Looking for a decent online supplier

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TerryH

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In my web searches I have found Austin Home brew supplies and Northern Brewer. Does anyone have some input on these companies and their quality of ingredients. Any other companies that are well liked?
Thanks for any input.
 
Have never had a problem with AHS. To me its a huge + that they monitor this site and answer any questions anyone has.
 
AHS, morebeer, homebrew heaven, and the grape and granary. Ive ordered from all of them and they're all great. most of the time Ive never had any problems, two separate times Ive had missing items in the order one from AHS the other from homebrew heaven both times customer services were excellent. morebeer has free shipping on orders of 50 or more I think and AHS has a great deal of flat rate shipping.
 
I have found that AHS is very good with their ingredients. And they are also on this site quite often helping people with questions about their stuff. If you have questions for them they say to put Austin Homebrew Supply in your title, and they will help you fast.

No local home brew stores?
 
northern brewer is my preference...some because my buddy can pick up stuff there for me at their warehouse...other because their shipments are fast and taken good care of and the customer service is amazing......and they also send catalogs
 
Austin Homebrew Supply, Norther Brewer, and Midwest have all been great to deal with and I've ordered both ingredients and brewing equipment from them all.

Midwest ends up having the best prices even WITH the shipping charges for me. Build a shopping cart out on all three sites and see who has the best deal. Shocked the hell out of me when Midwest ended up winning time after time.

And they send throne reading material! :D
 
I use Northern Brewer and never had a problem. Have some friends who swear on Grape and Granary for prices, but never used them. Probably will try Austin next time because of all the good stuff heard on here. I guess it depends on who has what your looking for.
 
I started with AHS, but recently Midwest Supplies is my primary supplier. I price compare every order now, and find that even without flat rate shipping, Midwest is usually cheaper. Of course, I'm only zone 2 shipping for Midwest, so that helps. Midwest has great customer service too and are very prompt with e-mails. AHS has great kits with better instructions than Midwest's kits, but I'm moving away from kits, so that's not as big of a deal to me anymore.
 
Austin Homebrew is my LHBS so I spend the most with them, but I have ordered from all of the ones mentioned. Midwest and Northern Brewer have great service and fast shipping. B3 takes a bit longer to process my orders but they are good too and they carry stuff that is hard to find elsewhere. I have bought most of my hops from Freshops.
 
Ive ordered from AHS 5 times and on 3 orders i had items missing? They did take care of it but it was a major inconvenience. Northern brewer no hitches as of yet.
 
I owe it to AHS to give them a recommendation. I have only had one problem with an order from them (out of a dozen orders) and it was really UPS's problem. They handled it within hours and had a replacement sent out. I have also ordered from Northwest, Williams, and Homebrewmart.com and all have been pleasant experiences.
 
I've ordered from both Northern Brewer and Midwest Supplies and have had good luck with both. Plus, it only takes one 1 day for my orders to arrive as I'm not too far away from these guys.
 
I've used Northern Brewer, Williams, Midwest and they're all great. I go with the closest to me for grains/hops/yeasts which for me is Grape and Granary (Ohio) and Ebrew (NC).
 
I just ordered a dual regulator and picnic faucet from kegkits.com and was very happy with the service. When I received the regulator the tank gauge wasn't working. I sent an email and received a speedy reply that the gauge was probably damaged and they would send me a replacement - they did. No questions... no fuss... great service.
 
stuartm said:
I just ordered a dual regulator and picnic faucet from kegkits.com and was very happy with the service. When I received the regulator the tank gauge wasn't working. I sent an email and received a speedy reply that the gauge was probably damaged and they would send me a replacement - they did. No questions... no fuss... great service.
Click to expand...

Congrats. I've not had good luck with them, at all.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/kegkits-com-take-runner-68340/
 
Overall the 3-4 major ones mentioned here are GOOD. In such a large pool of users, there will always be a very vocal dissatisfied customer. With several orders each, my favorites are Northern Brewer, AHS, and brewbyu.com. Yup, that last one is obscure but check out their pricing.
 
Having only placed one order, I can't add much, but I do want to note, in case it makes a difference, that Northern Brewer uses styrofoam packing peanuts. Lots and lots of them. I got my starter kit from them last night and, while the cats were thrilled with the "ball pit" to play in, I wasn't so happy to have so much styrofoam to throw out.

I would imagine smaller orders are packed without so many peanuts, but it would be nice if they'd consider using cellulose peanuts if they're going to use so many.

I wouldn't hesitate to order from them again, though, unless it was something likely to come in a gigantic box.
 
uncleozzy said:
Having only placed one order, I can't add much, but I do want to note, in case it makes a difference, that Northern Brewer uses styrofoam packing peanuts. Lots and lots of them. I got my starter kit from them last night and, while the cats were thrilled with the "ball pit" to play in, I wasn't so happy to have so much styrofoam to throw out.

I would imagine smaller orders are packed without so many peanuts, but it would be nice if they'd consider using cellulose peanuts if they're going to use so many.

I wouldn't hesitate to order from them again, though, unless it was something likely to come in a gigantic box.
Click to expand...

There is no need to throw out the peanuts. You can recycle them by giving them to virtually any store. They will use them over again.

We tried using the corn starch peanuts once. This type of peanut is considered food by roaches and rats. Then they see all of the grain to eat as well and they are hard to get rid of after that. This was about 6 years ago.

Forrest
 
Austinhomebrew said:
We tried using the corn starch peanuts once. This type of peanut is considered food by roaches and rats. Then they see all of the grain to eat as well and they are hard to get rid of after that. This was about 6 years ago.
Click to expand...

Ah! I hadn't thought of that.
 
I have only ordered from Northern, but it was hassle-free. I also like to peruse their catalog, which is much better than their online store IMO.

I'd love to see some of the others' catalogs. Just a bit of porn to read before bed...
 
Homercidal said:
I have only ordered from Northern, but it was hassle-free. I also like to peruse their catalog, which is much better than their online store IMO.

I'd love to see some of the others' catalogs. Just a bit of porn to read before bed...
Click to expand...

Midwest, Northern Brewer and Williams have good catalogues with some good info on brewing in general (Midwest has conversion amounts for priming different sugars for example)
 
I've only ordered from Northern brewer. They usually add ice packs even if I don't order one and once sent a once of Sterling hops I didn't order. I thought about sending it back but I did not think it was worth it. I should have told them but instead I brewed them with leftovers.

I wish I had a LHBS. I still try to buy all I can locally.
 
I usually order from The Grape and Granary but have also had good experiences with Northern Brewer and Midwest.
I will often fill a shopping cart with shipping and compare prices. When I am ordering 5 or 10 # bags of grains (my usually grain supply order) The Grape and Granary usually comes out ahead. For other supplies Midwest is often ahead though occasionally Northern Brewer has good deals (like on the honey I have in my cart). I also like that I can order liquid yeast from The Grape and Granary and have it with 1 day shipping due to their location with respect to my home.

Craig
 
uncleozzy said:
Having only placed one order, I can't add much, but I do want to note, in case it makes a difference, that Northern Brewer uses styrofoam packing peanuts. Lots and lots of them. I got my starter kit from them last night and, while the cats were thrilled with the "ball pit" to play in, I wasn't so happy to have so much styrofoam to throw out.

I would imagine smaller orders are packed without so many peanuts, but it would be nice if they'd consider using cellulose peanuts if they're going to use so many.

I wouldn't hesitate to order from them again, though, unless it was something likely to come in a gigantic box.
Click to expand...


You can also reuse those peanuts by shipping samples of your favorite recipes to your buddies, and provide their cats with hours of static ball pit playtime!
 
Okay, Okay, I'm going to have to plug my LHBS now. 7 Bridges is located in Santa Cruz, CA and is known for being certified for organics. All of their ingredients (unless otherwise stated) are organic. I will say that they do not have the best selection or prices on equipment, but if you want to make a great organic beer, they have fresh, organic ingredients. I have seen that they are a little more pricey than some others, but all organic products are more expensive than others.
 
Buzz_Armstrong said:
You can also reuse those peanuts by shipping samples of your favorite recipes to your buddies, and provide their cats with hours of static ball pit playtime!
Click to expand...

I don't think anyone but me will want a bottle of the first batch, which ought to go into primary tonight. :cross:

I gotta say, though, seeing the cats run around with styrofoam stuck to their noses was pretty funny.
 

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