Brisbane Brewers and Brewers Choice

[the Baron]

G'day all, more of a question for the Brisbane brewers, The homebrew shop I go to (Western Suburbs Home Brewing) sells Brewers Choice malts and stuff, on the bag it has
Brewers Choice - Wacol
15 Wacol Station Road, Wacol
(07 3271 1373)
Has anyone been to wacol to buy their malts direct from the company, if so what are the prices, Western Suburbs sells their maltodextrin for $3.75 a kilo and their dry dark malt for around $9.25 a kilo (cannot remember the light malt and other stuff). Thanks Chiefs

[ODDBALL]

I work about 5 minutes from the shop at Wacol and did not even know it was there until last week! I will be paying them a visit next week to check a few prices and buy a few bits. I will check on this price for you.

[the Baron]

thanks cobber

[thehipone]

AS far as I know the prices and stock are standardized across all of the stores. I'm pretty sure the place in Wacol is just another store like western suburbs, not a big distributor or anything.

On a side note, I've found Tony to be a real good guy to deal with at the store in Chapel Hill, he mills lots of grains on short notice for me and is usually willing to have a chat about brewing.

[ODDBALL]

Yupp, can confirm that the shop at Wacol and the Chapel Hill brew store are part of a group, there are also a couple of others in the group, not sure where but I think there is one at Coopers Plains.

[JeffHool]

I live around the corner from the chapel hill store, and the prices on certain items are cheaper there.

For example PET bottles are 75c with lids at Chapel Hill, 90-something c elsewhere.

I think it is still a pretty loose chain of stores.

[bottlebomber]

In contrast to Thehiphone's comments about the Chapel Hill brew shop, I have found the proprietor there on several occasions to be impatient, crusty and patronising. A course in customer relations would be an asset to his business, I would suggest. Re his prices, I recently purchased a bench capper there for just $1 less than it was priced at the shop in Annerley. His recycled crown seals at $10/doz are a ripoff when these are usually available from other home brewers at a standard $5.

Anyone wanting loose hops (as opposed to pellets) can find these at The Home Brew Specialists at Randall St, Slacks Creek/Woodridge.

[Guest]

Was the shop at Wacol cheaper or on a par with the others?

[Smabb]

I don't live particularly close to a HBS and the two nearest haven't knocked me dead with the sort of advice I was looking for. Given the price of petrol I am seriously thinking going to internet mail order for my goodies.

Anyone have any experience on this?

Cheers

[Oliver]

Smabb,

I've never ordered any homebrew ingredients (or anything else, come to think of it) over the internet.

Where were you thinking about ordering from?

Oliver

[Dogger Dan]

I have and was pleased, but its only been in North America so I have access to good malt with little shipping costs

Dogger

[Smabb]

To answer Oliver at the moment I was thinking of the Brisbane chain/franchise/whatever they are: Brewer's Choice. Basically this is the same mob I would drive to at Chapel Hill but with out the many kms (& petrol $$), however I could be swayed by opinion and this is why I was asking. Another motive is that the HBS in my vicinity close at noon Saturday, as I don't get home from work till well after they shut this is the only day I can go there, but with the household jobs, kids stuff etc getting the time for a relatively lengthy trip to the shop is hard.

I don't buy a whole lot off the internet myself but don't have a real problem with the concept.

At present I seem to be getting all my advice/ideas from here so the only thing I'm getting from the HBS is the product- why not streamline the process.

[Oliver]

Could I also suggest Grain and Grape in Melbourne? http://www.grainandgrape.com.au

They have an excellent range, particularly if you're looking at harder-to-get ingredients.

Not sure what their prices are like though.

Cheers,

Oliver

[kelp]

I don't live particularly close to a HBS and the two nearest haven't knocked me dead with the sort of advice I was looking for. Given the price of petrol I am seriously thinking going to internet mail order for my goodies.

Anyone have any experience on this?

Cheers

Talking about buying your home brew from the internet.
Has anybody tried Grumpys brews ?.