Best Places to Buy Brewing Hardware?

[highgravitybacon]

You ever get an answer? I sent them an inquiry on their website about a week ago asking about shipping to Spain, as well as wondering about a description of an item. Nothing yet...

My issue is that I can't find stuff here in Spain. Stuff like shanks for my keezer...

I did not. So I gave up. I have had good experiences with Rite Brew, Adventures in Homebrewing, and Rebel Brewer. I would stick with them if you can.

 

[Pie_Man]

Last week I ordered a stir plate from brewinternational.com. The stir plate arrived with the magnet housing detached from the motor. With "some assembly required" I was able to fix the stir plate. I contacted brewinternational.com regarding the issue using the site's Contact Us page on Sunday. By early Tuesday morning I received an email reply and a FedEx return label should I choose to return the stir plate.

Overall, the customer service was fairly prompt and sufficient, so I am pretty satisfied. The stir plate works like a champ and the price was really good. I believe this may be a drop-ship business where the owner runs the website and e-commerce and a warehouse fulfills the orders. The company is kind of anonymous as their is no personal information, address, or phone number that I could find on the website.

 

[Jsimanskey]

I found this thread when sourcing parts for my keezer and kegging setup. I spent way too long comparing prices but I ended up placing 3 orders for everything - Homebrewing.org (used them before and always happy), Beverage Elements, and I decided to take a risk on Brew International too (for a savings of about $40 compared to just using the first two). I placed the order last Saturday with the cheapest shipping options for each and here were my results:

Homebrewing.org - delivered Tuesday
Beverage Elements - delivered Wednesday
Brew International - delivered Friday

I was a little worried about Brew International. I didn't hear anything until Wednesday when I was notified the USPS label was created but the order arrived when estimated and it was complete so luckily I didn't have to deal with customer service.

 

[BA_Brewer]

I ordered equipment from brewinternational last week. It was a large order including 15 gal kettle, false bottom, taprite duel body regulator, 4 way distributor, lots of connects, hose, etc. order was delivered in 5 days. I did have one issue. The thermometer and ball calve for the kettle wasn't in the shipment. I used the internal message system on the site and had a response in less than 24 hours. Should have the missing equipment in a couple days.

Obviously the site is very new, and probably staffed by 1 or 2 people, but I am planning to order from them again soon.

Update: Got the missing ball valve and thermometer. They have been installed and I did a test boil this weekend with no issues.

 

[brewprint]

Good to hear about brew international. I'm going to place an order for this:

http://www.brewinternational.com/50-copper-immersion-chiller-1-2-x-3-8-triple-coil/

Either that or just the 3/8 model. I can't find a price like that on just tubing alone. I was going to build one until I saw this.

 

[beerme70]

Lot of good quality stuff at dudadiesel.com as well.

 

[hucklb]

I just ordered a false bottom from this vendor and they turned it into a troubling experience. First off, I admittedly gave them the wrong street address number on the order form (64 instead of 60)(one is the home and the other is the office.) However, fixing this turned into a complete waste of time and ultimately, they refused to fix it unless I paid them $17.50. There is no customer service department to speak of and no phone number is published in their website. It takes 2-3 days to get a response to an email. Ultimately, I had FedEx hold the package at a FedEx store 3 mile away from my office and picked it up there. Per FedEx support, because BI shipped via FedEx home I could not change the shipping address. If I was able to do so it would have only cost me $5.00. (Having the package held at a FedEx location was free.) Getting this problem fixed by Northern Brewer of another similar vendor would have been a simple phone call since I noticed the problem immediately after placing the order. That said, I received the false bottom yesterday and it does seem to be a quality item. However, I have yet to install it in my mash tun. So, the final review is not in. Long story short, unless you are willing to forgo all semblance of customer service and are absolutely certain that you will never ever need to return the item or to get any type of post sale service, I recommended that you use another vendor.

 

[RareBreed]

I have ordered from Brew International a few times. I have never had any of the problems mention in this thread. They offer good quality products at a huge discount compared to pretty much any other supplier. Sure it took an extra day or 2. I'd gladly pay WAY less and be patient.

I have however had a couple problems with Adventures in Home Brewing. They sent me used kegs that were cracked and could not hold pressure at all. The same set of kegs had syrup residue in them. They sent replacements that were much better. Also ordered an Arrogant Bastard All-grain Clone Kit that was an entire pound short of grains. I called to see what the deal was and the person first asked which grains were short... I responded, that since they were all put in the same bag, there was no way to tell. They gave me a discount on my next order which I was fine with, the AB recipe turned out great. They did nothing to remedy the situation. Not exactly the best customer service.

And to the person that posted something about not trusting members that are not paying to be on here, that is a terrible assumption to make.

 

[imcginnis]

Love brew international for there selection and pricing. Hate them for terrible customer service and no care what so ever for you. Multiple orders from myself and my buddy have ended with conversations through the poorly set up "message" system. Each time it ends with a "oh I screwed up your order sorry". Maybe 1 day they will come up to a standard of ok, but for now just plan on having to put the leg work in and playing the waiting game just to save a few bucks.

 

[cubalz]

Brewhardware.com is my go-to place for most parts.

^What he said.....

 

[CHansen6]

Just to add, my recent experience with brew international was good and mirrored some of the more recent ones. I put in a small order as this was my first time with this company, and they've had some rather mixed reviews over the past year or so. If you don't mind being patient, this place seemed fine. I got my order in about a week and a half. Mine shipped out of Anaheim, CA instead of the reported Oklahoma.

As per some of the comments, I triple checked all of my information was correct. Everything went off without a hitch. I ordered on a sunday evening, and got an automated e-mail message Monday evening saying that my order was awaiting shipment, and then got another automated e-mail on Wednesday that said my order had shipped. This however was kind of misleading. What it really means is that they printed off a label, or scheduled a pickup since it didn't actually go out until Friday. I received it the following Thursday.

Everything was packaged just fine, the quality is good, and you can't beat the price on the chillers. I got a 25' x 3/8" immersion chiller with welded garden hose fittings, which for some reason is no extra charge on this model. Works like a champ, or at least as well as a 25' x 3/8" immersion chiller can.

 

[joemite]

Not having heard of Brew International, I did some Interwebs searching and landed on this excellent thread. I pulled the trigger and purchased several picnic taps, an airlock, universal bung, and a couple packs of Safale-05. The pricing was excellent on everything, I had ordered on a Thursday afternoon, tracking number by Friday morning, and received it all with my Monday USPS mail. It was shipped from Oklahoma to Colorado.

Overall, this was a great experience. I tend to shop around for good deals, and they seem to have good deals on equipment... grain and hops can be found elsewhere for less.

 

[wmmorgan01]

I just purchased from Brew International (http://www.brewinternational.com/), with no issues. :rockin: .
Purchased a weldless bulkhead and valve along with a pickup tube, on a Friday afternoon and it shipped on Wednesday. Nice deals!

 

[teambio]

I was a little concerned at first about brewinternational.com reading all these skeptical reviews. I ordered a Co2 tank 5 gallon keg regulator and a couple random connection parts. I set it up for the new location in Santa Ana CA and they got my stuff all ready for me the next day and was waiting when I walked in. The guy at the store was super cool and they are literally unboxing since its a new shop here in CA. I suggested he make the site a little more user friendlier in terms of info and contacting someone. They are legit and will be ordering from them here on out with the prices.

 

[Zane1017]

I also has a bad experience with this company. Bought a magnetic stirrer from them. It worked one time and died. Communicated with them for two weeks to get the problem resolved. They just stopped communicating. I ended up going back to my credit card company to get the matter resolved. Stick with reputable companies that stand behind their products.

 

[passedpawn]

www.Brewhardware.com first for me. Mostly because I know Bobby_M on this forum, and he seems like the kind of guy I want to support. He carries the chugger pumps, tons of SS hardware, etc.

For a false bottom, I wouldn't buy from anyone but Jaybird, also a sponsor on this forum (www.norcalbrewingsolutions.com).

For burners, probably Northern Brewer, although I haven't looked for 10 years since I went electric.

 

[Jacinthebox]

I shop at https://www.everwoodavebrewshop.com/

Not sure how shipping works to the US, but I know our dollar is crap right now...may be a way to stretch your cash. He is local for me, so I shop in his store. Small shop with lots of gear...

 

[dordelli]

I visited the Brew International retail store in Santa Ana this past weekend. It's owned/operated by one guy, he runs the retail and also does all the shipping for online. Really great prices and a good selection, nice guy as well and we chatted for about an hour about his operation. I'll definitely be going back as we really needed a homebrew shop in the OC. I would feel safe ordering online here as well if that helps anyone. I did mention the negative reviews about shipping and cust service on this site and he said that the issues occurred while he was in the middle of moving his business to CA.

 

[Apple_Jacker]

After reading the mixed reviews on Brew International, the cheap-ass in me decided to test them out on an 8.5 gallon brew kettle with thermometer and shut-off valve. Here's the link: http://www.brewinternational.com/8-5-gallon-stainless-steel-kettle-with-weldless-valve-thermometer/

I ordered it on the 15th, and I received it this past Saturday (shipped from California to Tennessee for about $22). It looks just like the one in the picture. The lid doesn't quite fit right; there's 2 spots on it that looked like it got slightly squished, so it's not round anymore... but other than that, it looks great. I'll be testing it out this Friday!

 

[ElMarcito]

Hey all. First post here. So i was looking for a brew kettle at a decent price... An 8 gallon kettle... And came upon the brew international web page. Naturally, since I never heard of themi googled the name and ran upon this forum. At first some of the comments made me somewhat apprehensive to shop there but since I'm from lbc and the store is located in Santa Ana i decided to drive down there. It's a decent sized audio with stacked boxes of kettles and igloo coolers all around. Shelves stocked with all sorts of fittings and your what nots for brewing. Talked to the owner, Chris, for a while and was really pleasant and friendly. He used to be a head brewer for a brewery back east in Vermont. The name off the place escapes me. He says he moved here with his wife back in July and been getting the store together for a few months... Had to do some renovations. I mentioned that i looked the store up on the web and he seemed fully aware of the neg comments. Said they've been trying to get the store together since the move... Away mentioned he owns other stores in OK.
Anywayn the kettle i bought seems nice quality. Heavy steel. He was very helpful I getting the fittings i needed for certain upgrades. I asked him about his pricing and told him these seemed like good deals. He said he doesn't like doing big Mark ups, and that a lot of other brew shops do...
Case in point, but a bazooka filter at brew international for just under 9 bucks. My local hbs was selling the same one for over 20.
Ijs give them a shot. Quality grear. Next up i will test their ingredients since i don't work too far from the shop.

 

[Maksimus54]

I have placed two orders with Brewinternational. Both orders took a couple days to process but when they shipped it was only 3 days out. I had an issue where they sent me the wrong part on my last order. They ended up shipping me the correct part the next day and told me to keep the part that was shipped accidentally as it wasn't worth the shipping label.

They aren't instantaneous like some places, but they have handled orders and customer service in a reasonable amount of time and in a friendly manner the 2 times I've used them.