Started in 1993 by Steve Stoppard, Mr. Steve's has stores in Springettsbury Township and West Hempfield Township, Lancaster County. The new store is slated to open March 1 in the Lower Allen Shopping Center in Lower Allen Township, according to a company newsletter.

The Cumberland County store will be just minutes away from the Capital City Mall and figures to be competition for Lemoyne-based homebrew supply store Scotzin Bros.

“We took a look at where our customers are coming from and the percentage of sales from those areas,” Stoppard said, also citing a fair amount of requests from customers.

Stoppard, who is focusing on growing the retail business, said he is looking around the region and plans to open additional stores in the future.

“We want to standardize our store. We want to be able to offer the same products and services,” he said, adding that plans to sell online have taken a backseat to the store expansion.

Mr. Steve’s caters to new brewers, so classroom space and personal service in the stores is important, Stoppard said.

More than 95 percent of professional craft brewers come from the home-brewing ranks, according to the Colorado-based Brewers Association, an industry group.

There are about 600 homebrew supply stores in the U.S., according to the Brewers Association. There might have been as many as 1,000 during the hobby's first big boom in the early 1990s, wholesale distributors have said.

Home brewers, on average, can make a batch of beer for about half the cost of most commercial beers, suppliers have said.

Editor's note: This item was modified from its previous version to include comments from owner Steve Stoppard.