Steinbarts is FUCKED

The local homebrewing store, F.H. Steinbarts, is totally fucked and hates brewers. Yesterday I began my first solo brewing endeavor, proudly deciding to attempt a relatively complicated dark, spiced Belgian ale. While this brew could almost be interpreted as a Trappist style, I decided to build the beer like I was making an American-style, well-hopped Porter. I have named it "Styrian Browne", despite the fact that it is completely unrelated to Styria, a region of Austria known for its hops. I prefer to think of the beer as an intrepid sweep of a brewers hand across the European landscape and history and beyond. One day I'll actually put in Styrian Goldings, and it'll be totally amazing.

Anyway, I learned several extremely valuable things about Steinbarts and their setup for homebrewers.

1) Everything is grossly overpriced. Every barley is about 50 cents more per pound than other Northwest homebrewing stores, namely Bader Brewing in Vancouver, WA. The 50 cents extra translates to roughly 50% more expensive for grain that doesn't even do what its supposed to.

2) The mills are fucked. The rollers on the in-store grain mills are set much too far apart. Really, only about half of the grain comes out milled, meaning much less sugar can be extracted during mashing. Some even smaller grains, like unmalted wheat, dont even get cracked or crushed in the slightest. This forced me to add MALT EXTRACT, a purist's nightmare, to the boil in order to come close to the numbers I was after.

3) They're always out of everything. Granted, there is a serious hop crisis (blah blah blah), and brewer's yeast is seasonal, but there is really no excuse for running out of essential malt styles like Munich.

Really, complaint #2 is what is really getting me cheesed. What I now desire more than anything is my own mill. I simply can't get the high gravity beer that I know I deserve.