Do you support your LHBS?

I had a great LHBS that went out of business about 6 years ago. There is another LHBS about the same distance away in the opposite direction but it sucks... hard. I went there once when I needed some yeast that day. The prices were atrocious and it was definitely geared up as an extract kit shop with limited supply of everything else. I didn't feel bad at all about buying online during that time. As of a few years ago, a new LHBS opened up not too far from the first. It made me realize how much I missed having a decent local shop. That being said, I don't buy everything there. But it's great to have a good shop nearby.

Well that's good revvy cause being a know it all dickhead is far away from the kinda personality I have. I absolutely love talking to people who know more/different things about beer
some more...
5 - perhaps allow for discounts on buying bulk and/or give the option for special ordering certain ingredients/quantities for customers
6 - have a good balance between beginner and experienced brewing supplies/ingredients/resources (I'm thinking a good books on brewing selection..)
7 - definitely get involved with helping out the local club (discounts or space for events)

I absolutely support mine, DeFalco's, but I have some very good reasons:

1 - It's very close, and the variety is good -- 10-15 minutes from my house, depending on traffic and lights. It's good to know that I could be brewing within an hour of whenever the spirit moves me. Of course, those emergencies also work out much better when I can haul ass over to the LHBS. He doesn't carry everything, and he does run out of things from time to time, but it's usually not a problem. I understand how you have to run a small business.

2 - The prices are pretty good, and he does some piggy-backing with the local micro. Most of the time, after accounting for shipping, I do as well or better off at the LHBS than with mail order.

3 - Good, knowledgeable people work there, and its presence helps advance homebrewing. Almost every time I am in there, I see someone buying a starter setup. The guys are great homebrewing missionaries, and there is no equal to that (including a forum like this). Everyone there also brews. The owner has brewed for thirty years or so and is a Grand Master I judge.

4 - The owner is probably the largest supporter of the homebrewing community in Southeast Texas. He lends his store out for Foam Ranger meetings (he is a Foam Ranger), other Foam Ranger activities, for BJCP classes, and as an entry drop-off point for competitions. He also donates full recipe kits to Foam Ranger raffles, and he donates the ingredients for person leading the monthly Foam Ranger brew-in every month (outside his store). He's also just a stand-up guy, all around.

If I had one of those bad LHBSs around (and I've been in that situation), I don't imagine I would be a very good customer.


TL

skibb said:

Well that's good revvy cause being a know it all dickhead is far away from the kinda personality I have. I absolutely love talking to people who know more/different things about beer
some more...
5 - perhaps allow for discounts on buying bulk and/or give the option for special ordering certain ingredients/quantities for customers
6 - have a good balance between beginner and experienced brewing supplies/ingredients/resources (I'm thinking a good books on brewing selection..)
7 - definitely get involved with helping out the local club (discounts or space for events)

Click to expand...

8) Have a fridge in the back, and have a few of your own beers in their to share, with new customers and regulars, WHICH ALSO encourages your customers to bring you beers, (and hopefully not just the bad ones, they are looking to you for advice for, but the stuff they are proud of too- I've actually heard that from friends who work at or won lhbs, most of the time people bring in the bad beer, but not the good. Though I often bring a few bottles of the good stuff to my HBS homies, which helped ME to end up getting preference during the hop shortage, including more than the allotted 3 ounce/recipe if I wanted some.)

But if that is the case, the remember this maxim, "Weigh first, drink second." Or this will happen to your customer as well.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/why-bringing-beer-your-lhbs-guy-before-noon-not-good-idea-126613/

I buy my grains, liquid extract, and equipment from my LHBS.

I buy large orders of hops from HopsDirect, I buy small orders of hops from FresHops if I need small amounts of special stuff like Simcoe.

I get my yeast from a local microbrewery. They give me yeast that's a by-product for them, precious for me!

Buffman said:

YES!! My LHBS is run by the Dry Dock Brewing Co., which won the Small Brewing Company / Small Brewing Company Brewer of the Year at the GABF. Plus, the shop shares the brewery's recipes. Who wouldn't support these guys?

Click to expand...

I agree it is like a homebrewers superstore. However, I just found out that they do not sell polarware kettles...sigh...

jds said:

I'm lucky in that Denver has a great selection of homebrew stores. I buy some items from them, mostly specialty grain and the occasional yeast that I don't have yet. I'm finding better sources for bulk base malt (thanks to Wayne1), but I do go back for the specialty grains.

The closest shop to my office is only OK at best, and I got some specialty grains there a while back that sprouted bugs after being stored for a week, so I'm taking my local business to The Brew Hut now. Doesn't hurt that the brewery associated with TBH (Dry Dock Brewing) just won the 2009 Small Brewery of the Year award at the GABF.

I don't buy equipment from the brew stores, because I like to make it myself, so I only look to them for ingredients, and I usually buy base malt and hops in bulk for the price advantages.

Click to expand...

Mind sharing this info about the Ok store so I can be more careful? I like the Brew Hut and Stomp them Grapes for the incidentals I need, yeast specialty grains, bottle caps, etc. I have done bulk grain buys this past year and get all my hops online in bulk. I do patronize the online merchants that post on HBT because in addition to having what I need at good prices they are apart of this online community that feeds my addiction.

I have a close small shop (10 minutes away)that was pretty good, but I also am lucky enough to have Midwest only about 25 minutes away. The local shop was usually cheaper on hardware on stuff that they had. The grains were only sold by the 10#bag or 1# bag. Much smaller in general. Midwest is well, midwest.

I had a really bad experience with the local shop. I had my recipe in hand and went in asked for the grains, (knowing I would have some partial bags left over) to be crushed. The guy went in the back to start crushing them. I went to the hop freezer looking for cascade hops, not one oz, none. Ok, centennial, as a substitute, oops, wtf! No centennial either. by this time the grain bags were open, and being crushed. I had to run to midwest now anyways, where I could have bought the grain by the pound and paid less. Man was I hot. I have not returned since.

"Do you patronize your LHBS?" - Last time I was there, I was very patronizing.
Seriously, though, when I was doing extract only, I found on line to be cheaper than any of the LBHSs. Now that I'm all-grain, the LBHS is actually cheaper than on-line due to shipping. Most hops are still from HopsDirect - no one can touch their prices.

My LHBS is great - good people, decent prices, super-fresh yeast, and they have a great grain selection (40ish different grains + 20ish adjuncts). The owner used to brew professionally and the main business is supply to area breweries - they picked up the homebrew torch when the only crappy little shop went under. They hold classes regularly and sell most of the equipment you might need on brewday as well. You can't really ask for more than that. That said, I won't be buying hops from them anytime soon thanks to HopsDirect.

There's a gut at mine who is a brewing encylopedia. If he's not there, I'm not asking ANY questions.

I don't. They are about a 30 minute drive each way (if I'm lucky), the prices are high, the staff are often not friendly, they have screwed up simple orders (I know, that happens), they don't carry White Labs yeast and much of their Wyeast is only Propagator packs instead of Activator packs, and the place kinda looks dumpy. Other than that it's great.

Noleafclover said:

In Omaha, NE there are two LHBS one block apart. The one tha has a lot of stuff charges seriously 2x the cost of most stores that you can access on the Internet. For instance, they charged $12.50 for a vial of White Labs Oktoberfest yeast... That's pretty intense. He also has some converted sanke kegs for boiling and a whopping $275.00 (they're nothing special either.. We're not talking a polished keg with beautiful welds and cool designs here..)

With that said, I'll occasionally go buy something from either store just to help keep them in business just in case there is every an urgent need. Other than that, I don't shop there.

Plus the guy at the shop that has a lot of stuff has a less than sunny disposition...

Click to expand...

Once, I went in and his wife was working. She may not have been able to answer my questions, but she was a hell of a lot nicer.
Maybe I'd shop there more if he just wasn't ever there!

I've also learned by the time I pay for shipping it eats up any money I save on the internet.

I've made identical batches with stuff I've ordered from BM Warehouse and one with stuff I got at LHBS and the cost difference was $.01.

petep1980 said:

I've also learned by the time I pay for shipping it eats up any money I save on the internet.

I've made identical batches with stuff I've ordered from BM Warehouse and one with stuff I got at LHBS and the cost difference was $.01.

Click to expand...

For me and my LHBS, the higher prices combined with sales tax make the LHBS more expensive than online + shipping. But even if they were exactly the same I'd order online...no driving, no gas, and it just magically appears at my doorstep.

Sales tax? Weird.

Bobby_M I'm sorta in your boat. From home it's a 45 min drive. From work however it's a 15 min drive. You gotta know what to look for in order not to overpay. Some items are super expensive at my LHBS, some not so bad.

Two things I'll never buy local again if I can help it are:

White Labs Vials: LHBS $8.80, BMW $5.99
Hops (any): LHBS $3/oz, hopsdirect $9-11/POUND

Grain, better bottles, bottles, caps, siphons, whirfloc, and other things are about equal or marginally less than online, especially factoring shipping. However if I'm doing an online order I'll usually throw in a few extras of stuff just to have it on hand.

My poor planning and inability to store 50lb bags of grain makes me still a very frequent customer. So they get plenty of my money. Just not raping me on yeast or hops as often anymore unless I do some specialty brew w/an odd strain.

Why don't I support my LHBS? Because, he is a retarded old fart (Nice enough guy though)

If I order through him, I have to visit the website of his supplier, note down all the product numbers of whatever crap I want, then phone him with the info and explain it all to him while he tries to remember how to use the computer.

When I go to his "store" to pick up my crap I then have to fight off the rabid cat, shout a lot until nobody replies, check the crapper to see if he's in there and generally fight my way through a fifty year old junk collection.

He's a nice guy though.

I mostly buy from my LHBS since it is Midwest Homebrewing Supplies and I don't have to pay for shipping. I sometimes order online for equipment like the recent Austin HS perlick faucet deal, and then I threw in a few recipe kits to try them out. But will still run to Midwest to pick up fresh yeast when I get around to brewing them.

Ahoy hoy,
I buy all my grain from either of our 2 "home brew stores" which are both actually beer and wine stores that side carry supplies. Since Im up in Alaska I cant afford the shipping on any grains, thus my reasoning. I pay 50 bucks for 50 lbs of Great Northern 2 row. Most specialty grains i can get for about 17 bucks a 10 lb bag. Otherwise the individual pound bags are in the 3 dollar range. But, other then grain and some hardware like carboys, I get it most misc stuff, and hops, online. They still want 10 bucks for 2 oz of hops. They dont realize the shortage is over. But in the end, it all works out. Anything that I can get within 10% of the online savings Ill still buy locally as I do prefer to support my local businesses.
ta.......

I use my LHBS that is about 2 minutes away from me. I really like their setup and now they have created a new room next door for all their grains and such. They are really chill there and I have gotten to know the main couple of guys there (they know me on a first name basis). They let you bag up all your own grains, I just throw him my supply list so he can price it up at the register.

Hop prices are better online, but I am not into bulk buying yet so I just get them their also.

Also they keep track of your expenses there, and once you are over $500 for the year, next year you get everything back over $500 in store credit!!!

I support my LHBS. It’s only about 15 minutes from my house and its where our LHBC meets. The prices are about the same as the online stores, but the online stores dont give me advice when I but the stuff.

Also I have a chocolate stout fermenting right now, and my LHBS got in a new chocolate flavoring. They let me have it for free so that we can try it out at one of our meetings. I know it’s only 3-4 bucks but still.

Sounds like you should open a LHBS in Lexington!

There's 2 LHBS in the columbus area, well actually 3 but 1 just opened up. Used to go for everything I needed. After doing a batch of doppelbock that cost upwards of $75 and when I asked about the price the response I got was "well you're using a half bag of grain", I started looking elsewhere. Everything is pretty expensive and I was made to feel like that I was more of a nusiance when I went and just browsed without calling ahead so everything could be ready for me. Things are pretty overpriced and when the owner is also related to one of the local brewpub in the area, you think that the price for hops and grains would be more reasonable. Although this was the first shop I went to so I feel kinda guilty having not been there in almost a year.

The other shop is fine. More of a wine an pizza shop though. I go there when I need the odd ingrediant. I dont feel bad at all just buying hops or only yeast there.

Dont know whats so different with a LHBS than other stores. I dont feel bad at all just buying a pack of gum or a jar of mayo or whatever from a drug store or supermarket. Why is it different with a brewshop???

Also not sure about the arguments about its ok to spend more to buy local. I didnt get my TV or Computer or bike or half the stuf I buy because its more expensive to shop locally. Internet is local for someone. I work pretty hard for my money and want the best value for it. When I dont plan ahead and need something quickly, then thats the premium I am willing to pay for. Yeah, yeah, dont do this enough and the local shops go away... not really seeing that though.

My LHBS beats online prices for almost all grains even BEFORE I figure in the cost of shipping. Equipment is cheaper or on par with online prices, yeast is cheaper when I figure in the cost of shipping, but nobody can beat hopsdirect.com! For most things, their inventory is good, it covers the basics and then some, but if I want to do something crazy or very Belgian, I have to either special order or order online. As I've said before in another post, the local LHBS is kind of "funky" in the way that a lot of Bellingham places are, but it gets the job done!

Mine is not far away but I'm am thoroughly unimpressed with it. I seriously question the quality and freshness of ingredients. The hours are weird and the whole place is pretty dusty and dank.

yeah I do. They are a decent store and for the most part their prices are OK.
That's not to say I don't use online stores. I DO NOT buy hops at my LHBS because they charge outrageous prices. I have 12 lbs and 15 varieties in my freezer from hops direct.

kaiser423 said:

I try to support my local LHBS, but they never seem to be open when I need them. Prices are a touch high, and selection a little limited, and looks somewhat old.

I try to support whenever I can, but lots of friends and family get me gift certificates to online shops for most occasions now, and just here or there if they appreciate the beer gift. It's driven most of my sales online, but I'm always trying to figure out a way to stay local....

My LHBS just isn't _that_ appealing, despite it being very close (~5 minutes). Closes at 5:30, isn't open on Sunday, and opens at 11am. Meaning I can't drop by before lunch (usually slammed after lunch), or before starting brewing on a Saturday (forget about it if you forgot something on a Sunday brew), and otherwise I have to head home a bit early to be sure to make it there on time; sometimes they close 30 minutes early, or the dude running it goes out for lunch so it's closed when I swing by.

Just more hassle than plopping down with a homebrew late one evening, beer in hand, clickety-click-click and it's on my door in three days, cheaper than my local shop and nice and fresh.

Click to expand...

I think a bunch of us feel the same way. I've got a few bad/old hops, yeast and advice. It did not used to be that way a few years ago, well for me anyway. I would go in and talk golf and beer and not mind spending a little more $$$. They would even let me order by email and pop my yeast for me if I needed it. Came in handy a few times, but the hours are rough coming from the westside and working nights.

We used to have another store, but not many people went there. He was kinda in a bad location but his prices were better and back then I didn't worry about quality like I do now.

I go pretty much online now from a few different vendors and at my door quickly. Buying in bulk has saved $$$ and makes for quick brew planning if I need to make more.

Nearest one is about 1 1/2hrs. better one is over 2 hours in NC... It's a good Locally owned shop in NC.

That being said, I do buy most things from the NC shop. Just online. I only go elsewhere when looking to find hard to find stuff.

So I guess if you consider a few hours away local, and only buying from them online supporting... then yes.

I am forced to buy at my LHBS, well how local is 130 miles away, due to the outrageous shipping prices to Alaska charged by online shops. I do enjoy the service and acutally getting to go and measure out the grains, pick the yeast out of the cooler and check out all the varieties of hops. I just wish that prices were a bit lower, i may have to start ordering my hops in bulk and maybe even start buying grains in bulk.

My LHBS is 1 hour away.
I go there when I need supplies on Saturday, or as luck would have it, the employee Mike comes to my town several times a month. He will bring my stuff to my workplace for 5 bucks. So yes, I'll pay a few cents more than the internet guys knowing I'll get this kind of service.....

both of my lhbses (myLHBS in falls church va and maryland homebrew in columbia maryland) have done right by me.

myLHBS has a smaller space and correspondingly smaller stock but derek (the proprieter) has been super supportive and helpful once i got to know him.

maryland homebrew has several staff who've been good to me and they have an amazing selection.

i still buy stuff online too sometimes, but it's worth a few extra bucks for some good and forthright advice from the pros.

I have two LHBS somewhat close to me, one 1 hour away and the other about 40 minutes away. I typically go to the closer one only because it is closer. I don't like the owner or the store near as well but can't justify driving the extra 20 minutes. I have also used a few online companies. overall, I don't see a huge difference in pricing, especially after paying any shipping charges. so I guess I spread the wealth around a bit with most going to a couple LHBS and some going to online vendors.

I have none any where near me so i have no choice. I also learned the hard way don't buy liquid yeast in the summer

Yes. I am lucky enough to have Austin Homebrew supply close enough to visit often. I was there today, $225 worth. Ouch!!

I have one LHBS within 15 minutes and another about thirty minutes away. Both have friendly smart owners, but both are overpriced and have very odd hours. Unless I need something right away and they happen to be open or they have a great deal on something I tend to buy online. The convenience of internet shopping is almost way too appealing to pass up. I can wait a few days for shipping when the price is right.

I support mine, although not exclusively. My LHBS sells beer and they have a decent selection so I usually go there as opposed to a grocery store. On an item by item comparison, my LHBS beats or is comparable to the online retailers. If I need equipment or random things like caps, Fermcaps, Irish moss, etc, I go to my LHBS since it is usually cheaper. If I ever wanted to buy lots of things at once (> $100), I would probably go online because the flat shipping would be less than sales tax. Like some of the other posters have said, I am not good at planning things out and there is always something I think of the day of or the day before brewing so I have to use my LHBS.

In terms of buying premade recipe kits, online is much cheaper. I bought the ingredients for Midwest's HopHead kit at my LHBS and ended up paying $20 more than online. I am getting ready to start AG so I'm thinking that the difference should go away, or at least be lessened significantly. I plan to buy the ingredients in the next week for Ed's Haus Pale Ale, so we'll see how my LHBS compares to BMW.

I have not used HopsDirect before, but I may start. Those prices are sick! My concern is that I brew maybe once a month so I might have spoilage issues before I could use them all. Is freezing hops that have been opened enough to keep them fresh? Do you split up your orders into smaller units when you receive them and then freeze them? Do you use vacuum sealers?

There is only one lhbs here and I have tried to be a loyal customer but there are problems. I genuinely like the owner but his staffers are a total PITA. They get in the way and try to tell you what to do like get more of this or less of that instead of letting you build your own recipe.

The most objectionable part is the pricing. You never know for sure what you are being charged. They compute your total on a calculator and never itemize your receipt. The worst part is that on days that I just bought grains and hops, I got charged more than on days that I bought grains, hops, and yeast. The portions were all the same on both trips. I think it has to do with how much the guy has had to drink. I try to get there shortly after the store opens and everyone is sober. I went late in the afternoon once and my bill was definitely higher than when I went in the morning and bought the same ingredients for the same recipe.

my LHBS supports the local brewing community, so i support them!

Being a new brewer, I like having a knowledgeable person to ask questions of. He also helps me out with my recipes. It's a bit of a drive, but I always make it fit into running errands.

And they're great guys too.