LHBS Reviews

[Hops_and_Dreams]

Goodlife Homebrew in Norwich is my LHBS, run by a friendly and helpful chap. Good selection of kits and ingredients and at good prices too. DME is by far the cheapest I have seen, but not noticed grain prices as I have not progressed onto AG yet. They only sell leaf hops though and I find myself leaning towards pellets as they are easier to store, so buy these online.
As already mentioned, I am a bit wary of the yeast not being kept in a fridge and I have no idea of the turnover of stock, so no idea how long it's been out in the warm. Surely a mini 'Stella' type fridge could be easily made into a display cabinet?!
Overall though, I like it there and would rather give him my money than an online retailer.

 

[ProjectBeer]

My LHBS is in Brixton (about 20min bike ride from me in Peckham). It's primary buisness isnt selling to HBers, its doing AG beer workshops and as a side business they sell to home brewers.

Quite the opposite to most of your replies here they have couple of dusty kits but most cater for AG and extract brewers. They have a good range of Youngs malt extract (I buy if for starters) and have an excellent range of malts and hops (which they will sell you in amounts you want rather than say 500g or 100g) as when a workshop customer comes in they ask them what beer they want to make during a beer workshop so need to have a wide range of ingredients to make many styles of beer. They also sell an increasingly large range of equipment as well as dried yeast (they stock all or almost all of the Fermentis range). They also give away as many free glass bottles as you like. (http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=52047)

Price wise I'm pretty sure the prices are comparable to online prices. I just give a list of what I want to Karl or Bruno (the owners) they give me the goods, tell me how much it all comes to and I give them the money. They do have a price list on there computer but I can never be bothered to ask how much individual ingedients are. And of course because they get through so much stuff doing workshops the ingredients are always fresh

Both Karl and Bruno are really friendly and knowledegable (they have to be knowledgeable as they run beer workshops and will obviuosly get asked a lot of questions) When I go in on saturdays they're always really busy but stop to do my order up and have a bit of a chat.

They also have a bottleshop selling ale from various micro breweries from around London. They do a homebrew club once a month (which I can never get to because of work) and have recently opened a second site which is a microbrewery

http://londonbeerlab.com/home-brew-supplies/

They sound great! I was going to pay them a visit this weekend and pick up some free bottles, but sadly plans have changed and I've had to purchase some online for my upcoming (first ever) brew. I'm just down the road from you in New Cross, funnily enough.

I'm also planning on checking out Home Brew Depot in Homerton as according to their Instagram page they sell wort chillers for £35.

 

[dad_of_jon]

my local lhbs in swansea is.........

 

[dad_of_jon]

non existent!

pontypridd at the otley brewery shop is prob, the best nearest to swansea.

not exactly local tho':sad:

 

[GHW]

The only one near me is called 'cheers', in Sutton. Haven't been there yet but they sell grain by the 100g (I've only bought online so no idea if this is typical), which is a bit handier for buying specialty malts for smaller brews.

Their range is pretty limited though, same for hops and yeast. I think they're more about the wine.

The Art of Brewing is based a few miles from me too. Used to be a shop in Epsom but they only do online now, don't think you can buy from their premises, which is on some industrial estate on chessington.

Total pain as it sucks having to pay £4-6 quid for delivery.

 

[Marcarm]

Colchester Home Brew.

Can't fault it really, I get all my specialty grains from there, as well as equipment. Andy who runs it with his wife is very passionate about brewing and will always spend time to talk to you, it's virtually impossible to just 'pop in quickly'!

I do tend to get my bigger purchases from a local brewery, mainly because of the prices but for a LHBS I can't fault it.

 

[bquiggerz]

Spitting feathers in wigan is my local, small shop that it geared towards kit brewing. The staff are unhelpful and the prices are somewhat excessive. Just go to wilko in town.

 

[Redron]

You lot should think yourselves lucky !
My 'local' hbs is 90 miles away in Inverness, add that to big postal charges to Skye and I have to plan my purchases very carefully !

When I lived in Yorkshire I used a brilliant shop in Shipley/Saltaire, can't remember the name but it was also a cake decorating supplies shop too. Made for an interesting clientele when shopping there.... He carries lots of good stock at very reasonable prices and is always happy to talk brewing. It's a bit like shopping at Arkwrights shop, a step back in time, all cash, no cards and your bill added up with a pencil and paper .

 

[Joeyriles]

Mine is The Home Brew Shop in Aldershot. Bloody brilliant place with tonnes of variety for kits and grain. They also stock fresh yeast in fridges and the staff are always up for a chat/tweak recipe ideas.

 

[MartinHaworth]

Amazingly, there is no LHBS in Worcester! So, it was BrewBadger in Bromsgrove that got me started 10 months ago - just kits, but friendly and helpful.

The owner of BrewBadger became unwell and shut up shop for a while, so I defected to The Wine Emporium in Studley - very well established, range of grains, hops and yeast - and will drop off for me in Worcester. Friendly and helpful owner. On the pricey side compared with.....

I don't think you can call the Worcester Hop Shop a LHBS, but they are cheap and friendly, allowing me to pick up to avert delivery charges.

The only other LHBS I frequent is the Hop and Grape in Darlington (I grew up there and the family still live there). It's been around for ever, and when I visit there is always time for a friendly chat - fantastic range and reasonable prices.

I guess that I haven't found a bad LHBS yet!

Cheers

Martin