Home Brew Shops

[Listo]

The missus went to the HBS we use while she was in Brisbane to get some beers for me. There’s three people that work there, two really great helpful people & one fuckwit, who was there this time. As she was also getting some essences for a work mate that has a T500, she mentioned that we don’t use them anymore & make a really nice bourbon using bakers yeast.
Old mate got super testy then, ranting that only turbos should be used for safety purposes & bakers yeast was never designed for brewing and will poison us because bakers yeast causes methonol to go through the whole brew. She told him that the turbos were the reason we stopped & everything we tried tasted like shit, his reply was that it was user error & essences are the way to go when it’s done right.
Then she mentioned I was going to try a rum when it warms up a bit more so he tried to sell her essences again. She said no, I’ll be using molasses. Good luck with that he reckons, you won’t get molasses anywhere but a stock feed place & that molasses isn’t “designed” for brewing either.
In the end, she just told him that essences are shit in our opinion & even though she isn’t a bourbon drinker, mine still tastes pretty good to her rum taste buds & is nice and smooth so leave it at that.
I get he’s trying to protect his income, but come on, at least tell the truth when doing so. Also, it’s not like I’m sending him broke, we spend shit loads there on beer & brew gear.
Does every HBS have a Hitler in their ranks?

[coffe addict]

Yep pretty much! The one down the road from me isn't too bad he at least realises that those who've seen the light will never be put back in the box. He just tries to upsell on other products now.

[woodduck]

I converted my hbs owner when I dropped a bottle in to him. Simple, can't argue with results

[A&O]

Ah now I know the secret, thanks Woodduck, I’ll do the same.

[RC Al]

I like teasing mine by asking for chemicals he hasnt heard of (dap,calc carb etc) , general response is "what the f### are you using that for?"
Its also really hard to not laugh and shake my head when they are trying to argue with a customer about the correct temp to run the t500 at...
I doubt many of them actually distill, its really an add on retail range for many of them - any small business is effen hard in this country
Mine prob thinks i buy turbo's online...

[ed9362]

the HBS guy i go to is an all grain beer brewer and uses mostly all grain washes and molasses for rum.
i asked him how he can sell Turbo products and essences when he knows how bad they are. simply he tries to steer people away from Turbos but they have their place and some people rave about their results.

i think most HBS owners would do better being honest with their customers rather than trying to tell them something that they know isn't right or they know nothing about.

[RuddyCrazy]

I went into my local HBS at Mt Barker this morning to get a couple of cider tins, walked in and said well the cider is a month old so time to put another one on. She said well you know where they are so i'll leave you to it. So grabbed the tins and when i was paying i slipped a 150ml bottle of my chilli brandy out of my back pocket saying i did promise to drop one off next time. I asked well did you get any EC1118 yeast so people can do fruit wash's and the answer was " well after you told us about it we ordered some and now it's a great seller". I also asked when a customer comes up with a turbo yeast do you suggest to them just use bakers yeast and tomato paste. She said she had to some regular customers and the reports were it was a great idea.


Cheers Bryan

[EziTasting]

When a boutique distillery opens up, they need to make money to stay open, so they start with making Gin.
At the same time they ferment other products like whisky/rum/tequila which is their ‘chosen’ product...

Sometimes you need to sell things to keep the doors open NOT because you necessarily want to mislead anyone or because they’re ‘lowering’ their standards... sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

This is how I see the HBS operating. Some customers don’t want to see the light either, so they cater for this market segment...

Be patient and do the Penguin - “Smile and Wave, boys! Smile and Wave.”

[Rum Cat]

When a boutique distillery opens up, they need to make money to stay open, so they start with making Gin.
At the same time they ferment other products like whisky/rum/tequila which is their ‘chosen’ product...

Sometimes you need to sell things to keep the doors open NOT because you necessarily want to mislead anyone or because they’re ‘lowering’ their standards... sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

This is how I see the HBS operating. Some customers don’t want to see the light either, so they cater for this market segment...

Be patient and do the Penguin - “Smile and Wave, boys! Smile and Wave.”

:text-+1: Ezi, I think that you are on the money.

[crow]

There are tons of blokes that do the whole turbo yeast , clearing agents, carbon and essence and you will never convert them. They like the set and forget simplicity and are ok with their result and must be catered for. I have no issue with that and have been in a store many times with the essence crowd. What I don't like much is someone pissing in my pocket and telling me it's raining which I have also had, bullshit like the magic methanol producing bakers yeast, stacking 8-} which is that you can't ferment more than 30 litres per was or it over heats (could be a problem with 30,000 litres in certain conditions) and associated bullshit with not clearing for example. My home brew shop in Ballarat has changed hands so I don't really know what this guy is like but we had the other older folks educated, he started doing all grains himself and carrying a lot of stuff useful to regular hobby distillers. The one turbo product he did recommend was not actually a turbo (bio-fuel) yeast strain but an actual whisky strain with added goodies for the yeast and certain fermenting enzymes like Y amylase (glucoamylase/low carb beer enzyme) the reason I personally put any weight to that recommendation is the fact that this guy personally tried it and I saw the ferment myself.
I went into the shop in a panic once when part was through a step mash I realised one of my single malt oat whisky mashes have unviable malt ( that is malt flavour but degraded enzyme activity). The easy fix for this would have been to buy DME or LME or actual barley malt but all of these would have changed the flavour and they did not then have oat malt in stock. They started looking through beer enzymes reading books and then rang their rep and ended up putting me on to explain what I needed and could it be achieved with the stock they carried. The answer was kind of it could be with a combo of products that contained Alpha amylase , Beta Amylase and low carb beer enzyme. Wasn't an especially cheap exercise but better than making it a sugar head.
Point being they didn't have to waste all that time to help me out while other customers were fending for themselves more or less and shortly after the turbo whisky pack hit the market bases on similar enzymes. (They also knew my aversion to the turbo strains). HBS's need to cater for all sorts, beer will always be the main gig and goo in a can the main customer, with distillers the turbo crowd will always out number the guys that will go the extra mile for quality. I can't begrudge a business for catering to the majority provided they don't try to bullshit the minority aiming for a better and often cheaper result.

[EziTasting]

That’s an awesome example of great customer service, Crow!

Hope the new guy will be of equal if not better value to you!

In talking to some hobbyist I am always shocked at how ingrained (read stubborn) they are! Unwilling to try to learn more... I guess there’s an equal amount of HBS owners in the same place...

I am fighting to keep an open mind (not too open, mind you; don’t want all that stuff falling out 8-} got too much of that going already) but I find being closed minded closes you off to so many opportunities! It’s a crazy state of mind... having said that, there are times I will fight like a Bazzerker if I feel you “prat kack” but there’s an opportunity for me to learn more and I’m always up for that! :D