What is your idea of the perfect Homebrew store?

If you could design your ideal Home Brew Store, what would it be like? What would be the most important feature of the store? What would make you continue to give this store your business? What would set it apart from the rest?

online with free shipping for orders over $100.

seriously though, i'd want hard to find yeast strains and bugs.

Homebrew in Paradise my local LHBS.

http://www.homebrewinparadise.com/Beer.aspx

They have about 24 different grains to choose from. You measure your own, grind you own. You can buy as little as 1 oz.

Free hops with any grain purchase

Staffed by people that are up to date on CURRENT methods and not still using those from 20+ years ago. Where you can actually get sacks of grain for a small amount more than what they paid for it (when you take the entire sack). Also one that has a frequent buyer 'club' for people buying grain with real benefits once you hit more than 110# in a year. One of which could be discounted rental space in a fermentation chamber.

I'm sure I could come up with more, but those came to mind quickly.

Oooo, ooooo!! Rental space in a temperature controlled chamber! That would certainly set you apart. Especially if the brewer could specify temps - cool chamber w/ controller on a heat wrap.

Oh, yeah. Like the other guys say. Honest, staff knowledgeable of past and present techniques. Avid homebrewers themselves who enter contests for the feedback. And maybe trophies, too.

Dave

Free 1-day shipping!

http://www.sicilianosmkt.com/

If you have a chance to visit you will know what a perfect LHBS should be.

Grain mills hand cranked by topless 18 year old coeds, hops retrieved from walk in freezers by same 18 y.o.'s, homebrewed beer on tap pulled by same 18 y.o's, and free shank and bung lubing by....well.... ya know. Oh, and competitive pricing

mikeysab said:

Grain mills hand cranked by topless 18 year old coeds, hops retrieved from walk in freezers by same 18 y.o.'s, homebrewed beer on tap pulled by same 18 y.o's, and free shank and bung lubing by....well.... ya know. Oh, and competitive pricing

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lets keep it clean....21 year olds....some states dont let 18 year olds server...LOL

mikeysab said:

Grain mills hand cranked by topless 18 year old coeds, hops retrieved from walk in freezers by same 18 y.o.'s, homebrewed beer on tap pulled by same 18 y.o's, and free shank and bung lubing by....well.... ya know. Oh, and competitive pricing

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But then our SWMBOs would wonder why we were going to the homebrew store way more often than we were brewing beer...

One where the people are knowledgeable, friendly, and don't treat their customers like **** on top of having outrageously high prices...My LBHS Falls Church VA, I hope you go out of business, because you deserve to. If anyone else ran a company like yours, they'd have filed for bankruptcy years ago.

Various Home brews on tap like my HMBO(they have 2 usually), Ive been able to get ideas and try things I wouldn't likely try. reasonable pricing. Fresh ingredients/yeast. free grinding. Ability to buy what you need not only in 1lb packages. pre-made kits would be nice as well that are both in grain or extract(option). Hey you asked.

How about one where they started a brewery, and will open a 40 tap tasting room next door?

sweet_corn said:

How about one where they started a brewery, and will open a 40 tap tasting room next door?

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Sounds very similar to the LHBS that I usually visit... The brewery part is still in the works (not sure if it's off paper yet) but it's going to happen... Just wish I could get sacks of grain from them at better rates. Not much of a discount compared with buying it in 10# bags...

The Brew Hut and Dry Dock Brewing in Aurora CO. Friendly, knowledgeable staff, great selection of ingredients and equipment. All this with a brewpub right next door pouring an assortment of their own beers. They also host homebrewer competitions. I think they will ship - look them up on the web. Bad news is they are an hour away from me but the good news is my son lives 5 minutes away from them.

+1 on the yeast strains, all I wish It was easier to find some of the odd ones. I think the most important thing are the things that make any business work well. Good service, good supplies, and a commitment to the hobby/obsession. Community involvement would be nice too. Hosting contests, tastings, speakers, etc. All that said, I love Bob's Homebrew in Seattle. Good folks.

IMO, if you've not brewed before you shouldn't be working at a HBS. Part of the application process should be to bring in some of what you've brewed, that's NOT from a kit...

I really enjoy my LHBS, frankly. I've seen some comments about it on AOL CityScape and such where people ***** about stupid crap like it's cluttered, dusty, etc. Frankly, to me, I really enjoy it. It's quite entertaining actually. The guy has random beer-themed paraphanalia all over the place, he's very friendly and helpful, and has a real interesting bar built in where you can buy a fresh draught of whatever he's been working on. A ton of fun, IMO. I havent really done anything more than a few basic brews, so I've not yet found something he DOESN'T have, so maybe that's the only drawback there. I like the ideas that some of yall have here, though(especially the grain grinding by young college coeds);

My ideal store:

An all-in-one homebrew/bottle store. You walk in the door and hand someone your ingredient list. They pull/grind the grain/hops/yeast/etc while you look at all the cool stuff they have. You get to the end of one of the isles and another employee hands you a taster of something on tap. You talk about that beer and beers in general. Next you look through the beer fridges and pick out a sixer of bottles. You get up to the front counter and your ingredients are all there waiting for you, along with another taster. Someone rings you up while you bull**** some more about beer and what you're up to. You walk out the door with a smile on your face and the taste of beer in your mouth.

That is pretty much exactly my experience at Main Street in Hillsboro, OR: http://mainbrew.com/. Their prices are higher than another store less than 5 minutes away, but it's totally worth it.

I like most of these ideas. I really like the idea of having temp controlled lockers for fermentation.

I also agree that everyone working in a brewery or homebrew shop should be a brewer.

I started this thread because a small group of us(all brewers) are thinking about opening a shop. We have 3 shops in a 100 mile radius. The first, MoreBeer, is great. they are about 50 miles north of us. The second, Hydrobrew, is also a great shop. They are about 40 miles south of us. The third is right down the street. This shop is good for last minute things. But it is agreed that it has a lot of room for improvement.

We have short term goals of creating a top notch shop that focuses on helping brewers continue to advance in making better, more creative beers. We also have the ability to build to suit, brew stands and custom needed equipment. We would like to have at least 10 beers on tap for sampling with recipes available if the customer wants to make it.

Our long term goals include a nano brewery or larger with a tasting room.

Now if we can start to make progress towards these goals! We'll see!

First, a LHBS less than a 3 hour drive away.

Second, friendly knowledgeable staff.

Third, a willingness to order something not normally stocked when a customer requests it.

Fourth, reasonable prices - not necessarily competitive with mail order, but not too far out of line.

+1 on sicilianos market everyone in that place really knows their stuff.

I live in the LA area and the shop I started out at is in Woodland Hills about a 40 minute drive from me. They are very friendly and knowledgeable. The prices for grain, hops and yeast are pretty good - you could find stuff for a little cheaper on line if you tried. Some of the higher end equipment is a bit too pricey compared to online prices.

They also have an attached "clubhouse" in back where the maltose falcons meet and do club brews on the club owned one barrel system every month. With the attached club house and brew system, I have lots more reasons to go there a few times a month. The monthly club brew requires that you sign up ahead of time. There is a brew leader who picks the recipe and 6 people walk away with a little over 5 gallons of wort. The shop throws in a special discount for the club brews. I have done this and spend as little as $10 for a batch of really good smoked porter.

About three months ago, another shop opened about 10 minutes from my house. It is ok but the selection is not as good (they don't stock melanoidin among some other things). The staff is not nearly as friendly and the prices are about 20% higher than the place in Woodland hills.

I like the idea of a fermentation chamber for rent but I think doing individual controls would be hard. You could offer Lager space (say 50*), low temp ale (60*) and high temp ale (68*) or something like that. A space to do cold crashing and kegging/bottling would be a real help. Big sinks and stainless tables could drive a lot of bottle sales. You could also have the staff do gravity checks with a refractometer and email the results. That could really drive some business your way as the ferm chamber is so important and yet I think the least likely owned equipment .

Within a mile, has everything that I would want, when I want it, at the lowest price.

Seriously, A good selection, fresh ingredients, Knowledge, great customer service and reasonable prices.

I am a noob and have yet to visit a lhbs. The ones in my region are not real close. I will be checking them out soon.

My LHBS has pretty much everything I can ask for.

-A staff that seems pretty knowledgeable: I haven't really had too much interaction with them, but the little I've had has always been good.
-Good variety of grains, hops, and yeast on hand: Sometimes I can't find exactly what I'm looking for, but I'm a brewer more concerned about putting bottles in the fridge than copying a recipe exactly. Making substitutions isn't always a bad thing, and it usually turns out pretty good in my experience.
-Plenty of equipment: Everything from beginners kits (wine and beer) to grain mills and yeast culturing tools.
-Good prices: Not going head to head with mail order companies like Midwest and NB, but the fact that they're a 20 minute drive from my (parent's) house makes up for that. Even though I buy the hops I use most often online in bulk, having a shop nearby to pick up an ounce of hops I rarely use is irreplaceable.
-Proper storage of ingredients: All hops and yeast are kept in the fridge/freezer, and no grains are left laying on the floor. And from what I can taste in my homebrews, they're pretty fresh ingredients too.

Let's go with the simple answer, everything is free to me and it's right down the street. If I could just have one closer than 30 miles that would be nice.my closest also has grains priced at about 2.25-2.50 per lb on 2 row.

I really enjoy my LHBS, frankly. I've seen some comments about it on AOL CityScape and such where people ***** about stupid crap like it's cluttered, dusty, etc. Frankly, to me, I really enjoy it. It's quite entertaining actually. The guy has random beer-themed paraphanalia all over the place, he's very friendly and helpful, and has a real interesting bar built in where you can buy a fresh draught of whatever he's been working on. A ton of fun, IMO. I havent really done anything more than a few basic brews, so I've not yet found something he DOESN'T have, so maybe that's the only drawback there. I like the ideas that some of yall have here, though(especially the grain grinding by young college coeds);

Clearwall,
Make the drive to Austin when it cools off and check out Austin Home Brew. While not as "funky" as the store you are talking about, it will open your eyes. If I wasn't boiling everything I ever bought in SA, I would be worried.