Is There Hope?

Personally I don't adhere to any of this. You'll have to judge the usefulness of your own LHBS, and you should take everything that everybody here says as only suggestions. There are no absolutes.

 

AlCaponeJunior had a lot to say in that post. Do you really disagree with all of it?

That's true. In OP's case, her LHBS (at least the one guy) has failed. Like most, she'll probably figure out who is knowlegable and who is full of shit.

Not sure what you're trying to say here. That there are no facts? There are plenty in brewing. There are also plenty of opinions. Sometimes the distinction is unclear. Or do you mean there is no God? (A discussion for a different forum.)

 

I'm not sure whether you're disagreeing with me or not. Don't mind if you do. However, if you disagree, it's probably best if you elaborate a little as to what you disagree with, and why you feel that way.

And yes, there are no absolutes. My own LHBS has several employees who are both pretty knowledgeable and quite helpful. It's just that this doesn't seem to be universally true.

 

I agree with what alcaponejunior said. I personally use my LHBS for supplies and rarely ask questions. The employees are hit or miss and the owner seems to care more about sales then giving good info. The majority of what I have learned has come from books, websites and this message board. There are a handful of people on here that I really trust their advice. And most of the people that post regularly know what they are talking about from experience. But even then I still try to research as much as possible. If I get an answer here I will still research it elsewhere. The more sources I can find the better.

If you want to make your own extract recipes I suggest the book Brewing Classic Styles. It will give you proven recipes for any style you can think of. Either brew them the way they are or tweak them depending on what you want to do. And google everything. If I want to do an Ipa with Citra and Galaxy hops I google it. More than likely I will find multiple sources that have done it before and have some information that is helpful for me.

 

What if I want want to brew a chardonnay barrel aged boysenberry hop-bursted imperial milk stout with essence of horse-taint and pinto beans wild ale?

 

You do it, then post it on your blog so others can google it .

ps, is that dry beaned, boil beaned, or mash beaned?

 

Shit you're behind... I've been sitting on my bottles for a couple months now, although they were cab barrel aged, not chard. Horse taint and apollo hops (same thing kinda) just comes through in the finish and is balanced by the creamy sweetness from the lactose and tropical fruit notes from the late hopping and 100% Brett Trois fermentation.

 

Ward, when he said it tasted like horse taint you didn't have to take it to that level!

 

Glad you caught that. I was hoping someone would.

 

Ah. I meant to reference the 2nd paragraph about the LHBS. Some are better than others, some employees are more knowledgeable than others, but I certainly wouldn't tell someone to write them off this early in the game and get all their information from this forum. There is quite a bit of misinformation floating around these threads also.

 

Fair enough. It seemed she was off to a poor start with that particular store, so in that case, I'd refer to the most knowledgeable people here, at least as a comparison or 2nd opinion, before going back to that same employee at that same store for further advice. While some misinformation does get posted here, it's usually challenged or corrected quickly.

Part of learning about beer is learning to recognize good advice from bad. Reputations of particular long term and knowledgeable posters, and consensus of opinions amongst the most obviously knowledgeable posters, are often what makes distinguishing between good and bad advice most apparent.

That's something you'll probably not have the luxury of doing at a homebrew store, as you'll likely have one person to talk to who may or may not be willing to admit their true level of knowledge, and may have sales as a higher priority than good advice. Forumites don't thrive on sales that result from their advice, so no conflict of interest is likely to occur on a forum.

Thus, while no single source should ever be considered the final word on anything, a little research and some reading and you should quickly be able to distinguish between who's full of shit, and who knows what they are talking about when it comes to beer.