Adventures in Homebrewing: homebrewing.org

JBOGAN said:

So i made it out to this store finally(AIH) and i wanted to put a cot on the floor and live there if,..Maybe one of the staff had a pleasing personality.Here I was in awe of this vast and limitless supply of home brewing gear and i wanted to tell them how awesome this store was and I did but it was bland business as usual conversation about selling product.There are three types of brew shop employees,one who loves the shop and the customers,one who wants to go pro and finds customers a PITA and then there is the clueless.Dropping 200 dollars is not the highest amount of money but hell,you may want to pander a little bit and talk to me like a human and ask a few questions yourself. After all I am paying your bills so show a little interest and for the love of all things holy brighten up.



end rant...

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I second this rant, The crew at my LHBS is mixed - some care, some don't.

Adventures In Homebrewing in Ann Arbor Michigan is my LHBS. Great products, knowledgeable staff, and just a short drive down Interstate 94 from my house. Some people will probably point out to me that Cork N Cap in Jackson Michigan would be closer, but I have never had good experiences there. The owners seem more interested in catering to the wine and cheese snobs than they do homebrewers, hence a very limited selection with outrageous prices compared to other stores.

I've had good luck with them. Their live chat support is good and they've recently been offering $20 extract kits, which I've been capitalizing on. I've only been to the AA store once, but my brother works in AA, so he'll pick up my orders for me to save me the shipping. The one time I did go there in person, I found it to be an enjoyable experience. They also have a rewards program - it's pretty modest though - spend $200, get $10 off an order. I still feel NB overall beats them on value, but I think both have great customer service. You just have to shop around to see who has the best deal.

eadavis80 said:

I've had good luck with them. Their live chat support is good and they've recently been offering $20 extract kits, which I've been capitalizing on. I've only been to the AA store once, but my brother works in AA, so he'll pick up my orders for me to save me the shipping. The one time I did go there in person, I found it to be an enjoyable experience. They also have a rewards program - it's pretty modest though - spend $200, get $10 off an order. I still feel NB overall beats them on value, but I think both have great customer service. You just have to shop around to see who has the best deal.

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FYI... They usually have $5 Michigan Shipping... I use this option because often it's cheaper than the gas to drive there (at least if you don't need the stuff that day...Obviously it ships pretty quickly and you have it in ~2 days)

mors said:

FYI... They usually have $5 Michigan Shipping... I use this option because often it's cheaper than the gas to drive there (at least if you don't need the stuff that day...Obviously it ships pretty quickly and you have it in ~2 days)

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thanks dan, I didn't know they had cheaper shipping for me. $5 is definitely worth the drive for me too.

Guess I spoke too soon - two of my recent orders were messed up. The Helles Bock I ordered from them did not include the water salts and then my buddy and I split a Helles Bock and their $20 American wheat. We received no hops in either kit and we didn't get a grain bag for the Helles. They'll ship the stuff out, but we had planned to brew tomorrow so now I have to buy an ounce of Willamette hops at my own store so I don't waste the starter of 1010 I made a few days ago. So, then I'll have an extra ounce of Williamette in a few days. Can I do anything with that and 10 pounds of Vienna malt?

That sucks man, but you should be fine with the starter if you leave it in the fridge. I'd ask for a refund on the Vienna personally rather than having it sit around waiting ffor a good opportunity to brew something you might not want to otherwise in order to use that.

The Vienna is not from them - it's from someone else, so I have a hodge podge of ingredients: 1 oz. cluster, 1 oz. simcoe, 10 pounds vienna, 1 oz. williamette and 1/2 pound carmel 40. I also have a bunch of harvested yeast of different varieties. Should I just throw everything together and hope for the best and call it "grab bag ale"?

If you bought a couple onces of grains you should be able to throw together a decent brown or amber. Obvously not exactly true to style but whatever

I ordered 4 of these used low profile, 5 gal ball lock keg from Adventures in home brewing. After receiving I find out they are non-removable poppet type posts, which isn't mentioned on their site. Also the o-ring kits they send out have the incorrect size post and dip tube o-rings. Am I the remote QC and testing department for this organization? Just a FYI for anyone else thinking about these kegs.

Send them a message, I'm sure they'll send you new o-rings for the mistake.

I've always gotten removeable posts on mine, but I've also always picked them up in store so might be because those are the ones I grab.

My two cents- ordered a temperature controller from them.... They shipped the wrong unit THREE times!!!!!

I was finally told today they no longer stock the unit I wanted to purchase.... Never again ...
Too many great other resources to waste my time and money with...

I have nothing but good things to say about them. I was pleased the first time I ordered from them, and every time since. I think I've ordered from them 5-6 times. They ship fast and package the order well. I've had a few questions and always get great customer service when I've emailed or called them. Their prices are the most competitive I've found. If I ever get to the Ann Arbor area, I'd like to stop in.

I use them all the time, greatest thing about them is you can just call them after an order to make sure every thing is right before it is shipped.
I think their shipping can be a bit high when you go to checkout online, so sometimes I call direct and get that sorted out.
Plus they also have spent the time to discuss products with me and recommend something different than I was looking at when I explained what I wanted
great shop

Well I'm bringing this bad boy back from the .

So i had a birthday this past Sunday and as I shared got gift card to AIH.

Ordered a Digiboil for my new HLT and got a free $20 gift card, which with my points got me another $10 dollar gift card so my tubing and new spigots were free!

Here is the weird part, the tubing and spigots got here in 2 days post holiday but today I got a notification that my digiboil shipped and you'll never guess where it is coming from.

Interestingly enough, it is coming from PA... the same place where Morebeer has their wharehouse for the east coast. I wonder what the connection is between Morebeer and AIH...anyone know?

Sammy86 said:

Interestingly enough, it is coming from PA... the same place where Morebeer has their wharehouse for the east coast. I wonder what the connection is between Morebeer and AIH...anyone know?

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Like many companies, they drop ship a lot of more expensive equipment from the manufacturer/distributor.

AIH is one of my LHBS, went to the Ann Arbor store for the first time a couple weeks ago, even wearing my AIH shirt today.

note: I have always had very prompt shipments online.

All around it was a pleasant experience and I was asked if I could be helped 2x walking around the store. Went with my pal who is a kit brewer, and I walked around listening while I peruse for books and neat stuff (came home with a scotch ale book). The manager that day I believe was the owner, I figured it was rude to ask, he was very helpful and kind. There is a large recipe book on the counter that you can flip through and build your own or follow the guide. They encourage people to use the book and become familiar with building a kit or recipe and are very happy to walk you though it and answer questions.

Their Taylor store which I believe will remain closed was also neat and very nice inside, but I agree sometimes the employees were working a J.O.B... That said, I have always received proper service even 5 minutes before closing.