LHBS brought down the hammer of noobishness

Went to the only LHBS in the area to get grains for the first time. I've only used kits before so I've never delt with getting and crushing grains. I asked for assistance stating I'm a noob.

Her response: "what, you can't do it yourself?"

I'll be shopping online from now on... makes me want to open up my own noob friendly LHBS....

I'll happily support a LHBS if they have customer service and a passion for spreading the hobby, but there is really no excuse for supporting a shop that is rude to its customers.

MetallHed said:

Went to the only LHBS in the area to get grains for the first time. I've only used kits before so I've never delt with getting and crushing grains. I asked for assistance stating I'm a noob.

Her response: "what, you can't do it yourself?"

I'll be shopping online from now on... makes me want to open up my own noob friendly LHBS....

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Hopefully you turned around and walked out, and didn't buy a bloody thing from that rude git.

Your LHBS seems pretty rude. I personally don't crush my own grains but I know some people who do. I just don't want to deal with the dust or another piece of equipment. I'm actually surprised they would be so rude....

The LHBS here in Houston will not only mill your grain (always do without asking), but will also measure your grain bill if you tell them what you need. Even better than that, while they're helping you out, you can taste their delicious brews on tap. Gotta love em.

Was she the owner/only employee? If not, go speak to the boss and let him/her know what happened. I like supporting the LHBS but agree that with treatment like this of their customers, they deserve to fail.

Your experience is not surprising. The only LHBSs in my area think that they can charge big money and then be rude to you on top of that; no thanks. There are far too many great online home brew vendors that are more than happy to offer competitive prices and excellent customer service. Forget about that place...

Wow, my LHBS does all of handling and crushing of grains. All the customer needs to do is fill out a grain bill.

HalfPint said:

The LHBS here in Houston will not only mill your grain (always do without asking), but will also measure your grain bill if you tell them what you need. Even better than that, while they're helping you out, you can taste their delicious brews on tap. Gotta love em.

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Gotta love Defalco's Scott is a really nice guy so I have no problem supporting my LHBS.

Here in Santa Fe, you walk in with a list. Tell them what you want and how much, they round it all up for you and crush it without a second thought. I'm not even sure they would let me get my own grains down if I wanted to. They certainly do not expect customers to pull 50 lb sacks off the shelves and run the electric grain crusher.

I've had freakin' great experiences at my LHBS. Hell, even some of the employees are on this board. They gave me the noob instructions when I was first starting out and have big "How to brew" events at their place with FREE FOOD & HOMEBREW. (I finally got to bring in a keg and teach a little at the last class. Was in beer geek heaven)

You definitely got a bad apple. Find out if that employee was a non-regular worker and try them again.

most lhbs employees are enthusiasts also. some of them also happen to own the store, and emps/owners should love the craft and understand we all started at 1 point. if you go back there, they should have a different person on staff. if not, tell her to lick your a.., and get a different person (if possible). my lhbs person, who got me started originally, is 1 of the most helpful people at it. anyway, if you have a question, ask it here. if you get 20 answers, there will be 10 different 1's, but most of them will be right, just different reasons

There would potentially be some insurance issues with having customers run the mill. I think your LHBS is going through some growing pains.

At our store, you measure your own grain. If you have a little you use the hand mill. If you have a lot, they used to mill it for you on their commercial mill. Now the old commercial mill is in the corner of the store and you do it yourself. Maybe they'll mill for you if you ask, but I really like just doing it on my own time.

This lady I believe is an owner. The store if family run, so it's a guy and his wife and their kid. I've only seen the three working there in the few times I've stopped in.

I'm not sure if I just happened to catch her on the rag or that it might be because they are primarily a winery. They do have a decent sized collection of grains and supplies, so it's not just some beer stuff in the back corner of the store.

I could feel my face get instantly red and, honestly, she made me feel like a doofus. That quickly turned into anger.

I figured it out though and got my grains because I want to brew Wednesday or Thursday. I'm just going to shop online now though, anyway, unless I need emergency supplies. It's about the same price (a little cheaper actually) online from Midwest (including shipping) than what I paid.

I seriously want to open up a LHBS for primarily beer, though.. The next closest shop is Northern Brewer in the twin cities, about an hour and a half away....

Wow, that's just plain rude. Being the hothead that I am, I would order a bunch of stuff online, then take it back there and show them the business they lost and then tell them to go piss up a rope.

There is ONE homebrew shop near me - guy runs it out of his house. Super nice guy, but his shop caters more to the wine crowd. He'll order whatever you want, but I can do that myself.

There are two other homebrew shops about 15-20 miles away. At one, they're very knowledgeable, helpful and well stocked, but the owner has the personality of a dishrag. (I don't hold it against him, though). The other does hydroponics and homebrew (Duuuuuude!). They're OK, but on at least TWO occasions, I've been there about fifteen minutes after they were SUPPOSED to be open and sat in the parking lot waiting for another fifteen minutes before I got pissed off and left. I only go there when I really need something immediately and I'm in the vicinity.

TwoWheeler: I used to live 10 minutes and work 2 minutes from the dishrag LHBS. It was a great shop and I always went in with my grainbill written out and they weighed & crushed for me. Now, the closest LHBS is 20 minutes away and is pretty sketchy (also seems to be more wine oriented. I ordered my grain for my next 2 batches from Brewmasters Warehouse which is 45 minutes to an hour away. I expect to make it over there in person at some point but for most of my stuff, I plan on just having it shipped.

mr_goodwrench said:

TwoWheeler: I used to live 10 minutes and work 2 minutes from the dishrag LHBS.

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Funny, you knew exactly who I meant......

I went yesterday to the lhbs a friend of mine recommended to me. The owner was talking to a rep about wine stuff but dropped everything right there when I walked in and guided me through picking what I needed and helped me weigh in the different options for a recipe I had in mind. Very helpful and he didn't make me feel like a noob at all. We basically chatted for 30 minutes while the rep was standing there

Gave me his card and said that if I had any question about brewing, even at 9:00 pm, that I should just call him at home.

Talk about friendly service. I was supposed to visit a much bigger store afterwards to see if they had better deals, but screw that*. The guy is getting all of my business (except for base grains later on, since he only seems to stock up on a small variety of speciality).

* The fact that he also had better prices than everywhere I've looked on the net also helped

TwoWheeler said:

Funny, you knew exactly who I meant......

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Yeah, not much mistaking... You are right that he is a great guy: very helpful and knowledgeable.

Man! My LHBS is rude to the point of I won't shop there and encourage others not to, but even SHE will take your recipe and gather and crush your grains.

That sucks, I'm on iffy straights with my LHBS because they remember me as "the guy who was buying his stuff online. *insert cackle*" I take offense to that because I search for the best prices and also for the convince of having it shipped to me. They can laugh all they want, but the online stores are laughing all the way to the bank with the money they just lost :/ Otherwise he's a cool guy who owns one of the few brew shops in my state and he has done a lot to get Homebrew legalized here as well.

I hope that lady was just PMSing or something, because what a sure-fire way to lose customers. Who wants to go to a place and pay for a service whilst getting insulted in the process? Hello online shopping.

My LHBS tends to be more expensive than buying stuff online, but they never give me trouble about crushing grains. One time I bought grains and I picked up a bag of oats. The guy offered to weigh the oats and mix them with the crushed grains for me so I wouldn't have to weigh it when I got home, then heat sealed the bag back up to keep them fresh. The only noob thing I got burned for was spelling hallertauer "hellertauer" and the guy just laughed and told me I'd invented a new hop variety.

steinsato said:

Here in Santa Fe, you walk in with a list. Tell them what you want and how much, they round it all up for you and crush it without a second thought. I'm not even sure they would let me get my own grains down if I wanted to. They certainly do not expect customers to pull 50 lb sacks off the shelves and run the electric grain crusher.

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A fellow New Mexican! Unfortunately for us, our LHBS is a corner in a spa/pool shop here in Las Cruces. The owner is OK, but his employees really don't know what they are talking about and often give really bad advice in front of me (to noobs that is). I usually wait til they walk off and set the noob straight with the real skinny

I order pretty much everything online, but it sure is nice having a place to pick up a hydrometer, satchet of yeast, or some other last minute "oops, I'm outta that!" supply.

+1 on Brewmaster's Warehouse if you are close to Atlanta. Ed is a great guy, and will gladly crush grain and shoot the breeze with you while doing it. Good prices, and flat rate shipping like most online stores now. Plus, the BrewBuilder lets you create your recipe and then just put everything in your cart with one click.
I also frequent BrewDepot because I can hit it during lunch. Also great people. The one place that had surly, condescending attitudes went under for that exact reason, and nobody could have been happier than me.

Wow, a lot of mixed reviews, guess i really lucked out. My LHBS is great, they defiantly took the time to explain things to me, and they are cheaper than online. I went in and knew "what" i wanted, and they threw together an extract kit for me (taste tbd ) I asked about a few upgrades, and they didn't try to up-sell me , just told me pros and cons.

Hey Starderup, where is BrewDepot at? Is it over in Cobb?

Also, the BrewBuilder is the bomb! I really like that you can save your recipe and have the ease of ordering the same thing again with one click.

I love my LHBS (Thirsty Brewer, Baldwin MD). Tom's gotta be the coolest guy in the world, weighs and mills the grains for you, helps you put recipes together. Sometimes I just go down with a growler of beer and shoot the breeze without wanting to buy anything (usually i'll pick up a few bungs/airlocks just so I show I'm not there to hang out).

All in all, great experience.

We have another one in Baltimore that's fairly good too, but too long of a haul for me. Nice people and all, but they run it much more like a retail store. Where the Thirsty Brewer is a store AND a place to be and talk beer/mead/wine.

When the owner digs out his private mead stash for sampling just because you're talking mead -- THAT is a store to frequent.

mr_goodwrench said:

Hey Starderup, where is BrewDepot at? Is it over in Cobb?

Also, the BrewBuilder is the bomb! I really like that you can save your recipe and have the ease of ordering the same thing again with one click.

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[ame="http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&q=beer+necessities&fb=1&gl=us&hq=beer+necessities&hnear=Buford,+GA&view=map&cid=2070837702301713017&iwloc=A&ved=0CGAQpQY&sa=X&ei=8zyRTJ6QEYv6yAXz0ajDCw"]Brew Depot Google Map[/ame]
Their store is very well stocked, but their website sucks. They are working on it.
Anyway, closer to Norcross/Alpharetta than Cobb.

Probably worse brew store experience ever was the first order i've ever made. I called up not knowing a thing and asked "this is my first brew ever do you have any preference what what would be your best selling lager or beer kit?" The guy in a annoyed voice said "most people buy ale kits lagers don't sell that much" so i was quiet for a second or two patiently waiting for him to explain why and it became awkward when he didn't say anything. I did tell him it was my first Brew EVER and it seemed like I was an inconvenience just asking him a question even over the phone. So i just bought a canned no boil lager kit buckets and basic stuff. If they can't take 1 minute over the phone to help me they don't deserve my business. But then again the person who called me from the same shop 2 days later to confirm my address was alot nicer, hard to judge a store by one pissed off employee.

I believe in supporting your local businesses, but I also believe in customer service. If a LHBS wants to be able to compete with the prices that are online these days then there can be no excuse for that kind of rudeness.

mr_goodwrench said:

Hey Starderup, where is BrewDepot at? Is it over in Cobb?

Also, the BrewBuilder is the bomb! I really like that you can save your recipe and have the ease of ordering the same thing again with one click.

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You mean the BrewBuilder from Brewmaster's Warehouse? I'm bad at just buying from a convenient source, so last batch I actually priced it from a few different places. I calculated that my LHBS would cost about $40.29 and BMW was $33.98 including and a gel pack for yeast and shipping. I was pretty surprised that it's cheaper for me to sit on my a** than drive over 1 city to get ingredients. It actually would have cost me even more at the LHBS because specialty grains have to be purchased in 1lb packs.

As far as online ordering goes, I'm a big fan of Brewmaster's Warehouse. I saw the thread on HBT about people seeing efficiency increases as a result of BW's crush so I gave it a shot.

My efficiency jumped 5 points just from using their crushed grain as opposed to crushing it myself. Plus you can use the BBBYO discount code to save on your recipes.

Brett3rThanU said:

Gotta love Defalco's Scott is a really nice guy so I have no problem supporting my LHBS.

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+1 Ray at Brew-It-Yourself always takes my order, weighs it out, crushes it, and bags it up for me no problem. I haven't been to B&S in a while but the last time me and SWMBO were there they were very helpful as well. OP i'm sorry you had this experience.

arturo7 said:

Wow, my LHBS does all of handling and crushing of grains. All the customer needs to do is fill out a grain bill.

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This^^

It sucks that some of you have such wankers for shop owners.

Wow. I agree with everyone else's comments. That is definitely not a smart way to run your business. My LHBS has always been more than patient with my noobishness. Not only did they offer to crush my grain but one of the guys actually sat down with me and explained my options for my desired result and then let me make up my own mind. I felt like I knew what I was doing haha, and now I've learned something first hand.

Starderup said:

Their store is very well stocked, but their website sucks. They are working on it.
Anyway, closer to Norcross/Alpharetta than Cobb.

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Cool, I had actually seen it on a Google search, haven't gotten a chance to stop by. It is relatively close to me and I'll get over soon to pick up some odds and ends that it doesn't make sense to ship.

Starderup said:

Brew Depot Google Map
Their store is very well stocked, but their website sucks. They are working on it.
Anyway, closer to Norcross/Alpharetta than Cobb.

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Its Alpharetta at that point. Its not far from 400 or North Point Mall.
Thats where I got my starter kit and first 2 batches of stuff. But now that I found Ed's store. If its not from the internet, it will be from his store.

MetallHed said:

Went to the only LHBS in the area to get grains for the first time. I've only used kits before so I've never delt with getting and crushing grains. I asked for assistance stating I'm a noob.

Her response: "what, you can't do it yourself?"

I'll be shopping online from now on... makes me want to open up my own noob friendly LHBS....

Click to expand...

Hi neighbor. I live in Menomonie. PM me and I will get you information on the Menomonie Home Brew club. We draw from about fifty miles away.

You are so lucky to have options. Northern Brewers store is what, 60 miles from you. I think Midwest Brewing is about the same. There is a sponsor to this forum that I use a lot, Wind River.

Wind River is located near Prairie Farm. That is I believe about 40 miles from Chippewa Falls.

All three shops give us a 10% club discount.

BTW our club organizes group purchases of malt and hops. Let me know if I can be of service.