LHBS St. Louis?

I have been struggling to find any great Home Brew stores in St. Louis, I know that in a city like St. Louis there has to be at least one. I've been buying all my equipment and ingredients at a store called Worm's Way which is a gardening store with a small home brew section attached. It is good, but not great, there aren't a ton of options and literally no hops for sale. Doesn't anyone have a better place?
Thanks.

There is/was a place over in bellville. Not sure what all I have, its been a while since I was there. Also check Friar Tuck, they have some stores down that way now, The ones up here all have a pretty good selection

I bought my stuff from Dave's Homebrew Supply in Belleville, IL. They had a variety of Brewer's Best Kits as well as other ingredients and supplies. I plan to try some other kits online. I know you specifically asked about buying hops and I am not sure if they had any there. I can PM you their phone number if you would like to contact them. I will be brewing on Sunday so I'll let you know how my kit turned out in about 1 month!

henrybeggs said:

I have been struggling to find any great Home Brew stores in St. Louis, I know that in a city like St. Louis there has to be at least one. I've been buying all my equipment and ingredients at a store called Worm's Way which is a gardening store with a small home brew section attached. It is good, but not great, there aren't a ton of options and literally no hops for sale. Doesn't anyone have a better place?
Thanks.

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http://wineandbeermaking.com/index.html

http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/pages/directories/find-a-supply-shop

Shows this one St Louis Wine and beer making

http://www.wineandbeermaking.com/

Friar Tuck has stores in Fenton, Crestwood, and Ofallon MO. Might want to give them a call and verify that they sell HB Supplies, but the ones up in central Il do

http://www.friartuckonline.com/storelocator.aspx

St. Louis Wine and Beer Making is my place of choice, it's out in Town and Country near 40 and 141 (woodsmill rd.). They have plenty of fresh ingredients, including hops and tons of kits to pick from too. I did go to Friar Tuck to pick up some specialty brews and noticed they some ingredients, probably similar to worms way but they had a pretty decent price on new bottles at $11 a case where they were $18 at St Louis Wine and Beer Making. I'm heading that way this weekend to pickup another primary and my oatmeal stout ingredients.

Wine and beer making has definitely the best selection and most convenient. But lately I've been ordering from Mo Malt which is like a co-op for homebrewers. It's run by a guy named Kent, he's a great guy and dedicated to getting homebrewers in St. Louis the best possible pricing. All you have to do is got to his webpage, e-mail him, and he'll get you on the mail list. The only downside is you have to plan accordingly since you have to e-mail him to order, and then pick-up later depending on whether or not he has it in stock or not. (You can't count on Mo Malt in a pinch)
Friar tuck is ok but their ingredients can be quite stale. I use them as last resort, mostly for when I need an air lock or something arbitrary, etc.
Cheers!

The Friar tuck up here will order most anything for you as well, and there is little or no upcharge for shipping. Most anything I have purchased thru them is at or very near the same price as Midewst.

StL Wine & Beer is the place really. They specialize in homebrewing supplies and equipment, rather than Worm's Way, whose specialty is gardening supplies and equipment and trying to figure out if everyone interested in hydroponics is legit. WW is closer to my place, so I will run up there for yeast if I'm desperate and have little time, but it has outlived its usefulness for me. Just the other day I went there hoping to find a saison yeast (knowing they probably would not have one) but looking for wyeast 3068 (bavarian hefe strain) for my second choice, and a third choice I can't remember, but down the scale of scarcity. Well, I struck out and settled for a kolsch strain packaged in April. Not terrible, but not as fresh as you will find at a homebrew shop. Hilariously, the guy working at WW asked me if I was looking for anything, so I said, "Do you carry any saison yeast?" to which he replied, "Oh no, we don't carry anything like that!". Silly me. Anyway, just save yourself the trouble and go to StL W&B.

If you brew alot and plan out your brews ahead of time Mo Malt Supply is the way to go. Both Dave's and St.Louis Wine and Beer are both good LHBS. Dave's actuallys will sell specialty grains by the ounce which is nice.

Nice to see so many on this forum from the St. Louis area

There's a pretty decent amount of homebrewers in the area. Have you had a chance to check out any homebrew clubs yet?

mmarty1 said:

St. Louis Wine and Beer Making is my place of choice, it's out in Town and Country near 40 and 141 (woodsmill rd.). They have plenty of fresh ingredients, including hops and tons of kits to pick from too. I did go to Friar Tuck to pick up some specialty brews and noticed they some ingredients, probably similar to worms way but they had a pretty decent price on new bottles at $11 a case where they were $18 at St Louis Wine and Beer Making. I'm heading that way this weekend to pickup another primary and my oatmeal stout ingredients.

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I went in this place one day and literally browsed the entire store and was walking out the door before anyone even acknowledged my presence... Not even a "hi, how's it going?" It's not like they were too busy either, there was only one other customer in the store. I haven't been back since.

sagnew440 said:

There's a pretty decent amount of homebrewers in the area. Have you had a chance to check out any homebrew clubs yet?

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no but I'd love to, I never even thought to check and see if there were clubs.

Depending on where live and how far you like to drive there is the StlBrews (the biggest) that meet off of Hampton, the Garage Brewers Society in O'fallon, and the StlHops (the smallest) club that meets in south city at Perennial Artisan Ales. They are all great clubs.

WoolyBooger said:

I went in this place one day and literally browsed the entire store and was walking out the door before anyone even acknowledged my presence... Not even a "hi, how's it going?" It's not like they were too busy either, there was only one other customer in the store. I haven't been back since.

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I've been there tons of times and always had someone willing to help me. Sorry you had such a bad experience there, I hope you found a great place that works for you though because its nice to have a place that you can get everything you need on a whim

sagnew440 said:

Depending on where live and how far you like to drive there is the StlBrews (the biggest) that meet off of Hampton, the Garage Brewers Society in O'fallon, and the StlHops (the smallest) club that meets in south city at Perennial Artisan Ales. They are all great clubs.

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I'm in northern Jefferson County so a couple of those sound like they are fairly close. I'll definitely look them up, thanks for the info.

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