As a homebrewer, I have become familiar with the local homebrew shops in the area and some of the employees as well. Of all the people I have dealt with during my ingredient finding excursions, John Reynolds, owner and operator of Brew Your Own Beer homebrew shop in Havertown, is one of the friendliest and most helpful.
Brew Your Own Beer has been situated on Darby Road in the heart of Havertown for the past 20 years. Beyond the brown brick facade, you can find all the equipment and ingredients needed to brew beer, make wine and roast coffee.
The store contains plenty of malt, hops, yeast, starter kits, bottles, kettles, fermentors, ingredient kits, books, magazines, kegerator kits and more for brewers. They also stock full winemaker starter kits, grape must, a grape crusher, bottles, fermentors and other equipment. John has recently expanded to include coffee making supplies, including several kinds of green coffee beans, roasters and grinders for those that are looking to freshly roast their own coffee.
The selection at BYOB is not as extensive as some of the larger shops, but it is set up with less inventory to preserve the freshness of all the products. The hop selection is comparable to most of the other homebrew shops and includes some hops that you won’t find elsewhere, such as Amarillo, Citra and Moteuka, to name a few. John also stocks plenty of bulk malt and specialty grain and is happy to run it through the grain mill for you.
When you walk into his store, you will likely find John standing behind the counter, in front of his many homebrewing and winemaking awards. John is extremely knowledgeable about all of the equipment and ingredients he carries. When my bottling wand broke while I was bottling one of my homebrews I went in to BYOB for a new one. I found that John didn’t have the spring-loaded version I had previously and only carried a non-spring-loaded version. When I asked John about it he let me know that he doesn’t carry the spring-loaded kind because they are notorious for falling apart while bottling. If there is anything that you need that he does not carry, John will place a special order if possible. I once had him track down some hard to find whole-leaf citra hops. Not only will John go out of his way to find you all the ingredients you need, but he will also help carry them out to your car.
John’s wealth of brewing and winemaking knowledge is a great resource for any customers that have questions on ingredients, techniques or recipes. He can help you construct or tweak a recipe if you are new at brewing and know what you are looking for in the finished product.
Whether you are looking for a new homebrew shop that offers fresh products at a good price or a friendly owner that is a huge wealth of knowledge, you should definitely visit Brew Your Own Beer in Havertown on your next homebrew shopping trip. You can get more information on their website or you can like them on Facebook.
Brew Your Own Beer is located at 2026 Darby Road in Havertown.
Photos credited to Ryan Lancello.
