An appeal to Northeast U.S. Homebrewers

[mac_1103]

Depending on where you live it is quite possible that shipping will be prohibitive on heavy and/or bulky items. But it's easy enough to check first and then decide. The overall point however, is that paying actual shipping costs often can be a better deal than paying inflated prices to get "free" shipping. Brewhardware is not the only example of this phenomenon. And again, it's easy enough to check before you decide where to buy.

 

[Bobby_M]

Thanks! But no longer needed.

DMF

In the spirit of what this thread is about, I still felt compelled to look it up. I saw another post of yours where you said you're from Southern California and that would explain why shipping 60 pounds 2700 miles would be expensive. That's why I was targeting the N.E. end of the country in this thread.

23" x 16" x 10", which is what box size a sack of grain fits x 60 LBS = $92 UPS ground. It's driven by both size and weight.

 

[Whisky River]

Looks like that’s only about 3 cents a mile. Sounds pretty cheap to me

 

[Draft Master Flash]

In the spirit of what this thread is about, I still felt compelled to look it up. I saw another post of yours where you said you're from Southern California and that would explain why shipping 60 pounds 2700 miles would be expensive. That's why I was targeting the N.E. end of the country in this thread.

23" x 16" x 10", which is what box size a sack of grain fits x 60 LBS = $92 UPS ground. It's driven by both size and weight.

$92 would of been what is expected from the East but instead I was quoted somewhere around $180 for shipping alone. As said before it's quite possible a calculation error. You may want to take a closer look at your shipping calculator and check for accuracy.


DMF.

 

[Bobby_M]

$92 would of been what is expected from the East but instead I was quoted somewhere around $180 for shipping alone. As said before it's quite possible a calculation error. You may want to take a closer look at your shipping calculator and check for accuracy.


DMF.

I did, and I explained that we were having an issue with it for a while. It's fixed now along with better discounts. I probably wouldn't pay 92 either. There's always going to be a vendor a bit closer.

 

[Draft Master Flash]

Avangard is harder to get out here in the West. It's mostly Weyerman and Bestmaltz available which are still good but I've always liked Avangard. I wish it was more available here. I'm sure you probably sell a lot of it.


DMF

 

[Genuine]

I know my local place (about an hour drive for me, but was worth it) claims they've closed temporarily, but I have fears it won't reopen. I'd go up there for sacks of grain, hops and yeast. They had a wonderful selection...now it seems like all I have are online options. I didn't realize you had grain so I'll check the site and order!

 

[IslandLizard]

I know my local place (about an hour drive for me, but was worth it) claims they've closed temporarily, but I have fears it won't reopen. I'd go up there for sacks of grain, hops and yeast. They had a wonderful selection...now it seems like all I have are online options.

Sad to see (semi) local places close shop.
If you could contact them, maybe they'll sell you some of their remaining grain inventory...

 

[Indian_villager]

Was lucky enough to pass by y'all 2 Fridays ago on the way to a wedding so I could pick up some stuff in person. My family is up in NY so I can take a 30 min detour to cut by the shop. Any interest in being open on weekends or staying open later on Fridays? I fully accept that it makes no sense to make this drastic change to your hours for me, I was just curious if any others would be swayed by the updated hours. Or some form of Amazon locker setup to pick stuff up on the weekends?

 

[Bobby_M]

Was lucky enough to pass by y'all 2 Fridays ago on the way to a wedding so I could pick up some stuff in person. My family is up in NY so I can take a 30 min detour to cut by the shop. Any interest in being open on weekends or staying open later on Fridays? I fully accept that it makes no sense to make this drastic change to your hours for me, I was just curious if any others would be swayed by the updated hours. Or some form of Amazon locker setup to pick stuff up on the weekends?

Two things.

If you're ever passing by outside of business hours, just give me a heads up and I'll do what I can to hang around late or meet you at the shop. I'm usually here finishing up fabrication/welding work until about 6:30pm weekdays. Also, I live about 10 minutes away and while I can't promise availability every weekend, it's more likely that I can do it than not.

We put things out for after hours and weekend pickups all the time. We started in 2020 and haven't stopped. So far, nothing has walked. We have cameras.

 

[beren]

I need to remember your shop when I need more than hardware. I have FermentedNJ 20mi away but sometimes I want what they don't carry. I wish Wyeast would be easier to ship to the east cost, I started with them and still prefer them for no real logical reason.

 

[Bobby_M]

I need to remember your shop when I need more than hardware. I have FermentedNJ 20mi away but sometimes I want what they don't carry. I wish Wyeast would be easier to ship to the east cost, I started with them and still prefer them for no real logical reason.

We basically stopped carrying Wyeast because they haven't done anything innovative in a long time, as opposed to white labs and omega. Also still one of the lowest cell counts per pack.

 

[Bobby_M]

I need to remember your shop when I need more than hardware. I have FermentedNJ 20mi away but sometimes I want what they don't carry. I wish Wyeast would be easier to ship to the east cost, I started with them and still prefer them for no real logical reason.

I think I was short on time when I first replied and only explained why I stopped carrying Wyeast. There's more to the story though. I had no actual problems with Wyeast as an active homebrewer but when Omega labs opened in Chicago, it got me curious. Even if you disregard the innovation with GMO stuff, they put 200B cells or so in their packs, which is twice as much as Wyeast for maybe 10% higher price. Even more importantly, they are geographically close enough to NJ to get yeast here via UPS ground and it only takes 2 days without paying Fedex 2-day air prices. What that means is that I order Omega on a very regular basis in smaller quantities so everything is almost always in stock, cheaper and younger now. They don't carry 100% of the same strains as Wyeast, but they have about 80% of the common strains you'd use. I use Omega on 95% of regular brewing. Give it a try, I think you'll like it a lot.

 

[VTMongoose]

Twice as much as Wyeast for maybe 10% higher price

Not anymore. Even at Love2Brew, which is way cheaper than MoreBeer ($14/pack), Wyeast is still ~$10.50 a smack pack while Omega is like $9.50 for most strains on BrewHardware. Also I know your inventory turns over faster than other stores so it's actually going to have a good date when it gets to my house.

 

[Unicorn_Platypus]

Hey Bobby, thanks for posting this thread

In the past I generally only thought to use brewhardware.com for equipment not ingredients

I just placed an ingredient order on Sunday night and it already arrived by Tuesday afternoon (ground shipping) to the Boston area

Everything arrived nicely, especially the yeast that was still cold even with the hot weather.

Will definitely be ordering more ingredients in the future and recommended to others in my local homebrew club

Thanks for all the great work you do! It's a pleasure to support your business

 

[Bobby_M]

Hey Bobby, thanks for posting this thread

In the past I generally only thought to use brewhardware.com for equipment not ingredients

I just placed an ingredient order on Sunday night and it already arrived by Tuesday afternoon (ground shipping) to the Boston area

Everything arrived nicely, especially the yeast that was still cold even with the hot weather.

Will definitely be ordering more ingredients in the future and recommended to others in my local homebrew club

Thanks for all the great work you do! It's a pleasure to support your business

Great! I'm glad the shipping cost and speed works out for you and your local peers. If there's anything we can do better, let me know.

 

[mashdar]

I just want to chime in and say the re-used packing materials are great. My order in January had wrapping paper as filler!

I'm all for re-use - good for the planet and good for the bottom line!

 

[fluketamer]

i just got the kolsch kit , 2 lbs of aciduated malt a pack of cellar science . and best of all some body left a grain order that was milled last week. (score). all for 51$ with shipping!!!
thats 10 gallons of beer and a year worth of sourmaltz.

thanks bobby.

 

[matt_m]

One thing that tends to prevent me from supporting LHBS’s for ingredients and especially yeast on mail order is unpredictable shipping lag time. It’s difficult to predict when an order might ship which means yeast might sit over the weekend in a truck. I get most of my ingredients from a LHBS that’s 4 hours away, but tend to only do so when I can pick it up on a visit or have it delivered by a family member that lives nearby. Not knowing what order volume, staffing, etc is like not sure how much could be done about this. And my last couple hardware orders from Brew Hardware have shipped in 1-2 days.

 

[Bobby_M]

One thing that tends to prevent me from supporting LHBS’s for ingredients and especially yeast on mail order is unpredictable shipping lag time. It’s difficult to predict when an order might ship which means yeast might sit over the weekend in a truck. I get most of my ingredients from a LHBS that’s 4 hours away, but tend to only do so when I can pick it up on a visit or have it delivered by a family member that lives nearby. Not knowing what order volume, staffing, etc is like not sure how much could be done about this. And my last couple hardware orders from Brew Hardware have shipped in 1-2 days.

That's a good point. Anyone that processes orders here is an active brewer that uses liquid yeast and can make intuitive decisions on best shipping times. If we get an order with liquid yeast on it say on a Thursday, we contact the customer and relay that it would be best to hold off shipping until Monday. It gets a little more risky when the order is on Wednesday because I can imagine many times it's a hopeful attempt to brew that weekend. If it's a UPS 1-2 day zone away, we insulate the heck out of the yeast and cross fingers. The post office will deliver Saturdays with no special postage. UPS requires an upcharge for that service, and usually it's not worth it.

 

[wepeeler]

Did a side by side comparison for my brewing needs on Brewhardware and Ritebrew today. Prices were within pennies of one another, so I went Brewhardware. Morebeer was $5 more even with free shipping. I like knowing that I'm supporting a LHBS vs the big guy (I personally work for a small local business). Bobby has been a great help to many people on here, myself included. Keep up the good work!

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Part of the 'magic' with RiteBrew is that they have a regional shipper as an option for those in the MN/WI/IA/IL/ND/SD area. For me, the regional shipper is almost always cheaper (especially base grain stock up orders just above 50#).

 

[Agent]

Part of the 'magic' with RiteBrew is that they have a regional shipper as an option for those in the MN/WI/IA/IL/ND/SD area. For me, the regional shipper is almost always cheaper (especially base grain stock up orders just above 50#).

I'm like 30 miles from them and my discounted economy shipping quote was $2.75 for 10lbs of grain, yeast, and misc.

If not for the liquid yeast, I wouldn't even bother driving across the city they are in for that price!!

 

[rlrohan]

Message deleted

 

[rlrohan]

I'm glad many of you like one of my competitors but its in slightly poor taste to share that in my thread in a the sponsor market section of the site.

My apologies. Should have looked at who started the discussion first. Wasn’t putting you down just saying what I do. If I lived closer to you then I’d be buying from you because of geography and shipping costs.

 

[seatazzz]

Bobby, you've been my go-to for hard-to-find/correct size/oddball hardware for a few years now. Your bent diptubes are the absolute shiznit, your price on duotights is better than amazon (and better quality), and the two false bottoms I have fit my cooler and my kettle perfectly, are sturdy as nomansbusiness, and will last years. I am waaaaaay out here on the west coast, and whenever I order from you the shipping is reasonable, and fast. Keep on keeping on, my friend. If I'm ever in NJ I'll stop by. Also do you have stickers?

 

[Bobby_M]

Also do you have stickers?

I've never done any stickers. I have no explanation or excuse.

 

[wepeeler]

Did a side by side comparison for my brewing needs on Brewhardware and Ritebrew today. Prices were within pennies of one another, so I went Brewhardware. Morebeer was $5 more even with free shipping. I like knowing that I'm supporting a LHBS vs the big guy (I personally work for a small local business). Bobby has been a great help to many people on here, myself included. Keep up the good work!

Just an FYI, I placed my order on August 31st, the Saturday night of Labor Day weekend. It was shipped the Tuesday after the Holiday (yesterday), and I had it at my doorstep 2:30pm today. NJ to CT. Packaged very well. I ordered liquid yeast, and it was double wrapped in bubbled envelope and inside a 6 pack styrofoam cooler. It was cool to the touch, and it's 80F today. Very satisfied and will be ordering again soon! Thanks @Bobby_M

 

[stamandster]

Always try to use Bobby when I can, I appreciate his work on the forums, his wisdom and a lot of time to improve the craft for all of us.

 

[MaxStout]

Just received a small order from Brew Hardware. I had ordered last Thurs, it shipped before the weekend, and arrived today, neatly packed. Total time 6 days order to arrival from NJ to MN. And great prices.