ingredient purchase screwups

[rtockst]

FFFFFF. Son of a *****. Has anyone ever went to a homebrew store and hour away because you didn't want to wait on shipping, then when you place your order they don't have the right hop and you end up getting a "substitute" that's nothing close to the correct one?

I did just that today. I wanted Simcoe, but got Northern Brewer because they were out and the man suggested it. Had my head not been in my rear end, I would have said, "no thanks, I know there's no substitute for Simcoe, but I'll take Amarillo".

Now I'm stuck with ingredients to make a grossly underhopped pale ale. How sad.

 

[brewdogskip]

Sorry to hear that. No one else in the area who may have some extra hops on hand? I swap goodies with all the brewers in the area, sometimes it feels like we're dealing drugs, lol. "Yo, I'll give you two oz Cascade for one oz simcoe man, I need my fix!".

 

[bosox]

You know, I've noticed in one of my LHBS I get NO reception on my phone. I remember last time I went there I tried calling my dad to double check some of the ingredients as me and him brew together, and the call kept cutting off. Luckily I got the right stuff, but I'm beginning to suspect some sort of LHBS Evil Alliance....

If you live an hour away from your nearest LHBS and they don't carry a decent selection of hops, you may want to just buy online. I ordered a pound of hops from a vendor on this site, got them shipped within about a week, and just stored them in the fridge and used them as I needed them. You can usually get hops for $.60-$1.00 EASILY online, and the shipping is pretty minimal, so you'll definitely save.

 

[ChshreCat]

Yesterday I braved snowy and icy roads to get to my LHBS to pick up ingredients for a new batch. Half a dozen different malts, two different hops, plus Pacman yeast which is a little hard to find much of the time. Ya know what happened.

They had it all! I brew this weekend!

Sorry. I didn't mean to rub it in. I just meant to rub it in.

 

[Frodo]

...you end up getting a "substitute" that's nothing close to the correct one?... Now I'm stuck with ingredients to make a grossly underhopped pale ale. How sad.

Been there, but usually the LHBS gives decent advice, or at least tries to figure out what could make a good substitute rather than subbing with something not quite right, especially with hops that supply much fewer AAU.

Not sure if the LHBS can supply everything under the sun though, considering it's somewhat perishable stuff we're dealing with... one time I went in and was making a couple of british style ales and wanted to grab 2 vials of WLP002 due to wanting to brew them within a couple days of eachother. They had 1 vial in stock (and don't carry any wyeast) and when I went to the counter I asked if they might have another or if this was the last one; she said something along the lines of "yeah, I usually only keep 1 or 2 in stock" but then at least offered "is this something you tend to use often, and should i stock more of it?". It's small town I know, and they don't like selling old stuff so they don't stock heavily, so it's common for them to run out of something despite their pretty amazing variety despite the small town and probably pretty low turnover of goods.

Point being that an LHBS should be damn knowledgable, and know what a good substitute should be for something they might not have. If they run out of something and are waiting for the re-supply, they should start doing their research if they don't know already.