We have a friend who brews his own beer and The Man and I have been talking about how cool it is for aaaaaaaages.  We kept saying \""someday we'll have a house and will have space to brew our own beer for cheap!\""\nWell, that someday is here.  \n\nWe now have our own house, complete with a summerhouse in the back garden which is perfect for beer brewing exploits.  \n\nMore importantly, we have a mortgage.  Mortgages are expensive.  We are also doing up said mortgaged house and consuming copious amounts of cool refreshing life-affirming beer at the same time.  \n\nIn comes Alba Homebrew.  I was drawn in when I saw their sign on the corner which says something enticing like \""Beer for as low as 19p a pint!\""  \n\nI popped in to have a poke about and was greeted by the owner who is incredibly knowledgeable and incredibly nice.  He would be happy to chat for hours about making beer, sterilizing equipment, good beer kits etc.  I decided to buy a starter kit which is just about \u00a380 and gets you everything you need to brew batch after batch of beer, including a first kit of your choosing and 40 bottles.  I was all set to go when he asked \""have you brought your car?\"" Er, no.  \""That's ok, I can hold the kit (two boxes of bottles and one tub of brewing goods) for you until you can bring the car this weekend\""  Er, The driver of the car is the birthday boy.  \""Oh right, well then do you live close?  I can just drop it off on my way home on Satuday.\""\nSeriously???  \nI was impressed.  Mega impressed.  This guy works every day in his store and after his work day is over, he's willing to bring a kit 'round to a customer's house to help them out.  He could have charged for delivery, he could have charged to ship, he could have held on to the goods while I took three trips to pick everything up, but he didn't. \n\nI certainly won't be buying homebrew goods from anyone else.