Rebel Brewer

[twitchster]

Having Rebel Brewer as my LHBS is a bessing and a curse. The positive? There are many. For starters, they are extremely knowledgeable and quick to help with any question you may have. Even though I am fairly new to the homebrewing scene, they have never made me feel dumb with any questions I've asked. Their selection is great. They are the perfect example of "don't judge a book by it's cover", meaning just because they have a small store front, doesn't mean they have little selection. I recently bought a 50lb sack of Rahr 2 row and didn't have to pay for shipping. Huge cost savings there. Since going to all grain, I'll be purchasing the majority of my ingredients from them. The Negative? Only one. Because they are my LHBS, I pay sales tax. But considering their prices are usually better then the comptetitions, it's kind of a wash.

 

[billym99]

I placed what is around my 20th online order with Rebel today. Have yet to have an issue with these guys, they're great. Turn around is excellent, I generally try to have my order in my 12:00p EST which generally results in same day shipping. Most of my orders have been ingredients due to their awesome selection, never any issue with anything I've received. I've also ordered a few Blichmann items (Boilermaker, Burner) with zero issues. Their prices seem to be good and shipping rates are fair.

Lastly, customer service is excellent. I've had a few back and forth emails with a few of the guys and my questions have been answered immediately. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!

 

[b-boy]

I love dealing with these guys. They are my go-to mail order HBS. I love their quick delivery. I know I can order on a Monday and have everything at my door by Wednesday.

However, the last 3 times I've gone to order ingredients, I've ended up going elsewhere. They are always out of at least 2 items I need. I want to order from them, but they seem to be cronically out of hops and specialty grains.

To be honest it's gotten a little frustrating. I refuse to pay shipping for 90% of my ingredients, and then pay shipping somewhere else for the rest of it.

I hope they monitor these reviews and can take a look at the problem. I'd prefer to order from them.

 

[twitchster]

I love dealing with these guys. They are my go-to mail order HBS. I love their quick delivery. I know I can order on a Monday and have everything at my door by Wednesday.

However, the last 3 times I've gone to order ingredients, I've ended up going elsewhere. They are always out of at least 2 items I need. I want to order from them, but they seem to be cronically out of hops and specialty grains.

To be honest it's gotten a little frustrating. I refuse to pay shipping for 90% of my ingredients, and then pay shipping somewhere else for the rest of it.

I hope they monitor these reviews and can take a look at the problem. I'd prefer to order from them.

If they say they are out of ingredients on the the site, k would give them a call and check to make sure they are actually out. They're my LHBS and there have been several instances when their website will say they don't have something but when I walk in to pick up my order, it turns out the site just wasn't updated. They recently lost the guy that was responsible for the site and therefore haven't been able to regularly update it. Frustrating, i agree, but it would save you on shipping if you called to make sure they were actually out.

 

[Ragamuffin]

If they say they are out of ingredients on the the site, k would give them a call and check to make sure they are actually out. They're my LHBS and there have been several instances when their website will say they don't have something but when I walk in to pick up my order, it turns out the site just wasn't updated. They recently lost the guy that was responsible for the site and therefore haven't been able to regularly update it. Frustrating, i agree, but it would save you on shipping if you called to make sure they were actually out.

That's good to know, thanks for the tip! I've had the same frustration with them. I absolutely love Rebel Brewer and want to order everything from them, but they've always been missing an item or two that I need. I will call them next time, but I hope they find a replacement web master soon!

 

[chewse]

For this past Christmas, my wife bought me Blichmann Engineering’s Top Tier brew stand through Rebel Brewer. The brew stand arrived a week before Christmas which made the timing perfect. However, on December 17th, I had replacement knee surgery done so I wasn’t able to setup the stand right away. In fact, it wasn’t until this past weekend that I was strong enough to start putting the stand together.

My wife ordered the Top Tier configured with one burner and two shelves; my HLT and MT are electric, the BK is gas. When setting up the stand, I noticed that the two shelves were missing. I called up Rebel Brewer on Tuesday, 2/17 and got their recording. I forgot that Tennessee got socked in with bad weather and the Rebel Brewer guys probably weren’t able to get into work.

So the next day, I called again and Andrew answered. I explained to him the situation and he said he’ll take care of it. Well, earlier today, my wife calls me from home and said the two missing shelves were just delivered! This was a two day turnaround!

So a very hardy shout out to both Rebel Brewer and Blichmann Engineering for excellent customer service!

 

[balvey]

Unfortunately I've got to post this complaint. I'll start by saying I live within 200 miles of Rebel and started using them right after they opened. I loved using them because of quick shipping, great customer service, good prices, great selection, and I could order odd strains of liquid yeast and get it still cold ( hence quick shipping ).

The past two to three orders I have placed ( all within the last 3 or 4 months ) have all had issues.

It all started with the consistently out of stock items. I had ordered one style of tap to try out and then went to get 4 more but they were out of stock and still haven't been restocked. I had to go elsewhere.

Next order, they left out a t-shirt i ordered. I sent an email, because they used to reply within hours, and never got a response. I left a voice mail, no response. Ended up emailing several times to no avail, and finally got someone on the phone. They said they would refund my money for the shirt and still send it. Two weeks later, no money, no shirt. Took another week or so to get someone to answer the phone, I believe it was Andy, he was the same person I had talked to previously. They finally got it worked out.

The last order I made 3 weeks or so ago, I bought a 10.5 gallon polarware mash tun / kettle and two packs of pac-man yeast ( that they just got back in stock after being out for a year or so ). I got notification that it shipped that afternoon from the rebelbrewer email. I started trying to track the package via USPS but it stayed at rebel until the next afternoon. Didn't get it for three days total and the yeast packs were warm plus the kettle had two dents in it. Before this year if you made an order in the morning, it would actually ship that afternoon and you'd have it the next afternoon. I emailed them about the kettle and didn't get a response for a few days. They finally responded but I had given up and already used the kettle by then.

Two days ago I saw an email thread started by our local homebrew club with others complaining about the same things with Rebel. I called them and left a voicemail 2 days ago to let them know that people are not happy with them as of late. I really wanted to keep using them, but I think I'm done.

Still haven't heard back on my email or voicemail.

 

[b-boy]

I still love using them. However, the out of stock issue is a problem. I canceled the last 2 orders and went elsewhere. It's not just them. I have the same problem with most online vendors. I really want to get everything I need in one place, but that doesn't seem to be possible. Hopefully they can fix it.

 

[fusa]

Unfortunately I've got to post this complaint. I'll start by saying I live within 200 miles of Rebel and started using them right after they opened. I loved using them because of quick shipping, great customer service, good prices, great selection, and I could order odd strains of liquid yeast and get it still cold ( hence quick shipping ).

The past two to three orders I have placed ( all within the last 3 or 4 months ) have all had issues.

It all started with the consistently out of stock items. I had ordered one style of tap to try out and then went to get 4 more but they were out of stock and still haven't been restocked. I had to go elsewhere.

Next order, they left out a t-shirt i ordered. I sent an email, because they used to reply within hours, and never got a response. I left a voice mail, no response. Ended up emailing several times to no avail, and finally got someone on the phone. They said they would refund my money for the shirt and still send it. Two weeks later, no money, no shirt. Took another week or so to get someone to answer the phone, I believe it was Andy, he was the same person I had talked to previously. They finally got it worked out.

The last order I made 3 weeks or so ago, I bought a 10.5 gallon polarware mash tun / kettle and two packs of pac-man yeast ( that they just got back in stock after being out for a year or so ). I got notification that it shipped that afternoon from the rebelbrewer email. I started trying to track the package via USPS but it stayed at rebel until the next afternoon. Didn't get it for three days total and the yeast packs were warm plus the kettle had two dents in it. Before this year if you made an order in the morning, it would actually ship that afternoon and you'd have it the next afternoon. I emailed them about the kettle and didn't get a response for a few days. They finally responded but I had given up and already used the kettle by then.

Two days ago I saw an email thread started by our local homebrew club with others complaining about the same things with Rebel. I called them and left a voicemail 2 days ago to let them know that people are not happy with them as of late. I really wanted to keep using them, but I think I'm done.

Still haven't heard back on my email or voicemail.

I use to use Rebel Brewer for most online orders. Before this year they would usually ship the same day, if not the next day. The past few orders I placed have taken a week before they were shipped. No explanation was given even though I sent an email asking why orders were taking a week to mail. Luckily a LHBS opened fairly close to here which is very well stocked.

 

[thrillhouse]

Just wanted to give a shout-out to this awesome company and its great customer service! I ordered some homebrew supplies, including about ten pounds of grain, a few weeks ago. Opened the box and every bag burst open, making it unusable. Emailed the company and got an immediate response -- the bags they received from a new supplier were not as thick as promised -- and they sent me a new shipment of grain which arrived a few days later intact.

I was fully expecting a middling non-apology with something like a 10% off coupon (or even no response), but instead got a fast reply from the owner of the store who made it right at his own expense, even though it wasn't his fault. You can't beat that! Much appreciated, Rebel Brewer. You have my business.

 

[myelo]

Good news -- 20% off.

Bad news -- it's a warehouse liquidation sale.

http://www.rebelbrewer.com/blog/warehouse-closing-faq

 

[jmark]

That sucks - I've used them for bulk grain and several specialty grains that were hard to come by with my old LHBS.

 

[b-boy]

Too bad. This was my favorite place to shop.

 

[mjdonnelly68]

Too bad. The customer service from these guys was top notch. They went above and beyond for me more than once. Just bought as much stuff as I could from them as a thank you. Wish them the best of luck in the future.

 

[b-boy]

just got an email. Rebel Brewer is back - Hallelujiah!

Now I don't have to deal with Northern anymore! Yipeee!!!!!