A Visit to Fermentation Station, Meredith, NH
Update: I visited Fermentation Station again in August 2016 and they were out of business, replaced by a wine store. When you can’t afford to stock cigars, you can’t sell cigars, and the death spiral ends in death. RIP.
Fermentation Station
72 Main Street
Meredith, NH
603-279-4028
Hours:
Mon – 12-5pm
Tue – CLOSED
Wed – CLOSED
Thu – 10-6pm
Fri – 10-6pm
Sat – 10-6pm
Sun – 12-4pm
I’ve been visiting Fermentation Station every August for the last 10 years or so. My family vacations near Meredith, NH, and I make a point of stopping in each year to check the place out and purchase a few sticks, mainly to invest in the local cigar shop. I recently visited (August 2012) and was not pleasantly surprised. More on that after a quick discussion on the place.
Fermentation Station is located on Main Street in Downtown Meredith, NH. Meredith is a small resort town on the shores of Lake Winniepesaukee, one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. Fermentation Station is a combo cigar and home brew shop. At least 75% of the space is dedicated to home brew and I only cursorily pay attention to this part of the shop. The cigar area is on the left when you enter the building consisting of a walk-in humidor and a small area for cigar magazines and accessories. The place is small but generally houses a decent selection of cigars, albeit as a higher price than I see in the National Capital Region.
During this visit, I was shocked when I walked into the humidor. There were almost no cigars. There were probably 10 boxes at most and the shelves were almost bare. I located a Churchill cigar (brand and size) (I’ll review the cigar at a later date.) and headed for the door. At checkout, I asked the salesman if they were going out of business since there were almost no cigars. The salesman (who could have been the owner) advised that times were tough and they couldn’t afford to stock additional cigars. Pretty sad as I hate it when a small business has such a tough go of it. On the other hand, this might be a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you don’t have cigars, customers won’t show up and you go into a death spiral. Sadly, Fermentation Station appears to be in this spiral.
I hope they are around next summer when I visit Meredith.
c.gar
