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Home Brewing Supplies
If you pursue home brewing as a hobby, your
major challenge is finding a place to purchase
supplies, including both equipment and the
ingredients for a batch of beer. Since peaking
in the mid 1990s, the number of home brewing
shops has steadily declined. Home brewing
became something of a fad in those years,
and new shops opened to meet an increased
demand that proved to be transitory. Without
a sufficient base of customers to sustain
them, many of these shops closed.
So, even in the most populous
states, purveyors
of home brewing supplies are
spread rather
thinly. Thus, unless you don't
mind driving
for hours to get what you need,
ordering
via the web or over the phone
is a necessity.
If your order includes yeast,
it is crucial
to determine that it will arrive
at your
home healthy. There is no greater
frustration
in home brewing than to go through
all the
steps of brewing flawlessly,
then add yeast
to the batch your fermenting
vessel…and nothing
happens, or fermentation shuts
down prematurely.
Before buying research how the
seller handles
these important points:
- Whether you buy dried yeast or liquid yeast,
make sure that you will get it well in advance
of its expiration date. Unless you are a
seasoned brewer who knows how to revive old
yeast from experience, be firm in this regard.
- Yeast must be kept refrigerated until used,
so it must be packaged to stay cold in transit.
Determine how the seller intends to do this
as well as what recourse you have if the
yeast arrives and proves to be non-viable.
- In response to the anthrax crisis of 2001
and continuing fears of bioterrorism, X-rays
and other technologies are being deployed
to kill microbes sent through the mail. Ascertain
this from the seller how your order will
bypass these processes and inspectors.
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