Just had a really quick fly through this thread. Three things... My Favourite Shop, Voting on HBS's and Legal Ramifications of HBS Criticism. These are dealt with below under incorrect headings!
My Favourite Shop:
I am, without a pause, going MHB. I have no LHBS on the Gold Coast even worth mentioning. Nice guys but zero idea. One up here even painful to deal with.
MHB: Excellent! Immediately relaxed upon speaking with him on phone. Asked, in hindsight, stupid questions, and was not made to feel stupid. Great advice received including, 'try your LHBS - they should have it and may be cheaper than me posting it.' A nice relaxed conversation. Received my order yesterday but he got it wrong - too much!!!! He included at no charge, extra samples of specialty grains, hop bags and even a flip fermenter tap. Apparently Weizguy and Stephen were in his shop at the time of the compilation of my order. For me, as a newbie, feeling comfortable, having confidence in advice and reliability are more important to me than price although I'm sure that MHB's prices would be competitive. As I'm forced to deal via mail because of my location, I'll certainly continue my relationship there.
Voting on HBS's
I saw briefly, some comments on voting for HBS's and the legal ramifications. I am, but please don't tell anyone, related to about a billion lawyers. Through osmosis, I have gained a tad of legal knowledge. I think the voting or specifically asking for feedback on HBS's is a great idea! As long as anyone can justify the facts of their opinion, anything said is OK. So if I say here, that the IBREW bloke here on the Gold Coast I have found to be atrocious to deal with all I have to do is ensure I have evidence to justify my comment. Evidence can simply be in the form of a statuory declaration although having a few extra things up your sleeve helps e.g. recorded phone conversations. (You can legally do this and there's plenty of computer programs that will allow you to record conversations.)
AHB would only be legally liable if they knowingly allowed a fiction to continue. I think the mods here would pull up any unfair comments very quickly. Any experienced lawyers here to affirm this or do I have to go to relations which will probably cost me! LOL! (And, if you get into trouble for following my advice above, don't worry, I'm as legally liable as you!)
Voluntary Registration of HBS's
Another thing that could be interesting would be for HBS's to voluntarily register with AHB. This would involve submitting themselves to the scrutiny/feedback of AHB members without legal recourse. Of course, there's always going to be one, so any HBS volunteering their service to be analyzed should have the right to ask for a post/s to be deleted/suspended for a period of time in which they could prove the post/s to be incorrect.
I Did Not Post This
The above post is very long-winded and I would just like to say that I had nothing to do with it. I was simply channelling the Beer Gods.
, this post has captured a lot of interest over 3000 views . 
