Just a place to put together some thoughts on Java, Technology and Other Stuff (tm) that interests me.

Friday, April 11, 2008

Porter House Brew Shop in Portersville, PA

First of all let me state for the record that I am a lame blogger. With that out of the way, I recently told some friends at work that I would make a report of a visit to a brewing supply retailer in our area, here is that report.

Here's my report from the field (as promised):

The shop is located on PA 19 on the left side going north. It's beside an old hardware store and the parking is either on the street or in a lot before and beside the hardware store. It's a new place with a decent decor. He stocks a wide variety of both dry yeasts in typical packaging and liquid yeasts in glass vials. They don't have a great quantity of any particular item probably due to shelf space, but they seem to have just about anything you could want or need. He did have Fuggles hops, but didn't have Progress hops. He had malt extracts (in cans), kits (with yeast and malt extract), dry malt in 1 and 3 lb bags and a number of malt grains with a grain mill for cracking. I didn't get any prices other than for the dry malt - 1 lb was $4.25 and 3 lb was $11.50. He also has all the stuff you'd need if you want to go the route of using cornelius kegs rather than bottles.

There was a customer in the shop when we were there and he offered that the owner was a very helpful guy. We sampled two beers he had on tap and both were pretty darn good, so from that I'd guess he knows what he's doing as a brewer.

The shop also has wine making supplies, fair trade custom coffees, various loose teas and extracts for making root beer and other flavors of pop.

I'm glad it was only a reconnaissance trip as otherwise I think I would have probably dropped $100 on the spot. Add this place to the list of dangerous places (to my wallet) to shop. :-)