Northern Brewer

[jturie]

I've used NB several times and have been satisfied. Living in PA, I don't expect 2-day shipping from MN unless I pay for it. My last order from them contained a defective Wyeast smack pack--it ruptured when I smacked it and ended up wearing it. Since I was making a yeast starter, no huge deal....just delayed my brew day. I contacted NB via email and they replied within 30 minutes that they would ship out a replacement, no questions asked. Problem is, I didn't get it until nearly a week later. Please note that I don't blame NB for the defective pack--it happens. Still, they stood by their product and there was no hassle with the replacement.

Maybe we're all getting spoiled by Amazon's free 2-day shipping?

 

[FTG-05]

I'm a relatively new brewer (April this year) and except for 25 oz PET bottles from another brewer, all my stuff has come from NB. Excellent service, fast responses and the prices to me, seem competitive.

I'll use them again.

 

[Toadsticker]

After thoroughly f'!ing my first order, they gave a full refund. Which I did not expect.
Ordered 2 kits from them today, hoping the bar they sat for themselves remains.

 

[ackbrew]

The beauty of a forum is the fact that you are able to freely post your experiences. The good, the bad, the ugly. I had stopped ordering from NB when their shipping policy changed. I was also unimpressed with one particular kit. I brewed Caribou Slobber, and was disappointed with the finished product. I thought possibly I may have missed something in the process so I tried it again. I wanted to taste what I read in the description. The second brew yielded similar results. Even a friend of mine had expected a little more OOMPH from a home brew. So I posted a review on their website with my experience. Well, it's safe to say Northern Brewer knocked my socks off. Although their kit guarantee wasn't available when I ordered those two kit, they are honoring it. I didn't ask. No calls were made, no emails. They emailed me out of the blue yesterday looking to make good. They even gave me some valuable pointers on how to tailor a pre-made kit to my liking. They asked what styles I prefer, and which kit I would like them to send. If that isn't A1 customer service, I don't know what is.....

 

[osagedr]

Great company, great service!

 

[ktblunden]

It's always nice to hear customer service stories that have a happy ending.

 

[biohaz7331]

I have also been very impressed with Northern Brewer's customer support. I bought a thermometer that went bad after a couple of brews and I wrote a review on their website. A day or so later I got an email with an apology that it broke and that they would be sending me another thermometer to my default shipping address. Along with my thermometer I also got a free pint glass. Another experience I had was when I got a kit that was missing some hops and when I told them about it they told me they would send another kit and I could keep the kit that was missing the hops. In another email an hour or two latter they told me what I could make with the ingredients I had and I have been impressed with the service I have received so far.

 

[Billy-Klubb]

I've always had good luck with them & MB. I've been using NB a lot more since they're far closer.

 

[LouBrew13]

I also had great service from them. I had ordered 2 banjo burners and a regulator. I called when it was faulty and they shipped another just like that. Solid company in my eyes.

 

[chemman14]

Another NB success story. I ordered a 3 piece air lock along with some other stuff and when I got it the outer part was cracked. They promptly shipped me a new one, even suggestion I keep the inner part as they get lost often. Great company!

 

[lschiavo]

Yup, NB has always been good to me.

I once placed an order with another large to-remain-nameless company. They sent me my order along with another even larger order that wasn't mine...I think it was about $400 worth of stuff. Of course, I "considered" keeping it but my conscience wouldn't let me. I called and got a return shipping label for my efforts. And that was it. Not even a thank you. And they have none of my business since.

I will gladly pay a bit more if necessary to do business with a quality company like NB.

 

[glenn514]

Brewing Friends...

Last Monday, I submitted a sizeable order of ingredients to Northern Brewer. The FIFTY-SIX POUND box was delivered by "Big Brown" on Friday. I immediately opened the box and checked the inventory...which was exactly as ordered, EXCEPT for one item. And that was a 16 ounce bottle of Star San! I sent an email to Northern, wondering if that special added extra was because I am so handsome and debonair. Nope, just a mistake...and I get to keep it! And that's an item that usually runs about $12.00! Thank You, Northern Brewer!

glenn514

 

[tom_gamer]

The beauty of a forum is the fact that you are able to freely post your experiences. The good, the bad, the ugly.

And have the bad freely deleted. I've had a couple bad experiences and they always get deleted my post on here. It wasnt trolling or trash talking.

I tried to give them a shot again because I had a gift certificate but their shipping cost are too high for me. I was looking at 2 oz of hops but shipping was $12, so I opted not to order it there and went local.

 

[glenn514]

I was looking at 2 oz of hops but shipping was $12, so I opted not to order it there and went local.

And I think all of us would do the same. Some time ago, I needed bottle caps. Nothing else...just bottle caps. I was not about to pay even a $6.99 flat rate shipping charge for one gross of bottle caps! I got them at our LHBS in Crystal Lake, Illinois.

glenn514

 

[MalFet]

And have the bad freely deleted. I've had a couple bad experiences and they always get deleted my post on here. It wasnt trolling or trash talking.

Were they posted in this thread? HBT has a relatively straight-forward policy about where company reviews are and aren't allowed. You've got, for example, several posts very critical of NB in this very thread that haven't been censored. If you think mods are removing posts that shouldn't be removed, you should certainly talk to TxBrew, but in my experience that's not how these kinds of things tend to go around here.

 

[Pappers_]

And have the bad freely deleted. I've had a couple bad experiences and they always get deleted my post on here. It wasnt trolling or trash talking.

Here in the Company Reviews, reviews are unedited. Your negative reviews of NB, for example, are in this thread.

You can read the rules in the sticky thread at the top of this forum. Almost all of the posts that get deleted in this forum are non-reviews. For example, one member posts a negative review and another member attacks him personally. Or a member posts responding to others' negative experiences with a vendor without being an actual customer herself.

But actual reviews, postive or negative, from actual customers do not get edited or deleted.

 

[lschiavo]

Edit...Im getting drunk...

 

[tom_gamer]

I was talking about entire threads that I had posted. They in my opinion followed the rules. I noticed two were deleted. One about my experience from NB and one about a LHBS. Maybe they were deleted because they want keep one thread per company or all those darn fanboys.

Anyways this is off topic. I just wanted express my observation.

 

[Pappers_]

I was talking about entire threads that I had posted. They in my opinion followed the rules. I noticed two were deleted. One about my experience from NB and one about a LHBS. Maybe they were deleted because they want keep one thread per company or all those darn fanboys.

Are you sure they were deleted and not merged into the NB thread? A few months ago, I did that for the entire Company Review forum - took all the threads on a particular company and merged them into one. The forum used to be more than a dozen pages long, impossible for someone to find all the reviews for any one company. By merging the various review threads together, all the reviews for a company are in one place. But none of the reviews were deleted in that process.

One thing you notice in these threads, now that the reviews are all together, is that no company has all good reviews or all bad. Probably reflects reality.

 

[tom_gamer]

Are you sure they were deleted and not merged into the NB thread? A few months ago, I did that for the entire Company Review forum - took all the threads on a particular company and merged them into one. The forum used to be more than a dozen pages long, impossible for someone to find all the reviews for any one company. By merging the various review threads together, all the reviews for a company are in one place. But none of the reviews were deleted in that process.

One thing you notice in these threads, now that the reviews are all together, is that no company has all good reviews or all bad. Probably reflects reality.

I didn't consider that. I looked under threads I started and noticed it was missing. I didn't bother looking into it further, of course assuming the worse that some fanboy mod (no offense) deleted it because they didn't like me saying bad things about NB. If you're right, and I'm assuming you are, then I take back my previous statement, about the deleting.

 

[txjoe]

I've ordered a couple of times. They have always been quick. Last order was missing a part (manufacturer's fault). I emailed them about it the night I opened the box. I had the missing part along with a free beer glass in 3 days. Good service.

 

[mors]

My girlfriend is brewing a historical IPA and ordered 2lbs of pellet EKG hops and 17lbs of Warminster marris otter (which is awesome btw). The order came and the Warminster is in 17 1lb bags lol. This was more amusing to me that bad....but we'll see how irritating it is on brew day as I have to open each one and dump it into the mill lol. The hops shipped were 2lbs of whole leaf EKG. So we emailed Northern Brewer about it and they got us 2lbs of pellet EKG withing 2-3 days. So basically we got a free $50 worth of whole leaf hops out of the deal... I always order my online orders weeks in advance so nothing was held up by the mistake...now the biggest issue I have is storing the whole leaf hops in the freezer since the bags are so big

 

[bleme]

I have shopped with AHS, Hops Direct, Amazon and eBay, and have been happy with all of them. But NB has gotten more orders from me than all the others combined because they are so awesome.

I think they differentiate themselves from the competition with cheaper pricing, excellent LME, Hop Union hops, fast shipping, and custom orders.

On my last order, I asked for a crush "suitable for BIAB" on some of my grain because I had a feeling the order would beat the grain mill that I had ordered a couple of days prior. The order I received was the best crush I have ever seen. If I can get my malt mill to crush that well, I will be extremely happy.

 

[theblaster]

I have been critical of NB timeliness of shipping in the past. Recently I placed an order with them. The product shipped within 36 hours of the order being placed. While it isn't the three hour turn that I am accustomed to with Williams, it is a damned site better than the week+ wait times before shipping that I have previously experienced.

Same day is great. 36 hours is reasonable. A week or more is unacceptable. I'm glad to see that Northern is now in the reasonable range. And that they stock low profile sanke connections and Maris Otter extract...

 

[Jackhole]

They've forgotten to put an ice pack with my yeast twice now, and also didn't add DME to a kit I ordered this last time.

Anyone else having issues with them?

 

[tonyc318]

I ordered some stuff recently for kegging. It was mostly good. On of the worm clamps didn't have the actually gear part that tightens the clamp. I let them know about it. They offered to send me a new one or credit my account. I ended up with a 5 dollar credit. Not a bad experience, but on the other hand, if you count out 10 worm clamps, how did u miss one that was missing the gear?

 

[DUDEbeer]

I was a little annoyed with how long it took for them to ship my order that I place this Monday.

The order status online mentioned it was a partially filled for 4 days straight, called this Thursday spoke to somebody and mentioned they had a glitch in the system and would push the order out today--Ok, no problem I can understand that. Checked Friday afternoon and mentioned my order was finally billed but not shipped. Called again and they finally shipped out my order on Friday afternoon. Jeez. Now I wont be receiving my order till next Friday.

I used to order stuff from them all the time about 5 years ago and they were always very prompt with processing my order within 1 business day.

 

[Trippel-A]

They've forgotten to put an ice pack with my yeast twice now, and also didn't add DME to a kit I ordered this last time.

Anyone else having issues with them?

The last two packages I received had ice packs with the yeast, but they were not only melted, the inside of the insulated envelope wasn't noticeably cooler than room temp. The most recent time, it was very, very hot. But that wasn't the case the previous time.

 

[Airplanedoc]

I used to order a bunch from Northern Brewer, and was always happy with their service. Once I was sent the wrong yeast, I called, and a correct yeast was overnighted to me. Last week I placed a order over the weekend, so it would ship the first part of the week, and my yeast would not sit in a 100+ UPS truck all weekend. I have always done this with NB in the past, with no problems. My order sat in fulfillment all week, and shipped on Friday to arrive Tuesday. Looks like NB is adopting Midwest's crappy shipping. Looks like I am going to be shopping for a new online source for ingredients to supplement my soon to be LHBS

 

[Trippel-A]

My order sat in fulfillment all week, and shipped on Friday to arrive Tuesday. Looks like NB is adopting Midwest's crappy shipping. Looks like I am going to be shopping for a new online source for ingredients to supplement my soon to be LHBS

That sucks. But I have to say, I just ordered some equipment on Saturday, then emailed and said I wanted to add something. They emailed back Sunday morning asking me to call. I did, added some ingredients with no trouble, including Galaxy hops that are on limited distribution. Today, Monday, the order shipped.

It makes me think some things are more "in stock" than others.