Not sure if this was the best advice

[booldawg]

On my last trip to a home brew shop I bought a couple of the Edme Barley Wine kits. When I got to the counter I asked the chap where he kept the sachets of Safale 04 as I'd like to use them for the Edme kit. He replied 'The kit already comes with yeast, why do you want to buy it again? Yeast is yeast!'. Not withstanding the fact he done himself out of the sale of 2 sachets of yeast, reading through this forum I gather that some brewers are of the opinion that some yeasts are better than the ones supplied with the kit.

[Andy]

Which shop was that ?

[booldawg]

I wouldnt want to slate the shop Andy, I've been there a few times before and I would go there again However, as where I'm from is displayed and I'm equi-distant between 2 brew shops then it limits the options and the guesswork!

[steve_flack]

Yeast is yeast!'.

Another clueless retailer....

[StevieR]

I had a similar issue when I took a colleague to my LHBS. He was new to homebrewing and asked advice from the assistant. She recommended a cheap single can kit and told him to use household sugar. I suggested either a 2 can kit or at least replace the sugar for DME and was told that it was not necessary !!

Saying all that, I've not seen that assistant again since, and I normally deal with the owner who is very helpful and knowledgeable.

[J_P]

'Yeast is yeast!'

I'm with Steve on this one - it does strike me as a pretty stupid thing to say. That's like saying dogs is dogs. Different yeasts make different beer.

[booldawg]

Everything I've learnt about brewing is from this forum TBH.

[ade1865]

I walked into one of our local HBs to find a young chap looking at what looked to me like an AG setup. Instuctions in hand and looking lost. Unfortunately the assistant, who is very helpful, was out of his depth and couldn't help. I couldn't help either, but i sent them both this way. Dunno if he bought it, but good luck if he did.

At the end of the day, if the owner only ever tried his own brew, then he wouldn't be able to tell if it was any good or not, so might be oblivious to the improvements to be found with spraymalt for example. And everyone has their own techniques too it would seem.

[booldawg]

On my first ever trip to LHBS I was fortunate enough to bump into an american chap from work who happened to be over from Colorado Springs for 6 weeks. He's a very experienced AG brewer and helped me pick out all my gear. The shopkeeper was more than happy to sell me a tap for my new FV when my American buddy pointed out the bottling stick I needed already came with a tap, hence not needing a separate tap! We then spent the next 6 weeks at work extolling the virtues of American IPA, one of the USA's 'beer victories' over the British