Hearts Homebrew turnaround?

I've seen on here and the google local reviews for Hearts Homebrew to normally be pretty awful. I've been using them since I started in January and have been satisfied with them as a LHBS. I wouldn't buy from them online, but everything I've gotten from them has been good quality, and they answered my few questions I had. A couple months ago I added a bit of a long review about the place and was pleased to see 2 more good ones come in.

They always seem to price their stuff so that if you pick it up locally, it will be a bit cheaper than shipping from some other site, and are well priced for the most part. Their yeast is usually within a few months of of manufacture date, and hops seem like they're pretty fresh.

Has anyone around here notice they are not the big scary LHBS from hell?

 

I started brewing at the beginning of this year also, and have never had a problem with the place. I don't much care for their website as, imo, it's a little antiquated. I believe the same people have have owned it since the beginning.

My father-in-law makes his own wine, and has since at least the early nineties and says it's the same people running it. He doesn't care for the people as he says they're gruff, and disinterested in what you're doing, but then he's a hard person to talk to as he's always right. Plus who knows if they have any passion about wine making and that's why they're being disinterested.

To me their grain prices look to be good/standard but their hops prices are crazy over priced. I try to only buy hops from them for short term needs, and bulk order hops in advance from other sites.

 

I read some horror stories about their grouchiness when you go in.

I've been in there a couple times and they were pretty nice, but it's definitely not a place to go and have discussions about making beer or running ideas by them, etc...

I'm not crazy about the store. It's tight and there is really nothing to look at. Both times I went in there I did my "looking around" on their website and wrote down exactly what I wanted. It's not a home-brew store from hell, but it seems sub-par, and I only plan on using it if I need something last minute.

I live in the Avalon Park area and the store is 14-15 miles away, so 1 round trip is over 1 gallon of gas, which means it's only a few dollars extra costs to take advantage of flat-rate shipping that most websites have. And I'd much rather stay in my house with the AC on and not having to deal with Orlando traffic

 

Hmmm, indeed, though I like to stop by Skycraft electronics store on the way Yeah I haven't tried to talk to them more than I need to, but if I need to run an idea by someone I usually go here. I did go to a LHBS by my dad's house in Tallahassee and it was a much more pleasant experience. They had displays, room to walk, and it was about 5 minutes from his house. Got a couple 1 gallon carboys for experimental batches. Kinda wish I lived there sometimes...

 

I've used them two or three times without any problem. I just think of them as an internet store who happens to have a local pickup depot. I'm not one for chatting up store folks anyway, I like to get in and get out. I find most of their prices are fairly competitive. Now I have to checkout Skycraft Electronics.

 

Skycraft is great! They basically have tons of used electronic components for dirt cheap. Need to find a 120v blower next time I go in there...

 

I was in Hearts once asking about how to make a chocolate stout for my wife. The guy (one of the two owners) told me there's no way to add chocolate to beer because of the high acidity of cocoa. He went on to explain to me what I really meant was chocolate malt. Another time I was asking about Black IPA / CDAs - he never heard of them (this was all in the last year). I'm certain they are not that ignorant, so I can only conclude they chose to dismiss me rather than address my questions. I'll be placing another large order with AHB soon.

 

I wouldn't be certain they aren't that ignorant; owning a shop doesn't equate to knowing what you're doing. BTW, wort is acidic. After a quick google, cocoa beans are about 5.5 pH which is higher than many dark beers so he obviously didn't know what he was talking about which would almost offend me as a customer. Maybe that's because I think you should know your product and small business owners should take pride in their business, not just pride in owning a business.

I'm sure plenty of companies shot up in the 80s where the owners didn't know much more than boil your wort and add hops and yeast and you get beer. It would kind of make sense that their history of lack of answering questions or not liking to talk much stems from a lack of product and process knowledge. I sure wouldn't want to talk to people if half my customers knew way more than me. Doesn't make me want to shop there any more than some place else. If only there was competition in Orlando...

 

Even if that cocoa comment were true, dutch-process cocoa is processed with alkali and isn't nearly as acidic. The pH has been fine on the chocolate beers I've done (measured with a calibrated pH meter).

He's never heard of CDA (i.e. cross-dressing amateurs)?

 

My understanding is they (the owners) were avid homebrewers before they opened the store. My take has always been that they are just jaded (turning a hobby into a business can do that) and haven't really kept up with the enthusiasts and the latest developments in the hobby.

 

I used to go there (at the old, larger location) back in the mid/late 90's and it definitely seemed they were more 'into it' back then.

I still have and use my glass blowoff tube I bought way back when. Never seen that anywhere else.

 

From what I've read there have been a lot of development in homebrew techniques and understandings even in the last couple of years. For instance, at least on HBT, plastic is fine for fermentors, hot side aeration isn't a huge concern, and the no-chill method can produce a clear beer. Also with the craft beer revolution americans have access to way more styles, even in local grocery stores. I haven't heard of CDA (but I'm new to brewing) and google tells me it is a fairly new style.

The glass blowoff tubes look pretty neat, though I'd be afraid of breaking it whereas a silicone tube I wouldn't.

It's sad to hear they used to be more into the hobby 20 years ago. With their bad rap I'm sure they could be doing better business if they just were friendlier. I don't know how big their online business is, but I never see any other customers there when I go, and I don't stay long myself. I wonder if they could or would want to move to a bigger location where you could browse since looking at products on a shelf is a great way to sell stuff, as opposed to looking at 1 picture and a 1-2 sentence description.

 

If you just order your stuff online and pick it up at the store, then it is not a bad LHBS. But if you are looking for smiling faces and a good conversation, Hart's is not the place.

 

Indeed, that's how I use them. Also wish they'd stock White Labs yeast...

 

I am in South GA and was looking for a semi local brewhouse that I could get stuff from overnight if I needed with out high shipping cost. I looked at Hearts but settled on The Brew Den in Tallahassee and they have but great to deal with. Decent prices and I got two kegs and a beer kit shipped for about $15.

 

I've been to the brew den. It's a nice place and I wish it was closer to me. I didn't get a chance to check out their ingredients much since I was with family but looked at their equipment and it all was well priced.

 

Sorry to bring back a semi-old thread, but I've been going to Hearts for the past year since I started brewing. For as long as i've gone there, I've been doing All grain, and have been having them crush the grain for me.

I have been having efficiency problems on almost all of my brews, and while most people would attribute this to the setup, I got my setup from my brother and watched many of his brews work successfully with great efficiencies (and different ingredients, since he's in another state).

My question is does anyone here in the Orlando area use Hearts for their grain bills and has anyone noticed any efficiency problems with them? I've tweaked nearly every portion of my process to try to narrow down what it might be, and one of the last possibilities is the grain itself. Can anyone attest to their grain or their crush as far as extract efficiency?

 

An easy way to check is just order a recipe you have already tried from brewmasterswarehouse.com and see how that turns out. The only thing that might be going wrong on hearts side would be a bad crush but you can be sure brewmasters warehouse will have it dialed in. Good luck.

 

Sounds like you're just trying to promote a store

 

Or providing a simple easy way to eliminate a variable. However you want to look at it.

 

While i'm no expert in ag brewing, some things to check would be the mash pH. What kind of efficiency are you getting? What's your water to grain ratio? Have you checked the accuracy of your thermometer?

 

It's most likely the crush

 

Then buy the grains uncrushed from hearts and crush them yourself. Or you could, you know remove their mill as a variable much easier by using someone elses.

 

My eff has been consistently below 60%. I've always ordered crushed from Hearts, but this past weekend I ordered uncrushed and crushed it myself with a corona mill, but about half of the grain wasn't crushed as well as the other half because I made adjustments to make it a finer crush halfway through, so I'm sure that played into it a bit.

My mash thickness is about 1.33qt/lb.

I checked my thermometer in Ice and in boiling water and it seems pretty close, plus I used a separate thermometer to confirm the measurements.

Thanks for the tips anyway, I'll be trying a different sparging method this time rather than investing in a ph meter. Otherwise, I'll look into some ph strips and go from there. I guess I was just trying to ask others in the area whether they've experienced anything from this particular store, not trying to offend anyone else.

 

Try using Zephyrhills spring water in your next brew. The pH strips are almost useless, I tried using them several times and they refused to show anything but 4.8pH, even for RO water. Everyone says they are +/- .3 so if they do work, that's still a huge margin.

Search around here for Corona mills to see what others have done with them to improve them. I haven't used one so I can't say what to expect from them in terms of quality but know this. If it can crush grain, Homebrewtalk will have at least 2 dozen mods on it that all work better than the original.

I still say try a 3rd parties crush before playing around with the water/modding your own mill. Try something simple like a smash (single malt, and single hop) to keep it cheap for an experiment.

 

I actually tried using all Zephyrhills for one brew and it didn't help as far as efficiency goes.

I currently fly sparge with what I think should be a good method since my bro used the same method and gets great results with mostly the same equipment (hand-me-downs). I'm going to try batch sparging next time just to try something a little different and see what happens.

Is there any good way to find out what the gravity should be for a brew for the first runnings of a mash? I figure if I had a way of calculating what gravity to look for in the first runnings (for a 75% efficiency, for example), I could measure that and eliminate the sparge variable altogether. Then i'd be down to mash water or mash pH or something.... does that make sense?

 

I don't know about first runnings calculations but for batch sparging this method helped me jump a few points.

Collect your first runnings and close the valve. Pour in your 1st round of sparge water (generally half of what you need to reach your boil volume) and stir the **** out of it and let it sit for 10 minutes. Vorlauf and drain as usual, now add in 2nd round of batch sparging followed with stir it like a witch at a cauldron and another 10 minute wait followed by draining it.

With batch sparging you don't really need to worry about channeling so just open up enough to get a good flow without pulling grain through your screen/manifold/braid.

 

OK thanks, I'll give that a try. If I find that I'm still short, what would you suspect? Mash pH? Without a pH meter, it sounds like it might be difficult to measure this very well. Hearts Homebrew seems to only have pH 7.01 and 4.01 buffer... not 5.2 buffer, would I add both of them to reach the 5.2-5.5 desired area?

 

I think those are for calibrating the pH meter. 5.2 does not buffer as it says. I cant dig up the page from my phone but loook around the brewing science section.

 

I've noticed at least one of the guys at Hearts appears to be a market trader which would account for the rushed service style and perhaps their mood is based on the DOW :cross: