Northern Brewer

[509inc]

While I think your expectations are skewed I applaud you for not making a huge deal of it and adding outlandish claims of how terrible they are.

They are my LHBS so I am biased, but I can say before moving to MN I had the same shipping experience when ordering from them online.

 

[Whattawort]

Midwest Supply has excellent customer service and has never disappointed me. I usually do business with them for items I have a hard time finding locally.

 

[tom_gamer]

While I think your expectations are skewed I applaud you for not making a huge deal of it and adding outlandish claims of how terrible they are.

They are my LHBS so I am biased, but I can say before moving to MN I had the same shipping experience when ordering from them online.

Honestly I truly believe that any warehouse that has something stocked should be able to ship it within 24 hours of placing an order. If my bar is set too high, then thats what is on me.

My brew buddy also suggested Austin. He said he gets his stuff within 2 days. And yes I realize they are practically local for me.

 

[theblaster]

I also ordered something from Northern Brewer early last week. It took them a full business week to get it into the hands of UPS which seems rather ridiculous in this day and age. Add to it that it will take a week to get to me once shipped and I can just about guarantee that this is the last time I will be ordering from Northern. Two weeks from the time you take my money just doesn't cut it.

Normally I order from Williams which is fairly close (norcal to norcal). They have always, each and every time, shipped on the same day I ordered as long as the order was in by 3pm west coast time. And since they are in my general area, for the flat rate of $7 it gets to me overnight (fedex ground). It is lucky that they are so close as to get it to me immediately. It is just plain good warehouse skills that gets it out the day the order is placed. Bravo Williams.

If Williams had carried the White House ale kit, I definitely would have ordered it from them. 48 days and counting. I should still be able to brew it and have it ready to serve by Ale-ection Day (irrespective of winner).

 

[tom_gamer]

I guess I wasn't the only one disappointed in processing time. Lesson learned.

 

[CBXBob]

I've been happy with Northern, ordered from Austin, happy with them too, but don't care for their LME containers. Ordered from Williams on a Tuesday, got order on Thursday! Really like Morebeer's foil packed LME. My LHBS is a Feed/Farm store, their selection of brew stuff is getting better all the time, but it's hard to beat shopping in your pajamas. Originally I thought I would "graduate" to All Grain, now I'm thinking "why?". I don't need to own chickens to make an omelet. I have neighbors that sell farm fresh eggs, they deal with the chicken sh*t, I get good eggs. Kind of how I view AG. Don't get me wrong, if you like milking the cow for your milk, more power to ya. Did I get

 

[mountainman13]

I've never had anything but awesome service from NB. Same goes for Midwest, Austin, and High Gravity. My local store is okay at best, but great to have in a pinch, so in no way am I complaining about it. You have to keep in mind that everybody and their sister is ordering a Pumpkin beer kit this month, so stuff might take a little bit longer. I did the same thing when I started brewing. Next year, brew your pumpkin in July, and it will be even better for the fall. Patience grasshopper.
Cheers

 

[tom_gamer]

Bob clearly had one too many homebrews lol. What do you not like about Austins containers?

 

[CBXBob]

Bob clearly had one too many homebrews lol. What do you not like about Austins containers?

Who Me? Austin's container lids leak, of three containers two leaked a little, lost about 1/2 cup from the third. Made quite a mess with those packing peanuts stuck to everything.

 

[tom_gamer]

Who Me? Austin's container lids leak, of three containers two leaked a little, lost about 1/2 cup from the third. Made quite a mess with those packing peanuts stuck to everything.

Thats not good. I'll still give them a try in the future.

 

[xmacro]

I put in an order to get set up with new brewing equipment; ordered a ton of stuff, as well as a megapot with a valve, no thermometer.

It arrives, I'm stoked that it got here on Friday so I'll be able to brew this weekend, and . . . it has two holes, the second being for a thermometer; the invoice I got even specified "Megapot - 1 hole only". Needless to say, I'm upset; was planning on a big brew session with family this weekend, and now I can't - so I call up NB, tell them about it, how the invoice specified a 1-hole megapot, read off the invoice #, and they offer to ship out a thermometer to plug the hole, no charge to me.

Very happy with the customer service; will buy from them again (already planning at least 3 new kits + equipment)

 

[aiptasia]

I love their customer service as well. Recently, I bought supplies for my scotch ale and a double Rye IPA I have in the primary right now, including four 1 oz bags of Bramling Cross pellets and two 1 ounce bags of chinook. Everything was in the box except for the two bags of chinook. I called up their customer service and they priority mailed out the missing chinook, which arrived on Monday (I called Friday morning). It wasn't delivered in time for my Rye brew session but I was impressed with how accommodating they were and how fast they shipped out the chinook to me, free of charge.

What was really weird was, there was an inventory sheet for my order in the box, and the chinook was checked off by their stock puller/shipper. It just wasn't in the box. I can see how a puller would get confused when all of the hops pellet bags from hopsunion look the same, but hey.... count them. Supposed to be six, and there are only four. Duh.

Anyway, I like them. They make good on the problems and are generally great to buy from.

 

[tom_gamer]

Update: it is now over a week since I cancelled my order and I still don't have my money returned.

 

[Pratzie]

Ive seen different ship times in my packages as well but they've always been courteous and friendly. If u cancelled your order, are u sure they actually charged u? Maybe go back and check that, every order ive ever had thru them didn't get charged to my card until it had shipped. I've even hard it charged and show up on my statement after it shipped but before i received it.

 

[tom_gamer]

Ive seen different ship times in my packages as well but they've always been courteous and friendly. If u cancelled your order, are u sure they actually charged u? Maybe go back and check that, every order ive ever had thru them didn't get charged to my card until it had shipped. I've even hard it charged and show up on my statement after it shipped but before i received it.

I checked my account. They charged me.

 

[NervousDad]

I've always had the same experience with them, they always appear to sit on the order for a day or two. I used to order on Monday and have my stuff on Saturday,but now it's the following Monday. I've been taking the drive to my LHBS and it's much easier.

 

[tom_gamer]

I've always had the same experience with them, they always appear to sit on the order for a day or two. I used to order on Monday and have my stuff on Saturday,but now it's the following Monday. I've been taking the drive to my LHBS and it's much easier.

I ended up going to my lhbs as well. Overall I got lucky because I found a better recipe in BYO that I ended up brewing.

 

[b-boy]

Two words - Rebel Brewer. Their shipping is amazing. It's pretty reasonable too.

I routinely order stuff as late as 4PM and have it in 2 days. I have no idea how they do it, but I can order on a Wednesday to brew on Saturday and I'm 99.9% sure I'll have my stuff.

I just put in an order Tuesday, but I needed special hops that they don't carry. Got a 'shipped' confirmation from Rebel Brewer within an hour. Package will be here today. Still waiting for the hops to be shipped.

I give them all of my mailorder business now.

 

[tom_gamer]

Two words - Rebel Brewer. Their shipping is amazing. It's pretty reasonable too.

I routinely order stuff as late as 4PM and have it in 2 days. I have no idea how they do it, but I can order on a Wednesday to brew on Saturday and I'm 99.9% sure I'll have my stuff.

I just put in an order Tuesday, but I needed special hops that they don't carry. Got a 'shipped' confirmation from Rebel Brewer within an hour. Package will be here today. Still waiting for the hops to be shipped.

I give them all of my mailorder business now.

I'll look into them as well.

 

[dford]

Brewmasters Warehouse... I'm 175 miles away in another state and usually receive my order within 24 hours. Nobody come's close to them on shipping!

 

[gizmodog51]

i'm just really disappointed with northern brewer.

they raised their prices by 30% and also did away with their flat rate freight charge.
C'mon ...northern should've followed austin home brew or more beer with their freight charges...doesn't matter i stopped buying kits and went to BIAB.
i guess the LHBS will get most of my business and for equipment it'll be more beer or austin and maybe midwest...sorry northern brewer you've priced yourself outa my $ range!

GD51

 

[MalFet]

they raised their prices by 30% and also did away with their flat rate freight charge.

Huh? I'm pretty sure they didn't raise their prices by 30%.

 

[TheJasonT]

Just wanted to share many thumbs up for Northern Brewer.

I ordered a relatively small batch of ingredients from them for my next brew. When I received the box, I noticed my Columbus hops were missing. I gave them a call Tuesday afternoon and told them I wanted to brew this weekend, was there any way they could get me the hops by Friday?

Well, they're here! They 2nd Day air shipped them to me at their cost and I woke up this morning to a package from NB. Nick was my CSA there and he was very helpful.

Thanks NB, you just earned yourself a multiple repeat customer!!

 

[dcarter]

I have always had great experiences with NB. I can't say the same for some other online vendors. It seems that NB has made a decision to be in it for the long term and puts customer service first.

 

[Hammy71]

:rockin:

 

[Billy-Klubb]

I've had great luck with NB & MB. NB had done the same for me before. stellar customer service. I once had an order many years ago containing a recipe kit, extra LME & DME, WL yeasts, 32oz of Iodopher, and few misc things from MB sent to my old address. they re-shipped the whole order free of charge.

 

[signpost]

+1

I recently ended up with some hops that weren't any good. I opened the 1 oz. package and they smelled terrible. Luckily, I had some others on hand that I could use. But that left me short for my next planned brew day. I emailed them and they sent me a new pack of hops right away. I dig 'em.

 

[Brewskii]

Any word on a cyber Monday event???!? Ppllleeeeeeeaaaase!

 

[XPLSV]

I continue to get great service from NB. Recently, they contacted me regarding some negative review comments I had on one of the less expensive products I bought and told me they would send me the improved version (which corrected the problem I had mentioned) at no charge. So...they do read the review comments posted by customers and they will act upon them!

 

[gizmodog51]

i really like northern brewer. i used their kit beers exclusively when i did kits.

i do baib and purchase LG bags of grain at LHBS.

i was rather bummed over N.B. dropping their flat rate shipping.
was a time a customer could get three kits shipped for $7.99!!
after branching out i found that N.B. was more expensive on their hardward/brewing equipment than other vendors.
also found flat rate shipping at a few other stores......
all my equipment purchases usually on on-line since my LHBS is pretty lame on that end of the spectrum.
i still like N.B. I just shop wisely as does most everyone in the hobby.
cheers,
GD51