Austin Homebrew Supply

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Hollie

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I am on my 3rd order with this company. Flat rate shipping 6$ no matter what and they always have great sales. I bought 6 carboys for 14$ each. A huge selection of yeast, etc. They have never messed up my order :) Just thought I would give a big thumbs up to them!
 
I have used Austin a few times and have always been happy with them. In fact, I Just received a large grain and supply order (200+ pounds) from them. Everything was bagged and packed well, and made the trip to Alaska on the barge just fine. Shipping was fast and the flat rate, even for wine kits, to Seattle (where the barge is) is great and the reason I decided to order from them again this time. Some other places do not include wine kits in their flat rate prices, and those without flat rates make the kits too expensive. I will be ordering from them again.
 
They are my LHBS and I have a hard time going anywhere else for anything. The knowledge and assistance they've given is great. They also price matched a draft tower for me so I didn't have to wait for shipping. A quick email to them with the two items got me a response inside a day.
 
I just placed my first order with them on Tuesday. It wasn't until Thursday night that I received the order on my doorstep. c'mon, less than 48hours between order and delivery? And to add insult to injury, they sent a coupon for free shipping on my next two orders.

Seriously, although I do live relatively close, (250miles) the shipping speed is fantastic. I assume the extra coupon is a new member benny, but even so the flat shipping is next to nothing. This may end up being my regular shop.
 
I just placed my first order with them on Tuesday. It wasn't until Thursday night that I received the order on my doorstep. c'mon, less than 48hours between order and delivery? And to add insult to injury, they sent a coupon for free shipping on my next two orders.

Seriously, although I do live relatively close, (250miles) the shipping speed is fantastic. I assume the extra coupon is a new member benny, but even so the flat shipping is next to nothing. This may end up being my regular shop.

Oh cool. I'm on my 5th order now and waiting for delivery. I wonder if I will get that coupon? Not that the flat rate shipping is expensive or anything, but the coupon will just encourage me even worse. They busy have absolutely everything!
 
Got my first "and not last" order from them. Im in NYC and there are some things my LHBS doesnt stock. Ive tried all the others out there but ii like Austin the best.
 
Ordered cheese making supplies from Austin Homebrew Supply on Cyber Monday, used the cheapest shipping option, and they arrived last night. Much faster than estimated. Granted, I'm in Texas, but still, they got the order out the door in a flash.

Ordering most stuff a la cart from them was a better price than "full kits" from other guys.

I'll be back. :tank:
 
I've ordered from these guys multiple times. They are not the quickest to ship things, but they get it done at acceptable speeds. I've had issues with my order and they were quick to correct them. Company is great... With that said... :D

My complaint is with their packaging material. They use these water disolvable packing peanuts that break down during shipping and create this 'snow'. Everytime I order stuff from them I have a terrible mess on my hands.
 
I switched to Austin after seeing the shipping costs of my usual place go up again. Austin charges 6.99 for orders under a 100 bucks.
 
Just received my largest order (4 wine kits + 1 5 gallon carboy) from AHS which was over $500. They were out of one wine kits and it too has already shipped out separately at no extra cost to me. Best of all they didn't hold up the balance of my order because one item was out. I have had horrible problems with BMW over the last 12 months being out of just about everything and delaying my order. I switched to AHS and I am so very glad that I did. Thanks Forrest!
 
I have placed several orders with them with no problem except for one order. Last summer I ordered liquid yeast with a cold pack. I live in Texas so it was a short delivery time but even so the yeast was too still got too hot and died before fermentation. I will still use them but in the summer if I have liquid yeast recipe I will use my LHBS.
 
First order went well.

My complaint if you wanna call it that, is sending me an email saying free shipping weekend, then when I call to order, I'm told Alaska? We can't do that. The email said free shipping weekend with no disclaimers.

Now I get that it's an automated email, it's just priniciple. Tell the customer you're going to do something, do it. Then next time, remember to add the disclaimer or don't offer the customer something you going to refuse to honor.

Frustrating.

Ken
 
Just got my order from them.
Very fast shipping
I am very happy with the order
Will be using them for all my needs.
 
I just received my first order from them this week. Very impressed with the packaging and that I received the order pretty quick. Looking forward to brewing the kits!
 
I just received my order today which I ordered on Friday. Very fast shipping! I have been very satisfied with previous orders when I lived on the west coast and I am just as happy now that I am on the east coast.

Will order from them again. They have been great!
 
I love AHS ! Always fast order fufillment , great inventory , awesome stocking level ( with the other big stores you see lots of out of stock stuff seldom at AHS ) and a great crush .
I do wish the recipe kits had more information on them , like IBU , or what base grain.
But, AHS has received about 50 % of my shopping $ and 25% of the time I shopped around ended up wishing I had placed the order with AHS .
 
I just ordered two all grain kits from them. I had been using another vendor which I was very happy with but their shipping rates just went up and I couldn't justify all the extra cost.

I had ordered once from AHS in the past apparently because I had an account and order history with them, but I don't remember (hopefully not a side effect of drinking too much beer :p).

I got my order quick, it was packed very well, nitrogen or vacuum packed hops, they offered a cold pack for shipping the yeast (though I never go for these because the yeast is bound to heat up during shipping, we take our chances on these things).

I like that the grains are packed in heat sealed heavy duty plastic pouches rather than being zip tied, makes it much more secure. The brew sheets that come with the kits are very detailed as well.

The only place I think AHS lacks is in their website. A picture of what we can expect the brewed beer to look like on the product page would go a long way I think. Also, putting the brew sheets up for viewing prior to kit purchase would be helpful.

All in all I'm extremely satisfied with AHS and they are going to be my new go-to guys for beer kits.
 
I used to go to AHS all the time (back about 3 or 4 locations when it was a tiny hole in the wall). They are great and I will still sometimes get things there when I visit Austin.

A few complaints though:
- Seems like they used to be a friendlier bunch than they are now. Used to be that you could have a conversation with the salesperson for half an hour. Now they seem to just grunt and say a few words. I get they have become a lot busier over the years, but it does not seems they are as happy as they used to be.
- As someone else mentioned: they seems to consider all of their recipes completely secret. Neither their website nor the book in store lists ingredients or data.

Overall, great store though. I am now getting back into brewing again after 3 years off and 2 years of piddling around without aim. But now I am in southern Houston, which means I end up at Defalco's. It's not bad, but they are much MUCH smaller and more limited than AHS was.
 
When I saw the "free shipping for the next 24 hours" deal that Austin Homebrew is running today, I figured that I would jump on this. I wasn't planning to order quite yet - I won't be brewing again for another three weeks - but free is free.

The only issue was that AHS happened to be out of German pilsner. I'm brewing an Oktoberfest, so this was a bummer. I figured that I would sub in Belgian pils... but it was also out of stock.

In addition, both caramunich and carapils were also out of stock.

We're talking about almost half of my grain bill being unavailable. I would have to add in extra stuff to still qualify for free shipping, and I wouldn't have everything that I needed, anyway.

So, last night, I sent them an email. Explained what had happened. Asked if there was any way that I could make the order now and just have them hold it until everything was in stock. After all, I'd hate to miss the free shipping deal.

They responded to me this morning with an apology. They mentioned that their sales were up enough to throw off their ordering schedule, and while that was a nice problem to have, it was frustrating for their customers. They had placed some rush orders for grain, but it would be a week or so before those were in.

They told me that they couldn't take an online order for items that were out of stock, but they did include a coupon code in the email for $6.99 off - in other words, for free shipping.

Stuff like this is why I continue to do business with AHS.
 
Yeah, they're stand up guys. Plus the fact that you can order grains by the ounce and split the grains by recipe. Definitely can't beat it.
 
I order from AHS a lot also and have been really happy overall. I especially like the selection of clone recipes. I will say though that in general I think NBs recipe kits taste better. I anticipate both places getting my business for a long time.
 
I like them as well and order frequently, although i've been sending some business to Williams out of San Leandro because of their 1 day process and 2 day ship to my location. However ive had nothing but good experiences with AHS and love the fact that you can by fractions of grains.

I had an issue once where they forgot to include some paradise seeds and they made up for it without a hassle. Their Sweet Stout kit is absolutely delicious
 
Glad to see all the love for my LHBS keep them in business and rotating frequently !!
 
I've never seen a single complaint about AHS. If I didn't love my LHBS so much, they'd have all my business.
 
A like and a big +1 to the coupon to the OP.

The thing I wonder about AHS is why don’t they identify the maltster? You don’t know what you’re getting with the grains.

For example, http://www.texasbrewinginc.com/Base-Malts_c_295.html is the only one I’ve found that identifies every grain.

I'm a big fan of AHS (though AHS needs more organic grains and LME, and AHS should incorporate their organic 2-row as an online option in their kits).

OTOH, without doing a lot of digging, Brew Brothers, Brewmasters Warehouse, and Seven Bridges Cooperative also identify the maltsters (though I didn't check "every grain.")
 
AHS identifies the maltsters of a fair amount of the grains, I believe, but not all.

Perhaps someone should suggest to them that they include that information on their site? I get the impression that they are always trying to improve.
 
The accolades above plus my own experiences there is why I drive an hour to go visit AHS. No looking down their nose at the 1gal extract brewer, or the Partial mash guy that asks questions.. nor the never brewed before dude that wants to "try" All grain..
 
Two weeks ago I placed an order with Northern Brewer and Austin Homebrew during another shipping price standoff. I spent over $200 at Northern Brewer, and maybe $125 at Austin Homebrew Supply. There was all sorts of crazy stuff in the Northern Brewer order, such as a used keg; Yet, shipment was delayed because of this: 1 lb crushed pilsner malt! The entire order was held over a week until it could all be shipped together, all because of Pilsner malt?? Isn't that a staple for any homebrew supply? Pilsner malt? Really? It has now taken 2 weeks to receive my ingredients! I was planning on brewing for a birthday BBQ, and there is no way it will be ready on time now!

Meanwhile, Austin homebrew supply was also missing an item: 1 cornelius keg liquid post. So what did they do? They shipped me everything else while they waited for the missing component!

Thanks, Austin Homebrew Supply! You know how to treat a customer right! You just scored a lot of future orders.

Northern Brewer: don't offer me cheap shipping for 24 hours only if you can't fulfill my order for 8 days.

I have been traveling for over a year, and thus have not brewed, or placed an order, in about a year. A lot sure has changed since then.

edit: no this is not my first post, just a new screen name :)
 
Austin Home Brew is awesome. I ordered $400 worth of stuff once and the only thing that was not in-stock was a spigot for my bottling bucket. They shipped everything out immediately and shipped the spigot later in the week in a separate package.
 
AHBS is awesome... Even when I move away from Houston (to Atlanta) I still get my stuff from them. Their customer service is a step above.
 
I have never had an issue with AHBS. If there was ever any question with my order or something wasn't in stock they would call and let me know. I typically order from them 1-2 a month and if I order on Monday, I will have my shipment by Thursday!
 
AHBS is awesome... Even when I move away from Houston (to Atlanta) I still get my stuff from them. Their customer service is a step above.

I'm moving to Houston in December, looking forward to being closer to AHBS. Of course I will have to check out the LHBS around Houston too.
 
Had the opportunity to visit AHBS while in Austin last month. Very professional and clean operation. Extremely helpful staff who are passionate about beer. They are my go to place as I don't have a LHBS.

Chris
 
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