Midwest Supplies

I think they might be getting behind or something. I ordered a kit monday evening, expecting it to ship out yesterday sometime... Still haven't gotten the email with the fedex tracking number..... Not sure whats going on over there.

Captainfester said:

So my wife had ordered me a starter kit and some extract kits for xmas. when the xmas came i put it all together. the bottling bucket was drilled incorrectly for the spigot bulkhead.

i called midwest who was happy to ship out a replacement bucket... however they never sent it. now i have to go chasing them again.

i tell my wife the story, turns out when she ordered the kit / recipes etc they forgot to ship those as well! she had to chase them for the original order!

anyone else have these problems or am i just lucky twice?

i like their site and the recipes seemed to come out good so far, but if its gonna be a pain in the A, i will go to austin and my lhbs.

fwiw I am positive midwest will send me the bucket, its not so much about that just a pain that im ready to bottle this weekend and im not sure it will be here.

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Yes, I had a bad experience with them as well. It's a long story but here her goes. I ordered a 16 inch sight glass from Rebel brewer, and when I got it I thought cool. The shipping was a bi#@%, but I moved on and welded it to my HLT. Now I need one for my kettle. Well rebel was out of stock and I wanted to brew, so I ordered the exact thing from Midwest, when it came the shipping was fast, but the threads were striped and cross threaded. because the fittings were cheap knock offs ,and the rubber gaskets on top, and bottom were to Frickin big!

Now I have a crocked sight on my kettle that leaks! I will never buy from them again. As for the price was slightly more.

I got a few kits from them without any issues but the one time I did have a problem with my order their customer service was terrible. I bought a burner from them and it was missing the gas connection / regulator. After being told that they would ship the part the next day for over three weeks I emailed the manufacturer. That got their attention but what they sent me looked like they put it together from some parts at the hardware store. I emailed the manufacturer again and they sent me the part and billed Midwest for it.

I feel your pain.
I have called Midwest on these situations in the past. They have offered to send my order express since they didn't ship in a reasonable time-frame.

Give that a shot. Then order from Northern Brewer the next time you are in a time crunch. They package and ship very quickly but are more expensive.

Captainfester said:

One more day gone. One more day not shipped.... All these good reviews here I can't be this unlucky.

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Why it is you call them then hang up the phone without tracking information is beyond me.

find it hard to understand how you missed that it hadnt shipped when i called.

i did call today and they say it shipped yesterday and gave me a tracking number although fedex didnt notify me / their system doesnt show it / there is no tracking info on fedex.com

we shall see. at least some progress at this point

Captainfester said:

find it hard to understand how you missed that it hadnt shipped when i called.

i did call today and they say it shipped yesterday and gave me a tracking number although fedex didnt notify me / their system doesnt show it / there is no tracking info on fedex.com

we shall see. at least some progress at this point

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Same here. Just got off the phone a minute ago... Nothing on fedex.com. A little disappointed with their performance at the moment, but willing to give them the benefit of the doubt (because i've had nothing but good experiences with them) until this happens again. Then i'll be ordering my brewing materials through a different company.

So they gave me a tracking number verbally. Which think was generated on the spot since there is no action on the website or fedex. Although I made it abundantly clear I need it for the weekend so I think when / if they shipped it they will expedite it.

Here's hoping!

I placed an order late Saturday night, realized I left something out and called the next morning. They added it to the order with no problem. It was shipped regular USPS, so I didn't get it till today but, again, no problems, it was all there.

All in all a decent transaction, although getting a shipping notice would have been nice.

Well I finally got a update from fedex. Nothing like being blatantly lied to by Midwest. It didn't ship Wednesday or Monday for that matter. it shipped Thursday like I suspected. And no they didn't expedite it even though they were told over and over I needed it by Saturday.

It will arrive Wednesday of next week. Thanks for nothing Midwest. Looks like I will use Austin from now on.

Captainfester said:

Well I finally got a update from fedex. Nothing like being blatantly lied to by Midwest. It didn't ship Wednesday or Monday for that matter. it shipped Thursday like I suspected. And no they didn't expedite it even though they were told over and over I needed it by Saturday.

It will arrive Wednesday of next week. Thanks for nothing Midwest. Looks like I will use Austin from now on.

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When they messed up my order the fedex update also said it would be the following week, but to my surprise it arrived the following morning. Maybe you'll get lucky, and the same thing will happen for you..

Stauffbier said:

When they messed up my order the fedex update also said it would be the following week, but to my surprise it arrived the following morning. Maybe you'll get lucky, and the same thing will happen for you..

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ahhhh dont get my hopes up. they have already been crushed like 4 times this week.

Update = total failure

Finally came. Only 5 days late. Austin. Here I come!

Have placed several orders with them over the last 5 years or so...havent' had to call upon their customer service, but so far, the orders that I have placed have been filled correctly and shipped on time..

Only issue I have had has been with the fedex gonks...they have damaged boxes of liter swing top bottles...I have ordered well over 100 swing top bottles and I have gotten boxes with 2-3 broken per shipment...there's not much Midwest can do about it, and I look at it as a cost of doing business...

This is why I ordered my new Kegging system from them...

Got it way quick and ready to go...

sometimes if I order from them on weds am it gets to me on friday at noon!!!

FYI I live 240 miles away.

I called to amend an order...needed some screw on lids for my 1 gallon jugs. They threw a pack of 10 in for free and didn't amend the total price like I told them to do. Top notch in my book!

It's a shame so many people seem to have issues with Midwest. I've done a fair share of my purchases from them (I only really deviate if they don't have something I want), and their service, and shipping times are flawless. Heck, they've even sent me emails/left me messages about my orders when there is a problem.

Once, a yeast I ordered was backordered until the beginning of the next week. No big deal, glad they were nice enough to leave a message.

All in all, I have nothing but good things to say about Midwest! Great retailer!

Never had a problem with Midwest. Fedex...is a whole different animal. Never really been a big fan of Fedex. Boxes always looks like the have been dragged behind the truck and every now and then I get "the guy on the couch" or a Juggalo delivering it. Remember this from not to long ago?

My only complaint about Midwest is their sales through Amazon. They only have 1 option for shipping and the cost is through the roof. I had gift cards to amazon and wanted to buy stuff from Midwest but couldn't justify spending close to $10 just to ship some tubing. I can turn around and go directly to their site and my shipping options are WAY cheaper. I probably would have spent close to $200 with them if they had better shipping options on Amazon.

Ordered a few things from Midwest. One of the items was wrong, so they're shipping out a replacement. They apologized and said I could keep the mis-shipped item. So I got some free stuff, and I'm only slightly inconvenienced. They handled it how I would've, if I were them.

I use midwest and will continue to use them. I also use Brewer's Wherehouse and hometown brewer. I haven't really had any problem at all with any of them.

In the last few weeks I've ordered from a few different retailers for the first time.

Brewmaster's Warehouse was out of stock on some yeast I needed. Their website said it was in stock, so I ordered it on Friday afternoon. Monday they emailed me to say they were out of stock until the following Friday. I was planning on brewing on Wednesday, so that was annoying. If their website had been up to date I would've ordered from somewhere else. That's probably the worst experience I've had with any of the big online retailers (and is hardly that bad, really).

AHS shipped pretty quickly and everything was correct on the order, and in stock when I ordered, so they've done the best out of the bunch.

I just wanted to comment about the customer service iv been experiencing from Midwest supplies. I am in the military and stationed out side of the U.S. so buying and shipping things off line has proven difficult at times. So when I ordered my keg starter kit from Midwest I followed it up with an email to explain the weird address. The next morning I received an email stating that everything is good and a 5% refund on my total purchase for being in the military. I was very impressed because I didn't ask about a discount but I was still taken care of... Very impressive.

That's not surprising. I've had nothing but good experiences as their customer. They have impressed me on multiple occasions, and will always make sure you're satisfied with your order.

Thanks for sharing. all too often people ***** when things go poorly, so it is refreshing to hear positive stories like this.

I've been happy with Midwest on every order. I've also used More Beer with the same result.

i have nothing negative to say about midwest. i have never had a problem with any of my orders, and they have all arrived within a few days.

Yea this is the second time I’ve ordered from them but the first time contacting there customer service. The representative that contacted me back said "In the future it may not be a bad idea to have some dry yeast on hand just in case the liquid yeast is not viable after traveling for days and days. The yeast is quite resilient though, so I don't anticipate you having issues with it, just wanted to suggest it, just in case". Is this something that is a common problem and how do I know if my yeast is bad? Please don’t kill me for asking what may seem like an ignorant question I’ve only brewed once and it didn’t go that well. So I'm a little nervous, but I bought what appears to be good equipment and am more than willing to learn. Thanks for your help.

I'll have to mirror everyone's thoughts.

I've ordered and had friends order from Midwest and every time has been flawless. Great group of people!

Sbeltz: Thank you for the service you do for our country!

Sbeltz said:

The representative that contacted me back said "In the future it may not be a bad idea to have some dry yeast on hand just in case the liquid yeast is not viable after traveling for days and days. The yeast is quite resilient though, so I don't anticipate you having issues with it, just wanted to suggest it, just in case".
...How do I know if my yeast is bad?

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The MW Supplies rep is absolutely right. Liquid yeast is robust and resilient, but sometimes it can be compromised in shipping to a far away location under harsh conditions. Or it could expire before you have a chance to use it. Having some dry yeast as a backup is a great idea. In fact, I always keep 4-6 packets of various dry yeast on hand just in case.

To answer the second part of your question: the best way to tell if your yeast is viable is to make a yeast starter. You really should be doing this for every batch, and it's a good way to get an idea of how viable the yeast is. If the starter doesn't take at all, then you know you'll either have to brew with dry yeast, or wait until a new shipment of liquid yeast arrives to brew. There are multiple videos on YouTube about how to make yeast starters, and a plethora of threads on HBT to help as well.


Oh, and this:

MriswitH said:

Sbeltz: Thank you for the service you do for our country!

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Sbeltz said:

Yea this is the second time I’ve ordered from them but the first time contacting there customer service. The representative that contacted me back said "In the future it may not be a bad idea to have some dry yeast on hand just in case the liquid yeast is not viable after traveling for days and days. The yeast is quite resilient though, so I don't anticipate you having issues with it, just wanted to suggest it, just in case". Is this something that is a common problem and how do I know if my yeast is bad? Please don’t kill me for asking what may seem like an ignorant question I’ve only brewed once and it didn’t go that well. So I'm a little nervous, but I bought what appears to be good equipment and am more than willing to learn. Thanks for your help.

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I order most of my supplies online with the exception of live liquid yeast, which I buy locally. Not only do I avoid the perils of shipping yeast, it turns out one of the major labs is a few miles south of where I live here in CA.

That's good to know, I'm glad MWS is lookin out for our troops, and glad you're supplying our troops with good beer Thank you for your service!

Midwest Rocks!!

Thanks for all the support. I received my starter kit last Wednesday and when I picked it up both of my carboys were broke. I contacted midwest and just like expected the representative was very quick to respond on how to go about this. I am about to send pictures of the broken glass and order some better bottles and a couple other supplies that I think will come in handy when brewing. I went ahead and brewed and plan on using a single fermenter unless I get the secondary's in time.

I posted some pics of my first brew in the beginners section.

sorry again for the damaged glass. I don't think the post office hates us, but sometimes it feels like it. We will work on getting you some better bottles once we get those pics. It is Justin's first week in CS, so it's a good test for him. Glad to hear that people are brewing everywhere, and glad that we can help that. Happy Brewing! Cheers, Todd J

I'm not too worried about the broken bottles at this point. I just sent the pictures to the representative who responded to me. I will keep a look out for a reply with the plan of action. Thank you for your continued custom support Midwest supplies.

I'll echo that, midwest cs rocks. I order most of what I need from them and though problems are few and far between, they're quick to fix any issue.

Got an email back from Midwest here is what it said"Dude, those pictures show me some pretty unacceptable stuff. I am so sorry those got to you in that condition. I'm sending you 2 Better Bottles in their place. Here's a gift certificate for $15 for the delay".... Does this make up for the hassle? I would have to say yes. Thanks again Midwest Supplies and thank you Justin for your quick responses and taking care of the customer...Cheers.

I live about 3 blocks from MW and 2 miles from another larger HBS I've been to both a number of times, but mostly I go to midwest. Unfailingly, when I enter MW someone asks if I need help finding something, and while I've been there so much I think I could find everything I need blindfolded it's nice to be asked. The other HBS, well you have to fight just to get them to aknowledge your existence.