Stupid things the worker at the LHBS said

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Burquebrewer

Burquebrewer

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I was in my LHBS and overheard the guy working there telling a middle-aged guy (seemed to be a noob at brewing) something that blew my mind! I figured, lets start a thread on this:

The shopper was explaining that his extract brew has been in the fermenter for three weeks and that airlock activity had ceased a while back. He stated that he didn't know the starting gravity since he didn't measure it, but that the gravity has remained at 1.014 for about the last week. That's when the guy working at the LBHS said this...

"Let it ferment out completely before bottling. Beer is not done fermenting until it reaches 1.010"

What?! Really? And this guy owns the LHBS, he's not just a worker.

Anyone else got a story to share?
 
The owner of the LHBS sells beer and wine supplies, and most say he is focused on wine. But he has been in this business for 15 years.

A novice brewer came in to inquire about hops. His question was, "Do you have any Noble Hops". The owner replied, What are Noble Hops"?

Really, this is sadly true.
 
Shortly after starting to brew with grain I had some concerns and uncertainty about water. The guy had about 5 containers of 5.2 Stabilizer on the shelf. I asked him, "Does this really work?" His reply, "Oh yeah, lots of people use it." He is an otherwise knowledgeable guy, but he lost 95% of my trust on that one. Shortly thereafter I found the full report on our city water that the club maintains (he's in the club), and started making small water adjustments to simply predict mash PH. Had he directed me to the club page and sold me a small amount of calcium chloride, we would be good. He chose not to.
 
bucketnative said:
"Good morning"

It was 12:01 PM.
Click to expand...

I work at a HBS that opens at noon, I always catch myself saying "Good morning" to the first customers haha.


A "Stupid things customers say to the LHBS worker" thread would be even more amusing. Customers say stupid things every day! You would not believe how many names for an airlock there are (vapor lock, bubbler, vapor trap, etc. etc.), but usually its "youknowthatthangthatsticksinthebucketandgoesglubglub".

I thought homebrewers would be knowledgeable like the folks who post here, but a lot of them turn out to be, uh, not very smart.
 
Pangaia said:
I work at a HBS that opens at noon, I always catch myself saying "Good morning" to the first customers haha.


A "Stupid things customers say to the LHBS worker" thread would be even more amusing. Customers say stupid things every day! You would not believe how many names for an airlock there are (vapor lock, bubbler, vapor trap, etc. etc.), but usually its "youknowthatthangthatsticksinthebucketandgoesglubglub".

I thought homebrewers would be knowledgeable like the folks who post here, but a lot of them turn out to be, uh, not very smart.
Click to expand...

Good counterpoint! I laughed when you addressed the terms used for airlocks. My wife calls an airlock a "bubb-u-lar thing a ma jig."
 
Plenty of anecdotes, I have a hard time ignoring the advice being given to customers and keeping my mouth shut.

But selling 5 gallon "kits" with 1 pack of liquid yeast, without explicitly asking the obviously newbee customer if he/she knows how to make a yeast starter, boggles my mind. I was that customer once too...

Letting customers leave with their bag of wheat beer grain, unaware that most of the wheat is still whole or barely cracked. Really, can't you tighten that gap? Or have 2 mills, one for small kernels, BIAB brewers, and other flour lovers?
 
"Are you sure you want chocolate malt for a Baltic Porter? That's not very authentic."
 
My LHBS is fairly good. Super friendly and knowledgeable, most of the time.

However I did get thrown off when I started looking for things to get into messing with water chemistry. The owners response was that he used to do that, but could never tell a difference, so why bother, here buy some 5.2 stabilizer.

I politely declined stating that I was going to push on with using the various brewing salts. I had already spotted them on a shelf while he was giving his take on the subject. I appreciate that his experience was to not find it useful, but I wanted to try it. Other than this one thing they've been incredibly helpful. I've seen him walk novices through everything from selecting equipment (while respecting budgets) to figuring out recipes.


Overall they're a great shop with an awesome selection of ingredients.
 
Pangaia said:
I work at a HBS that opens at noon, I always catch myself saying "Good morning" to the first customers haha.


A "Stupid things customers say to the LHBS worker" thread would be even more amusing. Customers say stupid things every day! You would not believe how many names for an airlock there are (vapor lock, bubbler, vapor trap, etc. etc.), but usually its "youknowthatthangthatsticksinthebucketandgoesglubglub".

I thought homebrewers would be knowledgeable like the folks who post here, but a lot of them turn out to be, uh, not very smart.
Click to expand...

What's wrong with 'bubbler' ? :D

I once had a LHBS employee tell me he doesn't like to brew or drink a lot of beer, and he's more of a whiskey guy. But that doesn't change the fact that he's worked at the HBS for several years and knows everything that I could want to know, so ask away...

Also, I feel like it's pretty universal that LHBS push 5.2 stabilizer. At least it is in the 3 stores in my driving distance. Fortunately 2/3 do keep the other brewing salts in stock for those that know better.
 
One of the toughest things to discern, unless you know the customer well, is what level of knowledge they have. You can blow a newbie out of the water talking about PH and temporary hardness such that they never want to go forward. Or they may be intrigued enough to dig deep to understand it. You can never tell.

I was sold that 5.2 stabilizer as a newbie, haven't used it but once after I learned about it. Turns out, that stabilizer was used at a specific brewery with specific water such that it worked there, in that application. Now sold as if it works in every application. :(

But if you know your city water will work w/ 5.2, does a newbie need to know more than that? Maybe not at first. There is SO much to learn to get on top of this subject (why I like it, in fact), that limiting information that still allows a newbie to brew good beer is likely a good thing.
 
People at my LHBS are great - always helpful and friendly and they've never tried to upsell me on stuff like 5.2.

Once a long time ago, however, I did hear a guy caution a new Brewer not to use the internet for brewing advice.
 
Once the general manager at my LBHS questioned why I was double crushing my grain (I since got my own grain mill with a tight gap) and I explained it was for efficiency and that I was doing BIAB. He said "sure it will increase efficiency, but at the cost of added astringency." Didn't bother to argue, but it's irritating to hear this sort of thing stated as fact. He was practically saying "your beer won't be as good as it could be because you double crushed."
 
My all time fav (even though it was an honest answer) was when the guy in front of me was asking the young store clerk about grains and his response was:

"I dont really know the differences between 2-row and pilsner malt..I am not a malt guy".

Another I had happen (same guy different day) when I was buying yeast for a batch was:

as he was looking over the vials of WLP002 I was buying:

"I am not sure why we have all these yeasts..I mean yeast is yeast..it all makes alcohol.."

Fortunately, he has not been spotted at my LHBS in over a year now so I am thinking the owner might have realized this guy was in the wrong line of work.
 
I recently found out that the owner of one of the best local HB shops knows next to nothing about all-grain brewing. However, he comes from a winemaking background, and only brews extract / partial mash brews in the store.
 
I took a 5lb CO2 cylinder in to get refilled and I watched the guy struggle mightily to fill it even 1/3 of the way... when I questioned that it didn't weigh even close to 5lbs after tare, he said "it won't weigh 5lbs because the gas is compressed"... :smack:

I think he knew something was up as he only charged me 1/2 price for the 'fill'. Turned out still to be a rip as I think I managed to get all of 2 kegs dispensed with that fill.

I don't use that LHBS anymore... this and a couple of other poor experiences led me elsewhere.
 
My first experience was at a brew on site shop. The owner is one of those, "I've been brewing 20 years, this is how we do things, and divert your eyes when you look upon me" types.

He had me so afraid of touching my grain bag (partial mash) that I would ruin my beer if I even had a bad thought in its proximity!
 
My anecdote comes from an OHBS experience. I'm sure most of you have noticed many of the sites have a publicly viewable Q&A for each product being sold. The product was a 3lb bag of DME and the question was something along the lines of "How much beer will this produce?" and the answer was "intended for a 5 gallon batch". That might be somewhat true but there's so much missing info that beginner brewer was not well informed. You could argue that a stupid question deserves a stupid answer but I'm a little more forgiving of the naive, especially when they're a potential customer.
 
Same LHBS owner I originally posted about once told me when I first started brewing that "no respectable homebrewer would boil in an aluminum pot or ferment in plastic. Good beer cannot be made that way"! I still shop there, I just don't accept advice from the staff, LOL.
 
bbohanon said:
My all time fav (even though it was an honest answer) was when the guy in front of me was asking the young store clerk about grains and his response was:

"I dont really know the differences between 2-row and pilsner malt..I am not a malt guy".

Another I had happen (same guy different day) when I was buying yeast for a batch was:

as he was looking over the vials of WLP002 I was buying:

"I am not sure why we have all these yeasts..I mean yeast is yeast..it all makes alcohol.."

Fortunately, he has not been spotted at my LHBS in over a year now so I am thinking the owner might have realized this guy was in the wrong line of work.
Click to expand...

Maybe whoever trained him was in the wrong line of work.
 
Over time I've learned not to judge my LHBS owners/workers to quickly.

While I still wish that they had a bigger selection of malts and carried Wyeast, they've been right with a lot of the questions I've come up with.

I remember telling the guy at the counter that I was brewing 1-gallon batches, and during the conversation he said that it is a lot of work for 9 bottles of beer, it wasn't for him. Probably within a year I started brewing 3-gallon batches when possible.

Last summer I asked what DME I should use in my barleywine, as they were out of Light. I was told Pils would be fine, and it is. I thought it was going to be really freakin' weird, but it still tastes like Maris Otter (I used 6lbs each MO and DME, ~4 gallons), kind of like a not so roasty stout.

About the only really silly thing I've heard there, I asked about what yeast I should use in a Kolsch and he recommended I use US05. I'm guessing that he figured if I didn't know any better he shouldn't complicate it for me, and US05 is actually a decent ale yeast. That and one of the other guys there said that I should use the honey that bees cap the hive with for my mead. I just have a feeling that at some point I'm actually going to try that (even though it sounds horribly unsanitary) and it will be the greatest thing ever.
 
"This is new."

Said about my refractometer.
I had reason to doubt when I got it home and had to clean the wort off of it and out of the pipette. It works fine, but... after I drove an hour and a half just to drop some cash on his counter it was a very stupid thing to say. Lost my business anyway.
 
An older couple was being waited on when I walked in to a LHBS. They were buying ingredients for their son, for Christmas. All they knew is that he brewed beer once or twice before. The owner asked what kinds of beer he likes and they replied, "He had a Sam Adams when we went out for dinner the other night." So the owner proceeds to pull out the clone recipe book and recommended doing a lager as a beginner brew.
 
Burquebrewer said:
Same LHBS owner I originally posted about once told me when I first started brewing that "no respectable homebrewer would boil in an aluminum pot or ferment in plastic. Good beer cannot be made that way"! I still shop there, I just don't accept advice from the staff, LOL.
Click to expand...

I'm drinking a Wiezen right now that I fermented in a 4 year old brew bucket and I must say it tastes pretty darn good. Sounds like that guy is just an ignorant snob. I do like stainless steel and glass though but mainly because of the longevity.
 
The time the guy told me to substitute plain 2-row for Maris Otter "because it really doesn't make a difference." That was the last time I was in that shop.
 
"Its amazing how much maltier Stone IPA used to be. My friend had an 8 yr old bottle and we had it side-by-side with a new one and the recipe has really changed over the years. Way hoppier now"
 
First, the LHBS guy is great. Our policy: I don't ask, and he doesn't tell.


One day, I say, "Hey, where's my favorite yeast, San Fran Lager?" They're out. He asks what I'm making. I tell him, then mention I use that yeast in lots of beers. He hints that I'm distilling, and I say, "That's not legal you know." From there, no matter what I say, he's sure we're talking about my production of moonshine. You see, I broke policy.
 

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