My LHBS Is Starting To Bother Me

[Brewer3401]

When I started out, I let my LHBS weigh & mill my grain. Since I've gotten a grain mill, I don't let anyone weigh or mill anything.

I buy from Northern Brewer (I'm in Louisiana - only a 3 day UPS ship and the staff is great).

Just put on order: Do NOT crush grains - bag separately.

This way I can also weigh everything and know it's right. If I mess up, it's on me.

 

[Brewsmith]

So today I went to the morebeer.com store in Riverside, CA, partially to get the pale chocolate malt that my LHBS doesn't carry and also to get the correct grain bill for a replacement brew of the Scottish Ale mentioned earlier in this thread. The store was smaller than I thought it would be, but they still had everything in there. I weighed out my own grain, making sure to only have 2 oz. of roasted barley in there. The guys in the store were nice and helpful and seemed to know their stuff. If it wasn't so far I'd definately shop there more often.

 

[Porter fan]

We're fortunate here in that there are 2 LHBS's in the general area. One, Things Beer, is located within Michigan Brewing Company. The staff are all avid homebrewers, and occasionally the owner or brewmaster is hanging around. It's great to have access to knowledgeable people, and they carry as complete a line of grains and equipment as I've ever seen.

http://www.michiganbrewing.com/mbc.htm

Plus, it's always a good excuse to stop in the pub for a pint when you're picking up the grain bill for the next batch.

Yup that place is cool a bit over priced but the cool factor make's up for that.Ever check out the red salamander? Karl is pretty cool plus I live 5 mile's away.

 

[HarkJohnny]

my LHBS here in Cincy (Listermanns www.listermann.com) is a 'serve yourself' kinda place unless you need help. i actually like it better this way now... but it was a little intimidating at first.

 

[Brewsmith]

So I'm resurrecting this thread. The beer that resulted in this thread has been in the keg for a few weeks and I have been drinking it pretty much daily. It is listed as LHBS Screw Up Stout in my sig, but it is actually something crossed between and brown and a porter. I mashed high so there is plenty of body and the Scottish Ale yeast leaves some sweetness to it. The half pound or so (I still don't know exactly how much) of roasted barley gives a little roastedness to it, while the sweetness makes it seem almost like bittersweet chocolate. This beer is actually really good! It's still not what I initially intended, but it's a pleasant mistake. It's very drinkable, not too carbonated and due to the lower gravity it is easy to drink several pints. Now if I could just get the keg empty so I can put the real intended beer in it...