Best Place to buy ingredients online?

I'm thinking about buying my next batch of ingredients/yeast online -- any suggestions on where to buy from?

If possible, I'd like to buy in bulk if it makes sense with the shipping costs.

If i were to order homebrew ingredients, it would be from either
Austin Homebrew Supply
or
Home wine making supply and home brew supply available on-line at Midwest Homebrewing Supplies. Search for wine recipes and beer recipes

I would probably end up ordering from Austin Homebrew, because they are so close, and ground delivery from Austin is only 1 day. But, they have a sister store 5 minutes from my work (Fort Worth Homebrew) that i do all my ingredient shopping with.

I believe these guys both do alot of sales, so any ingredient you get is not going to have aged on the shelves too long ebfore shipping. Both companies have great customer service, and would be happy to take good care of you, and answer your questions over the phone.

+1

On both of those. The cool thing about Austin is that no matter what you buy (ie. how heavy it is) you can get it shipped for $8.

I love Midwest Supplies. I have no local homebrew store so i have to do all my shopping online. Their prices are great and shipping is fair. There has been a good bit of comparisons between them and others with fixed shipping and they generally come out cheaper. I love their catalog, too. I keep it in the john for some serious reading. I'd also like to give Brewmasters Warehouse a try. Their website is awesome and the Brew Builder software is on point.

Ed is practically in your backyard.

There's another thread just like this in the all grain section. I'm on my phone so I can give you a link but its a poll of the best online hbs I think. One of the mods might be able to link it

flyangler18 said:

Ed is practically in your backyard.

Click to expand...

But he can't sell to people in GA so that's out for Steverino.

Bobby_M said:

But he can't sell to people in GA so that's out for Steverino.

Click to expand...

Crap, forgot about that.

Steverino, bottom line: look for best delivered price. Given the heat, I'd avoid mail-order of liquid yeast though in favor of local pick-up whenever possible.

I'll compare prices of Midwest, Austin, Northernbrewer, and MoreBeer-- hopefully one of them will look good. Thanks guys!

Midwest is the correct answer.

Stevorino said:

If possible, I'd like to buy in bulk if it makes sense with the shipping costs.

Click to expand...

HopsDirect if you're buying hops in bulk.

MidWest looks good, shipping is just a ton of $$$ for bulk orders.

Anyone know of where I can get bulk orders with lower shipping?

Northern throws in Ice packets and wraps the yeast individually with the ice packet and bubblewrap. 4-days from Minn. to SC, yeast is fine.

Northern Brewer, Austin Homebrew, Midwest .... all great. Do the price comparison and go with the cheapest and you can't go wrong.

FlyingHorse said:

HopsDirect if you're buying hops in bulk.

Click to expand...

Amen to that. I kick myself for not buying my hops from there when I started homebrewing. I paid $3 an ounce until I I discovered Hopsdirect. Hopsdirect sells many types for about $1 or a little more an ounce. And they're fresher!!

Only drawback is you have to buy a pound at a time. But when a pound costs the same as 5 oz elsewhere, you can afford to do that.

If you are looking for ingredients in bulk, none of the above listed are the best option.

For hops... Hops Direct. I picked up about 8 pounds there for under $1 an ounce SHIPPED. You can get them there for about $1.50/oz shipped I am sure. If you want to get a crap ton of hops for even less, set up a local bulk buy, I have a spreadsheet that you can use to manage it if you decide to go that route

For grains, you really need to find a LHBS near you. Bottom line, if you want bulk pricing, you will have to pay a crap ton of shipping. If you want flat rate shipping, you will not get a great bulk grain price. (nothing is free)

My LHBS sucks for everything except sacks of grain.
2-Row for $41 for 50lbs
MO for about $65 for 55lbs

Best bet for bulk grain is local, dont pay to ship AND get bulk pricing. Hops in bulk, hands down, Hops Direct. Let me kniow if you want to organize a group buy. It allows you to get whateverf qty. of hops you want, no just 1 pound increments, AND you get a break on the shipping, this is how we got ours, 15 varieties I think total, for about $1/oz shipped. We ended up ordering 50 pounds!

All well and good if you have a local Home brew shop . Closest to me 1 1/2 hours away. Country malt group set up a bulk buy was best for us here in NY .

Morris Otter ended up costing me 45.19 for 55#

Hops direct for Hops in bulk

Yeah you can buy from places like North Counrty Malts, but again, the caviat is that you have to have a maltster nearby OR get a large bulk buy going on to split the shipping... it will be geographically specific.

From other threads I have read, getting enough ppl. involved in a bulk grain buy isnt real easy.

You really need to qualify what you mean by 'bulk'. I've been a part of three grain buys in the past year, the most recent one just last week. Three sacks total, 2 MO and one Best Malz Pils, for $135 shipped. The first was organized by our own Bobby_M and I was lucky enough that a certain running skunk was kind enough to drop my grain off here.

The online retailers get my speciality grain purchases in most cases, as I order my commonly used speciality grain in 5lb lots.

If you are in an area with an active club, orchestrating a bulk buy is quite simple but a process just the same. Some have even hooked up with local breweries for their grain purchases.

Hops - Hops Direct without question. I've used Freshops in the past as well, but my 'pounds' from Hops Direct always come in overweight, so I like them a bit better.

If you make a core group of recipes, it's easy to determine what ingredients are best ordered in bulk for your brewery. MO and Pilsner are my staples. I have a sack of 2-row that I've only used about 10lb from total in 9 months. In contrast, I've burned through 4 sacks of MO and 2 sacks of Pils in the same time frame. Now that I've replenished, all is well at BBBC.

This year I planned and listed all of the beers that I wanted to brew, then created a spreadhseet to calculate what malts I would need.

I did buy all of my malt from BMW... this fall I will probably buy a couple sacks from my deplorable LHBS since I can get my base malts much cheaper. I may still use BMW for my specialty grains, as my LHBS prices are about $1/pound greater than BMW.

When I hear bulk malts, I assume 50# sacks. There was a group buy in the making in Dayton I think that I was looking at, but thier pricing for 2-Row was $38, and I can get it 2 miles away for $41... I think the group buy fell apart and never happened.

Morebeer sukks.

My Local Homebrew Shops is quoting a Sack of 2 Row Briess Malt at $59.95, Maris Otter around $65. In some scenarios, I can get it shipped to me for about the same price. Still cheaper than buying it by the pound at $1.70-$2.00 per pound.

Stevorino said:

My Local Homebrew Shops is quoting a Sack of 2 Row Briess Malt at $59.95, Maris Otter around $65. In some scenarios, I can get it shipped to me for about the same price. Still cheaper than buying it by the pound at $1.70-$2.00 per pound.

Click to expand...

That is a decent price on MO, the 2-Row is a little high...

But like you said, you will pay that to get it shipped to you, they probably know this.

Stevorino said:

My Local Homebrew Shops is quoting a Sack of 2 Row Briess Malt at $59.95, Maris Otter around $65. In some scenarios, I can get it shipped to me for about the same price. Still cheaper than buying it by the pound at $1.70-$2.00 per pound.

Click to expand...

We have had quite a few group bulk buys from North Country. I think the last one was about month ago. I am not sure if people are ready for another, but you might post and see:
HomeBrewTalk Groups - North ATL Brewers

Some people tend to overbuy from those (horde), they might be willing to sell you a sack.

Beerrific said:

We have had quite a few group bulk buys from North Country. I think the last one was about month ago. I am not sure if people are ready for another, but you might post and see:
HomeBrewTalk Groups - North ATL Brewers

Some people tend to overbuy from those (horde), they might be willing to sell you a sack.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I asked around on the INHBC board and everyone said they were still stuffed -- sounds like PacketPimp Might have some extra.

Stevorino said:

I'm thinking about buying my next batch of ingredients/yeast online -- any suggestions on where to buy from?

If possible, I'd like to buy in bulk if it makes sense with the shipping costs.

Click to expand...

I get my hops in bulk from nikobrew.com. Everything else comes from northernbrewer, austinhomebrew.

But mostly, I shop at my LHBS because I enjoy their company and they mine.

Having a good relationship with your LHBS is a wonderful thing.

The Pol said:

Yeah you can buy from places like North Counrty Malts, but again, the caviat is that you have to have a maltster nearby OR get a large bulk buy going on to split the shipping... it will be geographically specific.

From other threads I have read, getting enough ppl. involved in a bulk grain buy isnt real easy.

Click to expand...

yes it was a while to get it together I didn't handle it Bad Coffee did it all. The grain sacks are all 55#

Whats wrong with Quality Wine and Ale Supply (www.homebrewit.com)? I have never had a problem with them. Always get my stuff quickly, their customer service is excellent and their prices are always either the same as NB and Midwest or a couple bucks cheaper.