BeerBorg

Since moving here in July I've made The Brewer's Apprentice my new LHBS. They have an entire brew on premise side to their business too and their ingredients are always fresh. The store/brewery is just five minutes away and I couldn't be any happier.

Mine is http://heartshomebrew.com in Orlando. Items are inexpensive and they usually have what I need, but that are not very friendly. Kind of the soup nazis of LHBS. I usually place my order online and then just pick it up in person. Kind of my only choice for local ingredients so I make due.

Mine is Adventures In Homebrewing's Taylor store which is about 3-4 miles down from me. Ironically, before I got into brewing, they were maybe a mile - if that - at the end of my street. One of the best things is that they have a high turnover so their bulk extract is inexpensive but more importantly fresh. Sadly though, if the move comes through I will need to look for another local shop but they will always be my internet store of choice (except for StarSan - they cant quite figure out how to price that competitively as Rick will attest).

Betolis wrote:Mine is BIY Homebrew Supply in North Liberty,Iowa.
http://www.biyhomebrewsupply.com

Hey Betolis! Mine too (except I go the the Marion Iowa Store)! Joe and his wife do a great job supporting the HB community. The only time I order online anymore is from BrewDemon occasionally or Midwest if the price simply blows BIY out of the water. If it's close, I stick with BIY.

http://stores.homebrewproshoppe.com/

It's about 5 miles from my house but it's a great store. I love that i can order online in the morning and in the checkout select "Pick Up" and then on the drive home after work, stop by and grab my stuff. He's always got it sitting under the front counter & ready.

Wings_Fan_In_KC wrote:I love that i can order online in the morning and in the checkout select "Pick Up" and then on the drive home after worrk, stop by and grab my stuff. He's always got it sitting under the front counter & ready.

I love being able to do that as well. Forces me to stick to my list. If I go in "blind" I always end up picking up one or three things extra while they are getting my order together. Shame on me!

Henry Voelcker voelckerbeverage.com in Danville Pa. is my go to LHBS. Scott has been helping me craft recipes since I started, very knowledgable. Business has been good and they built a new area just for the beer and wine homebrewers, plus added a new face, Larry, who had his own production brewery. Great group of guys and good prices.

Seven Bridges in Santa Cruz, CA is only about 6 miles from me and 100% organic.

Or if I want/need to hit up something closer to work I go to MoreBeer.

My favorite LHBS is basically my only LHBS, Austin Homebrew. They've been around as long as I can remember, when they were really just a small hole-in-the-wall shop in a residential neighborhood. I first found out about them in the early 80's. Now they're in a nice big clean new warehouse building and shipping nation-wide. Until recently they were totally awesome in every way, but I think they might be experiencing some growing pains now. It's not exactly horrible, just not as great as before. They lost a lot of long-time really great staff and started running out-of-stock on things more often, and the atmosphere isn't as warm as it once was. Again, I will attribute it to growing pains. I'm pretty sure they'll make the necessary adjustments and get back to being awesome again. At least I hope so.

joechianti wrote:My favorite LHBS is basically my only LHBS, Austin Homebrew. They've been around as long as I can remember, when they were really just a small hole-in-the-wall shop in a residential neighborhood. I first found out about them in the early 80's. Now they're in a nice big clean new warehouse building and shipping nation-wide. Until recently they were totally awesome in every way, but I think they might be experiencing some growing pains now. It's not exactly horrible, just not as great as before. They lost a lot of long-time really great staff and started running out-of-stock on things more often, and the atmosphere isn't as warm as it once was. Again, I will attribute it to growing pains. I'm pretty sure they'll make the necessary adjustments and get back to being awesome again. At least I hope so.

I have to agree with what JoeC says here. We were spending a C-note a month there once we started brewing and then they had a Mr.B moment with the internet presence and everything went to @#$% after that. Luckily it happened right around our home sale/move time so we had shut down brewing anyway but we kept waiting for "The Fix" to happen that was promised and it never did. They were great and I hope they get everything fixed but it has been a very long time and still messed up.

We will have a LHBS in Roanoke and actually had a chance to stop in and chat with "The Man" there while on our house hunting trip; we literally stumbled upon it on the way some where else. It is actually a hydroponics shop (don't ask; I haven't a clue) that sells brewing stuff but they have everything you need from gear to grain and sound like they know their business so we're feeling happy and lucky.

Brewbirds wrote: We will have a LHBS in Roanoke and actually had a chance to stop in and chat with "The Man" there while on our house hunting trip; we literally stumbled upon it on the way some where else. It is actually a hydroponics shop (don't ask; I haven't a clue) that sells brewing stuff but they have everything you need from gear to grain and sound like they know their business so we're feeling happy and lucky.

Years ago, there used to be a place near me called "Brew & Grow." I think they were closed down when it became a little too obvious that most people did not consider beer and hydroponic tomatoes to be two tastes that taste great together....

Brewbirds wrote: We will have a LHBS in Roanoke and actually had a chance to stop in and chat with "The Man" there while on our house hunting trip; we literally stumbled upon it on the way some where else. It is actually a hydroponics shop (don't ask; I haven't a clue) that sells brewing stuff but they have everything you need from gear to grain and sound like they know their business so we're feeling happy and lucky.

Years ago, there used to be a place near me called "Brew & Grow." I think they were closed down when it became a little too obvious that most people did not consider beer and hydroponic tomatoes to be two tastes that taste great together....

Wait, your going to tell me you wash your BLTs down with beer?

DaYooper wrote:Years ago, there used to be a place near me called "Brew & Grow." I think they were closed down when it became a little too obvious that most people did not consider beer and hydroponic tomatoes to be two tastes that taste great together....

Actually DaYooper, hey are a fairly good sized chain, last spring visited one in Madison, Wi., conveniently located near campus!
They are big in the hydroponics, but they also have a nice selection of ingredients for beer and wine also, not so much with equipment though.

Yeah it seemed pretty weird to us at first but after we talked to the home brew guy for a while we felt like it wouldn't be a problem ingredients wise>> now if HE left and they tried to run the home brewing supply side we might be in for trouble but for now we seem to be well covered.

Hey if they just so happen to turn me on to growing my own vegies in an extra bathroom I'm not going to complain.