What kits to stock

[Manx Guy]

Good luck with your venture!

I live on the IoM and pass thru Liverpool when visiting friends on the 'mainland'...

Where abouts in Liverpool are you?
Could be handy to pop in for a kit or two save getting 'scalped' on postage to the Isle of Man.... Any one would think its near New Zealand the daft prices they charge for 'offshore' deliveries...

Oh well... part of life on an Island I guess....

I have brewed about 5 kits all but one was Coopers (the other Brewferm) had no problems despite being a kackhanded novice... lol

All the Best

Slante!

[Cheshire-cheese]

Lance Lane Pharmacy, in Wavertree. So far it's just Brupaks stuff in stock. The regulars didn't look too surprised to find kits in the Pharmacy, but the grains and hops are raising a few eyebrows. If it takes off, the range will expand. Early days yet.

[Manx Guy]

Hi,

Cool all the best!
I'm Sure my wife (Claire) knows where that is.... Strangely enough she is a Pharmatron herself... lol



The Fixby Gold and Linthwaite light sound interesting and are similar to the style of ales I like...

Cheers!

[grumpysod]

The next time I'm over in West Kirby I'll pop accross, at least you should have better opening hours than the home brew shop in tranmere

[Cheshire-cheese]

I don't know about that, we close all weekend - I need time to brew.

[grumpysod]

But you're open on Wednesdays so that's handier for me

[Cheshire-cheese]

True enough.
Give me a heads up before you call in.

[WishboneBrewery]

Good Luck with your Venture
Don't forget Hops + Lavender = Sleep Pillow (as all the blooming hop sellers on Ebay like to state!) Might be a fitting alternative use for some of the hops in the Pharmacy

[Cheshire-cheese]

It's a thought. I find the relaxing properties of hop flowers are strongest if taken orally after extracting them. Horlicks is meant to help with sleep and that is malty, so I'd include some maltiness with the hop extract. Yeast is full of B vitamins and is thought to be good for the nervous system, so I'd include some of that.
It's an idea in the making, looks good for a first draft, do you think it'll catch on?
Perhaps we could produce a homoeopathic version: Heineken?

[WishboneBrewery]

Sounds like a stupid idea... people will never go for it, far too complex.

Best stick to brewing

[Cheshire-cheese]

Yeah, good point

[Cheshire-cheese]

Thanks Gareth. Yes, I've been looking into coopers, but untill they get back to me I currently stock the Fine Yorkshire Ales 3kg kits, the Beers of the World 10l kits and the BruBox kits. I'm, perhaps, jumping the gun getting malts and hops in stock, but you never know.

[Nobby Novice]

Why dont you contact Youngs to see if they would supply you sale or return ? They have a large range of equipment. I am sure if they have a rep in the north, they would be able to advise you how to get started.
Best of luck Cheshire Cheese.

[Cheshire-cheese]

Thanks. Never mind a rep in the area, I'm hoping there'll be a rep in the office to reply to my email.

[colchesterhomebrewer]

Why dont you contact Youngs to see if they would supply you sale or return ? They have a large range of equipment. I am sure if they have a rep in the north, they would be able to advise you how to get started.

Youngs are snowed under with orders from full time homebrew shops at the moment and are having difficulty keeping up with orders from their existing customers (both those who have account facilities and those who have to pay for the goods at the time of sale), so the chances of getting anything from them on "sale or return" is negligible.

Thanks. Never mind a rep in the area, I'm hoping there'll be a rep in the office to reply to my email.

As per replying to emails, John Smith (the main sales contact) who responds to most of the incoming emails is currently working from around 7.00am to 6.00pm to try and catch up with the workload and process the incoming orders/enquiries from all across Europe. Sadly, many of his enquiries are from people who wish to buy either only a couple of kits or wish to set themselves up selling on ebay. (His comment to me when I contacted him last year was along the lines of "Why would we want to supply anybody that was only going to sell on ebay? We could do that ourselves if we wanted to.")

In the end, I had to convince him that I was actually planning on setting up a full time retail outlet, in an area that wouldn't directly compete with any of his existing stockists, invest well over £3,000 on an initial stocking order and pay for EVERY order for the first 6 months up front before they would give me a credit account.....

So Cheddar Cheese, if there truly isn't anybody else in Liverpool (though I found a couple listed as being in Tranmere and one supposedly in London Road between Lime Street Station and the Hospital), as a bona fide business, you may well be able to get them to supply you, but you may need to commit to a substantially higher order value than Clive at Brupaks requires and you may need to give them a bit of time until the elderberry, plum and grape season has abated a little and the "trade" has a bit of a "lull" before Christmas sets in.....

Andy