Homebrew Membership - Page 5

kaiser423 · 06-17-2009, 05:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ikelso

This sounds like a great deal. For those of us that wash/harvest yeast, would there be any way to substitute a different yeast vial if we're purchasing a AHS kit?

Just want to voice this with the others, even though you've shot it down already.... maybe you'll listen to your customers and actually rethink your position. Add your recipes to the site. As your customer I care about convenience as well as supporting you whenever I can. It's for this reason that I enjoyed ordering from your site a few times now. Despite every recipe order I've made with ya'll having some kind of shipping problem nearly killing the yeast, for some reason I still want to order! It's because I appreciate your work, I love the cleanliness of your store, and the knowledge your staff carries (even if they don't ever want to look up my order number to see if it shipped...). What would publishing your recipes on your website do for me as your customer? Make me love you that much more.

It's proven in many other markets, as long as you provide the absolute best customer service out of all your competitors, it doesn't matter if you give away your secrets. People will still come to you out of the loyalty you create from the interaction.

ok, so I doubt it will change your mind, but I figured I'd try.

I don't mean to jump in here, but what need would you have for the recipes? AHS typically lists a similar tasting beer.

In the past, I would've thought it nice to show the recipe's IBU's, and some other more technical information like that, but that's about it. He spent a lot of time on those recipes, and I have no idea why he'd want to just put all of that out there.

I just don't know what it would gain the end customer...

ikelso · 06-17-2009, 07:05 PM

nah, it's a valid thing to think and I didn't go into it because I didn't want to beat a dead horse and thought wording it my way would have been nicer... however, since it was asked to explain:

I ordered a belgian white kit off the website. Due to a page timeout issue on their site I had to go back through and remake the order. Instead of making it all grain as I had the first time, I accidentally left it as mini-mash. When it arrived I was so surprised I got a mini-mash kit I even at first thought "those &#*%)#(* at AHS screwed up my order" until I went and looked at the order online myself.

Rather than going back to AHS and asking if I could ship it back, paying shipping costs back, paying shipping back out to me, just to get the right setup I would have really liked to go to the store 15 mins away from me and just grab the grains. I had everything else from the kit: hops, sugar, bottle caps, yeast etc. If only I had the all grain recipe! So I went to the site once again and found it only lists total grain weight and not the grain bill. It was really frustrating to not have the instant gratification that the rest of the internet allows and have the recipe right before me. Instead, I decided to formulate my own recipe by tweaking a couple different other ones I found... which brings me to my NEXT reasoning for the recipes to be listed.

For the people that like to experiment, it'd be damn nice to know what I'm getting beforehand so that if I want to try something a little different than what's in the recipe I can build my own grain bill. My wife and I for some reason love biscuit malt. We like to reformulate things to try and incorporate it when we can to see how things turn out. without a recipe listed, or the option to change up the grain bill, we can't really do much tweaking (subtracting a little here to add a little there) and can only do pure additions.

Again.. do I expect that this will change anyone's mind from a business standpoint? Probably not. But I hope you can see how from the customer point of view this could be a valuable thing if incorporated to the website correctly.

Also, the ability to email and get a recipe didn't occur to me at the time. Again... instant gratification is the name of the game for me when I'm on the internet and email is just too darn slow. It's a good idea, but when I call up just to have them check an order for me to see if it shipped and I get the run around from them, I don't have much hope that I'll get a recipe sent back to me in a timely manner. I've had 2 orders now that when I click the tracking button, the UPS page won't find the shipment and the explanation I get is "your order probably hasn't shipped yet" One time I said "well that can't be right, I ordered about a week ago", the other time I took it as truth and had a box get delivered to me 3 hours later.

**Austinhomebrew** · 06-18-2009, 03:13 AM

Back from Iceland....
We come from the land of the ice and snow, from the midnight sun where the hot springs blow. Aw Aw Aw... Aw Name that tune.

We have a more than full time person that answers email and answers the phone when we are open. We would have gladly given you the info if you had asked.

We cant really put a SRM or IBU on the recipes because it will change drastically if you do a full boil verses a partial boil. All of your brewing techniques have an impact on the SRM and the IBU.

Forrest

Koric · 06-18-2009, 03:55 AM

The hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new lands, To fight the horde, singing and crying, Valhalla, I am coming!

That would be led Zepplin's Immigrant song. Showing my age but knowing the words to the song!

Good to see you back and sorry to hear the reason for the trip.

Baja_Brewer · 06-18-2009, 11:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Koric

That would be led Zepplin's Immigrant song. Showing my age but knowing the words to the song!

I dont know how old you are, but I'm in my early 20's and I knew that one.

Glad to have you back Forrest. I've been following this whole membership thing.... Interested on seeing how it pans out

rustybrew123 · 06-18-2009, 04:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Austinhomebrew

We have a more than full time person that answers email and answers the phone when we are open. We would have gladly given you the info if you had asked.

Forrest

I don't post here very much at all, but I have read you say this numerous times. It was about a year ago I emailed your store to get an ingredient list for your Ginger Hibiscus Saison to see if I wanted to order any additional items to modify the recipe. I was told I would have to order the kit to get the recipe. Which I did, but it did leave a bad taste in my mouth after reading you say that you would be happy to supply the recipes to individual customers who asked.

I really don't think making recipes available online is going to reduce your business, I think it might actually increase it by inspiring your customers to try more new things. But I guess if I am wrong you can't put the genie back in the bottle.

I love the store otherwise. I use it frequently for both mail order and in store visits. Thanks for adding the in store pickup option on the order form. It is very convenient for me to have my Brother in law stop by and pick up an order on his way up to visit.

Edited to add: By the way about a membership club, I like the idea but I only bulk order about once a quarter, so it would probably need to be something I could redeem in one order all at once for it to make sense for me.

KopyKat · 06-28-2009, 04:28 PM

Quote:

maybe you'll listen to your customers and actually rethink your position. Add your recipes to the site.

No, this is all wrong. I as a customer really understand Forrest's position. Really, just think about all the expense and time he and his crew take to develop, test and create those recipes. Then to give it away to all his competitors would be foolish indeed.

As a customer, I want Forrest to be successful and remain one of, if not the best Homebrew stores around. (best in my opinion) He can't be that if he doesn't stay ahead of the competition and giving away his hard work is not the way to do it.

Sure, I would like to see them all posted too for my own benefit. Better yet, Forrest should print them all out and send them to me in book form with monthly updates.

That said, it has always been my opinion that the expected IBUs should be printed on the recipe. I understand that the AAs of hops is constantly changing from year to year, supplier to supplier but that does not change the fact that to duplicate as close as possible the original recipe result, you need that information. IBUs can vary a lot and therefore the outcome can vary a good bit. Over several years a particular recipe could go from Pale ale to IPA just on AA alone or the reverse.

This means that adjustments to the recipe would have to be made each time the hops shipment arrived with a different AA. Can I think of a different nightmare. No, not from a business standpoint. Unless, unless . . . the original IBUs were printed on the recipe and on the order page with (disclaimer) wording that the IBUs on the shipment may not match the IBUs of the recipe due to changes in the hops IBUs. A dropdown box with the option of ordering an extra ounce of bittering hops could be added in case the person wanted to have the adjustment option.

Or, for those wanting to know. Have it listed so we can call in and find out.

I may be offering to solve a problem that doesn't exist from most people's prespective so it could be I am one of the few that is anal enough to consider this an issue. So be it.

talenos · 06-29-2009, 06:22 AM

I agree with what you're saying KopyKat, but just to be the devil's advocate. There is always the saying that a good brewer will always share his recipe. It's not the gospel truth, but I see both sides of the issue.

Captain_Bigelow · 07-02-2009, 02:03 AM

When is this membership starting? I need to place an order soon and wouldn't mind taking advantage of this and the free shipping.