New homebrewer

www.howtobrew.com

And then read every current thread here.

 

This.

And get friendly with your local homebrew store for advice and ingredients.

 

Ummm......yes. But sanity check their advice here. There are some really awful local homebrew stores out there. (And some good ones.)

 

I like morebeer.com, for a few reasons, not the least of which is that their hops are packaged in oxygen barrier bags and nitrogen flushed. Which means that all other things being equal their hops are better preserved than some other suppliers.'

 

When I buy online, I get it from an outfit in Wisconsin. Unless you plan on dry yeast, that is not a great option for you.

I did a check of the BA places and Jaspers out of Nashua has good reviews, selection and has reasonable shipping. boomchugalug.com (Love the website name by the way).

 

Agree with @VikeMan, Morebeer get's most of my money. Having said that, there are a ton of online places to look for stuff. Always feel free to ask questions here, we all have been there and done that, from screwing up big time, to major success.

Good luck and enjoy the hobby.

Smitty

 

Exactly. When I started brewing, I had a lot of friends who had been doing it for years. I hit them up for information all the time. They probably got sick of me! Think of us as your homebrew friends, and bother the crap out of us

 

In the northeast, I would think MoreBeer is good choice. There probably are a few more local suppliers, too, which could be good, Others have alluded to hop preservation and yeast preservation as considerations for supplier preference. Another consideration is turnover time. I'd be much more secure if I bought malt extract from someone who sells a lot of malt extract and therefore can guaranteed, within reason, of beer ingredient help.

 

Some of the worst, and most uninformed advice I've heard was from the owner of my LHBS.

If you can find one online that is good, that is close to you. I buy from Austin Homebrew Supply because the shipping take 1-2 days to get to me. That means yeast, and hops don't sit in warm temps for too long. Also they give me cheap flat rate shipping since I'm so close.

This is also important. My LHBS routinely has 6+ month old liquid yeast (at full price). Last I checked, he still has a bunch of White Labs, in the old plastic tubes. Turn around is slow, stock is old=bad quality. I don't blame him, if the market was better he'd have better turn over. But knowledge is power, and you should be a smart shopper.

The book how to brew was mentioned, the new 4th edition came out recently and it's on sale pretty cheap on amazon. I recommend getting a hard copy. You won't regret it.

 

Sounds like your local store is poor. OPs might be good. I've gotten great advice. YMMV

One advantage of buying locally is you know how old the yeast is before you buy it.

OP - no matter where you buy, online or locally, check out the reputation of the store before you buy.

 

+1 to morebeer.com. Midwest supply also has a great assortment of specialty malts, but I also like the hop packaging from morebeer better.

There is a lot of super info on this site and plenty of folks willing to help out with questions. Welcome to the madness

 

With the risk of repeating some things:
How to Brew is the #1 book - he just released a new version. You can read the first edition online for free, but he's updated a lot of things since.
I also recommend Charlie Papazian's The Complete Joy of Homebrewing. Papazian is more of a "feel" guy - doesn't work much with styles or such. he also coined the phrase, "relax, don't worry have a homebrew - you'll see RDWHAHB quoted pretty frequently.
As far as shops go - yeah, 30 miles is a bit of a hike, but a couple hours round trip is still better than a couple days shipping.
I like MoreBeer, Williams Brewing and Austin Homebrew. Good products good prices. I used to like Northern Brewer and Midwest Brewer, but they got bought out by AB-InBev, so I avoid spending with them. (as an aside, I wonder if those places will carry the hops that are getting shut out from craft breweries?)
Anyways, good luck and welcome to the obsession. You will be assimilated.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by "doesn't work much with styles," but I believe Charlie was the author of at least one of the editions of the Brewers Association style guidelines (the pro equivalent of the BJCP style guidelines).

 

I should have clarified. IN the book - at least the edition I have, he just says, "dark ale," or "hoppy ale" not Stout or IPA.

 

That was the point of my post. LHBS advice may, or may not be good. Your Mileage May Vary

 

https://www.beeradvocate.com/commun...f-south-african-hops-to-indie-brewers.509891/


From the Northern Brewer website:

 

Sound strategy to monopolize a type of hops. Not far removed from when others have rights to products, or intellectual property, copy right, etc.. It's what everyone else does, and we aren't surprised when other people do it. But still my opinion is: fuck those guys.