AHS out of Nottingham

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cnoyes

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I just received an order from Austin Homebrew of a Fat Tire clone and a Raspberry Wheat. It was supposed to come with Danstar Nottingham dry yeast, but both were shipped with Cooper's dry yeast.

I called them to ask about it and talked to two people who both gave me attitude and said they were out, so apparently they took the liberty of substituting. When I asked if it would produce very similar results, all I got was that it will produce a "drinkable" beer. When I asked further whether that was the closest dry yeast to Nottingham, I got more attitude about there being only a "handful" of dry yeast strains. Apparently I'm a noob for not using liquid. Seeing as they carry 12 different dry ale yeasts, I hope they didn't just grab one out of the nearest bin to them when they were packaging me up.

Good thing I have this site to get my questions answered and don't have to rely on AHS:

Is this Cooper's stuff gonna get the job done as well as Nottingham? Should I make a run to LHBS to get a different strain?
 
It's not unusual for the Nottingham supply to run out. Cooper's has slightly lower attenuation and you need to keep the fermentation temperature down around 65F for a cleanest finish. You might want to keep the Wheat between 70-75F for a fruitier ferment. It's probably a better choice than Nottingham for a wheat anyway.
 
The owner of AustinHomeBrew.com is a heck of a nice guy, and also a member here at HBT. I'm certain if he knew of your issues, he would do his best to make you happy and to answer your questions. You can send him a private message. His ID is austinhomebrew.

I've never had any issues at all with them, so I'm sure that this is something that Forrest would like to know about.
 
cnoyes said:
I called them to ask about it and talked to two people who both gave me attitude and said they were out, so apparently they took the liberty of substituting. When I asked if it would produce very similar results, all I got was that it will produce a "drinkable" beer.

The last 2 times I have dealt with these people I have received the same treatment. They lost my order and acted like it was my fault. It was the same guy both times, and it really chapped my ass.
 
IMO, Cooper is definitely not a suitable replacement for Nottingham. Definitely contact Forrest about it...
 
Sort of off topic. I have had similiar issues with AHB. I bought a better bottle from them, and the spigot leaks. Not a lot, but a little. Mostly just annoying.

So I contacted Forrest here at HBT and he sent me to his 'tech'. The tech said, "I've never heard of that, you should look at the Better Bottles website".
No troubleshooting help, no offer of a new spigot.

I have another BB which does not leak, so I know this one is faulty. It was pretty disappointing after all of the good stuff I have heard about them on this forum.

That being said, Forrest does sound like a nice guy and sometimes will give HBT members a discount(I took advantage of one last week). Hard to say what's going on here.
 
Interestingly, just searched for the Fat Tire clone on AHS. It's not there anymore. I wonder why.
 
i just emailed AHS about not receiving tops to a case of fliptops I ordered... I got a UPS tracking number in like 30 minutes for them. First time I had to email them about anything... so far I'm glad I spend my homebrew cash there.
 
I got one of those 7 gal conicals from them and they shipped it with the thermometer installed. Needless to say it arrived with a broken glass and bent stem and one leg of the conical was bent. I sent an email with pictures and some guy replied and told me that I should file a claim with UPS.
I wrote back and explained that the package was in perfect shape and what did they expect with no padding ect. they shipped a new thermometer but never said sorry your $320 fermenter was bent up and you had to wait for a new thermometer.

I wasnt realy dissapointed but not real impressed either.

My last order went off with no hitches though :)
 
cnoyes said:
I just received an order from Austin Homebrew of a Fat Tire clone and a Raspberry Wheat. It was supposed to come with Danstar Nottingham dry yeast, but both were shipped with Cooper's dry yeast.

I called them to ask about it and talked to two people who both gave me attitude and said they were out, so apparently they took the liberty of substituting. When I asked if it would produce very similar results, all I got was that it will produce a "drinkable" beer. When I asked further whether that was the closest dry yeast to Nottingham, I got more attitude about there being only a "handful" of dry yeast strains. Apparently I'm a noob for not using liquid. Seeing as they carry 12 different dry ale yeasts, I hope they didn't just grab one out of the nearest bin to them when they were packaging me up.

Good thing I have this site to get my questions answered and don't have to rely on AHS:

Is this Cooper's stuff gonna get the job done as well as Nottingham? Should I make a run to LHBS to get a different strain?


Sorry about the response you received. I will have a talk to the people involved.
I personally substituted the Coopers for the Nottingham yeast. Rather than delay your order by a couple of days I chose the yeast would be very close in flavor and would be suitable for the recipe you chose.

The responses you received were certainly not the responses I would have wanted and for that I am sorry.

Because of your order and since your order I doubled the amount of Nottingham we normally stock so we don't have to make any substitutions. We are restocking the shelves and the distributor we buy the Nottingham yeast from delayed our shipment by 4 days (they are busier than usual). We would not have run out of Nottingham yeast if this wouldn't have happened.

Sorry for the trouble and I will do everything I can to prevent issues in the future.
For your troubles I can take 15% off of your next recipe kit. I appreciate your business.

Forrest
 
blacklab said:
Sort of off topic. I have had similiar issues with AHB. I bought a better bottle from them, and the spigot leaks. Not a lot, but a little. Mostly just annoying.

So I contacted Forrest here at HBT and he sent me to his 'tech'. The tech said, "I've never heard of that, you should look at the Better Bottles website".
No troubleshooting help, no offer of a new spigot.

I have another BB which does not leak, so I know this one is faulty. It was pretty disappointing after all of the good stuff I have heard about them on this forum.

That being said, Forrest does sound like a nice guy and sometimes will give HBT members a discount(I took advantage of one last week). Hard to say what's going on here.

I thought this issue was resolved. Sorry we dropped the ball. The reason I had you talk to the tech guy is because I wasn't going to be at work for awhile and I wanted to have the problem resolved quickly. Sorry it wasn't.

We can send a new spigot to you (I thought that was what we were doing, sorry).
Drop an email to my attention with your name and address and I will take care of it. Email: [email protected]

Forrest
 
cnoyes said:
Interestingly, just searched for the Fat Tire clone on AHS. It's not there anymore. I wonder why.


The hops that are used for that recipe are not availble for a long while. We need to re-formulate the recipe and relaunch it.

Forrest
 
sirsloop said:
i just emailed AHS about not receiving tops to a case of fliptops I ordered... I got a UPS tracking number in like 30 minutes for them. First time I had to email them about anything... so far I'm glad I spend my homebrew cash there.


Sorry about the error. Our current shipping department is 4/5 new people (yes, there are 5 people in the department). As long as we know if there is a mistake we can fix it. The job in shipping has a large learning curve so there are a few mistakes when I hire a new person. Thanks for understanding.

Forrest
 
SuperiorBrew said:
I got one of those 7 gal conicals from them and they shipped it with the thermometer installed. Needless to say it arrived with a broken glass and bent stem and one leg of the conical was bent. I sent an email with pictures and some guy replied and told me that I should file a claim with UPS.
I wrote back and explained that the package was in perfect shape and what did they expect with no padding ect. they shipped a new thermometer but never said sorry your $320 fermenter was bent up and you had to wait for a new thermometer.

I wasnt realy dissapointed but not real impressed either.

My last order went off with no hitches though :)

We shipped the conical in the same packing they were sent to us with without damage. I thought it would make it ok. Sorry it didn't.

If you have a damaged shipment UPS has insurance to cover it. That is why we have people file a claim. UPS would have bought you a new one.

Is there something I can do to make up for the damage UPS caused. I can give you 15% off of your next recipe kit if you would like.

Forrest
 
I'm not trying to say that these types of issues aren't important, but I think we will all have to try and have an ounce of extra understanding this year. It's gonna be a really tough one for all of the HBS's across the globe. Hard to believe that a hop problem causes so many ripples across the industry, but here we are. Thank goodness Austin Homebrew exists right here on HBT. I have a feeling that relationship will be vital for us over the next 10 months.
 
To be fair, both my LHBS in the area have been out of Nottingham for two weeks. I had to substitute Coopers because that's all they had left for dry yeast.

So I blame Nottingham :D
 
Forrest:

I was shorted 2 packs of Nottingham from an order back on 12/12/07. I received a card w/ the order stating you were out of stock and it would be sent when available..fine by me.

Both times I have inquired about this, the response has been to the effect of "we expect a shipment tomorrow."

Have you been out of stock on Nottingham since 12/12/07?
 
Austinhomebrew said:
Sorry about the response you received. I will have a talk to the people involved.
I personally substituted the Coopers for the Nottingham yeast. Rather than delay your order by a couple of days I chose the yeast would be very close in flavor and would be suitable for the recipe you chose.

The responses you received were certainly not the responses I would have wanted and for that I am sorry.

Because of your order and since your order I doubled the amount of Nottingham we normally stock so we don't have to make any substitutions. We are restocking the shelves and the distributor we buy the Nottingham yeast from delayed our shipment by 4 days (they are busier than usual). We would not have run out of Nottingham yeast if this wouldn't have happened.

Sorry for the trouble and I will do everything I can to prevent issues in the future.
For your troubles I can take 15% off of your next recipe kit. I appreciate your business.

Forrest


Thanks for the response. I understand that things run out from time to time, and I appreciate that my order was not delayed. I just wanted reassurance that the yeast substituted would be suitable for the recipes.

Thanks again.
 
brewt00l said:
Forrest:

I was shorted 2 packs of Nottingham from an order back on 12/12/07. I received a card w/ the order stating you were out of stock and it would be sent when available..fine by me.

Both times I have inquired about this, the response has been to the effect of "we expect a shipment tomorrow."

Have you been out of stock on Nottingham since 12/12/07?


We just received our shipment of Nottingham yesterday. Send an email to me to my attention and I will ship it out to you. Sorry for the delay.

Forrest
 
Austinhomebrew said:
We just received our shipment of Nottingham yesterday. Send an email to me to my attention and I will ship it out to you. Sorry for the delay.

Forrest

Thanks. Email sent.
 
yeah, this sort of service is what makes me want to select one online homebrew shop over another. ahs can expect an order from me in the next couple of weeks.
 
Forrest you rock.

"Return customers account for 85% to 95% of sales" This is totally true and you're doing an awesome job of keeping us (all your customers, not just HBT) happy.

Keep up the good work!
:mug:
 
Man, don't you wish all shop/business owners who get a complaint would respond like Forrest!

I've had 1 or 2 times (out of a lot) where something wasn't quite right with an order from AHS, but it was taken care of ASAP. Fixing a problem fast is a sure-fire way to earn/keep returning customers.
 
I ordered a kit last week and it arrived yesterday. Within 90 minutes or so of placing the order on (Friday?) I got a phone call to let me know that the nottingham I ordered wasn't available and to ask me if a substitution of Coopers was ok with me.

I'm a n00b so I said yes... (I don't know enough to complain)..

but I was IMPRESSED that I was called and asked about the substitution, and I am even happier knowing that someone (Forrest) made an appropriate substitution (sometimes ignorance is bliss), and not just the guy in shipping grabbing a different strain of dry yeast.
 
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