When is your LHBS not your LHBS?

[Lefou]

I only really frequent two shops.
One is within 15 minutes and gets the majority of my business. Some days I'll hang around waiting for an order to be filled when it's truly busy, other days it's in-and-out with free stuff in minutes! Love2Brew carries a wider array of items but I despise driving in North Jersey and do it only rarely. If it was a necessity to order online my homebrewing would be something done much less often.

 

[chezhed]

Holy Chit you ARE in deep south Texas... Damn near Mexico! LOL

Actually Northern Mexico provides a large number of customers for us....and they drive 2-3 hours on a weekend because we are the only place for 1000 km for them.
Yep....my house is 2 miles from the border....

 

[Nagorg]

Actually Northern Mexico provides a large number of customers for us...

Very cool! Its awesome to hear that Home Brewers in Mexico come to the US for supplies! The "Wall" will topple from Home Brewers coming for supplies... Beer unites us all!

 

[njviking]

Actually Northern Mexico provides a large number of customers for us....and they drive 2-3 hours on a weekend because we are the only place for 1000 km for them.
Yep....my house is 2 miles from the border....

Very cool! Its awesome to hear that Home Brewers in Mexico come to the US for supplies! The "Wall" will topple from Home Brewers coming for supplies... Beer unites us all!

I always wondered where home brewers and breweries in mexico get their stuff. I can see Modello or any of the other big guys get containers full, but what about breweries on say the Yucatan? Same as the rest of Central/South america.
I have property in Panama and its hard to get a first aide kit let alone wlp 308....

 

[buckinin]

I live in SW Ohio and buy 95% of my supplies and misc. equipment from LHBS in Indianapolis, Cleveland and Asheville, NC. My experiences are this.

Indianapolis - close to one of my work sites; nationally known, carry every thing, but not the most friendly folks - I only buy my fill-in needs here

Cleveland - awesome family owned shop, friendly, helpful, offer AHA discount, carry locally produced malts, and have good pricing. I order a year's worth of grains and yeast on line for local pick-up when I'm in town.

Asheville - friendly store owner, carry local malts, I stock up a couple of times a year when I visit

I buy bulk hops at the farm from from a couple of very small growers in NE Ohio when my travels take me there.

My goals are to brew beers using locally produced malts and hops as much as possible, and purchase as much as I can from small businesses.

If I may ask, what is the store in Cleveland that you like? I’m fairly new to the Cleveland area and still trying to figure out where I’d like to shop. Thanks!

 

[chezhed]

I always wondered where home brewers and breweries in mexico get their stuff. I can see Modello or any of the other big guys get containers full, but what about breweries on say the Yucatan? Same as the rest of Central/South america.
I have property in Panama and its hard to get a first aide kit let alone wlp 308....

Grain is plentiful and not taxed heavily for import so they have plenty of that. Not many brewers/brewpubs/nano breweries use liquid yeast and have learned to harvest yeast because of supply. Hops are another story entirely for these guys.....sometimes they come in and clean me out of certain varieties. No tax either...it's "rabbit food." Probably one of the more interesting aspects of our store is being "international.".....as for "the wall," but show me the right thread and I will jump in with a perspective of a resident affected.

 

[Tbagger]

My LHBS is about a 1.5 hour round trip. Which isn't bad considering I live out in the boonies. I do however commute right by it every day but my problem is that I work graveyard so it's closed each direction. So I end up sitting in the parking lot for about an hour on my way home because I like to support local. The prices are pretty good and they are friendly so I don't mind the inconvenience too much.

 

[Kickass]

I'm currently stressing over this. I live 5miles, 15min-1hour round trip depending on traffic, from the SoCal morebeer store and am moving to Tehachapi. Morebeer has always been incredible. Rob and the gang are amazing stewards of the passion and hobby. The thought of having to be so much more organized and detailed is sobering. The days of waking up and brewing on a whim will sadly be a thing of the past.

 

[yourlastchance89]

I am blessed. I have three lhbs in my vicinity with one of them just opening in the past month. Two of them are within 10-15 minutes away and one is about 30 minutes away. Two of the three have online components and all three of them have taproom/bottleshop components in them which seem to generate a huge portion of their business. They all have their strong points in terms of ingredients, equipment, and knowledgeable staff. I order online maybe 3-5 times a year and usually for a special piece of equipment or unique ingredient I know they don't have in stock.

 

[madscientist451]

I added up the extra time and gas money I was using going to the LHBS, which I can hit on the way home, but it adds at least an hour to the already long commute, and I decided that getting a mill and buying grain in bulk was the way to go.
Once you build up an inventory, you don't need to go to the store very often.
I still stop in there now and then, but not as often as before.

 

[Novacor]

I live about 20 minutes from 2 local shops. One I buy all of my ingredients from as well as anything else I might need as I'm putting a batch together. The other has lower prices on hardware, so I've bought most of my kettles, fermenters, and kegging equipment from them. I've taken a few classes with them too.

Now, the first store just opened it's own onsite microbrewery and taproom, so I'll probably start spending a lot more time there.