St. Louis Wine & Beermaking

This review is for the cheese making class held here once a month. The class lasts about 2 hours, depending on the group and the number of questions, and covers making ricotta and mozzarella cheeses. You don’t actually get to do much at the class besides stretch a ball of mozzarella cheese, but that’s mainly because making cheese is a fairly passive (but not exactly easy) activity where most of the time is spent waiting for the cheese to reach the right temperature. However, it made for a fun and relaxing evening where you get to chat with the instructor and the other folks in the class who come from all sorts of different backgrounds.
The instructor (who is also the owner of the business) gives you a printout of an extremely detailed guide to making the cheeses at home and also does a great job answering any questions you might have (and believe me, I asked a bunch of random stuff). You also get to eat a plate of freshly made warm ricotta cheese (wow) and take home a ball of mozzarella cheese — if you haven’t eaten the whole thing already, of course.
A couple fun tips:
– The website says the class is $ 35 per person, but if you attend as a couple they will probably give you a buy one, get one free deal (might need to have a Groupon, but not 100% sure). This makes it an awesome idea for a date! There’s lots of time to sit and chat but you still have something else to focus on.
– If you ask nicely, they might pass out some samples of whatever home brewed beer they have on tap. This stuff is fabulous, oh my wow.
– The Lamp & Lantern Village has a rather confusing layout if you’re not familiar with it. Try to park near Ace Hardware, not the side with The Melting Pot.

Since moving to Saint Louis last August, I’ve made five or six trips to St. Louis Wine & Beermaking to purchase equipment for beer brewing as well as ingredients for brew days. They keep basically everything I need in stock (whether it be extra hops, grain, or sanitizer), which is great so I can avoid paying the shipping charged by the large online stores (which I still love).
I’m an all grain brewer with a temperature controlled fermenter, who brews once a month or so. I’ve been brewing since 2009 (wow, that’s a long time) and I would say St. Louis Wine & Beermaking has all you need to brew great beer regardless of your experience level. The guys who run the shop are very friendly, talkative, and helpful.
Last, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that they hand out punch cards to track your spending and reward you with $ 15 off for every $ 150. I had my first $ 15 discount today (don’t tell my wife how much I’ve spent), so my grain bill for the Belgian Tripel I brewed today was basically on the house! OG was 1.060. :)
As Charlie Papazian says, «Relax. Have a home-​brew!» Prosit!

This is a great homebrew shop! We stop here every time we’re in the area visiting my parents. Some nice features include: bulk specialty grain (no more random half bags of grain cluttering up your inventory), drill powered mill for grinding grain before you leave, hop rhizomes for sale, an impressive list of hops available as well, and any wyeast variety you could be looking for.

This is a really solid brew store. I don’t have one within 150 miles of where I live so when I have a chance I will go. They hand every grains I needed and all the hops I needed as well. Plenty of beer equipment and anything else you can think of. They are a little bit higher on price than you will find on the Internet but I would rather put my hands on what I am buying than click a mouse and hope.

This is my go-​to homebrew store in Saint Louis. The staff are always very helpful and willing to give advice if you need it.
I can’t speak for their winemaking selection, but they have all the supplies you’ll need to make great beer. They have an impressive collection of hops, malts, and yeasts for such a small store, and if there’s something you need that’s not in stock, they can order it for you. They also have starting kits for beginners, and offer classes throughout the year for different skill levels.
Whether you’re looking to brew your first batch of beer or your 100^th, this place will have what you’re looking for. They always have a few beers on draft for sampling, so have a taste while you’re there. It’s a great way to try new styles or new hops.

Me and the oldlady stopped in here on a recent trip to St Louis to check out a new to us hbs. This place is very clean and neat and the staff was very nice (not all up your butt like some others back home) they let us sniff around without badgering me. This place also has a tasting area where you can sample homebrew and shoot the s@#t with a local Brewer, very nice!

I walked around the entire store looking at everything and no employees ever acknowledged me or asked if I needed help with anything. Plus their selection wasn’t great. Overall, a wasted trip.

Been here twice. Once with questions and once for sanitizer. The questions had to be proxied through the guy at the counter to the guy in the back room who couldn’t be bothered to come out and answer them himself. The sanitizer was «out of stock».
I live a mile from here but drive all the way to Bellville for lower prices and MUCH friendlier service.

They are expensive… example, 6 Gallon Better Bottle Fermenter at STL W&BM is $ 32.33. Cheapest online store is $ 20.66, plus $ 7 shipping… so it’s still $ 4 overpriced at STL W&BM.
And, it seems like they’re always out of stuff. I don’t brew that often, so I’m only out there every couple weeks or so. It seems like between their hops selection, or specialty grain availability, I’m ALWAYS having to figure out some sort of substitution for my recipes when I drive all the way out there and they don’t have what I needed. Example… I went in looking for peated malt for a Scottish ale. Out. Three weeks until they get more… So much for brewing my Scottish ale. I went to get the ingredients for a dunkel and they were out of hallertau hops.
Also, since I don’t brew extremely frequently, I don’t like that you have to buy grains by the pound. Who needs a pound of Caraffa II? My recipe called for 2 ounces… so now I have 14 oz’s sitting in my fridge going stale. The LHBS I used to shop at in Pittsburgh would let you call in a recipe two or three days in advance… they would build it, and only charge you based on what you had in recipe. Seemed like something easy enough to do… and was awesome for people that don’t brew frequently.
All-​in-​all, they’re just ok… nothing special… and I deal with it because it’s the only LHBS out here. The frequent shopper card is nice, but internet shopping is becoming more and more attractive after every botched trip I take out there.

St. Louis Wine & Beermaking is a required regular stop for any metro area homebrewer. They always have what I need and the knowledge base that works there is invaluable. Can’t find something? Ask. Have concerns about a recipe you are designing? Ask. Want a sample of the homebrews on tap near the grain mill? Ask. The one and only reason I haven’t given them 5 stars is because they are a bit premium priced on certain items. Even with that, I will still make the long drive several times a year because we need places like this to stay open. You can get a punch card that gives you $ 15 off after spending $ 150. You can get the same discount without a punch card with an AHA membership.

I have been here a number of times for equipment and kits to brew beer. They have a wide variety of equipment for beer and wine making and from my knowledge and searching seems to be the only place around that offers home brewing services. They have very reasonable prices on all their equipment. If I would have known they were here earlier I would have bought a starter beer kit from them than online. The staff here is very knowledge on both wine and beer making and can help you with any question that you have.
Super plus about this place they have a frequent shopper program where when you spend $ 150 dollars you get $ 15 store credit.

On a mission to start yet another new hobby that I inevitably will give up in a matter of months, a friend and I decided to check out home brewing and try our hand at making our own beer. We imagined with pride the day our friends would say, wow, that’s a great beer, where’d you get it? What is it? And we would smile coyly and say, oh yea, we made that in our sink, how awesome are we.
Ok, our beer wasn’t that stellar, but the staff at this place was top notch in helping us buy what we needed and gave us plenty of guidance on how to do this ourselves.
They have a huge selection of different hops and yeasts that you can buy to make recipes and they will help guide you through recipe substitutes if need be. They also have suggestions for recipes there, which is awesome as well and they will tell you exactly how the beer SHOULD turn out. It’s fun store with a ton of neat things to examine and a hobby that one day could turn into quite the money saver (or just something to impress your friends… whatever). If this hobby keeps up, I will certainly go back… but for now, I’m taking a home brew break.

St. Louis Wine & Beer Making (SLWBM) is one of two home brewing stores in the St. Louis area. The store is located in the Lamp & Lantern Village in Chesterfield. The store is easier to access if you park behind the Ace Hardware Store.
The staff at SLWBM are knowledgeable and generally able to locate what you are looking for in the store. There have been times where I have had a beer recipe call for a particular hop or grain and the store had to substitute. This generally happens with more particular varieties of grains or yeasts.
For the novice home brewer, SLWBM is a great store to purchase your starter equipment and begin experimenting with tried and true recipes. For the more advanced home brewer, you may find that you will want to look online for one or more of the ingredients in your recipe.