Austin Homebrew Supply

[redrocker652002]

Just wanted to give a quick shout out to them. I bought a spunding valve from them using a gift card my kid gave me. It was a bit pricey at 40 bucks, but it was free with the gift card, so why not. I got it and it sat for a bit while life happened. The other day I thought, maybe I will give it a try. So, I pumped some O2 from my compressor into the keg I had and put the valve on. I started to turn the little knob hoping to get the pressure down to about 10PSI. I got to a certain point and all of a sudden the valve releases and all the pressure goes out of the tank. I tried about 3 or 4 times more and the same result. So, I got mad and put it away. Yesterday I was bored so I thought maybe it was just too much pressure, so I filled the same keg with CO2, about 15 pounds, and tried again. Still no luck on the adjustment. So, I emailed AHB and explained to situation fully knowing they were going to say "sorry, you waited too long and the warranty is done". But, to my surprise, they did not say that. I got an email the next day saying they were going to ship me a new one no charge and to keep the old one. Wow!!!!! I was not expecting that at all. Now, I know that they are part of a bigger company now, but it seems they have not lost the idea of customer service. Will they get rich off me? Nope, but I will certainly look towards them when I buy ingredients and things that I need from now on. Just thought I would give them a shoutout as they went far and above what I expected.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Good to see some evidence that AHS is on the way to recovery.

In my past experiences, it takes about six months for the influence of the new owners to show up. The sale was announced in Sept 2024.

I'll likely do some detailed price comparisons this fall. A quick look about a month ago suggested that my "top tier" regional providers are less expensive than the national providers.

 

[BongoYodeler]

I guess I haven't been keeping up, I thought Austin Homebrew, like Adventures in Homebrewing, were owned by whatever entity owns Northern Brewer. Is this not the case?

 

[Snuffy]

I guess I haven't been keeping up, I thought Austin Homebrew, like Adventures in Homebrewing, were owned by whatever entity owns Northern Brewer. Is this not the case?

Yes. Or uhh... No, it is not not the case. Anyway, AHS=AIH=NB

 

[Snuffy]

I used to use AHS almost exclusively. No issues with them whatsoever. Responsive, helpful, flexible, good sales. Then they announced the sale of the business. Got an email from the owner explaining whatever. Then. The next kit I got had AIH labels on it and the grain was unmilled. I complained and they refunded for the kit cost. Ok. I had no mill at the time, so I crunched it up in a bucket with an axe handle a bit at a time and it brewed just fine. Then, the next time I logged in, I had to set a new password and my entire purchase history was lost and started over. So I went to look for a clone kit and they were gone from the menu. I searched on the specific kit name and found it. Out Of Stock. Every one I searched was the same. The in stock kits were a mix of generic AHS, NB and AIH kits. So I dug out my old recipe sheet and put the kit together from scratch. Could not buy grain or hops in anything but round amounts of a pound or ounce. A week later, a distilling toaster arrived. I forget the brand, but I looked it up and it was like $225. The ingredient summary for my kit was taped inside the box. I contacted support and they sent an RMA label and I took it to UPS and sent it back. Then my kit ingredients arrived after all. I ordered a few more things from them that came labelled NB and continued to check for the European clones to return. I contacted support each time I ordered and asked when/if they were going to be available again. Sorry about that we only have so much room and staff and blahyadablah. I would love for them to get back to what they once were, but now they are just a portal to facilitate e-commerce. No better and no worse than NB or AIH. They will comp you some stuff when they screw up, I'll give them that. My recipe sheets and I have moved on. No hard feelings.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I guess I haven't been keeping up, I thought Austin Homebrew, like Adventures in Homebrewing, were owned by whatever entity owns Northern Brewer. Is this not the case?

As of Sept 24, all 4 (NB/MWS/AIH/AHS) are owned by J&P Park in SC. The owner also owns a number of other companies (many of them are hobby or gardening related).

Personally, I'm willing to give them a fresh start/look at some point in the near future.

 

[redrocker652002]

I don't know about all the buyout stuff, although I do remember reading about it here I think, but what I do know is they went way above and beyond. My expectation was that I was going to get one of those emails that said "sorry, you are out of luck" but I did not. For comparison, I have a Chevy Colorado that I bought used. It has a hard trifold bed cover on it that has started to leak a bit. I checked the price of the cover and whoever put it on before I had the truck paid at least 600 bucks for it. I emailed the company and asked if they had weatherstripping I could buy and replace what is there. I told them I was not the original purchaser and that I was willing to purchase it. I was told that they do not warranty it to anybody but the original purchaser, Ummm I said I wanted to buy it, and that I could look at the local hardware stores to try and find something that worked. Now, is this a bit different? Yes. But, I am still impressed AHS did not ask me to send the old one back and charge me to ship the new one. I would have gladly done that, but they went above and beyond to make a customer happy. I am going to give them more of my business now until I feel they are not able to do what I think they should do.

 

[Snuffy]

That's cool. I may end up ordering from them again as circumstances dictate. But if I am going to have to build my own kits from scratch I'm doing it somewhere that lets me build a custom grainbill with fractional quantities. My point is not that they are bad - just that they are not THEY anymore. Glad you got a good result.

 

[simbabrew]

I would call it a good review for Northern Brewer, which is encouraging!