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brewmasterwarehouse.com

I can say that I have spent half a day to save $10 on $100 including shipping and they can't be beat. If you add the brewbuilder discount to the package, and the flat rate shipping, it is stupid cheap. $7.00 to ship 50lb is awesome. Maybe half what it would be at my local brew shop. The processing has started to slow down in the past couple of years, but if you need it fast, call and they will expedite, but maybe not at the cheap shipping. I order on a Friday to get in the next Thursday... I occasionaly price other places and am always happy to return..
 
Backyard Home Brewers and Education Center
Backyardhomebrewers.com
Houston's newest supply store
 
Check us out!! www.mistuckycreek.com. We are a full service homebrew and wine making supply store. Check our website and Facebook page for events, classes, specials, and demos. We are building our online store and hope to launch it this year. Let us know what you think and what you want in a store!!
 
HI all,

Im just wondering how Midwest Supplies are for ordering….Supplies of course???

The reason I ask is that I ordered from them last Friday Feb 3 and every product that I ordered "said" it was in stock.

As of now it still has not shipped? The shipping fee was a bit steep at $31.00 I called them today and was told that it should go out tomorrow…check back again in the afternoon.

Now is it me, because I am not feeling "right" about how this transaction is going…Im feeling like Im being taken advantage of.

My order was well over $200 of supplies so its not that small of an order…

Your thoughts please
 
That seems a bit long. What did you order? If it's big and or glass then the shipping is resonable.

I ordered a yeast starter kit from them. The flask was cruddy and cracked but they replaced it quickly and addmitted that the quality wasn't what they would like.
 
I have always had a good experience with Midwest. They probably just have a lot of orders going out right now.
 
well i had an issues with them not shipping my stuff. And they refunded my shipping price since it took 3 days to ship the stuff.
 
I think everyone is backed up with orders. I just placed a big order with Brewmasters Warehouse on Sunday and it too still has not shipped. Maybe cus everyone is getting there government "loans" (taxes) back lol. :)
 
Three times I have loaded up my "Cart" at Midwest, and then when I saw the shipping charges, I just killed the order. I don't get it. I have ordered instead from Austin and I get free shipping over $100 and cheap shipping under that. Same basic stuff available. I have no interest in or much awareness of any of these businesses, but Midwest has pricey shipping. Also, I sent them an email once about a problem I was having with an order, and they never responded. Feh.
 
I just ordered a beer kit and the shipping was $13.00. A bit pricey, seeing as how the kit was only $25, but I paid it. Now we'll see how fast they ship it. I got a confirmation email saying I will get an email within 24-48 hrs with tracking info.
 
Odd. I've done two orders with the in the last month and they've been shipped on time. In both cases, the notification of shipping came 12-24 hours after it had actually hit FedEx. This was startling at first, but I like it better than most other retailers' policy of sending a shipping notice before they've even handed it off to the shipper.

Regarding their shipping charges, it's worth checking the other options, but when I checked that for my orders it was a wash. Yes, they tacked on shipping, but most of the items were $1-$2 cheaper than they were at the places that offered free shipping, so it wound up being a completely negligible difference.

I'm sure this depends a lot on what you're buying. I have noticed that at least one of the other places (don't recall which, maybe NB?) exempts some of the bulkier items from their free shipping anyway.

Edit: Todd --- just saw your msg. I've noticed that there is usually a minimum shipping charge for each method ($10.50 or something for FedEx home when I checked, IIRC) and then it increases depending on what you add. Placing small orders with heavy/bulky items is going to cost a lot fractionally.
 
I have got to say the Brewsaver shipping from Northern Brewer is tough to beat. I ordered 7 boxes of stuff some of it pretty large. 8 gal brewpot, 2 5 gal water coolers. It all shipped for 7.99. It took about 3 days for it to ship but worth it.
 
I thought NB was nicley organized packaging. I felt like Midwest just threw it all in there unorganized and without care.I seemed to think the malts were fresher too with NB. Although i received midwest faster.
 
Three times I have loaded up my "Cart" at Midwest, and then when I saw the shipping charges, I just killed the order. I don't get it. I have ordered instead from Austin and I get free shipping over $100 and cheap shipping under that. Same basic stuff available. I have no interest in or much awareness of any of these businesses, but Midwest has pricey shipping. Also, I sent them an email once about a problem I was having with an order, and they never responded. Feh.

+1

I really don't get how Midwest survives with some of there shipping charges. They are not any cheaper the some other big online retailers on most of the common items grain, yeast, hop, etc.
 
I love midwest. Great prices but they charge exactly what fedex charges them and that is pretty steep. Their orders always take awhile to ship.
 
I have had no trouble with Midwest filling an order for me. I like their kits but I stopped ordering from them because their shipping prices aren't competitive. I can almost drive to the nearest HBS, which is 60 miles away, cheaper than Midwest's shipping.
I started ordering from Austin Homebrew Supply because they have $7.99 flat rate shipping and they don't play around with an order.
I ordered a recipe from them on a Saturday, with crushed grain, and got it on the following Wednesday.
 
I thought NB was nicley organized packaging. I felt like Midwest just threw it all in there unorganized and without care.I seemed to think the malts were fresher too with NB. Although i received midwest faster.

+1 cept for the fast shipping part.
 
I've had a 250$ and a 400$ order from midwest, both were roughly 30-40 in shipping and both arrived within a week.

All were accurate, they have friendly help, and i think they're great.
 
I have never had a problem with Midwest. Being overseas they are one of a couple OLHBS that ship to APOs. My orders are always accurate, shipped fast, and well packaged. On more than one occasion, I have had my order upgraded due to the original item not being in stock, ie silicon hose over high temp. Like previously stated they are probably swamped with orders now due to all the tax returns.
 
Just wondering where the best place to get supplies(ingredients and hardware) is. My LHBS is a little more pricey and a narrower selection but doesn't have shipping costs, also is it better(cheaper) to buy some standard ingredients in bulk. I am just getting started and don't have much and the wife is starting to glare at me when I talk about the things I need. Right now I am using a very old steel 5 gal pot, a propane burner from a turkey deep frying setup, 2 plastic 5 gal watercooler jugs from walmart with airlocks and rubber stoppers from lhbs, 2 plastic 5 gallon joint compound buckets with sealing lids that i rigged to hold an airlock. What are some of the essentials and what do i "need" to get and/ or replace?
 
You NEED a 100 gallon, fully automated, plutonium powered brew rig!!

One thing that's quite important would be a hydrometer.

You'll also need some time and lots of patience.


Happy Brewing!
 
I will have to give them another call today as she said.

I think that if the items were in stock, it SHOULD of been processed and shipped within 3 days. That is reasonable to me.

A week is way too long. I may just cancel the order...
 
You should email them. This way you have a record of the coversation. Maybe good for a discount on later purchases too!;)
 
I thought NB was nicley organized packaging. I felt like Midwest just threw it all in there unorganized and without care.I seemed to think the malts were fresher too with NB. Although i received midwest faster.

Interesting...I got the exact opposite when I ordered 4 carboys, several thermometers and 30+ pounds of grain, very nicely organized and nothing damaged...I remember opening up the box and thinking there is no way its all in here, but everything had its own spot and was really well packaged.

I agree with many others that this is a busy time, especially for midwest with the groupon...I placed an order tuesday and I really want to get two batches done it two weeks so it better be here!
 
I dont know about using the joint compound buckets for brewing, should probably be food grade buckets, just a thought....you could try a local bakery for the bucket, maybe for free then go to the LHBS for a pre-drilled, lid with gromet. +1 on the turkey fryer, it will be a big help for the boil. Not sure about the coolers, are you using them as primaries or secondaries? Seems like they might hold too much heat, guess it would be ok if you got your pitching tmp pretty low to start with. Someone with more experience than me will have to weigh in on that.
 
WHY I wouldn't buy from Midwest.... cost, cost and cost.

I went to their site and Austin Home Brew and selected 6 items.... Better Bottle carboy, extract brew kit with White Labs yeast, 4oz iodophor, 1lb DME, bench top bottle capper, and a case of 12oz bottles.

Midwest cost = $110.11 + shipping $25.30 = $135.41

Austin Home Brew = $115.43 + FREE SHIPPING

Example #2... 4 - 6.9 gal buckets and 4 cases of 12oz bottles.

Midwest = $107.92 + shipping $51.11 = $159.03

Austin Home Brew = $127.92 and free shipping
 
If your LHBS is decent and within about 10% of online prices, I'd strongly urge you to shop there. The online places are great, but having a local store for immediate purchases and, if you're lucky, advice is worth paying a bit more for. If they don't carry things, you could at least inquire about a special order---most likely they can tack something on to their next order.

Their prices will be higher---that's a simple fact of supporting a physical shop without the benefit of extra profit from online business. You have to decide how much you're willing to pay to support the benefit of a local source. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with buying online, just that it's not always best to value price over all else.

For more helpful suggestions, I would echo jax's post. I would strongly advise against using non-food-grade plastics for storage of things you're going to eat, and I'd never consider using something that stored building supplies. I just wouldn't trust washing it to get everything out. I've heard that Home Depot may have inexpensive food-grade buckets you could substitute, and in any case the $10 it'll cost to replace one is a "drop in the bucket," so to speak.

I don't have much experience, but from what I've read there may be concerns with the oxygen permeability of water cooler jugs unless they're designed for the purpose, but I get the sense that this is sort of an "advanced" concern and you are perhaps best off just running with it and only replace those if you actually find a problem with oxidation or if you plan to do an extended aging where you don't want to discover a problem after you've invested 6 months or a year on a project.

Just some thoughts from a n00b...
 
Agreed, make sure the buckets are made from food grade plastic. Commercial grade usually isn't good enough for home brewing (holds bacteria more easily, can leach compounds depending on the plastic, etc.).

Any restaurant should be able to hook you up with 5-10 gallon food grade buckets. Fast food restaurants toss them out all the time. My DW owns a dairy queen, and I have quite a few 10 gallon food grade buckets that used to hold frozen strawberry topping. Bakeries also go through a lot of food grade buckets, too. Talk to the owners/managers and ask them to save you a few buckets and give you a call to pick them up.

The hydrometer is a required item IMHO, it's the only way to tell when your beer is done fermenting and how much alcohol is in it.

Other items I use a lot:

A meat thermometer: In the boil, it reads the temperature constantly. Mine has a handy clip that can clip to the side of my brew pot.

A LCD thermometer: one of those plastic strip thermometers for aquariums. Stick it on the outside of your primary fermentation bucket so you can monitor the beer's temperature while it ferments.

A mesh strainer: A large one that will rest on top of the fermenter buckets. This is for removing hops and other adjuncts from the wort, and it helps aerate the wort as it's being poured into the bucket.

That's about it. Other items are optional.

One item I couldn't brew without in my area is a drop freezer. I live in Florida, and it gets incredibly hot here all year around. Without my drop freezer (and temperature controller), I couldn't keep the beer cold enough to ferment the beer without off flavors developing. Now, I brew the wort, pitch the yeast, and set the fermentation bucket right into the freezer and set the temperature right where I want it (usually right at the low end of that particular yeast's temperature range).
 
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