I have a place that I order from frequently, online, that has local pickup. They have good selection and prices. Unfortunately, its not a retail shop. Other than that the closest LHBS (The Cellar in Fond du lac) is 45 minutes away. I enjoy going there as the staff is very knowledgable, they have a good selection and prices. There are other places within the 45 to 60 min drive but I don’t frequent them.
I am also in Southern Indiana, but on the extreme East side of the state ( read less than 2 miles from Ohio state line) and I work out of an office in Cincinnati’s west side. I am lucky enough to regularly work in the field at our 7 different self storage facilities and driving around town gives me access to 3 different full service, dedicated LHBS to choose from. In the end, Dan Listermann’s Home brew supply and brewery is the closest for me most of the time, the staff are great and very knowledgeable, the inventory is immense, and the brewery’s beer is top notch (it has to be the way craft beer is booming here in the Cincinnati area.) I know that at any time, I can likely find almost anything I need just by stopping in. On the rare ocassion that they are out of something, they are fully able to suggest a proper substitution or get it ordered for me for pick up the following week. They do offer email and phone ordering, but I just love to spend some time walking around inside the store checking out the various supplies on hand, so I have not used those options. Honestly, if there were no Listermann Brewing supply store, I would likely not be brewing, and probably would not have even started.
I’m in South Jersey outside Philly.
There are 5 within roughly 30 miles of my house.
My local guy is less than 4 miles from my house. He is pretty well stocked, a decent brewer and quite knowledgeable with wine and beer. Oh yeah, and man he can drink me under the table!
I’ve got Karp’s Hardware. They are pretty well stocked.
I’m really impressed by a two year old LHBS called " Homebrew and Handgrenades" ( I’ve never asked the owner Pete exactly what that means) His shop looks better every time that I go there.
They are both on Long Island, NY about 30-40 minutes away from me,
My guess is it’s from the old saying “close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades” Maybe it’s a comment on the idea that beer is beer, and your first beer is always the best beer you’ve ever made up to that point.
There are 2 or 3 in my part of SoCal.
The shop in Costa Mesa is my favorite.
Y’all are lucky in this regard, our closest LHBS is 130 miles away, almost two hours driving to get there. The owner is a heck of a nice guy and keeps as much as I imagine he can afford to, but the place is about the size of my living room. FWIW, there was a thread a while back on opening a LHBS, and all the experts were saying you’d need a population base of around 500,000 to succeed, this store is in a town of 50,000 and the doors are still open, don’t know if that qualifies as “succeeding”.
Population base of 500K seems ridiculous. We have an urban area of about 200K total and have 2 stores doing really well.
Mine is owned by a friend, GrowMasters@gmail.com, about 25 minutes from my house, super knowledgeable staff, great supply of all ingredients and hardware from kits to advanced brewing, homebrew on tap to sample and they also do gardening and hydroponic systems. Great ace to hang out and great place to shop. They also have a reward/loyalty program for great discounts on everything.
I think that 500k estimate was just an estimate based on number of home brewers in Gen pop. Add to that equation the likelihood of each or any of the local home brewers making monthly purchases, volume of purchases by those that do come in, etc. Mainly a rough guestimate to be on the safe side. It can certainly be done with lower population numbers as long as quantity of brewers in the population is higher than normal. Just the way I remember, no quotes here, just my memory.
I agree with Jeff - it’s great to get your name called when you walk in the door (especially when I am with one of my neighbors who homebrew much less than me…) But, I gotta run. My LHBS called and my oak smoked wheat malt is in - time to brew my first Grodziskie tomorrow!