Want a beer, wine, or some cheese? This local business will teach you how to make your own.

Some days, Jimmy McMillan and Nick Less are in their Oaklyn store warming milk to make mozzarella. Other days they’re crushing grapes for wine, bottling bubblegum beer, tending bees for honey, or making soap.

Their business, Philly Homebrew Outlet (PHO), is all about doing it yourself. McMillan jokes that the company, with stores in South Jersey and Philadelphia, is the anti-grocery store.

“I really like trying to get people out of their consumerism and teach them how to make something, and use what they make,” he said.

Beyond that, McMillan said, he wants to bring people together as a community to share diverse cultural backgrounds and teach others how previous generations made their own goods.

He swears he can make wine that rivals French vintners'; whip up delicious coquito, a rum drink from Puerto Rico similar to egg nog, and make formaggio that would please a sophisticated Italian palate.

McMillan, who has a culinary background, said he and his business partner are masters of their trade. At first they offered free classes, but they now charge $15 to $75 — a change they made at their accountant’s suggestion. They also sell kits that customers can use at home. And they hope to expand their line of merchandise, and eventually franchise.

They are good at what they do, said Eli Facchinei, an owner at Tonewood Brewing, a few shops down from PHO in Oaklyn. Facchinei collaborated last year with McMillan and Less to craft a light English ale that was popular with customers.

“It was a good, mild beer that was a traditional style with modern interpretations — heavier on hops,” Facchinei said.

McMillan’s customers can be more whimsical. When Happy Birthday Baby Jesus Beer — with cake flavoring and edible glitter — was a hit, the store sold kits at Christmastime. Facchinei is quick to say he won’t brew that or the bubblegum beer that McMillan’s customers also favor, “but I’ll taste anything.”

McMillan and Less had a love for baking and brewing at a young age.

Less, at 10, watched his sister and dad make beer in their kitchen for a fermentation science project. Years later, he started making his own beer from supplies bought at Barry’s Homebrew Outlet in South Philly. He attended monthly gatherings with other home brewers, and there, he met McMillan.

McMillan grew up in North Carolina eating peanut butter crackers and collard greens. Then an aunt from Brooklyn moved south and introduced him to pasta and meatballs. He also learned how to make bread and bagels.

“It blew my mind how good it tasted,” McMillan said.

At 13, he took his first job at a restaurant as a busboy. Years later, he came to Philadelphia to see a show with a friend and he fell in love with the city. He met his wife, Beth, while mulching cherry trees in Fairmount Park. McMillan worked as a sous chef, but tired of the long hours and low pay. So he took a tech job and made beer, wine, and bread for fun.

In 2011, shortly after McMillan and Less bought Barry’s, they changed the name of the business to Philly Homebrew Outlet and moved it to Fishtown. In 2015, they opened a store in West Philly and came to Oaklyn in 2017. The retail business eventually morphed into educational classes.

“And we’re getting traffic back,” McMillan said. Customers return to replenish supplies, and get advice whether they are making yogurt, hot sauce, beer, or cheese.

One day, Nidia Sinclair and Marilyn Gonzalez came to the Oaklyn store to buy bottles for the coquito they make as gifts for the holidays. They looked at McMillan’s coquito recipe, and told him it was good, but could be better.

“Teach the class,” McMillan suggested. They did.

“They loved it,” Gonzalez said of their students.

“We like to cook, we like to drink, and whatever we can share with others is a plus,” Sinclair said.

McMillan said his business attracts diverse customers and he learns from them. John Ahern, a house painter who also owns a furniture restoration business in Pennsauken, came into the store one day because he wanted to use beer as a wood stain after reading that monks and early craftsmen had done so. He turned to McMillan for a lager recipe.

“I was most interested in color,” Ahern said. “I’m constantly looking for matches and ways of customizing.”

McMillan taught him to make dunkel, a German lager that Ahern likes to use on oak and cedar.

“I’m really happy with the way it turned out,” Ahern said, adding McMillan gave him brewing instructions and made himself available to answer questions throughout the process. It’s a fine stain and, as a bonus, “It tastes good, too.”