We've got a LHBS that has grains and a mill. My usual brew day routine is to figure out the grain bill, call them in the morning and pick up the milled grains in the afternoon.
Me and others have had issues with an employee in this shop before. For one thing they seem to consistently overcharge at the till. I'd say they make errors except the errors always seem to be in one direction !
Anyway, I went to the shop to pick up my grains, which were pre milled, mixed and bagged. The grain bill for tonight's brew is 4 lbs of 2 row, 5 ounces of Crystal malt and 2/3rds of an ounce of roasted barley. I'm at the till and he says that will be $17 please. I say "WHAT ?"
We go through the grain bill and he's given me 2.5 POUNDS of roasted barley ! I look in the bag and its pretty black !
He says wait a minute, I'll fix that. He disappears into the back for like 20 seconds and comes back. I look in the bag and its still black ! He just removed 2 pounds of grains ! Its still got way too much roasted barley in it !
I tell him I'm not brewing with that. He tells me it would make great beer ! Sheesh, whats the use of using a recipe ! He's upset I won't buy it !
Finally he sees I'm not going to take it and he relents. **WE** go back to the grain mill and start over with my order. The owner always takes me back there. So he goes to measure out the 4 pounds of 2 row and he gives me 2 Kgs, less whatever an ice cream pail weighs. So thats probably 4.3 pounds.
Then I asked for the 5 ounces of crystal malt... well... he starts cussing at me wanting so little. I look at his scale and its graduated in 100g increments. No calculator in site ! So he gives me 100g with the weight of the pail. There is now way to tare the scale with the pail on ! 5 ounces would be 140g plus the weight of the pail. I probably got half the crystal I should have.
Next up is 2/3rds of an ounce of roasted barley. He loses it. He goes on and on about how is he supposed to weigh that ? I ask him how do they weigh hops ? He shrugs. I tell him to grind me a small handfull and put it in a bag and I'll weigh it at home.
So then he grabs the paper bag with the malt in it and a bunch runs out the seam in the bottom of the bag. Just like it does EVERY TIME when I pour it into my mash vessel at home ! Its the messiest part of the whole batch, cleaning up after those leaking bags. He probably lost about half a pound through the seam, so what does he do but stick his hand in the bag of miss weighed malt, the stuff with way too much roasted barley in it and put some, who knows how much, into the stuff we just ground !
Sheesh ! Who knows what the heck I ended up getting for malts.
Then he gives me heck for coming in late ! I asked how late they would be open when I called in the order and I told him that I would be coming about 15 minutes before he would be closing, because of my wife and son. I was actually 10 minutes early (25 minutes before closing) and when I got back in the car it was still 10 minutes before closing on the car clock.
I can't believe what I experienced there. I would have told him off except that they are the only homebrew shop in town that stocks malts and has liquid yeast.
I now realize that there is no way I can trust these guys to properly weigh out malts. I have no idea what I actually got for malts. Earlier this year I brewed a cranberry ale. Its delicious, but its way, way darker than what I thought it should be. I'll bet any money it has way more dark malt in it than it should.
I'm really pi$$ed about this. The prices at this shop are terrible. We can buy malt locally for 40 cents a pound. Munich, Vienna, 2 row, wheat, etc. Last week I got charged $2.50 a pound for wheat because its a specialty malt ! Their hops are TWICE the price of another place 300 miles away.
And the thing about it is that this shop has been in business for 24 years. Charlie Papazian has been in the shop and they have pictures with him. But now, they could care less.
And honestly, I have never been any trouble to them. I've called in 7 orders of malts since Christmas. I give them all day to grind them. I've never complained to them about prices. The owner of the shop gave me a sample homebrew he did. I even returned the bottle !
Its time to build a grain mill and buy malt in bulk.
Me and others have had issues with an employee in this shop before. For one thing they seem to consistently overcharge at the till. I'd say they make errors except the errors always seem to be in one direction !
Anyway, I went to the shop to pick up my grains, which were pre milled, mixed and bagged. The grain bill for tonight's brew is 4 lbs of 2 row, 5 ounces of Crystal malt and 2/3rds of an ounce of roasted barley. I'm at the till and he says that will be $17 please. I say "WHAT ?"
We go through the grain bill and he's given me 2.5 POUNDS of roasted barley ! I look in the bag and its pretty black !
He says wait a minute, I'll fix that. He disappears into the back for like 20 seconds and comes back. I look in the bag and its still black ! He just removed 2 pounds of grains ! Its still got way too much roasted barley in it !
I tell him I'm not brewing with that. He tells me it would make great beer ! Sheesh, whats the use of using a recipe ! He's upset I won't buy it !
Finally he sees I'm not going to take it and he relents. **WE** go back to the grain mill and start over with my order. The owner always takes me back there. So he goes to measure out the 4 pounds of 2 row and he gives me 2 Kgs, less whatever an ice cream pail weighs. So thats probably 4.3 pounds.
Then I asked for the 5 ounces of crystal malt... well... he starts cussing at me wanting so little. I look at his scale and its graduated in 100g increments. No calculator in site ! So he gives me 100g with the weight of the pail. There is now way to tare the scale with the pail on ! 5 ounces would be 140g plus the weight of the pail. I probably got half the crystal I should have.
Next up is 2/3rds of an ounce of roasted barley. He loses it. He goes on and on about how is he supposed to weigh that ? I ask him how do they weigh hops ? He shrugs. I tell him to grind me a small handfull and put it in a bag and I'll weigh it at home.
So then he grabs the paper bag with the malt in it and a bunch runs out the seam in the bottom of the bag. Just like it does EVERY TIME when I pour it into my mash vessel at home ! Its the messiest part of the whole batch, cleaning up after those leaking bags. He probably lost about half a pound through the seam, so what does he do but stick his hand in the bag of miss weighed malt, the stuff with way too much roasted barley in it and put some, who knows how much, into the stuff we just ground !
Sheesh ! Who knows what the heck I ended up getting for malts.
Then he gives me heck for coming in late ! I asked how late they would be open when I called in the order and I told him that I would be coming about 15 minutes before he would be closing, because of my wife and son. I was actually 10 minutes early (25 minutes before closing) and when I got back in the car it was still 10 minutes before closing on the car clock.
I can't believe what I experienced there. I would have told him off except that they are the only homebrew shop in town that stocks malts and has liquid yeast.
I now realize that there is no way I can trust these guys to properly weigh out malts. I have no idea what I actually got for malts. Earlier this year I brewed a cranberry ale. Its delicious, but its way, way darker than what I thought it should be. I'll bet any money it has way more dark malt in it than it should.
I'm really pi$$ed about this. The prices at this shop are terrible. We can buy malt locally for 40 cents a pound. Munich, Vienna, 2 row, wheat, etc. Last week I got charged $2.50 a pound for wheat because its a specialty malt ! Their hops are TWICE the price of another place 300 miles away.
And the thing about it is that this shop has been in business for 24 years. Charlie Papazian has been in the shop and they have pictures with him. But now, they could care less.
And honestly, I have never been any trouble to them. I've called in 7 orders of malts since Christmas. I give them all day to grind them. I've never complained to them about prices. The owner of the shop gave me a sample homebrew he did. I even returned the bottle !
Its time to build a grain mill and buy malt in bulk.
, they weren't that great though so I'm over it) hopefully they actually sell grain, and not just kits and a little bit of equipment, like most of the stores in Auckland.
