LHBS prices vs buying online

jakenbacon said:

My word your LHBS is outrageously priced. No website on the planet even comes close to my LHBS prices, and if they do shipping just kills it. I didn't know I was so lucky....

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Yeah, I guess I learned an important lesson from all of this.

Just because a store is popular does not necessarily mean that they have the most reasonable prices and best customer service in town.

As I said, there is a new dog in town that I plan to check out tomorrow. Their prices seem more in line with what I am seeing on this forum.

thadius856 said:

FWIW, the packets of yeast I've bought locally have been 2-3 months old. The packets I bought online were weeks to 1 month old.

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Yea you gotta be careful about that if there isnt huge turnover

Not to praise on Brew Brothers more, but after expiration it goes from $6 vial to $3...then after 2 months its $2, and 3+ its only $1 vial

Makes for some good savings if you have a stir plate. I just bought 2 $1 vials to start a Lager because no ones making those right now so there were a few left in the expired bin in the fridge lol. More popular strains like WLP001 are never more than a few weeks old they move so fast.

Even accounting for low viability and DME cost i end up saving a few bucks.

As FuzzeWuzze has shown, grains are much cheaper in the Portland area than buying online. I buy from several different LHBSs depending on what I am buying, although Brew Brothers seems to meet or beat just about everyone on most things, except full pounds of hops. I live on the opposite side of Portland from Hillsboro, but Brew Brothers does local drop-offs at several locations around Portland a couple of days a week. I just bought about $21 worth of ingredients online a week ago for pickup on this side of town for $5. The driver spaced the stop and Brew Brothers refunded the $5 and delivered the ingredients right to my door. For those looking for less than full pounds, they will sell as little as .1 pounds. Great service and great prices.

There is another shop in the Willamette Valley where you can buy a a 50 pound sack of 2-row, 2 pounds of hops (limited selection, but they have Cascades, Centennials, Liberty, Magnum, Kent Goldings, Mt. Hood, Nugget) and choice of yeast for $60. I also buy from the closest shop to my house. His prices aren't the best, but still better than online for ingredients. Plus, he has a great selection of bottled beer and a 10-tap keezer.

OrdinaryAvgGuy said:

Yeah, I guess I learned an important lesson from all of this.

Just because a store is popular does not necessarily mean that they have the most reasonable prices and best customer service in town.

As I said, there is a new dog in town that I plan to check out tomorrow. Their prices seem more in line with what I am seeing on this forum.

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I wonder if the "New Dog" you're talking about is ABS? I have been there a couple of times this week. Prices seem fair and the staff has been very friendly. You should give 'em a shot!

joshmobley said:

I wonder if the "New Dog" you're talking about is ABS? I have been there a couple of times this week. Prices seem fair and the staff has been very friendly. You should give 'em a shot!

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That would be correct. Visited a couple weeks ago and they have won my local business. Closer to home, larger than the others and their prices are very reasonable.

Here's my breakdown of Morebeer vs LHBS for the popular Common Room ESB recipe, slightly modified for what they have in stock.



Now, if I turned this into two batches and got free shipping from Morebeer, it would be a substantial price difference, approximately $17 less from the ~$60. I'm sort of at an impasse myself in terms of where I should shop.

ianskate said:

I'm sort of at an impasse myself in terms of where I should shop.

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If I were in your shoes, I'd have to decide if the convenience of being able to have my stuff an hour from now is worth the extra $3.50/batch. Tough call but I would probably lean local in that situation.

bleme said:

If I were in your shoes, I'd have to decide if the convenience of being able to have my stuff an hour from now is worth the extra $3.50/batch. Tough call but I would probably lean local in that situation.

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Going local would help you still have a choice between the two in the future.

This is probably the cheapest batch example too, but local may be the better option for a rushed brew day.

I'm going to have to start growing yeast cultures and storing in mason jars. For example a Wyeast smack pack is $9, dry yeast is much cheaper, but not always the right choice.

I still have to price it all out right but my LHBS seems to be almost exactly the same as most of the online ones. My next is a Hefeweizen (ya I know it's fall but the wife loves it) and I decided to see if any online places where cheaper but they seem to be really about the same, maybe $1-2 cheaper. The shop is only 10 mins away so it's not much in gas... I guess for the "buy local" satisfaction and not having to wait for a package it's worth it. Is there any place I have yet to try that is dirt cheap? My estimated total cost at the LHBS is close to $30 for:
8 lbs Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM)
4 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM)
1.00 oz Hallertauer Mittelfrueh [4.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min
1.0 pkg Weihenstephan Weizen (Wyeast Labs #3068) [124.21 ml]

Funny I was looking for a cheap recipe to make this next round, found some which people where claiming where <$20 but I didn't realize it was from 2010 or something... ha. I haven't brewed before this past couple months in maybe 10 years but I remember it being a lot cheaper back when, of course that was before kids too.

I've thought about getting 50lb bags but by the time I get a mill and everything else to store it... I might as well just get it from the shop.

That's a good price! I ran it by Williams and it came out to $38.95 after shipping. Even opting for uncrushed grain only dropped it to $35.35.

Yeah, Austin Homebrew Supply (my LHBS... So no shipping cost for me - just gas, though) is similar. $28.57 for the ingredients (though I subbed H. Hersbrucker for H. Mittelfruh since they didn't have it, and opted for white wheat since it was cheaper than red - not sure which you're using), but then add $6.99 for shipping (the yeast price does include $0.99 for a cold pack - not needing one of those is another benefit of picking it up yourself). I'd go with your LHBS...

1.99 grain - $1.99 - 4 - $7.96
White Wheat - 1 lbs - $1.99 - 8 - $15.92
WL Hefeweizen IV Ale Liquid Yeast - $5.99 - 1 - $5.99
German Hallertau Hop Pellets - $1.89 - 1 - $1.89

$34.38 total with tax (tax here sucks, 8%)... thought the pilsner was 1.49 guess it was 1.99. Still pretty darn good. I did find a place even cheaper (at least $.20-.30 cheaper per pound) but they 40 mins away... for the $6 I'd save it's not worth it.

What about the quality and freshness of the items. Is there a noticeable difference? Do any of you shop Amazon or is the risk of old ingredients too great?

Do you take into account hot employees?

Fully support my LHBS all of my brewing equipment has been purchased there and I'm sure I'll be spending more in the coming weeks


Brahahahaha

hartlesj said:

What about the quality and freshness of the items. Is there a noticeable difference? Do any of you shop Amazon or is the risk of old ingredients too great?

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I buy equipment on Amazon but I wouldn't buy ingredients. I don't think you can get fresher than Northern Brewer. I'm sure Midwest, MoreBeer, and Austin are similar. They move too much product for anything to go stale. My "local" suppliers are 60 miles away so I've only been there a few times. One seemed very fresh but I'd have to wonder still about his liquid yeasts.

The other... let's just say I only went there once and left with only a thermometer.

Someone posted that Brew Brothers ships $200+ orders free and $100 - $200 for $10. Either that deal is gone or it doesn't apply to bags of malt. Seems no no-one can ship a bag of malt for a price low enough to make buying on-line cost effective. My best bet is Brewmeister in Folsom - about 100 mile round trip. Morebeer is a bit cheaper but more like 200 miles and, like 45-70, I usually have more reason to go to the Sacramento area than the bay area. There is one LHBS a little closer that I usually go to but their prices are generally higher.

We have a brewpub in town that will add your grain to his order and give it to you for cost. Pretty sweet deal.

Just found out Label Peelers is in Kent, only 1 hour from my house and I go to that area often, Going to snag 50/55# sacks and 1# hops... hoping to make some cheap beers this season.

I went in with a few guys in my club and together we bought about 30 pounds of hops from Hops Direct. If you are only getting a couple pounds, shipping cancels out any savings but on a big order you can save a bundle.

Our local microbrewery, Cape Cod Beer, also is a LHBS and they host the local brew club. They are 10 minutes from my house and give 10% discounts to members of the brew club.
They have a limited selection but they do carry the more popular grains and such.

Just had a great experience. I just bought all the ingredients for an English Brown Ale at The Homebrewer in here in SAn Diego. I'm new to the hobby and the sales associates were great. I even sparked off a bit of a fun conversation between them when I threw a problem at them from my last batch. Any way, I compared it to Northern and they were about $7 cheaper than Northern Before the shipping. Only difference is that I would have gotten a bit more grain from northern as they sell it in 1-2 LB packages. Not sure what I would have done with the leftovers. It would have amounted to about 2-3 lbs of extra mixed specialty grains. Not enough for another batch and my equipment isn't big enough to scale up to minimize the waste. So it probably would have gone in the trash any way. If your a brewer in SD check them out.

hartlesj said:

Just had a great experience. I just bought all the ingredients for an English Brown Ale at The Homebrewer in here in SAn Diego. I'm new to the hobby and the sales associates were great. I even sparked off a bit of a fun conversation between them when I threw a problem at them from my last batch. Any way, I compared it to Northern and they were about $7 cheaper than Northern Before the shipping. Only difference is that I would have gotten a bit more grain from northern as they sell it in 1-2 LB packages. Not sure what I would have done with the leftovers. It would have amounted to about 2-3 lbs of extra mixed specialty grains. Not enough for another batch and my equipment isn't big enough to scale up to minimize the waste. So it probably would have gone in the trash any way. If your a brewer in SD check them out.

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Dude those guys are great I've made three trips to that store and they are always so helpful I'm probably going to stop by again on Wednesday to pick up some ingredients for an IPA


Brahahahaha

I buy all of my ingredients and low cost equipment from my LHBS. It's convenient, it helps support a business I want around, and it gives me a chance to b.s. about beer with other people who share the passion.

When it comes to bigger items, I shop around a bit more, if the price at the LHBS is comparable to online or elsewhere I will buy from them, even if it's a little bit more. However, if there is a large difference in prices I have no problem buying online. The money I save just gets spent locally.

Firstly, I wouldn't consider it a "Local" Homebrew Shop if you're driving 45 minutes to the store. I can't blame anyone for buying online if that is your situation. I can walk to mine in less than 20 minutes from my work and often hit it up during my lunch break. The grain and hop selection isn't the best and the staff aren't the friendliest but they do have very fresh liquid yeast - I've frequently bought wyeast on Friday with the manufactured date on Tuesday! I can smell the hops, taste the grain and buy weird amounts (ie. .6oz of hops and 8.5oz of crystal malt). For that, it is worth putting up with any of their shortcomings and I will always shop from them first.

I believe in supporting local business too, and did with my LHBS until it was going to be a pain to pick up my supplies so I decided to have them ship them instead. He tried to really stick it to me! Not only did he way overcharge me, but also charged me a higher shipping rate than what his site stated, which was that they'd call if it were to cost more than stated.

It took a LOOOOONG time to get it straightened out, and I knew his prices better than he did. And he still couldn't get my refund accurate.

This pushed me to look online, and comparing the ones I did I saw that MoreBeer had similar enough prices as the others, but offered free shipping on larger orders (>$59), which all of mine are. The extra ~$16 dollars goes a long way on more ingredients. Heck, that almost another brew!

I still buy my grains locally, as well as last minutes items, but they've lost the bulk of my business.

And we have 2 different LHBS. The other is expensive, disorganized (not that big of a deal), but VERY impersonal and unhelpful. He has his regulars and they enjoy dealing with him, but reading the reviews shows that the rest all have the same view I do. His store is also well out of my way.