Best Places to Buy Brewing Hardware?

I plan on starting my build in the next few weeks and have been reading many of the posts on the thread on everyone else's build. I have a list of all the parts I think I need but not many people posts where they got everything... Some have prats lying around(I'm not that lucky, except for maybe some lumber).

So my question is where are people buying parts... burners,pumps,tubing,snaplock conectors,valves,etc?


I have a limited budget and I want to make sure I have some cash to buy grains and such after I'm done with my build

start here:
www.bargainfittings.com

JohnnyO said:

start here:
www.bargainfittings.com

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thanks... they have great prices on connectors and valves

Brewhardware.com is my go-to place for most parts.

Brewhardware.com is one I have bought from several times, all good transactions.

Another vote for Brewhardware, just got some stuff from them yesterday.

Anyone order from brew international.com their prices look really good.


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ritebrew.com has good prices on a lot of stuff. I usually go there for kegging equipment.

The few that I usually purchase my stuff from:

Brewhardware.com
Bargainfittings.com
Kegconnection.com

And last but definitely not least, AMAZON. Tons of stuff is much cheaper on there, such as ball valves.

My vote, heartshomebrew.com hands down best prices

BrewHardware and BargainFittings. Support the folks that contribute to this site. Both have been very helpful to tons of people.

I am going to add my .02 here - I used to use some of those guys but found the quality and price of stainlessbrewing.com to be better fwiw. Best of luck with your build! Kegconnection is still great for beer dispensing items though...

I too am wondering about Brew International. Prices almost seem too good to be true and when I called with a question all I got was a recording asking me to leave a message. It didn't even identify who I had called. Seems odd.

I just received an order from them a few hours ago. There were two problems with the order. I understand when something doesn't go 100% right, but I base my opinion of a merchant largely on how they deal with a problem when it occurs, so I want to give them a chance to respond to my emails before I say anything bad.

I can say this: I picked up a 3 piece SS valve, some other fittings, a nice weldless thermometer, and various other doodads. Those parts appear to be good quality.

I like to peruse the Williams brewing catalog, then shop the internet for the best prices. Helps me find sizes and part numbers, which in turn speeds up the web search.

I agree with Colby. Looking through magazines is a good start. I get Northern Brewer, Midwest, Williams. The Williams actually has a lot of stuff. Plus magazines support the paper industry
I shop those 3 sites most and dabble with Austin and few others for for equipment. Hardware is kind of a "free for all". Lots of options on the internet. The magazines help keep up to date with all the new products.

Ok. Here's an update. I bought a false bottom from brew international. Their price was awesome and it shipped quick and was great quality. A+. I did notice that the package label said learntobrew.com. So I checked them out and they also had a great price on a chugger pump which they had sent me a coupon for and over $100 is free shipping. So I ordered that too.

I put in two orders from bargainfittings and got some snap locks and ball valves. All great quality and can't beat $5 2 day shipping.

Satisfied customer!


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yourfavo said:

Ok. Here's an update. I bought a false bottom from brew international. Their price was awesome and it shipped quick and was great quality. A+. I did notice that the package label said learntobrew.com. So I checked them out and they also had a great price on a chugger pump which they had sent me a coupon for and over $100 is free shipping. So I ordered that too.

I put in two orders from bargainfittings and got some snap locks and ball valves. All great quality and can't beat $5 2 day shipping.

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Interesting. My 'from' address was "Online Manager (555)555-5555" but the street address was same as Learntobrew.com, so I think you definitely made a connection.

I was able to contact them about my problems and they say they are fixing them (one missing item, one wrong). I'll know in a few days. So far, satisfied, but I'll know for sure when the other stuff arrives.

Going to have to add http://www.ssbrewtech.com/ to the list, their fermenters, both buckets and conicals, are over the top and reasonably priced !

JohnnyO said:

start here:
www.bargainfittings.com

Click to expand...

I've had good luck here as well

Adventures in Homebrewing has a good deal on center inlet SS Chugger pumps right now. I'll second the nomination of Stainless Brewing, also. Great prices on all your basic SS hardware. Brewhardware has great deals on some really interesting hardware that I haven't been able to find anywhere else. I also just picked up some 3 pc 1/2" SS valves from Jaded for under $10 apiece.

I may have just been ripped off by this site. No joke. More than 10 days without a response on shipping of an item paid for using Paypal. Not cool at all.

I am very suspect of a review in particular stating that there was a positive experience by the thread starter here who is not a HBT supporter, but oddly started the thread. Last month. I'm not sure what's going on exactly with this ecommerce site or the A+suggestion that came up in the thread like an epiphany. If you're just now looking for hardware, but have a ton of brewing experience? Hmmm. This just doesn't add up.

If out of line, I will kindly retract and relay my eventual experience if I find out otherwise. I see some others online saying "where's my stuff" too.

For now I say it is surely not out of line to shout out *buyer beware* based on my experience and move with extreme caution on any purchase on BrewInternational.com until also proven otherwise. I would hate for anyone else to get taken.

I am in no way affiliated with brew international. Just pointed out they had a great price on the stuff I was looking for, it shipped fast, and the false bottom in particular was great quality. Sorry you had a bad experience.


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Again, in no way set to disparage. You're not Chris Milum? This was not what I would call a normal transaction process. I just can't recommend something so very quickly based on the poor performance seen in the customer service end. It seemed too good to be true and that you did give a stellar review in rather very short order.
The message machine from this company is not professional and a Gmail account for responding to orders or checking up (with no response either way) is very troublesome. I am also troubled to see this matched up with LearnToBrew (?) Is this really the case? I wonder.

The level of surprise on enticing to buy very large amounts of product (free shipping of $100+) had me suspect. If you sent more than $100 and didn't receive anything, I'm sure you would be out of luck. I'm looking to resolve through PayPal and investigation into practices.

Lesson "learned". Other companies will have better customer service and offer only what they have in stock and ready to roll. Cheap pricing should also be another reflective clue, but I took a chance and feel with no communication about status, I may have got burned bad in the wallet.

I needed this equipment prior to now and the shipping appeared like it would be less than a week at worst. Locally some items are not as available.

Details I have discovered which may also be false:
Website: brewinternational.com
Title: Brew International - Supplier of Beer, Wine, and Draft Beer Equipment and Ingredients
Type: wholesale clothing,Wholesale and Outlet
Domain Age: 84 Days
Website Speed: Average
Owner: Chris Milum
Owner Address: 2307 South I-35
Owner City: Moore
Owner Postcode: 73160
Phone Number: 1-405-793-2337
Phone Type: geographic :Moore, OK Southwestern Bell
Email: [email protected]
Ip Address: 192.200.179.14
Nameserver 0 IP: 74.86.11.162
Admin Organization: Learn To Brew

Nope, my name is jim and I'm from PA. Been brewing for about 7 years and just started getting into all grain and upgrading some of my equipment. Based ok what I saw it does look like brew international and learn to brew are related. I order a lot of merch online so I am always looking for the best places to order. These two sites gave me the best prices for both my pump and false bottom. Although there were others that had some better prices on some other hardware.


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Brewhardware. Bobby was very helpful when I was putting together my electric herms system.

FWIW I got a reply right away from brewinternational when i logged into their site and sent a message with their internal system.

A paypal dispute would get their attention. I have a non-brewing-related online business and in the rare occasions I get a dispute it gets my attention

I think they're just new and working out the kinks. I got everything I ordered. The first shipment was missing a couple items but they made it right. They'll definitely be in my list of places to look for hardware.

Shotty system there to say the least. Got the refund finally, but they insisted they had responded to the order. I provided a screenshot of the order and minus of any communications whatsoever. No other communications via email after requesting. All around a long wait for nothing. Not sure how I'd begin to remotely start to recommend a business that was missing things in my first order, if it even partially came to me. Might depend on how necessary the purchase was and timing. In this case, they just did not meet expectations (no merchandise) and in ending the transaction stated that I should "return the item when it comes" to me, while at the same time in prior email stating to me that they never shipped it and we're waiting for my response. Such double speaking confuziblah. I called and emailed to get to that actual point of customer service. Very cross-brained circuit way of answering emails and I guess I shoud have known better. I acted purely on price and that was my big mistake. Lesson learned: Use the businesses that have been around and have earned their right to sell products to us, and have a proven track record, perhaps BBB reviewed and HBT certified to be on the level, and operate in a manner to which they have some kind of dispute resolution agreed fully. But if they can't even respond, and their email is solely gmail, watch out. Just saying. Good to be done.

Experibrew said:

But if they can't even respond, and their email is solely gmail, watch out. Just saying. Good to be done.

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Just an FYI. I contacted brewinternational on their website asking where they are located and asking just some general questions about the store and who runs it, etc. No reply. That was 4-5 days ago. If a business won't even reply to tell me where their store or warehouse is, they're not getting my money.

highgravitybacon said:

Just an FYI. I contacted brewinternational on their website asking where they are located and asking just some general questions about the store and who runs it, etc. No reply. That was 4-5 days ago. If a business won't even reply to tell me where their store or warehouse is, they're not getting my money.

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You ever get an answer? I sent them an inquiry on their website about a week ago asking about shipping to Spain, as well as wondering about a description of an item. Nothing yet...

My issue is that I can't find stuff here in Spain. Stuff like shanks for my keezer...

ickmund said:

You ever get an answer? I sent them an inquiry on their website about a week ago asking about shipping to Spain, as well as wondering about a description of an item. Nothing yet...

My issue is that I can't find stuff here in Spain. Stuff like shanks for my keezer...

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I did not. So I gave up. I have had good experiences with Rite Brew, Adventures in Homebrewing, and Rebel Brewer. I would stick with them if you can.

Last week I ordered a stir plate from brewinternational.com. The stir plate arrived with the magnet housing detached from the motor. With "some assembly required" I was able to fix the stir plate. I contacted brewinternational.com regarding the issue using the site's Contact Us page on Sunday. By early Tuesday morning I received an email reply and a FedEx return label should I choose to return the stir plate.

Overall, the customer service was fairly prompt and sufficient, so I am pretty satisfied. The stir plate works like a champ and the price was really good. I believe this may be a drop-ship business where the owner runs the website and e-commerce and a warehouse fulfills the orders. The company is kind of anonymous as their is no personal information, address, or phone number that I could find on the website.

I found this thread when sourcing parts for my keezer and kegging setup. I spent way too long comparing prices but I ended up placing 3 orders for everything - Homebrewing.org (used them before and always happy), Beverage Elements, and I decided to take a risk on Brew International too (for a savings of about $40 compared to just using the first two). I placed the order last Saturday with the cheapest shipping options for each and here were my results:

Homebrewing.org - delivered Tuesday
Beverage Elements - delivered Wednesday
Brew International - delivered Friday

I was a little worried about Brew International. I didn't hear anything until Wednesday when I was notified the USPS label was created but the order arrived when estimated and it was complete so luckily I didn't have to deal with customer service.

I ordered equipment from brewinternational last week. It was a large order including 15 gal kettle, false bottom, taprite duel body regulator, 4 way distributor, lots of connects, hose, etc. order was delivered in 5 days. I did have one issue. The thermometer and ball calve for the kettle wasn't in the shipment. I used the internal message system on the site and had a response in less than 24 hours. Should have the missing equipment in a couple days.

Obviously the site is very new, and probably staffed by 1 or 2 people, but I am planning to order from them again soon.

Update: Got the missing ball valve and thermometer. They have been installed and I did a test boil this weekend with no issues.

Good to hear about brew international. I'm going to place an order for this:

http://www.brewinternational.com/50-copper-immersion-chiller-1-2-x-3-8-triple-coil/

Either that or just the 3/8 model. I can't find a price like that on just tubing alone. I was going to build one until I saw this.

Lot of good quality stuff at dudadiesel.com as well.

I just ordered a false bottom from this vendor and they turned it into a troubling experience. First off, I admittedly gave them the wrong street address number on the order form (64 instead of 60)(one is the home and the other is the office.) However, fixing this turned into a complete waste of time and ultimately, they refused to fix it unless I paid them $17.50. There is no customer service department to speak of and no phone number is published in their website. It takes 2-3 days to get a response to an email. Ultimately, I had FedEx hold the package at a FedEx store 3 mile away from my office and picked it up there. Per FedEx support, because BI shipped via FedEx home I could not change the shipping address. If I was able to do so it would have only cost me $5.00. (Having the package held at a FedEx location was free.) Getting this problem fixed by Northern Brewer of another similar vendor would have been a simple phone call since I noticed the problem immediately after placing the order. That said, I received the false bottom yesterday and it does seem to be a quality item. However, I have yet to install it in my mash tun. So, the final review is not in. Long story short, unless you are willing to forgo all semblance of customer service and are absolutely certain that you will never ever need to return the item or to get any type of post sale service, I recommended that you use another vendor.

I have ordered from Brew International a few times. I have never had any of the problems mention in this thread. They offer good quality products at a huge discount compared to pretty much any other supplier. Sure it took an extra day or 2. I'd gladly pay WAY less and be patient.

I have however had a couple problems with Adventures in Home Brewing. They sent me used kegs that were cracked and could not hold pressure at all. The same set of kegs had syrup residue in them. They sent replacements that were much better. Also ordered an Arrogant Bastard All-grain Clone Kit that was an entire pound short of grains. I called to see what the deal was and the person first asked which grains were short... I responded, that since they were all put in the same bag, there was no way to tell. They gave me a discount on my next order which I was fine with, the AB recipe turned out great. They did nothing to remedy the situation. Not exactly the best customer service.

And to the person that posted something about not trusting members that are not paying to be on here, that is a terrible assumption to make.

Love brew international for there selection and pricing. Hate them for terrible customer service and no care what so ever for you. Multiple orders from myself and my buddy have ended with conversations through the poorly set up "message" system. Each time it ends with a "oh I screwed up your order sorry". Maybe 1 day they will come up to a standard of ok, but for now just plan on having to put the leg work in and playing the waiting game just to save a few bucks.

LandoLincoln said:

Brewhardware.com is my go-to place for most parts.

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^What he said.....