Austin Homebrew ending free recipe shipping

This makes me sad......

 

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

I wonder how much they were loosing on it, it obviously wasn't economical to continue it. It's too bad, the free shipping made them my go to.

 

Now I'll have to do a serious eval of all sites that do recipes. This was just so easy and a no-brainer.

 

I suspect this will be the final push I need to go all grain and buy from my local shop...

 

I'll help you with a little nudge. All grain is so simple that even I can do it and if budget is an issue, it takes so little to start that you can recover all your costs on the first batch. Think small, do half size batches in the equipment you already have with the only additional cost being for a pair of paint strainer bags. BIAB wins for simplicity and for speed too. Look it up!

 

They were my go-to before the free shipping, and still will be. They are definitely the best of the online stores.

 

They don't sell bulk grain anymore either.

 

Lately shipping rates have crept up and up. I do the internet order processing for my lhbs and to ship a 10# package UPS runs about $11 to the other side of the country, near a major airport or UPS hub, couple dollars more if further distance away. FedEx announced a price hike the first of the year as well. I can see why they have canceled the free shipping, can only loose so much money for so long. We do offer free shipping for over $100 on most products.

 

Welp, I ordered 2 extract kits today, and they'll be my last. BIAB will follow. My lhbs prices are creeping down and they'll mill grain for you...

 

I don't understand. Is everyones lhbs that expensive? I can get bulk extract and grains for less there. Even the "chain" stores couldn't beat their prices. I don't go anywhere else. Love them!!

 

I don't have an LHBS.

 

My "LHBS" is a 4 foot square section plus an end cap in a local food coop. They are rather expensive and while they try to stock the popular stuff I have never seen a Belgian yeast nor rye or wheat malts. Even the dry yeast selection for beer is limited to Nottingham.

 

Guess I'm just lucky to have such a great lhbs.

 

That's a bummer - I was impressed with the one kit (Janet's Brown) that I bought from them. Love that they offer partial mash options on most recipes. Also the AHS versions of commercial beers is a pretty large and impressive collection.

 

Yeah my local ones are ridiculous. Base malts are about $2.49 a pound or more. You don't want to know about specialty grains