Northern Brewer

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I placed a huge order last wednesday and it showed up friday, nothing missing :D



I also placed an order yesterday but forgot one thing. I called them and they were able to add the other item so I didnt have to pay another $8 shipping for an ounce of hops. I realized this morning that I had forgot another item and they again were able to add it to the order. Im sure it will take another day due to me forgetting items, but they were very willing to accommodate me and made it simple. They keep me coming back :D

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I just noticed that my carboy has a big crack in it... I'm using it right now.
Do you think NB will replace it?


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Yeah, I just ordered a set of the big mouth bubblers from them and 1 showed up with a pretty big crack in it. Should be arriving today but they shipped me out a new one no questions asked. First time using them personally, but great experience so far.

Also, for all you fellow military out there if you add that you're military in the comment section of the order they generously give a 10% discount to active duty. :mug:
 
Northern Brewer gives that 10% to former military also. First time EVER that I received this. It just wasn't popular during the Viet Nam era.
That means something to me brothers, and I consider it very generous
Semper Fi '73-'76
 
I just ordered another hefeweizen kit from Northern Brewer the other day. Never any problems and fast shipping! Plus their beer kits are delicious!
 
These guys are great. I almost always go to my LHBS, but I ordered a bunch of various pieces I needed to start doing BIAB from Northern Brewer and also got a new autosiphon, bottling wand, and 10' of tubing. First time ordering from them. They sent me a 6' length of tubing. I called customer service, the guy told me I could keep the 6' and that they would ship the 10' to me, no charge. I got the 10' tubing, and included with the tubing was a new pint glass with the NB logo on it. I'll be giving them more business.
 
The Irish Red Ale kit I got from NB turned out to be a straw color. I did a "do over" because I did deviate from their published instructions. Well the do over turned out the same straw color which is definitely not red. So, I gave them a call and spoke to a guy who knew his stuff. I was definitely talking to a fellow home brewer. After we discussed the issue a bit he is making it right by saying my next purchase is on them. Just have to say that although my current experience is not what I expected, the future free beer makes NB OK by me.

I didn't know about the 10% mil discount until today. I agree with Orphan and Foam... it does mean something.

Army Aviation '83-'02


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I placed an order with Northern yesterday afternoon for four different all-grain recipes. I got an email this morning that the entire order has already shipped and will be delivered by UPS to my doorstep tomorrow morning. Can't ask for any quicker service. Well, I guess you could, but then Northern would need to be reading my mind!

glenn514:mug:
 
They have the best customer service of any company I've ever dealt with. Replace items no questions asked, answer all email question immediately and clearly, not to mention the 10% military discount! They even recommended some places to buy a few of the items they no longer stocked. Not many places will do that. I only live about 2 hours from the store and will be making a visit soon.


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quick shipping great customer service they are quick to reply to questions and emails will order from them again
 
They have become one of my go to online shops!


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Anybody on here try NB Honey Kolsch extract kit? I am on the fence with trying that next, just would like some encouragement :)


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I ordered enough specialty grains, hops and yeast for 3 batches. I priced 5 different websites and NB was 12% less than the next cheapest. It took a week longer to get my stuff than it would have from the California supplier, but I wasn't in a hurry.
 
Jman_01 said:
Anybody on here try NB Honey Kolsch extract kit? I am on the fence with trying that next, just would like some encouragement :)


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I brewed that kit a couple years ago. I enjoyed it. A couple things you should know, though. The Wyeast Kolsch yeast takes a good long while to clear up. If you have the ability to cold crash, that will obviously be a big help. When I brewed that kit, I kept it right around 60°F for 2 to 3 months (next to an exterior wall in the winter). Even after that, it needed some time to mature in the bottle.

So, if you are patient and you have the ability to keep the beer pretty cool, then you should go for it. If you are looking for a quick turnaround, then you might want to save this kit for another time.

Having said that, when it finally matured in the bottle, it was delicious. I've made several non-honey batches of kolsch since then. That kit really turned me on to the style.
 
signpost said:
I brewed that kit a couple years ago. I enjoyed it. A couple things you should know, though. The Wyeast Kolsch yeast takes a good long while to clear up. If you have the ability to cold crash, that will obviously be a big help. When I brewed that kit, I kept it right around 60°F for 2 to 3 months (next to an exterior wall in the winter). Even after that, it needed some time to mature in the bottle.



So, if you are patient and you have the ability to keep the beer pretty cool, then you should go for it. If you are looking for a quick turnaround, then you might want to save this kit for another time.



Having said that, when it finally matured in the bottle, it was delicious. I've made several non-honey batches of kolsch since then. That kit really turned me on to the style.
Click to expand...


I do have ability to keep cooler, I was anticipating a quicker turn around but still isn't an issue. Thanks


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Normally if I am dissatisfied with a product I will review it (as well as when I'm satisfied) and move on. In May I reviewed the plastic Big Mouth Bubbler giving it 4 stars and aspiring to buy more.

Early July I get a random call about my review basically. Apparently a supposed flaw I described may have been a warranty issue and NB wished to have my bubbler replaced. They merely asked me to rate the thinness of the plastic on a scale of 1-10. No hoops, no request to up my review to 5 stars or anything like that. I never expected this level of customer service. I gave it 4 stars so clearly I was not one who would sway folks away from the purchase.

NB is my go-to for most things that isn't keg related. Keg connection just happened to earn that business with similar attention to customer focused service. NB was already #1 but now I can definitely see myself buying what I want from them again and again. They're into the customer focused experience, which is something I feel doesn't exist much nowadays.
 
I live just a couple miles from both Northern and Midwest, and the difference in customer support and most importantly, competence, is night and day. Still shop at Midwest because they have sweet deals, but Northern and More Beer are by far my favorites when it comes to customer support and satisfaction. Also buy from Williams a lot too. They seem to always have super fresh hops at a good price, and some creative tools and concoctions.
 
I agree with most of what I read here. Northern Brewer's customer service does like to contact you. I've never had them do anything particularly good, but there was contact.
I've only sent them a complaint once and that was really a shipper complaint about liquid yeast arriving frozen solid (wife accepted shipment at the door, so it wasn't sitting out). I didn't get a response. I tried to use it anyway, but it was a dud.
Not that big of a deal.
 
Hello said:
Apparently a supposed flaw I described may have been a warranty issue and NB wished to have my bubbler replaced. They merely asked me to rate the thinness of the plastic on a scale of 1-10.
Click to expand...


I saw a post around here a month ago from a guy who bought the bubbler and it just blew out on him. There was a spot where the glass was thinner than a dime! Crazy stuff!
 
bleme said:
I saw a post around here a month ago from a guy who bought the bubbler and it just blew out on him. There was a spot where the glass was thinner than a dime! Crazy stuff!
Click to expand...

Mine was the plastic model. I do not and never will use glass. I just dropped a plastic carboy in the tub that was filled with PBW. This is the #1 reason I know I will not use glass. I'm a grown woman and generally very careful but accidents can and do happen.
 
Jman_01 said:
I had my second glass carboy break yesterday. I am replacing it with a plastic one, I am leaning towards a speidel fermenter http://morebeer.com/products/speidel-plastic-fermenter-30l-79-gal.html

or the big mouth bubbler


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I'd go with the big mouth bubbler. Its cheaper and I love mine. It has markings on the side for each gallon so you never have to guess how much you have. Plus its completely see through so you know whats going on in there.
 
Loving my plastic big mouth as well, especially with the dual hole lid. Hate my glass big mouth with a passion.
 
I think I made my mind up lol. I can get 2 of those for the price of one speidel. I really like the optional double hole lid.. The only thing I'm curious about is why did they texture the inside. If it were smooth I would imagine it would be easier to clean. Maybe I'm thinking about it to much!


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finsfan said:
So do you have examples or is this all speculation?
Click to expand...

Finsfan, read this and then let us know what you think of their customer review process:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Homebrewing/comments/2c53y4/i_emailed_midwest_about_issues_with_their_glass/

FWIW, I still use Northern Brewer because of the convenience that it offers my family come Christmas time for gift cards. I've never had any issues with them in the past and would recommend them to anyone. The conscious decision to stop negative customer reviews bothers me greatly though.
 
I personally will not give them anymore of my business.
Between the whole credit card info thingy that happened a year ago,
to the big mouth bubbler safety issues,
to the censoring of their reviews,
all leads me to the conclusion that they lack morals as a business.
(i'm not saying they are the only company like that)
As a consumer you are part of the problem or the solution ie. if consumers refuse to do business with companies without morals, they go out of business leaving the rest of the free market in better company.
 
finsfan said:
Even if their own products prove to be defective, name one company that has better customer service. They will replace it, give you a credit, or both on any complaint about anything you purchase from them. No other company out there does that. There isnt another option is my eyes and ive shopped elsewhere many times.
Click to expand...

They do have good customer service and make things right.

However, I would rather not have a company decide if it is ok for me to know the truth about a product or not before I buy it. It shouldn't be up to them and I don't want to deal with not having a major part of the homebrew process while I wait for them to replace it.

FWIW: I've had missing yeast, a broken spigot, and a damaged bag of dextrose in 3 separate purchases from them. Each time they quickly responded and sent a replacement along w/ a free beer glass. Excellent customer service on that part.
 
I decided to give Northern Brewer another try this week.
Placed my order Monday at noon and chose the 3 day shipping, with anticipation I'd have it by Friday.
They charged my card Tuesday. Here we are Wednesday at noon, still haven't shipped the order.

So much for brewing this weekend.
 
I don't shop exclusively with Northern Brewer like I used to but my most recent purchase was from them, solely because they had all the ingredients I wanted for the lowest price. I ran the same ingredients through Rebel, Williams, Morebeer, Adventures and Brew Bros. NB was more than 10% less than the next closest and didn't require me to sub anything. I have no idea why Chocolate wheat, torrified wheat, and cluster hops are so hard to find!
 
ram5ey said:
I've had better customer service from adventures in homebrewing and morebeer, personally.

Also if you want to talk ridiculous customer service, look no further than Sam Adams and New Belgium. Not homebrew shops but they make anything right.
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I use morebeer mostly for online shopping but ive used AIH and NB before. I thought NB had great customer service. I had ordered a bunch stuff from NB and i thought i had one of the tubes for blow off was missing. So i emailed them saying it was missing and they sent one out right away. I ended up finding the one i ordered among the rest of the stuff, i just missed it. So NB sends me the other one at no charge and they also threw in a free Pint glass.
 
Finally shipped my order yesterday evening....to deliver Monday.
Thank god I didn't order yeast. It would be dead as a door nail by the time it arrived.

I thought about complaining to NB, but then I looked at my order, and in small print at the bottom is states that they reserve the right to take 2 business days to fill the order, that on top of the quoted shipping time. Probably the last time i'll use NB. Back to Farmhouse for me.
 
They sent me the wrong pipe nipples for a cooler HLT/MLT valve kit. They sent me the right ones right away and told me not to bother sending back the wrong ones.
 
Northern Brewer's customer service is second to none. I recently had to work with them over an issue with their Capt'n Crush grain mill and they went way above and beyond to make me happy.

Ordering online is always a crap-shoot. It's nice to know that NB will be stand up if things do not go perfectly.
 
Got a survey in my email from them. Took the survey and let them know my thoughts. Might want to look out for that survey. If you want to improve their service, it's a good way to let them know why you don't like to shop there.
 
I have been and always will be a NB customer! They've always treated me amazingly and anytime anything has been screwed up, they fix it...no questions asked.

As for the "they took two days to fill my order" complaint. Do you know how silly that sounds? They are one of, if not the largest online homebrew supplier, and it took them 2 whole days to fill your order...gimme a break. I will admit, once they started getting bigger and my orders were no longer being filled the second I clicked submit, I was annoyed. Now I just make sure I submit my order on Saturday or Sunday, so I know it will ship and arrive that following week and not wind up in a truck or warehouse for days causing yeast to be compromised.

When I order from amazon, target, or practically ANY other website, it takes them AT LEAST 2 days to fill my order. I never order kits, only my own concoctions, I also have them crush my grains...So, the fact that NB takes 2 days to fill my order...well, I'd say that's mighty efficient.

I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'
 
drives_a_bike said:
.................
As for the "they took two days to fill my order" complaint. Do you know how silly that sounds?.................

I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'
Click to expand...

To me, its silly for an industry giant, that is known to NOT be price competitive, to not hire an adequate # of employees to fill orders when they come in. For special order items, items that require drop shipping, or Holiday season orders I can understand. For grain & hops on a Monday in September, not quite sure I get that.

But I now understand that this is their policy, & so i'll work around it or source my orders elsewhere.
 
Grannyknot said:
To me, its silly for an industry giant, that is known to NOT be price competitive, to not hire an adequate # of employees to fill orders when they come in. For special order items, items that require drop shipping, or Holiday season orders I can understand. For grain & hops on a Monday in September, not quite sure I get that.



But I now understand that this is their policy, & so i'll work around it or source my orders elsewhere.
Click to expand...


I don't understand this post. Are you saying that Northern Brewer does not have good prices? If so, I do not agree. Yes you can find better prices on some things but whenever I make a list their prices are within a couple dollars of anywhere else.

If you can find a place that consistently ships in less than two days cross your fingers and order there. Those places are very rare these days.

I personally have had great service from Northern Brewer, though my needs have changed over the years an I shop there a lot less frequently now.





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Northern brewer has been slow with its order processing for about a year now. I don't know if it came about because of the warehouse merger or what.

Now they are a big company and I am sure they get a ton of orders but their unreliable processing times has me looking for a new shop.

They might be able to avoid this criticism if they didn't advertise same or next business day order shipping. A couple specialty grains and a packet of yeast is not made to order and should be pretty easy to quickly pack and ship.


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