I buy from "MoreBeer." Should I?`
- Thread starter cannman
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Morebeer has always been good to me.
Hops are cheaper elsewhere for one. I like farmhouse brewing supply, you can get a large variety of 4 oz bags.
Or if you know which hops you like, hops direct is cheap by the lb. A vacuum sealer is a decent investment though to break them down if you go the buy by the lb route.
Or if you know which hops you like, hops direct is cheap by the lb. A vacuum sealer is a decent investment though to break them down if you go the buy by the lb route.
Why would you care one way or the other? If you like Morebeer, then buy there? Do you really need to ask strangers online if you should price compare??
Personally, I would not choose to purchase from Northern Brewer or Midwest Supplies, but it's due to my personal feelings regarding some of their business practices. There are PLENTY of other stores to choose from on the Internet.
Austin Homebrew Supply
Williams
Rebel Brewing
etc.
etc.
etc.
Price ain't everything, but it might be most important to you.
Personally, I would not choose to purchase from Northern Brewer or Midwest Supplies, but it's due to my personal feelings regarding some of their business practices. There are PLENTY of other stores to choose from on the Internet.
Austin Homebrew Supply
Williams
Rebel Brewing
etc.
etc.
etc.
Price ain't everything, but it might be most important to you.
sandyeggoxj
Well-Known Member
If I buy online I buy from more beer. Why? Because their pricing is decent and I get stuff fast! That second part is important to me. For example, NB takes at least twice as long to get to me, so I don't buy from them.
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benm1024
Active Member
I live about 15 minutes away from the more beer showroom in Concord, CA so I shop there pretty much exclusively. I buy bulk hops online for the beers I make often, but besides that I go with more beer. Everyone in the shop is really nice and helpful, so I like giving them my business.
MindenMan
Well-Known Member
Everyone has their favorite HBS. I personally would price shop for supplies and shipping costs, and since you like Morebeer, tell the sales person the other stores pricing, and see if they will match. There are only two places I will buy auto parts online from, and last month, one of the places I would NOT buy parts from had $1.00 shipping on the parts I wanted. I called up my usual supplier and told them about the free shipping offer, and they matched it. Ten minutes of E-shopping saved me me $39.00! It never hurts to look.
Morebeer was the place that turned up a few years ago when I was searching for beer supplies online. It had a nice brew kit and seem to have EVERYTHING I could ever want. But while some of their stuff seems like "a good deal," other things seem outrageously priced. Since this has been the ONLY place I've ordered from and MoreBeer seems to have the capabilities to market, I want to know what I'm missing out there, and beer brewing strangers might have that "gem" I'm looking for. Sometimes you don't know what is out there until you start asking around, especially asking more experienced brewers.
Its not about price comparison (I do that anyway). I was looking more for "Morebeer always sends stale grains" or "Their hardware sucks, malts are great." I can google search price.
Gameface
Well-Known Member
Early on I shopped almost exclusively at MoreBeer. I like them. Their prices are pretty fair for the most part. I've since branched out and have bought from several of the more popular online retailers. They all have their pluses and minuses. I now pretty much order from one or the other depending on what I'm buying. Bulk grain or hops...morebeer isn't my first choice.
madscientist451
Well-Known Member
I shop around, and agree you can get hops at a lower price. But more beer's prices are competitive. If you are getting what you want when you want it, stick with them but keep an eye on other suppliers prices. In today's marketplace, online suppliers really can charge all that much more that their competitors can.
I see. I must have misunderstood your original post.
I have nothing against Morebeer. I think some of their prices are too high, others are just a bit more and the rest is on average. I don't think they bring in customers on their pricing.
They have lots of stuff and a bunch of unique stuff too.
They are just too far away from me to want to shop there. My wife got me something from there and it was a good shopping experience as far as I know.
Heck, I spend more driving to my LHBS than it would cost if I ordered stuff from most online places and had it shipped. I do it because i love going there and the people are friendly and helpful.
I buy from morebeer quite often, not the cheapest but not too expensive and they generally get the order out the door very quick. Most times my order is "on the truck for delivery" the next business day if it is in stock at the PA warehouse!
agrazela
Well-Known Member
If I'm not buying from the LHBS, I'm usually ordering from morebeer. Always fast shipping at least within California (and free if order over $59), everything's always been fresh, etc. And if you do extract or PM batches, they have a vast selection of extracts (and those have also always been fresh and good).
Yeah, maybe they don't have the best pricing you could find, and yeah, you can't buy specialty grains in less-than-pound quantities, but my only REAL complaint about morebeer is that their leaf hop selection is rather weak.
Yeah, maybe they don't have the best pricing you could find, and yeah, you can't buy specialty grains in less-than-pound quantities, but my only REAL complaint about morebeer is that their leaf hop selection is rather weak.
stpug
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As far as "regular" online homebrew shops go, I've had good experiences with (in no particular order):
brewbrothers.biz
morebeer.com
farmhousebrewingsupply.com
williamsbrewing.com
I've also bought from specialty/niche homebrew shops (stainless things, hardware, pumps, mills, etc) that were great places as well.
Additinally, I've bought from a few other regular online homebrew shops but feel that those mentioned above better served my needs and wants.
Ultimately though, I prefer my local homebrew shop since it's close; convenient; carries most of what I need; helpful; and a local business I'd like to see around for many years to come. I was just in there an hour ago!
What they don't have on stock they can usually get within a weeks time and since I'm always planning out future brews then a weeks time is usually soon enough. Good bunch of employees!
HTH!
brewbrothers.biz
morebeer.com
farmhousebrewingsupply.com
williamsbrewing.com
I've also bought from specialty/niche homebrew shops (stainless things, hardware, pumps, mills, etc) that were great places as well.
Additinally, I've bought from a few other regular online homebrew shops but feel that those mentioned above better served my needs and wants.
Ultimately though, I prefer my local homebrew shop since it's close; convenient; carries most of what I need; helpful; and a local business I'd like to see around for many years to come. I was just in there an hour ago!
What they don't have on stock they can usually get within a weeks time and since I'm always planning out future brews then a weeks time is usually soon enough. Good bunch of employees!HTH!
I get most of my stuff from Morebeer, Farmhouse and Williams. I want more Iodophor so I'll have to make an order somewhere else soon. That's the way it is for me. I have to order form three or more places to get the exact things I want.
Where I typically shop:
LHBS for bulk grain, specialty grain, yeast.
Hopsdirect for hops.
Morebeer or brewershardware.com for equipment (the fact that the owner of the latter is from my homebrew club helps)
Morebeer for bigger orders -- free shipping and the fact that they're in CA makes it easy
Ritebrew for kegging equipment -- great prices and always had good luck
LHBS for bulk grain, specialty grain, yeast.
Hopsdirect for hops.
Morebeer or brewershardware.com for equipment (the fact that the owner of the latter is from my homebrew club helps)
Morebeer for bigger orders -- free shipping and the fact that they're in CA makes it easy
Ritebrew for kegging equipment -- great prices and always had good luck
Agreed on northern brewer. Morebeer or rebel are my go to with Morebeer being my first choice..... Although if my lhbs has it I purchase from there because of convenience since they are two minutes away.
Speed is really a big factor with shopping online. If I want it faster then I go with a closer hbs. Morebeer did burn me on yeast once. I ordered some Pacman yeast from them and it got sent via some weird FedEx/post office hybrid system. Well 10 days after I ordered it I got a call from the post office asking if I was returning a package to morebeer. I said I was expecting a package FROM morebeer. They delivered it the next day. The yeast was kaput. Not really morebeers fault but I haven't ordered from them again for some reason. Now I just do business locally unless I can get a great deal on something.
I've had woahs with the Fedex-USPS hybrid too (I think it was with Amazon). I'm not sure they even have that option any more. UPS to USPS seems to work well, but everytime I see that my items were shipped that method, then I start to worry.
My nearest home brew store is 55 miles away, and the products are mostly canned malts. Its more of a home brew shelf in a store that sells groceries.
I'm learning that I can buy with confidence from MoreBeer *and this is good*
I don't order everything from Morebeer, but since they have a warehouse this side of PA, I get stuff ridiculously fast from them. And I mean if I order by 3PM or so, it's here on my doorstep anywhere from early morning to like 11AM something the next day! Now THAT's fast! And their kits & such are great too!
By the way, my #2 son called just a bit ago, & is engaged! Yahooo! I'll finally get to be a Gampaw as Archie Bunker used to say! :rockin:
By the way, my #2 son called just a bit ago, & is engaged! Yahooo! I'll finally get to be a Gampaw as Archie Bunker used to say! :rockin:
Oh yeah! I'm doin fiiine up here, on cloud nine! Old one, look in my eyes & you can tell that's true!
Old one, look in my eyes & you can tell that's true!
What you should be doing is growing all your own ingredients, like the rest of us do.
they're already talking about children! Oh yeah!...you gottanotha thing comin!
By the way, my #2 son called just a bit ago, & is engaged! Yahooo! I'll finally get to be a Gampaw as Archie Bunker used to say! :rockin:
Shotgun wedding?
I buy from morebeer sometimes. I like to spread it around a bit, as I have no LHBS. I buy from Northern Brewer sometimes (just spent over $300 there a month ago), austinhomebrew sometimes, and lately ritebrew.com for orders as well. I've also purchased from rebel brewer, farmhouse brewing, and others. It's been a while since I ordered from brewmasterswarehouse. I bought my perlicks and driptray from Williams Brewing.
I have no negatives about any of them. What bugs me sometimes is when I want to place an order, and the place is out of something small, like maybe gas quick disconnects- but I need that and other things. I love it when I can find everything I need in one place, and pay shipping once (or free shipping). I love flat rate shipping!
I have no negatives about any of them. What bugs me sometimes is when I want to place an order, and the place is out of something small, like maybe gas quick disconnects- but I need that and other things. I love it when I can find everything I need in one place, and pay shipping once (or free shipping). I love flat rate shipping!
Like one or two others in this post, I happen to live minutes away from their Concord, CA showroom. They ARE my LHBS and they are wonderful. If I want something, I can go get it knowing that pretty much anything I'd ever need, they have in stock.
Their hop prices are a little high, but the convenience of it being a 1-stop shop for me hasn't sent me elsewhere. And honestly, when I've price shopped other places, the shipping charges outweigh going elsewhere. Morebeer is the place for me.
The staff are friendly, and (for the most part) knowledgeable. There do seem to be a few new people lately who don't yet have the brewing academia I look for, but they'll learn.
My only real warning is you should probably mill your own grains, rather than have them mill and ship. They have a pair of mills for customer use in Concord, but both have pretty wide gap settings. My efficiencies went from ~80-81% down to 65% one day. It was low like that for my next 4-5 brews and I finally asked about it. I learned they had tweaked the mill settings to widen the gap, purportedly in response to customer complaints of stuck sparges. My system can take it, and the difference is several pounds of grain per batch. The manager advised me to just double mill the grains (i.e., run them through again), and as of my most recent batch (an Oktoberfest) I hit 80.5%, which was more than acceptable.
I'm pretty sure you can't specify "double milling" when ordering online however, so you'll need to get your own mill if you like a tighter crush.
Their hop prices are a little high, but the convenience of it being a 1-stop shop for me hasn't sent me elsewhere. And honestly, when I've price shopped other places, the shipping charges outweigh going elsewhere. Morebeer is the place for me.
The staff are friendly, and (for the most part) knowledgeable. There do seem to be a few new people lately who don't yet have the brewing academia I look for, but they'll learn.
My only real warning is you should probably mill your own grains, rather than have them mill and ship. They have a pair of mills for customer use in Concord, but both have pretty wide gap settings. My efficiencies went from ~80-81% down to 65% one day. It was low like that for my next 4-5 brews and I finally asked about it. I learned they had tweaked the mill settings to widen the gap, purportedly in response to customer complaints of stuck sparges. My system can take it, and the difference is several pounds of grain per batch. The manager advised me to just double mill the grains (i.e., run them through again), and as of my most recent batch (an Oktoberfest) I hit 80.5%, which was more than acceptable.
I'm pretty sure you can't specify "double milling" when ordering online however, so you'll need to get your own mill if you like a tighter crush.
