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Reverend JC

2500 gallons year to date
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I ordered some rhizomes from more beer and received 4 stick looking things with no buds or any root structure. seriously looked like large tooth picks. I called them and they said no problem they will grow.

They didnt, but some giant healthy looking cascade rhizoms a friend gave me did.

So as i was looking through their site yesterday and say they had more rhizoms i thought perhaps i should buy a few more. Then i thought hey, the other ones i got from them didnt grow even one inch. So i sent them an email detailing the situation and received a prompt reply about how they do not give refunds or credit on rhizomes as it is up to me to make them grow but since mine arrived and looked like toothpicks they would be more than happy to replace them.:)

I even told them the intent of the email was not to get anything for free but to let them know about the product the hop farms are sending out to their customers.

Right there, an excellent example of customer service at its finest!

highly recommend B3
 
Good to hear. I'm shocked that they still have rhyzomes for sale, though; most other places seemed to be out of stock months ago.
 
I've had several nightmare shipments from them; things missing, broken, or the wrong type. But every time, one call fixed the problem with no cost to me.
 
My experiences with them says they suck. The orders are never right, mixed up item, broken, short. I mean, I wouldn't want be known as the store that fixes things after they consistently screw up. Get it right the first time at least 90% of the time. Nothing like waiting up to a week for the replacement items.
 
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I think their concept of customer service is a little skewed.

They won't ship an entire order worth several hundred dollars if a single small item is backordered. That's garbage. They often make mistakes with orders and ship things like dead rhizomes. That's poor customer service if you ask me!

However, if you call them, they are usually very courteous and quick to correct mistakes. They'll even send the bulk of a big order that is on hold for a backordered item if you call and specifically ask. But...if their customer service was good in the first place, I wouldn't have to make any phone calls to make corrections.

As a result, I avoid More Beer if I can.
 
:mug:
Reverend JC said:
I ordered some rhizomes from more beer and received 4 stick looking things with no buds or any root structure. seriously looked like large tooth picks. I called them and they said no problem they will grow.

They didnt, but some giant healthy looking cascade rhizoms a friend gave me did.

So as i was looking through their site yesterday and say they had more rhizoms i thought perhaps i should buy a few more. Then i thought hey, the other ones i got from them didnt grow even one inch. So i sent them an email detailing the situation and received a prompt reply about how they do not give refunds or credit on rhizomes as it is up to me to make them grow but since mine arrived and looked like toothpicks they would be more than happy to replace them.:)

I even told them the intent of the email was not to get anything for free but to let them know about the product the hop farms are sending out to their customers.

Right there, an excellent example of customer service at its finest!


highly recommend B3


Next time buy your hops from Freshops. http://www.freshops.com

Figure out what you want in Feburary and place an order with them in March.

I would watch the website for when they are ready. They shipped me good sized rhizomes and very quickly I might say. Many buds on each.

I bought cascade & nugget.
 
Most of my experience with Morebeer.com has been good. I've spend several hundred $$ over the last year with them without a major issue.

Decent prices, free shipping & no sales tax for those outside the land of Kali Forn Eye Ay
 
Between April 23 and last tuesday I've spent 452.40 with morebeer and they've not blown an order yet. Customer service has been top notch. The real killer is the free shipping on orders over 59$. NB used to be my 'go to' shop but their higher prices and high shipping have made it impossible for me to order from them. I've saved ~$70 in shipping charges by using morebeer.

FYI, flooding a page with repeated text to make it show up in a search engine doesn't work anymore. Google actually delists pages that do that.

I think part of the problem with morebeer's service is that they're growing faster than they can keep up. They have a LOT of stock 'out of stock' on their pages lately.
 
People can get lucky and never have a problem with a vendor, but when a few or several people say they have had issues, especially when each says more than once, it makes you pay attention, or should.

At least, when you order, weigh the importance of a correctly filled and speedily delivered order against the other compelling reason to use that specific vendor, over the countless others that can do basically the same thing. There may be a reason to risk sloppy service if they can get you something no one else can, or the price of something is teasingly irresistible...

I have heard somewhere that http://www.bayouclassicdepot.com/ has very bad customer service and I won't order from them.
 
I don't have anyexperirnce with More Beer, but when it comes to buying hops/rhisomes I think Freshops are the best at this and they know what they are selling.

Its their core buisness. They are certainly not ignorant like a clerk at More Beer and I'm sure they would never ship a rhizome w/o buds. They seemed pretty nice when I called and asked when the hops should be picked off the bine (not a typo).

I was concerned about picking them too early. They said its pretty obvious look for lots of yellow lupilin like that of pollen. Squeeze and smell. If it smells good, pick them. A clerk at More Beer might be clueless.

To me going to More Beer for rhizomes is like taking you car to local garage when you have transmission trouble instead of going to a transmission shop. Go to the people who know their $hit not those who dabble in everything.

Granted the car could get fixed at the local garage, but believe in going to specialists when they're available.

http://www.frshops.com

:mug:
 
Oy, after all my good words about morebeer I got burned. I ordered the stuff to do a copy of New Belgium's 1554 last week and this weekend I got all set up to brew, had everything there... except the grains of paradise. I guess I didn't check the box well enough. Now I'm gonna fall behind the consumption/producing curve!!!
 
I found this on the web, do a google search for 1554 clone, there was a big discussion about it. This is what I figured would be okay, I'm going to brew it and see where to go from there.

Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 7.16 gal
Estimated OG: 1.053 SG
Estimated Color: 24.0 SRM
Estimated IBU: 25.5 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
5.00 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 43.5 %
3.50 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 30.4 %
1.00 lb Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) Grain 8.7 %
1.00 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 8.7 %
0.50 lb Carafa II (412.0 SRM) Grain 4.3 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 4.3 %
0.85 oz Northern Brewer [8.80%] (60 min) Hops 25.5 IBU
2.00 gm Grains of Paradise (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs SafLager West European Lager (DCL Yeast #SYeast-Lager

Original thread is here: http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4358&sid=f23cfd40896affca7b50a316669459d0
 
Interesting, my Google search (Earthlink homepage) a month or so ago didn't bring that one up. I ended up using the recipe from Zymurgy.


New Belgium 1554 Clone

A ProMash Recipe Report

Recipe Specifics
----------------

Batch Size (Gal): 10.00 Wort Size (Gal): 10.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 17.50
Anticipated OG: 1.046 Plato: 11.45
Anticipated SRM: 30.9
Anticipated IBU: 24.7
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75 %
Wort Boil Time: 75 Minutes

Pre-Boil Amounts
----------------

Evaporation Rate: 1.25 Gallons Per Hour
Pre-Boil Wort Size: 11.56 Gal
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.040 SG 9.96 Plato


Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
80.0 14.00 lbs. Pale Malt (2-row) America 1.036 2
5.7 1.00 lbs. CaraMunich 45 Belgium 1.033 45
5.7 1.00 lbs. Crystal 60L America 1.034 60
2.9 0.50 lbs. Chocolate Malt America 1.029 350
2.9 0.50 lbs. Carafa III Germany 1.030 525
2.9 0.50 lbs. Black Patent Malt America 1.028 525

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.


Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.50 oz. Willamette Pellet 5.00 18.5 60 min.
0.50 oz. Goldings - E.K. Pellet 4.75 6.2 75 min.


Yeast
-----

White Labs WLP001 California Ale

I cut it to 5 gallons and switched the yeast to a WLP830. Fermented at 65F, conditioning now at 40. There was a good article in Zymurgy about using this and other yeasts at higher than normally recommended temps.
 
One thing about MoreBeer is their innovation. They are always trying to find that new great brewing gear and/or designing their own. MoreBeer defiantly took the brew sculpture to the next level and their sterile siphon starter is genius. No matter if you have had a good customer service experience or not (my experience has been great), they have been leaders in advancing our favorite hobby and for that they are my first choice.
 
I've ordered equipment from them but never ingredients and never had a problem. I usually wait until I have an order big enough to get the free shipping.


the_bird said:
Good to hear. I'm shocked that they still have rhyzomes for sale, though; most other places seemed to be out of stock months ago.

I was at my LHBS the other day and they had 6 or 7 different kinds of rhizomes left, I didn't get any since I don't have anyplace to grow them outdoors and I never remember to water my 1 indoor plant....
 
I was really hoping I wouldn't be able to get into this thread. I just received my 4 reconditioned kegs from Morebeer yesterday. Checked them this morning, and one of them had about 6oz of soda syrup in the bottom. :( I'm guessing if there's syrup in the bottom, the gaskets weren't replaced and the keg isn't actually reconditioned. I've emailed them this morning, and I'll let you guys know how it turns out.

Seems to me that they may need a little more support staff for the size of their operations.
 
I shouldn't have said how I was getting good service from them because well... I originally posted this on the b3 site so they'd see it but posting it on the b3 site just exposes me to a bunch of angry fanboys so I deleted it and mailed it to them.

I will admit before starting writing this I have had a frustrating day.

A few weeks ago I ordered some grains and ingredients for a 1554 clone I was going to brew 2 weekends ago. I failed to check the order when it showed up and didn't notice they left the grains of paradise out. A call remedied that, but I didn't brew last weekend because of it. I'm trying to stay ahead of the consumption curve, it's hard to when your stuff doesn't show up.

Friday before last I put in an order for a lot of grains to stock up the brew house, a couple of 6 gallon buckets, and other assorted nonsense. I ordered on friday because if it's picked and shipped on monday, it gets here by friday so I can brew. Also, I get paid on fridays, so it coincides neatly with deposits into my brewing account. Well, as usual, one item was back ordered so I had to call and tell them to leave it off but it still didn't ship till tuesday so I didn't have it last weekend. I did brew the 1554 but didn't brew the bitter I was planning on because I didn't have everything I needed.

When my order arrived today it sounded like a maraca. Bad sign. Whomever packed it was probably sampling some homebrew because bags of grain were in there with far too much empty space, and nothing to fill up the dead space as usual, so the 3 lb bag of chocolate malt broke open, coating everything in grain. Also a pound of something else was mixed in. Now I have 2 brand new fermenters covered in crap - and yes, I have to wash them anyhow, but now I have to really wash them, I can't just fill them with pbw and call it good. Plus now I have to call and get this fixed.

Today I had put in another large order including a large wort chiller so I can move up to 10 gallon batches and stay ahead of the consumption. When I called to get the grain thing fixed I said hey throw it on that order and ship it all together.

Well, they authorize your card for the amount of the purchase, and then when they added those things they reauthorized it and I don't have double the money I'm spending in my beer account and don't have the money elsewhere so now I can't order for a week until those funds are unencumbered. What happens is the bank places a hold on those funds so when the order goes through they haven't been spent elsewhere. When they try to encumber it the second time the bank says no-no because I don't have double the money in there. This is the SECOND time this has happened and it is super friggin annoying. The nice lady on the phone told me that's how it works, but it doesn't work that way anywhere else! When I go to the gas station that authorization doesn't keep funds encumbered for a week after I buy gas.

So now after this charlie foxtrot of order problems I can't order again until the funds are unencumbered. Even if this is standard practice, it's annoying as hell. Amazon doesn't do it, why does morebeer have to?

I am very frustrated by the foul-ups in orders and this idiotic credit card authorization scheme. I've ordered 500$ worth of stuff from more beer since march, do they not care about keeping me as a customer? I realize it's nothing compared to brew sculptures, maybe it's not a priority for them.

At this point I am only ordering from morebeer because of the free shipping, and that's gonna change if I have to keep dealing with this stuff. On another homebrew board the many members have indicated that shenanigans like this have cost morebeer their business. I guess I want someone from b3 to step up and fix all this so I can get to brewing and stop worrying about if my stuff is going to show up and what condition it's going to be in.

I'd go relax and have a homebrew but I ran out and the 1554 isn't finished yet.

Edit: Oh and one more thing. Put the product labels on the OUTSIDE of the lids for the buckets - someplace where we don't have to remove them to use the product!
 
mward said:

Dude, that sucks. I don't care what you sell and to whom, consistent and reasonable customer service should be a priority. Maybe you should look for another place to buy.
 
Beerrific said:
Dude, that sucks. I don't care what you sell and to whom, consistent and reasonable customer service should be a priority. Maybe you should look for another place to buy.

Yeah I'd love to but I'm addicted to their crack (free shipping.) I priced out my most recent order at northern brewer, almost the same price, but 30$ shipping. Austin homebrew has 5.99 shipping so I might have to start talking to them.
 
mward said:
Yeah I'd love to but I'm addicted to their crack (free shipping.) I priced out my most recent order at northern brewer, almost the same price, but 30$ shipping. Austin homebrew has 5.99 shipping so I might have to start talking to them.

I use AHS, never had any problems the likes of what people see with MoreBeer.
 
You toned it down though, mward. Only two people took exception to your thread. Hope you didn't expect a different reaction from the "fanboys"...might as well show up to the Democratic National Convention in a Hummer H2 with a family of ducks stuck in the grill.
 
The powers that be there (meaning the ownership) don't pay any attention to that forum whatsoever. :confused:

Thanks for the pic, gonna have to send that one along! :D
 
After reading all of this I don't particularly want to order from them, but they're the only place that I have found that carries these changable label tap handles in black and this particular length:
taphandle.jpg


I've seen 12" ones at other stores, but I like these shorter ones. Does anybody know where else to find these things?
 
I live right next to a more beer showroom. So I don't order anything. I just head down the street and get it in person =p
 
My experiences with them says they suck. The orders are never right, mixed up item, broken, short. I mean, I wouldn't want be known as the store that fixes things after they consistently screw up. Get it right the first time at least 90% of the time. Nothing like waiting up to a week for the replacement items.

I've never done biz with them, but I'll have to echo Bobby's sentiments here.
I'd rather deal with a biz that gets things right the 1st time consistantly.
I understand mistakes will be made once in a while, but make too many mistakes & I'll take my biz elsewhere. Regards, GF.
 
I'll keep this old thread going as well.

I just had an order with them. They had the lowest price I could find on belgian cages. Since I had just got a ton of corks from St Pats on clearance I figured I'd buy the same amount of cages. Well I wanted 1000 cages and their 1k cage category was "sold out". So I emailed customer service asking if they'd sell me 10 of the 100ct cages for the same price. Based on the fact I'm posting and complaining you can figure they told me that it basically isn't going to happen. Plus I wanted hungarian oak cubes which I was prepared to buy a full pound. Only to find out that surprise they were sold out but not listed as sold out.
 
I just know that the 2 times I have ordered from them, both orders have messed up in some way. The first order was all packed together and the grains I ordered (5 lbs) were torn open and all in the box, the second time they did not send all the items that I had ordered and had to wait an extra week for both of the orders to be fixed.That is when I decided to start to shop someplace else!
 
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