Northern Brewer Grain is not looking so good

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Stauffbier said:
I had this happen with an order from Midwest and they gladly replaced it. They even shipped it over night so I could still brew on the weekend. My hats off to them for superb service in that case. I think most places will provide similar service if you bring it to their attention..
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When I ordered the partial mash Carmelite tripel NB forgot an entire bag of grain. I took the sack into work to weigh it and sure enough it was onli 3 pounds rather than the 5 listed on the bill.

They were cool and replaced it with both bags, but stopped short of overnighting it.
 
I made it through 2 AG batches crushed by my LHBS with miserable efficiency before I decided to bite the bullet and get my own crusher.

I agree with previous posters that the crush is too big of a variable to be left to someone who won't be drinking the final product.
 
Will someone please post a pic of what properly milled grain looks like.
I'm new at this.

This is what I got home with. I called the guy and he said he wasn't trying to make corn meal just crush it. I emailed him pics but haven't heard back.
The one with the corn is a cream ale, the corn looked good.
Also my OG was way low on both batches.

grain 003.jpg


grain 002.jpg
 
Bockinstein said:
Will someone please post a pic of what properly milled grain looks like.
I'm new at this.

This is what I got home with. I called the guy and he said he wasn't trying to make corn meal just crush it. I emailed him pics but haven't heard back.
The one with the corn is a cream ale, the corn looked good.
Also my OG was way low on both batches.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I don't have a photo for you, but the photo you posted (on the left) does not look crushed right to me!
 
The one on the right is a bad pic, It's used mash and the flaked corn is all over the grain but it looked like the one on the right to start with.

I'm going to buy a mill, but I still need a pic if anyone has one.
 
The one on the left is under crushed. The one on the right, can't tell because it's been mashed. You want to look at your grains before they are mashed.
 
My first brew ever was a Cream Ale from NB. Since it was my first time looking at "crushed grains" I had no idea what to expect but all the grains seemed to be broken in half, so I brewed it. My second batch I picked up some grain from a distant (75 min drive) LHBS and was bummed to get home and see they were still whole. Fortunately a fellow brewer I met on here offered to mill them for me. I was quite surprised to see what properly milled grain looks like.

BTW, the Cream Ale still turned out great beer!
 
Beerfly said:
I just got my order from Northern Brewer. Here is a picture of a handful of my rye malt and white wheat malt. Labeled right on the bags "crushed". It's no wonder why the mash efficiency people are reporting is so low.
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That grain crush is pretty bogus, Beerfly. We use Microbrew Series Barley Crushers, and although I thought people were well-trained, we clearly have some work to do. We're going to have a meeting about this, and we'll use your pics as a perfect example.

We've trained our staff, and we have examples of good crush/bad crush at the mill station, but we've never really tried to engineer quality into the process. I've got some ideas on how we can do this, though. We know better. We're Northern Brewer, not amazon.com, after all!

It sounds like our CS department replaced your grain. No, that's not as good as getting it right the first time.

Thanks for lighting a fire!

Chris Farley, President/CEO
 
chris_farley said:
That grain crush is pretty bogus, Beerfly. We use Microbrew Series Barley Crushers, and although I thought people were well-trained, we clearly have some work to do. We're going to have a meeting about this, and we'll use your pics as a perfect example.

We've trained our staff, and we have examples of good crush/bad crush at the mill station, but we've never really tried to engineer quality into the process. I've got some ideas on how we can do this, though. We know better. We're Northern Brewer, not amazon.com, after all!

It sounds like our CS department replaced your grain. No, that's not as good as getting it right the first time.

Thanks for lighting a fire!

Chris Farley, President/CEO
Click to expand...


Woot!
 
I've bought from them and they are as good as my regular place (Brewmaster's Warehouse). I don't buy crushed grain.

What I absolutely love from them is their catalog (wow) and those freaking funny commercials on the Jamil show / Brewstrong. Some of the funniest stuff.

Radio ads are at this link, but the funniest one isn't there (the post-apocalypse commercial - so frigging funny). http://www.northernbrewer.com/learn/resources/
 
chris_farley said:
That grain crush is pretty bogus, Beerfly. We use Microbrew Series Barley Crushers, and although I thought people were well-trained, we clearly have some work to do. We're going to have a meeting about this, and we'll use your pics as a perfect example.

We've trained our staff, and we have examples of good crush/bad crush at the mill station, but we've never really tried to engineer quality into the process. I've got some ideas on how we can do this, though. We know better. We're Northern Brewer, not amazon.com, after all!

It sounds like our CS department replaced your grain. No, that's not as good as getting it right the first time.

Thanks for lighting a fire!

Chris Farley, President/CEO
Click to expand...

And thats what were talking about. Thank you Mr. Farley.
 
Northern Brewer's customer service is definitely what all companies should strive for. Thanks for sending the new grains and complimentary glass, I look forward to brewing your Denny's Wry Smile Rye.
 
My question is if Chris Farley is still alive, why is he running a homebrew supply instead of making more movies with David Spade? :p
 
WOW!! The top dawg replying to a customer thats impressive!! Wonder when he was informed about this? I'd hate to be the person that sent out that crush! :)
 
This thread reminds me when I posted in an Apple forum what makes an Ipad worth $800 when there are other tables for half that and double the features.
 
Way to step to the plate and park one in the cheap seats! What a concept, owning up to a mistake, and outlining solutions to prevent it's reoccurence. My hat is off sir.
Jim
 
Thumbs up to NB and Chris Farley! Did anybody else notice that was his first post, and he joined the forum just to acknowledge the mistake and say how they would fix it? Class act all the way! :mug:
 
Anyone feel like commenting on my crush from NB. This is the Surly Furious Pro Series grain bill ordered CRUSHED a few days ago and delivered 10 min ago. This is my first AG kit ordered ever. I normally have my local crush my grains and I usually hit 75ish when batch sparging, but this looks suspect.

2817840150095344322S600x600Q85.jpg


2532859960095344322S600x600Q85.jpg


2033188980095344322S600x600Q85.jpg


2193829880095344322S600x600Q85.jpg
 
I thought as much too, but figured I'd ask those with more knowledge than I. Shot an email to NB. I have zero doubt that they'll take care of it with no issue.
 
Hmmmm looks uncrushed........... This thread has actually convinced me to by my own mill. Makes my Rebel mill prettier and prettier each day.

Let them know and they will fix it. Sucks that they didn't get it right though.
 
Already got a reply back from NB offering to send me a replacement grain bill. Great company that I'll continue to purchase from. I certainly hope they get this issue completely worked out.
 
Yeah that is definitely uncrushed. But, NB is a great company I love ordering from. That said, all AG brewers really do need their own grain mill. Either way, even if 80% of your orders had a perfect crush you'd still have 20% off, and many grains are different sizes so it's best to do the milling yourself, if even just for a consistent efficiency.


Rev.
 

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