Austin Homebrew Closed?

[Flboy]

Anyone know if their DYI maltmill is the JSP AA mill?

 

[godofcheese]

Yep. If you scroll down on the pages it gives you an option to change from dry to specialty yeasts.

No, that is in addition to the dry yeast.

 

[Phoenix7801]

Ah yes I see that now. Well I suppose you could always pitch the dry yeast into another recipe to do a side by side comparison. Forgive me, I'm upbeat.

 

[Teromous]

Best to just piece together a kit myself and obviously, that is still an option. I definitely like a lot of the design changes of the site. They did good.

Unfortunately they don't list the recipe for their kits (that I can see). You might be able to contact them and just have them add the ingredients to your cart individually, or have them email the recipe.

 

[DudeAbides]

I ordered quite a few kits from them despite not having recipes posted because the prices were good and free shipping. Still ordered when they went to flat rate shipping. I'm done now, not going to be forced to buy "nutrients", whirfloc, and dry yeast I don't want.

 

[Gameface]

I too have placed a bunch of orders with AHS. Looking around their shiny new site and seeing how much they still have out of stock... I wonder if the money spent on the face life could have been better used buying inventory. That and it sounds like they are focused on selling kits from what the folks here are talking about and what their home page is all about. Then they add a bunch of crap people don't want to their kits? I don't get it.

I've found a few other sites that I like. Not sure what happened to these guys but I think they took a wrong turn in Albuquerque or something.

 

[Hopinista]

Yeah the whole mystery yeast + energizer is super sketchy. I rarely buy kits but if I do it'll be from northern brewer or morebeer.

 

[tj218]

Why is it that every store I start to like goes downhill?

First it was NB getting rid of flat-rate shipping.
Then Brewmasters Warehouse taking weeks to ship orders.
Now Austin....

Does anyone have another merchant I can doom?

 

[Hopinista]

NB has flat rate shipping again.

 

[garcia]

I really like Austin, but if they are increasing prices and doing strange things, I might look for another place.
Any other online beer supplier in Texas? I shop Texas first.

 

[petey_c]

I was just at their site. Flat rate shipping is still there ($7.99 under $100.00?). No choice for dry yeast unless you buy another. I didn't see where they added yeast fuel or whirlfloc by default. Just got three kits from them Friday.

 

[myelo]

I agree it would be nice to see prices for the recipe kits on the first page. There a little note that says "Select Recipe Style" but you can't click on it. I wonder if this is supposed to show the price?

 

[Mordhaus]

I really like Austin, but if they are increasing prices and doing strange things, I might look for another place.
Any other online beer supplier in Texas? I shop Texas first.

http://www.txbrewing.com/

 

[ktblunden]

MUCH better layout. I like that you don't add yeast, double pitch, ice pack, etc. options by default on kits anymore.

Hmm, when I originally posted this I didn't notice the dry yeast, fuel, and whirflock added by default. Add me to the camp that wouldn't want to be forced to pay for stuff I don't want.

 

[Weezy]

Prices go up. Its inevitable. As long as they don't double, I can't hold it against them.

 

[Hopinista]

Prices go up. Its inevitable. As long as they don't double, I can't hold it against them.

I think the main complaint here is being forced to pay for things you don't want or need.

 

[Picbuddy]

Yes, their site is down now, Sunday and has been since last night. About 24 hours now.

Some changes on Austin Home Brew I have noticed as a regular custumer for years;

1) Yes, as ya'll have mentioned their website went offline in FEB, they opened using a cloud company with a new site that changed the dates of all of the previous product reviews to all 4 star ratings given on FEB 11th, 2014. So obviously all of the ratings were lost. All of my previous orders were missing from online records and I had to ask them to E-Mail PDF copies for my hobby records which they did provide. But nothing is available online anymore before FEB 11th, 2014. The true ratings being lost and all averaged to 4 of 5 stars destroys the rating system as it's obviously incorrect.

2) After the new site went up they started including a dry yeast, whirlfloc tablet and 14 oz. of Malto-Dextrin to every order free. The Malto-Dextrin was labeled as such yet also called "Body Builder". They have sense changed "Body Builder" to a new label with no ingredients listed in an 8 oz. bag instead. Whirlfloc should never be used in a Hefeweizen and including it can cause someone to mess up a brew.

3) I ordered (2) kits last Wed. (Brewed one tonight in fact, a Kolsch). Then suddenly the next morning their announcement was that they were no longer including dry yeast. As I always double pitch a dry and liquid I was wondering if I would get the dry. I did. The order had an extra free 1 oz. hops as a sample I guess but the Styrian Goldings hops were accidentally Kent Golding off by 1 oz. thus delaying one of my weekend brews of an Amber. E-Mailed and got an E-Mail back on Sunday this morning, early. They are mailing the correct St Golding tomorrow.

4) I asked by E-Mail if all of the kit prices have dropped by $4 (the cost of a pack of dry yeast) since they no longer come with one? While they answered another question in the same E-Mail (What are the ingredients of Body Builder?), they declined to say that. So as far as I know their kits are now the same price but don't have yeast anymore. NOW, I am looking elsewhere. I brewed my 1st 6 batches with nothing but 100% of everything from them. But it's time to look around cause that's just not cool.

5) Their website has been down for over 24 hours. I placed an order last night almost exactly 24 hours ago. I noticed that the site was very, very slow. It got so slow that I quit shopping and just decided on $70 of basics needed including yeast to brew (2) other kits I ordered from California at the same online session as shipping was free over $59. Sigh. But I didn't want the yeast exposed to a heat duration as my location 1.5 hours from Austin provided overnight delivery at ground rates (plus TX tax which makes it okay). And the site crash when I entered my order. No order confirmation, don't know if my card was charged or not and it's been down ever since.

I like Austin Home Brew because of their great past service. Let's admit it, the websites of home brew suppliers suck. I forced myself to learn their old site and then the new one. But I think they are getting too busy to be able to keep up. When ordering they were out of almost 50% of everything I was looking for including basics such as sugar.

I hope everything is okay with them. But the website problems have caused me to order my next (2) kits from out of state. And now I can't not order my yeast from them to match the arrival of the kits, cause their site is indeed down and has been for about 24 hours.

Yelp!
http://www.yelp.com/biz/austin-homebrew-supply-austin?hrid=znAU74DVL3ucwfrleewMPg

 

[Blue_Monkey]

I'm not a fan of the new website. I've ordered a bunch of stuff in the past but now I had to create a new login and my order history disappeared. I also agree with Picbuddy that the review system is messed up now. A lot of the stuff I was looking for is out of stock now and it looks like I will be ordering elsewhere. :/

 

[aubiecat]

Those numbnuts' lost my account and my order history in their move over to the new system. Good grief..............

 

[raf1919]

i have been on a break from brewing since last nov due to newborn but AHS was my go to site i went on today and not liking new site.. hate that you cant see the prices have to click on each kit. and wow big price increases which i guess i get.

 

[sikkingj]

Yeah they lost my order history as well, but I just order a random selection of malts from them (about 12 lbs. of malt with no malt weighing more than a pound). Everything was packaged and labeled right and it saved me a pretty penny over NB with their 1lbs. Minimum order.

The old website wasn't so pretty, I don't mind the new one, but I agree it needs some improving...


Sent from the window of an airplane...

 

[raf1919]

Yeah they lost my order history as well, but I just order a random selection of malts from them (about 12 lbs. of malt with no malt weighing more than a pound). Everything was packaged and labeled right and it saved me a pretty penny over NB with their 1lbs. Minimum order.

The old website wasn't so pretty, I don't mind the new one, but I agree it needs some improving...


Sent from the window of an airplane...

ya same here i thought i just forgot my log in info but realized that it wasn't my memory. Old site looked dated but it functioned great. new one looks nicer but not very functional, to much clicking involved to get the same info i used to w/ one click.

 

[DromJohn]

I preferred the old charts which could be resorted, especially by price.