Southern Brewing & Winemaking Supply

Lare453

Florida

4.66/5  rDev +3.8%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 5 | service: 4 | selection: 5 | $$$

Atmosphere

Nice, quiet place, lots of room, bright, fun

Quality

Amazing. Everything is fresh, new, well put together. It's top top top notch stuff here and they everything

Service

Fair. Some of the younger guys are a little rude and unhelpful. As I am new to brewing and winemaking, they seemed like it was a bother to answer some of my questions... Except for the guy with the dark curly hair that likes dr who, he is the nicest person in the brewing world I've come across. Willing to help and offer tips without being asked.

They have a ton of stuff. Everything you will ever need for brewing. Everything. They a.so have a small selection of craft beer to take home and a bar with about 10 drafts.

The prices are a tiny bit above average, but fair, this place is a great shop and the only one I go to.

10-09-2012 18:29:31 | More by Lare453

basscram

Florida

5/5  rDev +11.4%
vibe: 5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | $$

I would like to give my opinion on this establishment. My experience's with this business has been exceptional since I first visited their store when it was on Busch Blvd. Got all my beginning brewing equipment and recipe from here (Tuckers Pale Ale) extract with specialty grains. They wrote down a site to go to, to learn how to brew, of course you know its www.howtobrew.com duh.

My experience here was awesome! I was so worried about going in being a new guy and stuff but they hooked me up! Very friendly! From then on out, I visited regularly as I became more involved in brewing, asked questions, got new equipment and each time they were very helpful.

When Southern Brewing moved to their new location, I was very excited. I drove there and was taken aback at their awesome location in Seminole Heights! Lots of space and no rubbing elbows when getting your grain and equipment! Nice outside area. You can grab a brew there also! Oh, the addition of getting your C02 tanks exchanged is a plus and convenient. They are still very helpful too! I've went in a couple of times and their grain barrels were a few ounces from being empty and I told them and bam, they filled em up quickly and I was able to get my grains quick! Any questions you want to ask, feel free, they will answer them. I like how they are very straightforward and to the point too.

Thanks southern brewing!
Duke

08-30-2012 07:05:07 | More by basscram

Erniek

Florida

4.43/5  rDev -1.3%
vibe: 3 | quality: 4 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | $$

Starting up again in homebrewing and went over to this place to purchase my ingredients for the brew. Very nice set up and feel, much like a homebrewer might want their home brewery environment to look. Excellent selection of equipment and ingredients for a local HBS. Service was very friendly and laid back and I really liked the fact that you can enjoy some homebrew while shopping. Nice patio out back as well. Also serves some commercial craft brews and will be serving their own in the near future. Can't wait to go back.

06-22-2012 13:26:56 | More by Erniek

PaleAle

2.2/5  rDev -51%
vibe: 1 | quality: 3 | service: 1 | selection: 3 | $$$

Over priced but generally good/ok selection. Sales reps are young know-it-all hipster types with allot of useless college degrees that apparently are not in sales. Generally rude, condescending comments and over all very unhelpful. I heard good things about this place and needed a store near-by to provide me with live yeast as mail ordered types are not doing well in the Florida mail. Too bad, but I will not go back...why do the comment lengths have to be so long? I said all I needed to and I'm just adding this to get to 500

06-15-2012 17:02:20 | More by PaleAle

tpd975

Florida

4.8/5  rDev +6.9%
quality: 4.5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | $$

If you brew in the Southeast this is the place to go. I think they supply the entire southeast.

More malt than you can even fathom. Hops out the ass. Service is insane. Ben is wonderful. He knows his beer, and really takes his time to show you around the place. Lots of great tips when it comes to brewing as well can't wait to use all his suggestions.

The prices are cheaper than anything you will find on the internet. Great Service, Low Price, Wonderful Selection what more can you ask for?

If you brew visit this place. They rock. If you need any tips see Ben he will hook you up fo sure!!!!

07-05-2009 21:48:19 | More by tpd975

Afriedman12

Illinois

4.6/5  rDev +2.4%
quality: 4 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | $$

I live 2 hours south of Tampa so I made a day trip to check this place out. FANTASTIC. The guy dropped what he was doing immediately to make me feel welcomed and cracked a few jokes. Never brewed before and needed a lot of guidance. No problem at all. Every question was answered intelligently and thoroughly. The dude even helped me carry the gear to my car... Basic starter equipment I purchased has worked out great so far. I spent $75 less than what I was expecting to. Just trust me and go here. Tough to find but worth it. They don't ship to residential places. If they did, I wouldn't buy from anywhere else.

06-04-2009 02:20:08 | More by Afriedman12

fightingirishcmk

New York

4.85/5  rDev +8%
quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 4.5 | $

Wow! This place is awesome. Just went there today, and spent way too much money. But everything is very reasonably priced, and the store is 60 miles away from my home, so I felt like I had to!

The location is a little strange, but if you read the other reviews and look at their directions on their website, you can't miss it. The inside of the building was well laid out. I was intimidated at first because I had never been there before, but Brian (the owner?) showed me around and was very nice about everything. They were still working on getting more shelving, and they didn't have every single product that you could possibly need (they didn't have grain mills for sale or a weldless kettle fitting). But selection of grain was outstanding. They had close to 100 specialty grains, and a good selection of hops in a refrigerator. I didn't check the yeasts, but they carry wyeast as well as the dry stuff.

I ended up getting 3 sacks of grain: 1 Munton's Maris Otter ($60), 1 Wyermann's Bohemian Pilsener ($60), and 1 American 2-Row ($50). Overall, not bad prices, around $1/pound. I think they had some cheaper malts there too. I also stocked up on specialty grains, all around $1.50-$2.00 a pound. They let you weigh and bag your own. Again, this can be a bit intimidating if you haven't done it before, but I felt comfortable in this place after only about 5 minutes. Hops were around $3/oz for NB, $1.85/oz for east kent goldings.

Overall, I can't wait to go back... but I don't think I'll have to for a good long time.

I spent a good 45 minutes in there, and was in heaven every minute. Awesome store, great people, great value, good selection.

05-29-2009 05:27:37 | More by fightingirishcmk

UptownKevin

Florida

5/5  rDev +11.4%
quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | $$

On a first visit for a novice brewer, this is probably the most intimidating and user unfriendly environment possible. But if you can get over it, get up some courage and ask for help, it's got to be the most rewarding experience for a homebrewer.

First, Southern Brewing Supply is located off of Busch Blvd, east of I-275 behind the Amscot in a warehouse park. It's tough to find and rightly so, since they primarily supply to large breweries on a wholesale basis.

Second, they're not set up like your typical retail store. There are no pre-made "kits" of ingredients; you've got to get a recipe and physically go pick all of your ingredients off the shelf. SBS only began selling to the retail customer recently because of the local demand.

So why do I love this place?

- The owners are SUPER nice people who are always there to help you. Need a recipe? They'll print one out for you or kindly recommend one for you from their library of brew books.

- It is so much more rewarding to actually measure out your own grains and then grind them by hand. It helped me really understand the brew process, from start to finish. After that experience, I will never buy via mail order.

- It is a right of passage. If you can walk into the place and ask for help, you'll get all you need and more. Instead of a mail order kit, the experience of picking out your ingredients and being a part of the beer gives you the right to brew the good stuff :-)

- Last, they always have several beers on tap from local breweries. If you ask nicely, you can sample.

04-15-2009 16:15:21 | More by UptownKevin

nick76

Florida

4.3/5  rDev -4.2%
quality: 4 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | $$

The ambiance isn't much. lt's a home brew shop run out of a self storage facility. But, the service and selection are outstanding. Tom helped me and was able to answer all my questions and made it easy to get everything I needed. The selection of equipment and grains was outstanding. They also have plenty of hops and yeast. They even have books and classes on home brewing to get you started or improve your skills. The prices are good also. THE place to get your home brew supplies in Tampa. I am happy to have them in town.

03-04-2009 23:52:41 | More by nick76

Gutensheisse

Florida

4.65/5  rDev +3.6%
quality: 4.5 | service: 5 | selection: 4.5 | $$

I went here yesterday and was helped by a very informative Richard. They have everything for every stage of the brew process at whatever level you're at as well. I highly recommend this place for people in the Tampa area, no just because its basically the only place for homebrewers in the area. Good selection for malts as well as DME, hops and yeast strains. Although I don't think they carry white labs strains. Anyway def. check this place out, I was there a little over an hour and could have spent all day doing malt tastings!

01-29-2009 11:36:36 | More by Gutensheisse