beer club will form in Albert Lea, perhaps starting from the people who go to the class. One already exists in Northwood, home of Worth Brewing Co. Its members have been to Collective Spirits.

Krebsbach has been brewing beer at home for 20 years. The Austin resident said he is excited to have a store carrying products he needs. He said more local stores are carrying greater varieties of beer these days because more drinkers are seeking good taste over blandness. Quality over quantity. He said he thinks Collective Spirits hits a trend for beer consumers wanting to get more specialized.

Hemmingsen said some beer drinkers didn’t know how good beer could taste when they began drinking beer. But as more options entered the stores, more drinkers began having discerning tastes.

Blake said home brewers all have stories to tell. They make beer for less than it costs in stores and make it to the way they like it. There is pride, too, in drinking something they made, like making food from scratch. The entire meal, including the drink, can be made at home. The best part, he said, is sharing beer or wine with people who then marvel at the result.

“There’s alcohol, but it’s the flavor that I am after,” Blake said.