this is a great supply store. there is a lot packed into the space. The owners are fantastic, willing to take the time to help a new homemade winemaker like myself. prices were reasonable, with some items being cheaper than what I found online. read more

Great selection of fresh ingredients. Also hardware and little things that are hard to find. Pricing is fair and staff is always helpful. It's well worth the drive from Hudson. Support Your Local Homebrew Shop. Thanks for being there for Me. read more

Great local homebrew store (and brewery). Really nice selection and super friendly staff. Just about everything you'd need to start brewing and then everything else you need to keep brewing. And they don't just carry ingredients and equipment, they also have the little bits and pieces you always end up needing last minute (tubes, clamps, bottles etc). Sure you can shop online, but take it from me - you WILL end up needing something you're missing on brew day and even 2-Day shipping won't help you then. Make it a habit to support your local homebrew shop - they are an essential home-brewing community resource and often the difference between brewing Saturday and brewing NEXT Saturday. read more

A few years ago my husband expressed an interest in brewing beer so I decided to buy him the setup as a Christmas present. While I knew nothing about beer brewing the staff at Hennessy was extremely helpful. I purchased a starter kit and we were brewing. In addition to a ton of stuff for beer making they also stock wine kits and cheese making ingredients. The store is jam packed and the counter area is a little crowded. Checking out can take a little while if the person in front of you wants to get into a long winded discussion but the staff is pretty good about making sure everyone is helped. The one bad feature to the store is getting in and out of the parking lot - you take your life in your hands getting out on Rt. 4. read more

Great place for Homebrew always have what I need or they will order for you great prices excellent staff terrific extract recipes in their online store read more

Bigger than it looks from the outside. Has a little bar and brewery. As well as a side event room for gatherings. Then the store side. Lots of stuff to look at but it all looks like it has been there for ages. I believe it hasn't but it almost gives the impression everything can be ordered online and probably most things are. So it kinda seems like an old abandoned store with items strewn about. Staff is very friendly and informative after they warm up. They come off as a little awkward at first. I would guess most of their business is new people that then realize they can order online. Or for people who need to get CO2. read more

They have a helpful and knowledgeable staff, and will help you over the phone. They also carry a wide selection of grains, hops, yeasts, and kits. For ingredients, they are one of the best homebrew shops I've heard of. They also sell the intro homebrewing kits for around $80, a very good price. However, they charge a hefty markup for simple hardware, like thorns and tubing, that would be dirt cheap at a hardware store. I understand that profits have to come from somewhere, but it can be a little silly. I've taken to buying the equipment I need from Wal-Mart, and ingredients there because of cost, but I would like to be able to support them more with my dollar. Overall, they provide an excellent value for most things, and are very helpful. If you live in the Capital Region and are interested in homebrewing, I would start here and upgrade my equipment on the internet later. read more

I walked in here to pick up a few missing items from an old homebrew kit. The salesman (store person? clerk?) sensed I had no idea what I was doing and walked me through the process. He told me if I had any questions as I was brewing to just call the store and they'll help me out. Good service is good. Wide selection of pretty much anything you could want to brew beer, make cheese, or make wine. And probably some other stuff I missed. read more

A Yelp! success story. I felt bad I brought it all the way down to 2* before. Nonetheless, the owner/manager responded as you can see and since I've been back a few times. Totally different story! They are very helpful and clearly want to answer any questions and be of assistance in any way. I wanted to do a quick extract brew so I bought an ingredient kit the other day. I was prepared to buy the whole kit but I just mentioned, "Hey I'm probably not gonna use the caps and sugar since I keg and force carb." So he offers to take out the caps and sugar to decrease the price and remove the tax because the caps were the only item in the kit that made it taxable. What a guy! Beginner, expert, in between - they have everything you need. I should start buying my grain bills from them. They offer to help put together recipes for you and everything. Really - even if you've never brewed, or even thought of brewing, go here and have a conversation with the guy. If I were asked to be as critical as I could - I'd have to say the space could use a bit of sprucing up. It's not like it's dirty or anything, but it could have a fresher feel - I guess? I dunno. I'm trying to think of something critical to say but really I'm just happy we have these guys. Great work and I'll try to support you as much as I can! read more

I have mixed feelings about this store. One one hand, they have very good selection and prices that are not outrageous with generally friendly employees. On the other hand, one of the employees drives me crazy by giving me bad advice and having uber nerdtastic, I'm-the-ultimate-expert-on-everything-because-I-work-in-a-homebrew-store attitude. The first few times I thought he was doing a very dry Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons impersonation, but alas he was not. To be fair I think the staff as a whole are probably great at giving advice to beginners, but once you get into more advanced stuff like decoction mashes, lagers, sour beers, brett fermentations, subtle spices/flavors in Belgian beers, distilling, and kegerator setup, don't believe everything they say at this store! I've gotten advice at the store on every one of those subjects that directly contradicted the advice of expert-level brewing authors, and when I said I'd go with the book was told that I was probably going to ruin my beer. Every time the authors were totally right and the homebrew emporium guy was wrong wrong wrong. I want to sit him down and tell him that it's fine to not know absolutely everything all the time. Say you don't know, or that you didn't read the book. It'll be ok. So: nice people, good selection, decent prices. Totally a good place to go for basic guidance. Mixed experiences with the staff know-it-all. read more

I have had some good experiences here - there's a great selection of ingredients, I've gotten decent recommendations from some of the staff, and they've generally been happy to answer questions. However, those good experiences are getting harder to remember. I saw that "he" is mentioned by other reviewers - the rude know-it-all employee that insists you must do things the way he recommends. Seeing him behind the counter when I walk in makes me want to walk right back out. On three separate occasions I have received rude "lectures" from this particular employee, in every case he ignored what I was telling him or told me flat out I was wrong and I needed to do something else, happy to talk over me in the process. On one occasion I was looking into kegging and wanted to see what they had in stock. He literally tried to convince me not to start kegging - that he doesn't do it and my reasons for being interested in it weren't valid. (If that's the case then why do they even sell the gear???) I decided if that was his opinion then I wouldn't buy any of the gear there. Most recently he didn't understand what proofing yeast meant - at all - the word "proof" seemed completely foreign to him. Despite not knowing at all what I was talking about he repeatedly told me "poofing" was unnecessary - I should just go by the "best by" date on the bottle. It was then that he pointed to the bottle he was holding, fresh out of the refrigerator, only to realize it was past its "best by" date. Would I want to proof that bottle? According to him, of course not - warm it up and dump it in! I still really want to like this store - most of the staff are nice and helpful, it's close by, and it has a great selection. However, it's getting harder and harder to walk out happy with my purchase knowing I'm paying into this guy being a jerk to who knows how many people each week. read more

Got lots of being equipment for wine and cider making. Folks here really helpful. They also have various yeasts.

This place has everything you need for beer-making, with a broad ingredient selection to supply you for brewing a wide variety of styles. They carry a good variety of specialty grains, extracts, adjuncts, hops, yeasts, and spices. One thing I appreciate here is that they will fill your grain bill as needed; some places require you to purchase all grains in full pound increments. Hops pellets are baggied up in zip locks and kept refrigerated. Generally, I prefer sealed metallized pouches that are dated so I know how old/fresh they are. They carry a good selection of Wyeast, White Labs and dry yeast packets, however I recommend you check the manufacture date on less common strains. Their stock varies at times as they re-stock from their store in Massachusetts. As such, if you don't want to use CO2 bottle exchange, it can take some time to get your bottle out to MA and back. I exchanged a tank there once and received one with an expired inspection tag, which they pointed out on the next exchange. They accepted it back anyway, though not happily. The have some supplies for wine and cheese as well, however I have never shopped there for these things. I find the prices there are reasonable for many of the ingredients and basic equipment (buckets, hydrometers, racking canes, etc.), however some of their more advanced equipment runs on the expensive side. I've had have found the staff friendly and helpful with answering recipe questions, brewing techniques, ingredient substitutions, and equipment maintenance. read more

Homebrew Emporium - Front window - Brewing Supplies Near Me - Rensselaer, New York

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Hey - I posted a review on this place a couple of months ago and now it's GONE! I don't think so! OK..fine, I'm not a frequent user of yelp, but I have started using it. So sorry I don't have the need to review every place I go to - but that doesn't mean you get to remove it! So, here is my review that should be here: Bottom line: great inventory - lousy service. As I said in my previous review - give them a shot - you may have a different experience. It's worth it for the inventory alone. read more

This place is great. They have an excellent selection of ingredients and are always willing to help with questions. What I really like is that they explain what they mean or how something is different from something else and how it will affect your brew. Definitely check it out. read more

Great Shop, they carry just about everything I could ever want. This is the closest store to me with the best selection and prices. The staff is knowledgeable, friendly, and very helpful with finding what you need. They have a great selection of Malt, DME, and brew kits. Very Happy, will be regularly visiting to get my supplies. read more