Morebeer or Austin Homebrew?

[Austinhomebrew]

Thanks for all of the props. We ship things out in 1-2 days usually. After that it is up to UPS. That takes 1-4 days depending on wher you are located. Maybe I should open stores in other cities with the name Austin.

Austin, Minnesota looks good. It is only 110 miles from Minneapolis. If I have more stores then it would be quicker to get to everyone.

Forrest

 

[northernlad]

Whatever the score ends being, this has been a valuable thread for this new kid. I will certainly try Austin and BW.
However my first and only online purchase so far was from morebeer and they notified me that an item was out of stock and responded promptly to my subsequent shipping instructions. All told it did not end up taking more than the "free shipping" lag. Everything showed up as ordered properly packed. Logistically they make sense since I am on the west coast, but I will make sure to spread the wealth when I am not supporting my LHBS.

RE: pretzelb
I work in restaurant supply where the culture is to expect a discount. We set our prices at what it takes to keep the lights on. Even if our price is lower than the competition the very fact that we do not give them a discount sets them off. "But I'm spending a lot of money" "Sir, $500 is not a lot of money"
And of course "I can get it cheaper on the internet"
"Be my guest, sir. Who is going to help you when UPS freight drops that 1000lb double stack convection oven on your sidewalk? Who are you going to call to help you when it doesn't work out of the box? Because it won't be me."

Forrest:

Ho About here?
http://maps.yahoo.com/;_ylc=X3oDMTE....585579&lon=-118.499719&zoom=13&q1=austin, or

 

[Austinhomebrew]

Link didn't work for me.

 

[northernlad]

It was supposed to a bit of a joke about putting a store in Austin, Oregon.

 

[Jipper]

I use the crush here at the shop and I get about 70% eff. which is fine by me. In fact, John Palmer and Jamil both say that anything higher than 75% and you are actually pulling some harshness out of the grains. Now, can you detect that, I dunno, but for me eff. is just a number and holds no real meaning to me. I know what my eff. is and I use it to plan my beers around. I have never seen a whole grain in my crush in the 11 years I have been here, and it is very possible there were some left in the mill bucket that got into your order, whomever it was that was having this issue.

What isn't fair I think, is to hold each shop on an equal ground. Some shops do more volume, and therefore have a longer turn around time than others. I don't think we should be frowned upon because we sometimes take longer to ship orders than say the new start-up online only shop. To be honest, I would rather see each one of you here supporting your local shops and keeping them in business than looking online to find the cheapest 1 ounce of NB hops you can. The local shops are the bread-and-butter of the homebrewing industry. Without them it's just another hobby.

I think sometimes it goes personal over here, and keeps a lot of well-meaning shops away. As the "new kid" on HBT, it is very intimidating to read all of these threads with people blasting us when they don't even order from us and haven't in a long time.

 

[olllllo]

Jipper, we'd love for someone to be here from B3 more often and participating as a Vendor, I think it would go along ways toward solving some of these communication issues.

By the same token, it's time that some of the members here start treating all of the merchants a little respect. Treat them as you would any other member and refrain from personal attacks.

The Admin has laid down a policy and i ask that you all follow it:

Threads about HBS & Home Brew Retailers
If you sign up to HomeBrewTalk just to complain about a Vendor your thread will be deleted. We don't know who you are or the legitimacy of your content.

Threads complaining about retailers from established members will be allowed if there is fraud going on from the retailer.

I do not want HomeBrewTalk to be a launching pad for every little problem you have with a home brew retailer over a transaction.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f22/threads-about-hbs-home-brew-retailers-143596/

 

[olllllo]

It's best to use the most effective method of communication. Austin Homebrew Supply and some other Vendors are comfortable answering questions here, but would probably like to handle problems via DM or email.

More Beer has a forum and doesn't have a strong presence here, so if you have a problem... do the math.

I'll let each retailer express how you should best contact them for problems, but you get the picture.

 

[olllllo]

One more personal peeve of mine, that if you violate has no sanction other than I will berate you...

Do not base your brewdays on the performance of others, the delivery of supplies by others, the inventory of anyone's store, the weather, your clergyman or Senator, your family, the spouse, the dog, Barack Obama, Home Depot, the neo-prohibitionists, the internet, your brewing software of choice, the metric system, the UPS guy,

NOBODY.

Take ownership of it and be a MAAAUUUN!

It's your brewday. Make plans. Be responsible.

 

[MisterGreen]

+1 for Austin Homebrew.

 

[Yooper]

Take ownership of it and be a MAAAUUUN!

But, ollllllo, I don't want to be a MAAAUUUN! I mean, I really don't. I just don't have the, um, balls for it. (Sorry, you knew I had to say that).

I'll double what ollllo said- it's not a contest. It's not northernbrewer vs austinhomebrew vs morebeer. I happen to buy more often from our vendors, because I've developed a relationship with them and they have great prices. They've supported our homebrew competition (with kick-ass prizes, by the way) and answered all of our questions and queries patiently. Ed (from Brewmaster's Warehouse) is in chat most evenings, and I've gotten to really like him.

Still, that doesn't mean I'm going to slam other vendors. I buy from other vendors when I need to, and everybody knows it.

If you MUST brew next Tuesday, then you'll have to plan better. Sometimes you'll have to get stuff locally in that case, and you'll pay more. Don't blame the vendor, and most especially don't rant online about it. That's not fair to them, or to us. If someone has a legitimate complaint, which is not resolved by the vendor, we all need to hear it. But, let's save that for the serious customer service issues.

I think many of us have been subjected to the "complaint about Cooper's" that happened recently. If not, feel free to head over to Utube and take a look. That's what's been happening lately- someone without any knowledge of brewing slamming a company and then coming here to continue the drama. We will encourage you to work with the vendor to find a resolution, and not rant and rave about it here.

 

[Shooter]

There was a problem with Coopers?

I do agree, it is nice that Austin Homebrew Supply and Brewmasters Warehouse both have a strong presence on here. I've ordered from Austin with great success and will definitely look at Brewmasters Warehouse in the future, mostly because I see them on here and see how customer oriented they are. I would love to see More Beer on here on a regular basis. I do understand it's a little tough because they have their own forum and are closely associated with the BN forums as well, but, heck, even Jamil has started checking back with this site from time to time and it's great to have him. It would be great to hear from Jipper, or someone else from More Beer every now and then as well.

Oh, and Jipper, I think you meant to reply to the Austin Homebrew VS More Beer thread. This is the Morebeer OR Austin Homebrew thread. I know, it's kind of confusing. What can we say...it's a big forum, with a lot of similar topics!!!

 

[MBasile]

One more personal peeve of mine, that if you violate has no sanction other than I will berate you...

Do not base your brewdays on the performance of others, the delivery of supplies by others, the inventory of anyone's store, the weather, your clergyman or Senator, your family, the spouse, the dog, Barack Obama, Home Depot, the neo-prohibitionists, the internet, your brewing software of choice, the metric system, the UPS guy,

NOBODY.

Take ownership of it and be a MAAAUUUN!

It's your brewday. Make plans. Be responsible.

God, when I worked in retail I hated when peoples responses to us being out of something was "What am I supposed to do?" My response: "Plan better."