Local recommnded home brew shops--Chicago land
 

Can anyone make some recommendations as to quality home brew supply shops in Chicago and surrounding suburbs? I travel extensively throughout the area, actually throughout Illinois but mainly around the city and suburbs and I want to be able to pick up supplies. Address and / or an approximate location would be great!

This is one of them:

www.foxvalleybrew.com

Perfect Brewing is up in Libertyville. http://www.undergrounddigital.com/index.html Pretty nice guy that runs it and I've found that most of his prices are in the ballpark...depending upon what you are looking for.

I don't know of any others this far up in the NW suburbs, but also know there is one or two brew and grows in the area but never been to them.

This place is the nearest to me.
Its ok...

http://www.bev-art.com/

I've been using Perfect Brewing since they opened the Libertyville store. However the last couple of times I went they were short on grain and wouldn't sell full bags (55lbs) of it. They also had a warehouse store in Mt. Prospect, but I' don't know if that is still open.

I also go to Chicagoland Winemakers in Elmhurst: http://www.cwinemaker.com/ The staff there is knowledgeable and friendly and the prices are decent. The store is quite dated, but the supplies are fresh. I would avoid buying crushed grain there because you have to crush it yourself on their Corona mill.

Wifey and I were living in Naperville for a while. I went to Fox Valley in Aurora. The guys in there were always very helpful. They always had samples of their brew ready for sample.*bonus* :rockin:

I second perfect brewing in Libertyville, they're great guys and since moving there the shop is getting more organized every week. The warehouse in Mt. Prospect is now closed:(.

The other place I used to visit was the Crystal Lake Health Food Store, the homebrew supplies are upstairs. Happy hunting!!!:mug:

The Home Brew shop in St. Charles is very good also
http://www.homebrewshopltd.com/

Also the wiki has this documented already
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Local_Home_Brew_Store#Illinois

I usually use The Home Brew shop as well since I pass them everyday. I've heard good things about the guy in Libertyville as well.

I'm in the S.E. 'burbs, and have found the selection very limited. I've been on bev-art's website, and wasn't enticed to visit the store. The next closest LHBS to me is in Crown Point, In. The guy who runs it, Bob, is a great guy, very helpful, but he runs the store out of his house, as a side-job, so actually going there depends on when he is available.
I have been to the Brew & Grow location on the Northside (altgarden.com), a combo gardening and homebrew supply store. Their brew supplies aren't too bad, and the guys there were pretty nice when I was there, but they have NOTHING listed for brewing on their website.