Las Vegas Isolation

About 6 months ago, I moved my family out from North San Diego County, CA (Oceanside) to Las Vegas, NV. To my astonishment, there are 4 million people living in this valley and not a single homebrew supply store. I am used to just heading down to my LBHS (Hydrobrew in Oceanside, CA---a fantastic store....Lars, the owner is a Siebel grad and former brewer for the amazing Stone Brewery, but I digress.)

So, needless to say, I have been having to order supplies online, and in advance. The problem is that I do not have a grain mill and won't for a bit.

The crushed grain I buy online comes vacuum sealed. Would it help the longevity of the grains if I froze them until ready to brew?

Oh sages of homebrew.....help me out.

 

Hey there, I live 130 miles north in St. George, UT. I also cannot believe there is not a LHBS in Vegas. As I understand it, there used to be. I would think that city could support one. When I get up north there are 2 in Salt Lake City and one in Ogden. We better open up shop in Vegas!

 

There were two stores closing down when I got here and 1 more that had just closed its doors.

LAME

 

It seems crazy to me that Vegas could not support at least one store. Any idea what happened?

 

I see no reason to freeze. Just keep them cool, dry, airlocked.

I don't know what's worse -- not having a brew store, or having a couple brew stores that suck, are horrendously overpriced, have little selection, and are managed by impersonal stooges who think they are brewing Gods, yet are not.

Personally, I go on-line to buy; even with the local stores. I'd love to support the local guys, but.......you have to be competitive or at least offer some sort of expertise.

 

Do any SNAFU members read this forum and have any insight?

SNAFU = Southern Nevada Ale Fermentors Union

 

Wonder why Talley hasn't sniffed out this thread?

 

That's too bad. I live in an area that could support one store and there are now none and so I either drive to riverside or buy online. So far I just buy bags of grain there or anything bulky and then order small stuff online from Morebeer in Concord, CA. With the hop problem it can be a PIta.

 

I'm here. We do in fact have a shop here....if you could call it that.

Don't get me started on these guys....

They're a bunch of retards. It's an indoor gardening store(think weed). They have 1 shelf of misc brew stuff: Random grain(who knows how old it is), stoppers, airlocks, dry yeast (they also have a white labs fridge full of yeast.....I got two dead vials from them), etc.

The guy who was their "beer guy" left the company and took all of the brewing knowledge with him, but left them with all of the stock.

They are located at the intersection of Obannon and Alta, on the NW corner next to Trader Joes. I believe they are called AAA Indoor Gardening, but I could have the name wrong.

The last time I went there I bought an airlock and two packs of yeast(for Apfelwein). The guy didn't even know what the airlock was called....he couldn't find it in the system to ring it up. He said they were thinking of "getting rid of the beer crap" because nobody buys it.

I have since boycotted them.

I think the majority of HBers have resorted to the internet.


The SNAFU meetings are fun. I have gone to two of them. They meet every 2nd Friday of the month at The Freakin Frog.

Currently they have the following beers on tap:

• Delirium Tremens Belgian Ale
• Entire Butt English Porter
• Drake's 1500 Pale Ale
• Lindeman’s Framboise
• Chimay Trippel
• Stella Artois Belgian Lager
• Drake's Imperial Stout
• Pabst Blue Ribbon
• Moose Head Lager
• Samichlaus Dopplebock
• Drake's Rye Wine Ale
• Dog Fish Head 90 Minute IPA
• Pilsner Urquell
• Tenaya Creek Spiced Ale
• Deschutes Abyss Imperial Stout

 

Any other insight on freezing crushed grains for longevity?

 

That place is the one of that I was talking about that was closing (its HB supply side) when I moved here (in Oct.)


Slight tangent.........

What is the deal with Hydroponics/Homebrew Supply stores? There are more than you think of these (but not in Vegas).

 

Sounds like a great opportunity, thanks for the tip...I'll be opening up a homebrew warehouse in vegas shortly!

 

Freezing the grains won't hurt any, but I don't know that it will help a whole lot, either. They danger with pre-crushed grains is that they will collect moisture and go stale. Vacuum packing pretty much takes care of that problem, as does living in the desert.


TL

 

When I lived there years ago (2003) there was a beer store located here

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Its marked as the destination on that map and it was the in the shopping center just east of the marker.

No idea if its still open but just thought I would throw it out there just in case.

 

I think that is one that I tried calling recently but they appear to be closed.

So as mentioned, it seems our only resort is ordering online. Pretty damn lame, but then again, lame pretty much sums up vegas in a word.

 

You said it!!
I am outta here as soon as I can.....off to Chico, CA---land of Sierra Nevada.

 

That's hard to believe. In a city known for booze, hookers, and all sorts of miscellaneous debauchery, a home brew shop can't stay in business.

 

Known for cheap beer.. not really good beer. The beer scene out here is pretty weak. Very very few restaurants serve anything worthwhile, the breweries are ok at best and only a couple super small stores sell any good craft beers.

It's suprising, but at the same time, it isn't. The craft beer scene seems to be growing though, so maybe soon enough we'll get another LHBS.

 

I freeze my specialty grains, along with the hops and crushed grains. Probably not necessary if you brew within a month or so of crushing. You'll probably want to invest in a crusher. Maybe do bulk ordering with club members.

Look on the bright side, when I lived there, there were NO breweries or craft beer, period.

And the TJ's opened the week I moved out!

 

Whenever I'm in Vegas I always miss good bear. I was so disappointed when I went to several fancy restaurants, and all the bottled beer they had was Heiniken or Becks...

 

Next time you're here check out Rosemary's. Kinda high-end, but they serve alot of excellent beers along with serving it in the proper glassware and temp.

Freaking Frogs and Yardhouve have a good selection as well, but aside from those places (and a couple more on the strip), there aren't to many that are craft-dominant.

 

Actually, Lee's seems to usually have a decent variety of craft brew from the region. The new Lee's in Mesquite is really a nice big store. Amazingly the Lee's Tavern hooked to it does not have much of a selection on tap. As far as craft brew's in restaurants try coming to Southern Utah!

 

Lee's is ok, the best one is on Sunset IMO. Their selection is pretty much the same all the time though, which is why I don't go there to often. There's a few other better smaller stores (i.e. Khoury's and Whole Foods) that carry some of the harder to find brews. The owner at Khoury's though is awesome and he's doing his best to try and get in some of the guys like Dogfish. I really just wish we could get in a better selection of Midwest and and West Coast brews.

And on a related note, the owner at Khoury's has also considered carrying some home brew and possibly carrying a small selection of homebrew supplies.

And So Utah? naw.. there's a reason why I buy my own beer before visiting there..lol

 

As far as online ordering goes, I have recently been ordering from Mountain Homebrew in Washington State. They are not as big as B3 or anything, but they process orders very quickly and have good customer service. It gets here (Vegas) in about 2 days.

 

thanks.. they're actually pretty close to my hometown.

I usually order from Austin, but if these guys can deliver in about 2 days I'll definitely be giving them a shot.:rockin:

 

Homebrewers.com is here in Flagstaff. I bet your stuff gets to you very quickly. Also have any of you Las Vegas guys gone to a brewery to see about buying grains or bumming a pitch of yeast? Most of those brewers started as home brewers and would probably be sympathetic to your cause.

 

Yeah I finally checked out Khoury's. Nice establishment. I actually talked to the guy about getting some DFH and I put my name on the reserve list for the Stone 8-8-08.....I'm first on the list! I told him I wanted a whole case!


I also bought me some Hopsicle!

 

Do you have any other Vertical Epics?

I have a case each of 06-06-06 and 07-07-07.

Wanna trade?

 

Bouchon at the Venetian has Sierra Nevada ESB on tap. Stella Artois as well, if you go for that. But you're right, it's not much of a beer town.

 

Make me feel lucky reading this thread . I live in Medford Oregon a little backwater podunk area but I was born and raised here. Anyways theres something about Oregonians we love beer. Theres 2 pretty nice shops within 30 min drive and tons of microbrew on tap at any bar or tavern.

 

Sweet! The label for the 888 sounds really interesting, i can't wait to try some.

Hopsicle is pretty damn tasty.. i actually went back for a few more bottles