Austin Homebrew and Hoptech

I know there are people on these forums who have ordered from Austin Homebrew but has anybody ordered from Hoptech?

I placed an order with both of these companies Last Friday night and my order still hasn't shipped with either of them. Austin Homebrew charged my credit card monday but has still not shipped my order yet. Hoptech has just gotten a temperary autherization from my credit card and as not actually charged it yet. I know that it is getting to be peak brewing season but man, has anybody else had their orders take this long with either company? Austin Homebrews website said it takes usually 2 to 3 Buisness days to process your order. So since I placed the order Friday Night and they are open Sunday (even though UPS doesn't run) I figured they would have it ready and ship at least by now but their website still says that my order is still in the store and is being processed.

As for hoptech, like I said, they have just ran my card to make sure the charge would be approved but have not even charged my card yet.

Anybody ever had their orders take this long or do you think I should call them?

I have had very good luck with AHS, I dont think they will do you wrong.

I placed an order with AHB yesterday and it shipped today. Actually all of my AHB orders have shipped the following day

AHB took forever to ship my order. I put an order in on Mon. and it did not ship out until fri. so it sat on a hot UPS truck over the weekend before getting to me on Mon. Pretty bad when a shop two hours away takes a week to get stuff to me. Morebeer had my order to me in less than half that time.

rmullins,

did you pay the extra money to have your order process quickly? I did not because their said two or three buisness days and I could wait that long so I did not see the need. Had I known this, I would have probably went with that. If you did not then my order should have been a head of yours in line. Makes me even more mad.

I have never ordered from Morebeer. I will have to look into them.

I would call and *****. A little bitching always seems to move things along faster.

I'm gonna have to say, don't order from hoptech. Those guys are real cool, but they screwed up 80% of my orders. Was a real pain.

1st screw-up, forgot 3lb's of DME... man, was a sad brew day.
2nd screw-up, didn't seal my grain bags well and lost a large amount of my grain in the cardboard box. Was my first AG, another sad brewday.
3rd screw-up, sent me the wrong yeast.
4th screw-up, bad sealing on grains again.... very annoying, decided not to order from them anymore.

They are really nice guys, so I kept giving them chances, but 4 screw-ups is too much. Go with Northernbrewer, they've been great.

I have oredered from AHS a total of 3 times. Twice my order shipped the next day. One time it took about 5 days for them to ship. Only thing I could figure is if the are waiting for something to be re-stocked. I would call, even though they don't claim next day processing they say most orders are.

Never had a problem with AHS..they usually have my orders shipped with in a few days.

When in doubt, I would go right to the source first with a phone call or email inquiry about order status/estimated ship dates.

My only order with AHS took a few days to process but I never had acurate shipping info until the day before it arrived. I am in Northern VT so it is on a truck for atleast 5 days before I get it.

I was considering placing an order today with AHB, but I was wondering how close their clone beers were to the real thing. Have you guys noticed them being a good decision? I was thinking about trying the Anchor Steam Beer.

I have some experience with Hoptech. I've ordered from them twice. I'm ALL the way across the country from them, and it takes a while to get the orders (around 2 weeks) but not the end of the world. My first kit, the liquid malt extract leaked out of the container for one of the kits. Only lost about a cup or less, but made a MESS. Second order that actually arrived yesterday was fine. I will probably keep ordering from them because
A) their kit contents are of some of the best quality items available. They have the right specific grain, fresh malt extract, quality hops, etc.
B) both brews I've done of theirs so far are the best two home brews I've ever had. (Must be the brewer! :cross: )

The box that came last night has their Summer and Pacific Brewing Co's Blue Whale (monster beer...I'm gonna add some bourbon soaked oak to the secondary!).

Well, I ordered most of my ingredients and equipment from AHB. The only thing I ordered from hoptech was my hops. I had been looking for the whole leaf version of two varieties and they were the only company I found that had both of them in whole leaf. That is why I went with them. I will give them both till this afternoon and if I have not heard anything. I will deffinatly have to give them both a call.

HarrisonHomeBrew said:

I was considering placing an order today with AHB, but I was wondering how close their clone beers were to the real thing. Have you guys noticed them being a good decision? I was thinking about trying the Anchor Steam Beer.

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Most of Austin Home Brew Supply Clone beers are spot on. Great recipes! Highly recommended IMHO.

Forrest said:

rmullins,

did you pay the extra money to have your order process quickly? I did not because their said two or three buisness days and I could wait that long so I did not see the need. Had I known this, I would have probably went with that. If you did not then my order should have been a head of yours in line. Makes me even more mad.

I have never ordered from Morebeer. I will have to look into them.

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Nope I didn't pay for the expediting. It probably has nothing to do with whose ahead of who in the line, its probably the stock availability of the items and how large the order. What was your order for?

I ordered malt, 12 lbs in all, and some equipment that I have been wanting to get and some equipment that had gotten damaged in my move back in April. Nothing real big or expensive, just auto syphons and stuff like that.

I just called both Hoptech and Austin Homebrew. Hoptech said that my order has been process and that it would ship out today. Austin Homebrew apoligized for the delay, said that nothing was wrong with my order and they were not waiting to be resupplied, just that because of the sale they had last week, they had a lot of online orders and they are behind on processing them and shipping them. They offered no explaniation for why someone who ordered after me has already had their order shipped and they gave no indication of when my order would ship. But hopefully my call will at least make them give my order a little more consideration.

Huh, I also placed an order with Austin Homebrew on Fri. and the UPS site says it will be here today. I am just up the road from you in Beaufort so I guess I snuck in before the big weekend rush.

I placed an order w/ AHB on Monday, and called yesterday when I hadn't received an email saying it had shipped. All previous orders shipped either that day or the next.

I was told that they were slammed with orders from their big sale they've had this past weekend and were trying to play catchup. My order shipped yesterday, and I'll have it on Monday. Just have to brew after work one day next week.

neckbone said:

I was told that they were slammed with orders from their big sale they've had this past weekend and were trying to play catchup. My order shipped yesterday, and I'll have it on Monday. Just have to brew after work one day next week.

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That's what they told me as well.

Just got an email from Austin Homebrew saying that my order has shipped. Looks like my call did do some good after all.

I called Austin Homebrew twice (when they were moving), and they sounded like they were doing me a favor by taking my order.
So, I didn't order - buy everything (except base malt) from Northern Brewer. I'm in S/E Louisiana and will get order on Thursday if I order before noon on Monday.
Order base malt from North Country Malt Supply. Prices are low. Freight runs around $ 24.00, but with the lower price, it's like getting free freight if you bought from regular homebrew supply (55# sacks - delivered FEDEX)

AHS is usually really good. I placed an order last Saturday, and it has yet to ship. I called, and they said that they're backed up right now due to the recent sale. They said it would ship today or Monday. I really hope it ships Monday - I committed to a BIG brew party next weekend.

This is the first time I've been somewhat disappointed with AHS.

I was kind of upset about how long both Hoptech and AHB took to ship my order but, the big thing that made me mad with AHB was the fact that they charged my credit card the day after I placed the order and did not ship it till four days later. Maybe it is just me but I think that the card should not be charged until it is ship. Getting the card approved is one thing but my card was actually charged four days ago and my order just shipped today.

But, at least it is on the way now.

I placed an order during the first day of the sale and it shipped that day, surprisingly. They did send me a wrong item though. Called them up and they said they would send me the correct ~$2.50 carboy cap.

Sorry for the delay on the orders last week. The sale was way larger than anticipated. We received 2 weeks worth of orders in 4 days. I had extra people in place and the head of the shipping department worked 70 hours that week. We will definately do better next time. We usually ship the same day or the next day. We order a truck with supplies every week so we won't run out of anything. We just got behind faster than we thought. I hired extra people before the sale but it wasn't enough. Once again I apologize for the delay and you should not experience any delays in the future.

Forrest
Austin Homebrew Supply

Austinhomebrew said:

Sorry for the delay on the orders last week....Once again I apologize for the delay and you should not experience any delays in the future.

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Despite my expression of disappointment a few days ago, this is exactly why I like AHS. Thanks, Forrest, for the explanation, and you can be sure that you haven't lost my business. Congrats on the great sale!

My order did arrive in time...I can even make a starter as long as the yeast survived the hot weather!

Brewer3401 said:

I called Austin Homebrew twice (when they were moving), and they sounded like they were doing me a favor by taking my order.

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I know there are many places you can order supplies but I wouldn't write them off because of one bad experience. I live in Austin and they are my brew store of choice. While I've never ordered on-line (because, well I live in Austin), I have always found them helpful and reliable. They are a small company and did recently move into a great new store (lots of room and a much better - although further away) but their staff has generally been consistent and I find them going above and beyond in terms of customer service and assistance.

Anyway, my two cents worth.

Rae