Big move, need advice

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rvbrewer

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I just accepted a job offer in Alexandria, Va. I currently live in Houston, TX and know almost nothing about the area. I have seen that several of you live in that area and wanted to see what kind of suggestions you had on towns, beer stores, homebrew clubs, or any other advice specific to the area.

Thank you,

RvBrewer
 
Hey there, I currently live in Alexandria, VA but I'm also moving soon, we're moving back to Tampa, FL. I live in a high-rise condo near the intersection of I-395 and King Street. We like the area, it's a short drive down to Old Town, and we're also very close to Shirlington which is home to Capital City Brew Co, which is a decent local microbrewery restaurant. Old Town is nice but I wouldn't want to live there, it's always crazy and parking is a nightmare. We're only a few miles from downtown DC which is nice as well, and we're just far enough out that we don't have to deal with all the craziness that goes with being in DC proper.

There are two HBS in the area that I frequent. There is a very small shop on Route 7/Leesburg Pike, near the Seven Corners intersection that is literally called "myLHBS". The owner has been a brewer at a couple different local microbreweries. He's a nice guy but I've found that he can be very condescending when you're doing something that he doesn't consider normal (i.e. when my wife went in there to buy me the larger size autosiphon for Christmas, he was adamant to her that most homebrewers don't use/need the larger diameter, that it's for people making wine). It's my go-to place when I'm in a pinch and need something quickly OR when I need to buy bulk grains (his 50 lb bags of 2-row are ~$45 which is a better price than the other homebrew store that's quite a bit further away). It is VERY small, the main showroom is probably only 300 sq ft, but he does have A LOT of stuff packed in there, and he's always had the ingredients that I've needed when I go in there. It's so small that if there are more than 2 or 3 customers in there you can barely move around. The other limitations there are that all his specialty grains are sold prepackaged, so if you only need 0.25 pounds of something, you have to buy a full pound. He also only carries Wyeast, which is fine, but sometimes I prefer to save a buck or two and get a White Labs vial instead of a smack-pack. Also, they will mill grain for you but will charge you for it and make you feel guilty about having them crank a Barley Crusher (not really a problem for me, before I bought my barley crusher I just bought my grains at the other store and milled them there). On the plus side, it's located right across the street from a Dogfish Head Ale House, so you can always stop in there after getting supplies and grab a nice extreme ale.

The other shop that I tend to give more of my business to is Maryland Homebrew. It's much farther away in Columbia, MD, it's about a 40-50 minute drive from Alexandria, depending on traffic. It's convenient for me because I work once or twice a week up in Baltimore, so I just swing by there on my way home and it's not that far out of the way. MD Homebrew is MUCH larger than the other store I mentioned and therefore they have a much larger selection. They also allow you to package your own specialty grains so you can buy just what you need, and they have a nice belt-driven malt mill that you can use to quickly crush your grains (but they have it set to crush very coarsely). The other thing I like about MD Homebrew is that they sell used bottles. I think they get them from local bars, so they still have the labels on them, but they're only $5 a case which is pretty decent.

As far as beer stores for buying commercial brews, the best I have found is Total Wine off of Little River Turnpike, near I-395. I believe there are also a couple homebrew clubs but I've not gotten involved with any of those. Also, pay attention to the 'Brewing Events and Local Gatherings' forum, there are a group of guys from here on HBT that get together every few months for a brew day, and they also do bulk grain purchases as well.

Hope this helps!
 
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