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Switching Local Home Brew Shops

…or what happens when you are outgrowing your LHBS.

I was going to write this post as an open letter to Beer & Wine Hobby….but it’s not their fault.

Like a common theme in some break ups: It’s not you, it’s me.

You see, I’ve grown as a homebrewer.  I am brewing beyond kits.  I am brewing beyond the top 20% most popular ingredients.  I want to make great beer…not just good beer, but great beer.

I don’t think I can get to where I want to be with my current home brew shop.  I think they have a successful business.  I think they really help people who want to get into brewing beer get over the initial obstacles that stand in their way.  I just don’t see them as a good resource for homebrewers who are more advanced or more experienced.

What doesn’t suit me is having to seek out alternatives for ingredients that should be on hand.  I am not talking about “out of stock” stuff.  I am talking about ingredients that they just don’t carry.

I am sure there are business reasons for why they carry what they carry.  I am sure their customer base gets what they need.  I guess I am saying that I am not getting what I need.

So now what?   Do I need to get back out there immediately and try to find a new one?

Has this situation happened to you?  What did you do?

I really don’t want to go the whole online catalog route, but that may be the best solution.

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16 Comments

  1. Matt C (GISBREWMASTER)

    Hi John,

    As someone who never had a LHBS I don’t know exactly what to tell you but I wanted to give you something to think about. I order all my stuff online and haven’t had any issues other then the occasional shipment being late and missing a brew day. I can get anything i need online and it works well but I am sure you already know that. What I wanted to say is doesn’t most beer start with the same basic ingredients. I am assuming your HBS has the the basic things like base malts, the normal hops, and the normal yeasts then why not get it local and just get the stuff you can’t find online. I always say try to stay local if you can. Also have you tried asking the homebrew shop owner to get some additional ingredients. Others may be in the same boat as you and the owner may not want to lose customers or maybe he doesn’t even know there is a problem.

    Just my thoughts,
    Matt

  2. DH

    I have the same issue. I really like my local shop, but I don’t think they have enough store recipes and the diversity of hops and yeasts can sometimes be lacking. I love having a live person to speak with for advice on what to make, but I have been discouraged at times with the selection. One downside is that my local shop only carries Wyeast, no White Labs, and sometimes the selection of yeasts isn’t comprehensive.

    I have great luck with Austin Homebrew supply. You can get items shipped for a flat $8 fee within about a week from ordering date. They have a comprehensive selection of clone kits for a wide variety of popular and craft brews available in extract, mini-mash and all grain varieties. I just brewed my second kit from them.

  3. Monox

    I’ve been to Beer & Wine Hobby, and eventually moved out of the area and started going to Modern Homebrew Emporium. The selection was much better, and the staff much more knowledgeable about all-grain and advanced brewing techniques.
    Having moved away from that area again, though, I now find it easier to plan 3 or so beers ahead and order from an online catalog. The selection is always great, and the prices are better.

  4. hopshead

    Yup, go the online route. I crossed that bridge with my LHBS. They served the masses. About the time I started all grain brewing and my own recipe formulation, I had to seek alternatives. I have embraced it and now I get good customer “mail order” service delivered to my doorstep. If you “feel” guilty leaving the LHBS, buy what you can from there and the rest somewhere else. But, I think you will find that the more you order online, you recognize its convenience and likely you will get better discounts and more bang for the buck the more you spend online. Shop around for online suppliers you like.

  5. Nate

    I would offer one alternative to going online, granted, you will probably still have to go online for some things. Have you asked the owner if they can carry or get in some of the things you are wanting? Explain to them what you want and your concerns. You may be able to tag on an order. I own a shop, a very small one, but almost all my brewers are experienced all grain brewers so I carry very few kits and a wide selection of grain and will order the kits as needed so they don’t go bad. Uncrushed grain will stay good a long time. Yeast is a different story though. I will also add that even though I own a shop I still buy somethings online because I can get it cheaper or just plain get it where I can’t through my shop due to order quantities.

    So give the guys a chance to meet your needs, if they don’t or can’t, they know they lost you as a customer and should be fine with that because, as you have said, you are no longer their target.

    I think a lot of homebrew shops in this country need to flip ownership because I think they have got stale and stuck in their ways.

  6. I had the same problem, but by accident discovered somewhere better, fairly near by when talking to a guy at a local micro brewery (to see if he would sell me some grain). The new place is only 20, 25 minutes away and is excellent! Quite amazed at how much better it is than the other, slightly closer place. If anyone’s in Birmingham UK, I recommend Hamstead Brewing Centre http://www.hamstead-brewing-centre.co.uk/, don’t let their website put you off! They can also grind you some freshly roasted coffee too! Sweet…

  7. Al

    I agree w/ DH. I will expand on that by saying two things; First is that I always strive to support local business. Second is that my LHBS is 45 minutes away. Does that still count as local? I would go mail order from them but for some reason it costs me less shipping to order from Midwest or similar than it does from LHBS. I still can’t figure that one out. In addition, I work a very demanding job, attend night school and have the role of husband and father. 2 – 3 hours round trip to hang out at an overly crowded shop with very small isles is not my preferred Saturday afternoon. That being said, if I ever find myself in the neighborhod, I always take the time to stop in…assuming they are open.

  8. Brian

    I am still a beginner but I have had the same problem with my LBS. Mainly it is their hop selection. It is not consistent and they don’t keep the same hops in stock. I’ve had to make substitutions on the fly but I’m ok now with going with the flow as I learn. They are still fairly new and go above and beyond with providing knowledge, services, and other community outreach (they recently hosted a free beer brewers meetup) and that will keep me coming back and supporting them. But as I start to demand certain items I will have to supplement my shopping with an online supply store.

  9. I will second what DH said . . . I now get almost all my supplies from Austin Homebrew. The flat rate shipping is great (especially on larger orders) and they have an excellent selection across the board. If I have issues with my yeast not taking off or needing extra bottles I go to the local shop, but that is about it now.

  10. Hi there,

    Thank you for all of your thoughts. I appreciate the conversation.

    I think the first step is to start buying “special” items or ingredients that I know I will not be able to get from the LBHS online. I am cool with buying things online. I just don’t like paying for shipping when I could pick it up myself.

    The second step is to talk to workers at the LBHS and ask them if they have plans to expand their ingredients list or just give them feedback on what I would like to have them carry.

  11. The sad thing is I have done a comaprison in the past between Beer and Wine and some of the online stores. It is cheaper in most cases to have stuff shipped from California than it is for you to pick it up personally in Woburn! Insane!

    Hey its a global economy. If you have a computer and an internet connection every mail order shop in the world is your local shop! That’s the way I feel about it.

    If you have two coffee shops side by side in town and you like shop A’s coffee more that B’s then you are going to go to A’s. But if shop A is the only one in town why wouldn’t you phone in your coffee from Columbia if shop A’s stuff didn’t fit your needs?

  12. DT

    I’ve been pretty disappointed with Beer & Wine since I started going there. Due to their poor service and lack of variety, I just stopped going.

    All my base grains come from doing bulk grain buys with the local club. Anything else I need I can almost always find from Modern Homebrew Emporium in Cambridge. They carry Wyeast, White Labs, and dry yeast and they’ve expanded their grain selection over the last year to where they have almost every kind of grain I can buy online. They also keep a good stock of hops in the fridge and they had them with no restrictions during the hop shortage. The only thing they don’t carry that I wish they did is the dark candi syrup.

    Another positive, if you’re the type of person who likes to bargain talk, they’re usually game…

  13. Marc

    I frequent The Witches Brew in Foxboro for most of my basic brewing needs. They have most of what I need: dry and liquid yeast, 30 varieties of hops, several base malts and probably 25-30 specialty grains plus odds and ends like wine thiefs, bottle caps, etc. For the most part the prices are good but not always and they don’t always have everything I need. I love shopping there but probably only buy about 75% of my total brewing supplies there. The other 25% is made up of bulk grain buys or online purchases (@ Northern Brewer, Austin Homebrew, Brewmasters Warehouse) for things like Star San and specialty ingredients that can’t be through my LHBS. I usually take advantage of these purchases to order other things that are cheaper in comparison to get the most out of my flat rate shipping.

  14. Chris

    I am fortunate to live in a town that has a malting company right downtown. ( United Canada Malt ), in Peterborough, Ont. They sell 25kg of most malts, 5 lb. bricks of hops and 500 gram bricks of yeast. The problem is getting equipment. I mule it up from the US. A lot of things you can’t get here in Canada. Shipping is usually more than the product, so if you really need it, take the hit I guess. LHBS? Nope. They are all 90% wine. A small section at the back of the store has some 10 year old cans of beer kits and yeast under the cap. No specialty equipment for beer and especially all-grain. All the good homebrew stores have closed down in Canada. I guess there just aren’t enough brewers out there to keep them going.

  15. I went to beer and wine when I first started all grain, then moved on because as Mike said their prices are insane. I generally spend anywhere from 40-80$ for a 10 gallon batch, as I buy my hops online, and reuse my yeast at least 2 times. I would come out of beer and wine with a 120$ beer Tab. I would hide it from the wife, I was that embarassed about it.
    If I have unexpected time to brew, and didn’t order my malt online, I go their. Now it’s Morebeer.com, or Northern brewer, depends what i’m making

  16. Channing

    My problem with my LHBS is that they’re a small scale operation and their prices are incredibly high. I support them by buying small items that I need, but do the bulk of my ordering from Northern Brewer. They are the absolute best place I’ve found online to buy kits and supplies from. I will say that if you want to buy kegs though, the ONLY place to get them is from adventuresinhomebrewing.org. I got 3 5gal Corny kegs for 17 bucks each. I’m all for supporting my LHBS but I won’t kill my bank account to do it.

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