LHBS blows it

[a-slayer]

A-slayer mate, no disrespect but we moved over here from the East of England, a massive farming area. The fields are the size of a small country. The farmers would always find something to complain about. Either the harvest was rubbish (typically due to weather patterns) or there was a bumper harvest (which meant prices dropped). Either way, without fail each year was always the "end of the world" so we learned to just tune it out. Farmers complaining is as predictable as tube drivers going on strike. Soz, but that's just how I see it.

Ho ho, very amusing. Typical comment from someone who does not know a thing about farming.....no disrepect.

[Blackaddler]

Due to complete lack of LHBS in my area I've gone the online route. I use the worcester hop shop. A 32Kg delivery is £7.50. If you buy 25Kg malt, plus another 7Kg's of other grains etc, you could get five (23 Litre) brews from that.

So (£7.50 \ 5) \ 40 (pints) = 3.75 extra pence per pint for delivery. I can live with that.

I just had an email forwared to me, from http://www.worcesterhopshop.co.uk

They're now selling 2009 season hops at just £12 per kilo, plus delivery.

"All hops are 2009 crop and are whole leaf

Goldings – 12.00 per kg
Fuggles - 12.00 per kg

We will be offering additional hops please ask for details."

[Bribie]

I think it's a world wide phenomenon, LHBS s are a shadow of their former selves due to online stores. Even here in Australia which is a whole continent, online home brew supplies have become concentrated in the hands of a few main players, a couple in Perth in the West and two or three majors in the Eastern States, the biggest being CraftBrewer, who also actually sell quite a bit into the UK, especially hops. If you browse the site http://www.craftbrewer.com.au/ (no affiliation here) you will see that if you are a full mash brewer, you'll never have any need to darken the door of a LHBS. However because of freight charges you'll note that they don't do beer kits.

So this seems to have split the market between kit and extract brewers who buy from the LHBS or supermarkets, and the full mash guys who buy mainly online. IMHO this has led to a "deskilling" of many of the LHBS who no longer stock fresh hops or a good variety of yeasts. There has been a bit of a counter-movement in the last couple of years with LHBSs banding together in franchised chains such as "Brewcraft" here in Queensland and they offer better service, advice and range than the old mum and dad stand-alone stores. I think this is a good trend because it offers brand new kit brewers the chance to go onto AG with local advice, instead of plunging headfirst into the Internet and basically relying on forums such as Jims and Aussihomebrewer for advice, which can be daunting for new brewers.

I try to support my own LHBS for new FVs, bottle tops, Dextrose etc wherever possible but they don't carry yeast or spec grains. Probably one aspect you don't have in the UK is that small stills are legal in Australia but strictly for water purification and herbal essence preparation ( nudge nudge wink wink) and LHBs rely a lot on sales of stills, essences, charcoal, turbo yeast and other stuff we shouldn't be mentioning here.

[beermonsta]

Stills are completely legal in the UK. Using them for the production of alcohol isn't! So there sounds like there is no difference over there in Oz. My local home brew store (well known place in Leyland, UK, ) sells a copper still and a "SmartStill / Easy Still Water Distiller" (that's on offer!) and essences, turbo yeast etc. Nothing wrong with mentioning it as using a still to say purify water, extract oils, etc is perfectly fine. Using it to produce alcafrol will get the bobbys peelers round

[weiht]

I guess a lhbs serves a purpose especially for newer or young brewers who prefer having someone explain to them in detail about brewing. I have been there where I would rather spend a little more on the goods but have a peace of mind knowing some one more experience explaining to me. Honestly, some of the information online can really be confusing, n to a newbie, it can really be disturbing n frustrating with all the what if going on in his mind. In short, for a new brewer it's better to pay 10% more than to have wasted the whole batch... There were times where I was going to throw the brew away thinking it's gone bad, but being laziness helped made me realize that a longer time conditioning turn it into a great brew...

If course, the experienced brewer will try his best to cut the cost down, that's one of the benefits of brewing. My local top brewer orders everything online lol, but I try to support my lhbs for everything i need which he carries. One other good thing about my lhbs is that the boss has a very accurate tongue, so he is a great person who can comment and critique my beers. Of course it also helps connect me with other brewers around me.

I guess one important question is how often do u brew n if it really does make a big difference