Austin Homebrew Supply

[free2scour]

I've used AHS many times...Always very good service!!

 

[aubiecat]

I really like AHS, good place to do business with for sure. They are one of my top go to HBS.

 

[E_Marquez]

The accolades above plus my own experiences there is why I drive an hour to go visit AHS. No looking down their nose at the 1gal extract brewer, or the Partial mash guy that asks questions.. nor the never brewed before dude that wants to "try" All grain..

 

[Grippe]

They are great in-store too. I love going in on Guard weekend and talking with the fellow brewing nerds, er, employees.

 

[erockdoc]

Two weeks ago I placed an order with Northern Brewer and Austin Homebrew during another shipping price standoff. I spent over $200 at Northern Brewer, and maybe $125 at Austin Homebrew Supply. There was all sorts of crazy stuff in the Northern Brewer order, such as a used keg; Yet, shipment was delayed because of this: 1 lb crushed pilsner malt! The entire order was held over a week until it could all be shipped together, all because of Pilsner malt?? Isn't that a staple for any homebrew supply? Pilsner malt? Really? It has now taken 2 weeks to receive my ingredients! I was planning on brewing for a birthday BBQ, and there is no way it will be ready on time now!

Meanwhile, Austin homebrew supply was also missing an item: 1 cornelius keg liquid post. So what did they do? They shipped me everything else while they waited for the missing component!

Thanks, Austin Homebrew Supply! You know how to treat a customer right! You just scored a lot of future orders.

Northern Brewer: don't offer me cheap shipping for 24 hours only if you can't fulfill my order for 8 days.

I have been traveling for over a year, and thus have not brewed, or placed an order, in about a year. A lot sure has changed since then.

edit: no this is not my first post, just a new screen name

 

[Remmy]

Austin Home Brew is awesome. I ordered $400 worth of stuff once and the only thing that was not in-stock was a spigot for my bottling bucket. They shipped everything out immediately and shipped the spigot later in the week in a separate package.

 

[greatschmaltez]

AHBS is awesome... Even when I move away from Houston (to Atlanta) I still get my stuff from them. Their customer service is a step above.

 

[Rockn_M]

I have never had an issue with AHBS. If there was ever any question with my order or something wasn't in stock they would call and let me know. I typically order from them 1-2 a month and if I order on Monday, I will have my shipment by Thursday!

 

[erockdoc]

AHBS is awesome... Even when I move away from Houston (to Atlanta) I still get my stuff from them. Their customer service is a step above.

I'm moving to Houston in December, looking forward to being closer to AHBS. Of course I will have to check out the LHBS around Houston too.

 

[CBU123]

Had the opportunity to visit AHBS while in Austin last month. Very professional and clean operation. Extremely helpful staff who are passionate about beer. They are my go to place as I don't have a LHBS.

Chris

 

[Phage-cage]

Austin Home Brew is awesome. I ordered $400 worth of stuff once and the only thing that was not in-stock was a spigot for my bottling bucket. They shipped everything out immediately and shipped the spigot later in the week in a separate package.

I had this *exact* experience also. First class overnight of the bottling bucket spigot.

On the other side my friend recently ordered his 2nd ever kit from northern during their recent sales. His entire order was held because they were out of carb drops. The thing he didn't need for a month anyway. It took northern two weeks to get his order out the door.

 

[Bauer]

AHS is awesome. I recently ordered 2 PM kits from them during their free shipping deal. When I got them they had given me the wrong grains for one of the kits. I made them aware of it and in less than 24 hours they had shipped out the correct grains to me. I am very pleased with how they handled it. I don't fault companies for minor mix ups like that as that can happen to any company. As long as they make it right I'm happy. I can't wait to order from them again.

 

[greatschmaltez]

I'm moving to Houston in December, looking forward to being closer to AHBS. Of course I will have to check out the LHBS around Houston too.

Defalco's is the LHBS, prepare to hear "we're out of that" a lot. Check out Petrol Station, best beer spot in the city.

 

[erockdoc]

Defalco's is the LHBS, prepare to hear "we're out of that" a lot. Check out Petrol Station, best beer spot in the city.

Thanks, I'll check them both out.

 

[gometz]

I'm moving to Houston in December, looking forward to being closer to AHBS. Of course I will have to check out the LHBS around Houston too.

Defalco's isn't bad, just not as well organized or run as AHBS, as well as smaller.

At AHBS it seemed like there was normally 4-5 people there for the 20-30 customers (had to start using a ticket system), but they manage it very well (though sometimes they don't seem interested in talking or giving advice unless you ask for it).

Defalco's on the other hand seems to always have 5 people there for 5-10 customers and it is hard to get help sometimes. They have homebrew on tap for you to try, but the one time I tried them they weren't all that great. Most of the time there's 2 guys behind the bar area hanging out and talking. Other than the owner the employees are pretty young.

EDIT: my experiences come from going to AHBS for 4 years when I first started (but never got serious), and now being serious about brewing this year and going to Defalco's. Now developing my own recipes is a little annoying because I have to reference what Defalco's has on their (terrible) website.

 

[melonbrew]

Newb here.
Just want to rant and get some feedback on this problem I have with AHS.

Recently placed an order on this kit that included dme. Upon receiving it, I discovered that the dme was not included. Contacted customer service and was told that it was typographical errors and they didn't update their site to reflect that the dme is actually not included in the kits anymore. So they basically said Austin Homebrew is not responsible for typographical errors.

Isn't my right to have received a product that was described during the time of purchase? They can falsely advertise stuff and then claim typographical errors?

Moderator Edit: Welcome to HBT. Company Reviews is not the place to rant or engage in back and forth conversations with other members about a company. It is a place to write a review of your experience with the company. I'm leaving your initial post up, but am editing or deleting other posts following this.

Pappers_

 

[MaxStout]

I have ordered goods from the following places:
Midwest
Northern
Austin
MoreBeer
William's

I have never had a bad experience with any of them.

 

[Pappers_]

Hi folks. We try to avoid what happened above - a new member comes to HBT for the sole purpose (so far at least) of complaining about a company.

To reiterate the rules here, real customers of a company are encouraged to post a review of their experience with the company. Companies are welcome to respond to a review, within reason. Non-review posts (including back and forth conversations like the above) are not allowed. Reviews are not censored or deleted.

If you read the review threads, you will see that every large, national company has good and bad reviews. Thanks for adding your reviews to this resource.

 

[TxBrew]

To add to this, if you are only here to talk poorly of a company this is not the community for you.

 

[melonbrew]

Thanks Mods for clarifying the intent of this thread for me. I've been reading brewing tips from here for about a year now.

My post was about my experience with this company. I'm not trolling or gaining anything from these posts. Just wanted a place to share my experience and see if others had similar ones. Other posters asked questions, so I replied.

I have no doubt from all these positive reviews that this is a good store, but it just wasn't the case for me.

 

[mgr_stl]

Really disappointed that AHB is ending their free shipping on kits "promotion". Never knew it was a temporary thing, and I'll definitely be much less likely to buy my kits from them. I'm sure their competition is breathing a sigh of relief. That said, I've been really happy with their products.

 

[kh54s10]

Really disappointed that AHB is ending their free shipping on kits "promotion". Never knew it was a temporary thing, and I'll definitely be much less likely to buy my kits from them. I'm sure their competition is breathing a sigh of relief. That said, I've been really happy with their products.

I doubt the competition has much to be celebrate about since most do not offer any better than AHB's normal flat rate shipping.

They are at the top of my go to list.

 

[Yooper]

I rarely order from them anymore, but I did on November 29. I chose the cheaper flat rate shipping, since I'm not in a hurry for my items.

I know they say "3- 8 business days to ship" but I was still surprised that my order shipped out on December 11, at 9 PM (according to UPS and the tracking email).

So it sat at their office for 12 days (but only 8 full business days) before being ready at 6 PM on the 8th business day (not including the day I ordered).

It's a 9 pound order, and I wasn't in a big hurry. It's slated to arrive December 17th. I'm not sure how I feel about an order taking nearly three weeks to arrive, even though shipping was $7. My credit card was charged instantly.

I did expect it to be slower than usual, as perhaps they've been busy. But I think that 8.5 business days, and 12 days total, before packing and shipping is longer than I will wait next time and probably order somewhere else even though I've been very happy with them in the past.

 

[tmendick]

Yeah they are usually quick to get the items out of their store, but I ordered a couple of carboys on Black Friday and they just shipped Wednesday. Not sure what's going on in their shipping dept.

 

[Bigcorona]

I visited thier store in Austin yesterday. Was not able to find everything I was looking for. A lot of empty shelves and empty bins. Seems like they are actively reducing inventory. This could be a cause for late shipping as well. Service was good.

 

[Curtis2010]

I use AHS often because of their good inventory, good service, and flat rate shipping, but I have noticed a lot of items on their web site recently that are out of stock. Had an order slightly delayed recently because an item was out of srock.

Hope this does not indicate problems at AHS because they are a great vendor.

Maybe someone from AHS could chime in on this issue?

 

[BigJack]

I visited thier store in Austin yesterday. Was not able to find everything I was looking for. A lot of empty shelves and empty bins. Seems like they are actively reducing inventory. This could be a cause for late shipping as well. Service was good.

Odd. When I went this summer, they were loaded. Any chance they are moving?

 

[Austinhomebrew]

Hey guys! Thanks for commenting! My name is Greg from Austin Homebrew. Just wanted to pop into the conversation to let you know we aren't going anywhere! We had a shipping issue due to the crazy winter storms that delayed a large shipment to our store. It arrived this morning. If you're local and need something, give us a little time to put it all on the shelves this morning then pop in! Unless you need one gallon buckets- those will be in tomorrow. Otherwise we should be able to take great care of you.

 

[Curtis2010]

Good news.

 

[Slow_Day]

I see that bulk grain is no longer availabe on the AHS web site. Is this a permanent change? Are bulk grains still available at the physical store?