Northern Brewer

[bleme]

I don't shop exclusively with Northern Brewer like I used to but my most recent purchase was from them, solely because they had all the ingredients I wanted for the lowest price. I ran the same ingredients through Rebel, Williams, Morebeer, Adventures and Brew Bros. NB was more than 10% less than the next closest and didn't require me to sub anything. I have no idea why Chocolate wheat, torrified wheat, and cluster hops are so hard to find!

 

[j1n]

I've had better customer service from adventures in homebrewing and morebeer, personally.

Also if you want to talk ridiculous customer service, look no further than Sam Adams and New Belgium. Not homebrew shops but they make anything right.

I use morebeer mostly for online shopping but ive used AIH and NB before. I thought NB had great customer service. I had ordered a bunch stuff from NB and i thought i had one of the tubes for blow off was missing. So i emailed them saying it was missing and they sent one out right away. I ended up finding the one i ordered among the rest of the stuff, i just missed it. So NB sends me the other one at no charge and they also threw in a free Pint glass.

 

[Grannyknot]

Finally shipped my order yesterday evening....to deliver Monday.
Thank god I didn't order yeast. It would be dead as a door nail by the time it arrived.

I thought about complaining to NB, but then I looked at my order, and in small print at the bottom is states that they reserve the right to take 2 business days to fill the order, that on top of the quoted shipping time. Probably the last time i'll use NB. Back to Farmhouse for me.

 

[Trippel-A]

They sent me the wrong pipe nipples for a cooler HLT/MLT valve kit. They sent me the right ones right away and told me not to bother sending back the wrong ones.

 

[mjdonnelly68]

Northern Brewer's customer service is second to none. I recently had to work with them over an issue with their Capt'n Crush grain mill and they went way above and beyond to make me happy.

Ordering online is always a crap-shoot. It's nice to know that NB will be stand up if things do not go perfectly.

 

[Homercidal]

Got a survey in my email from them. Took the survey and let them know my thoughts. Might want to look out for that survey. If you want to improve their service, it's a good way to let them know why you don't like to shop there.

 

[drives_a_bike]

I have been and always will be a NB customer! They've always treated me amazingly and anytime anything has been screwed up, they fix it...no questions asked.

As for the "they took two days to fill my order" complaint. Do you know how silly that sounds? They are one of, if not the largest online homebrew supplier, and it took them 2 whole days to fill your order...gimme a break. I will admit, once they started getting bigger and my orders were no longer being filled the second I clicked submit, I was annoyed. Now I just make sure I submit my order on Saturday or Sunday, so I know it will ship and arrive that following week and not wind up in a truck or warehouse for days causing yeast to be compromised.

When I order from amazon, target, or practically ANY other website, it takes them AT LEAST 2 days to fill my order. I never order kits, only my own concoctions, I also have them crush my grains...So, the fact that NB takes 2 days to fill my order...well, I'd say that's mighty efficient.

I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'

 

[Grannyknot]

.................
As for the "they took two days to fill my order" complaint. Do you know how silly that sounds?.................

I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'

To me, its silly for an industry giant, that is known to NOT be price competitive, to not hire an adequate # of employees to fill orders when they come in. For special order items, items that require drop shipping, or Holiday season orders I can understand. For grain & hops on a Monday in September, not quite sure I get that.

But I now understand that this is their policy, & so i'll work around it or source my orders elsewhere.

 

[kh54s10]

To me, its silly for an industry giant, that is known to NOT be price competitive, to not hire an adequate # of employees to fill orders when they come in. For special order items, items that require drop shipping, or Holiday season orders I can understand. For grain & hops on a Monday in September, not quite sure I get that.



But I now understand that this is their policy, & so i'll work around it or source my orders elsewhere.

I don't understand this post. Are you saying that Northern Brewer does not have good prices? If so, I do not agree. Yes you can find better prices on some things but whenever I make a list their prices are within a couple dollars of anywhere else.

If you can find a place that consistently ships in less than two days cross your fingers and order there. Those places are very rare these days.

I personally have had great service from Northern Brewer, though my needs have changed over the years an I shop there a lot less frequently now.





Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[bborren]

Northern brewer has been slow with its order processing for about a year now. I don't know if it came about because of the warehouse merger or what.

Now they are a big company and I am sure they get a ton of orders but their unreliable processing times has me looking for a new shop.

They might be able to avoid this criticism if they didn't advertise same or next business day order shipping. A couple specialty grains and a packet of yeast is not made to order and should be pretty easy to quickly pack and ship.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[raf1919]

never really looked at northern till today and placed my first order. I was always shopper of AustinHomebrew or Midwest, but their prices have to just gotten to high.

northern had good prices.. ordered two kits so we'll see how it goes.

 

[sikkingj]

I've been happy with MoreBeer and Austin, NB has always had a bit too much hipster for me - but I do use them...


Sent from the window of an airplane...

 

[chuckcomm]

I always get what I order very quickly. Usually in less than a week. Customer service has always been very good when I have called with questions.

 

[W0GWT]

Just wanted to throw this out there:

I received NB's Oxygenation kit as a gift. Upon the first use, the regulator fell apart. I know it was a defect, as I know several people who have used theirs happily for a long time. I contacted them and sent pictures. They sent me a new regulator and a gift card for $20. Bjorn was great to deal with.

Things like this remind me why I shop there.

 

[jahdub]

Protip: If you want to give a bad review for a product on northern brewer, just give it a 5-star rating and give your writeup. I even commented on the fact that it is funny that there are suspiciously *no* bad reviews for the product being reviewed and they still approved my review.

Weird how this item has a 4.5+ star average and no 3-star or worse reviews, when I gave it a 3 star review a couple months ago. The tubing is too large, so not all of your oxygen makes it down the wand. Also, the regulator seems to leak. I have to disconnect my oxygen tank between uses, otherwise the tank will drain completely. I definitely regret purchasing this item, even though with the modifications I've made, I've experienced better fermentations. I wish I had bought a different regulator. (Posted on 12/5/14)

 

[litl-76]

Just wanted to let y'all know about a couple of positive experiences recently with Northern Brewer.
1st ordered a used keg that wouldn't hold pressure and was sent a new one to replace it with almost no questions asked and got to keep the other.
2nd placed an order last week that would have qualified for a free bigmouth bubbler. I emailed them and asked if I could get the fermenter and they are sending it out today.

Really thought these two experiences n weed to be shared to show what kind of people and company they seem to be.


Moved by moderator to existing Northern Brewer company review thread

 

[jmeister]

2nd placed an order last week that would have qualified for a free bigmouth bubbler. I emailed them and asked if I could get the fermenter and they are sending it out today.

Those plastic big mouth bubblers are only worth being a free deal anyways. Not the best construction or lid design so watch the hot water temps and keep checking the lid tightness. That being said I have one I got free last year and currently have another free one on order, still processing from 2 days ago. Good to hear they honored the freebie for you. I have always had good dealings with them and usually who I place my supply orders with.

 

[venomfast]

The new glass big mouth bubbler is supposed to be way better now

 

[Staestc]

Northern Brewer has been reliable and their orders are accurate and well packed. It seems to me they take longer to get things to me that some other companies do. I order from them when they have a freebie that makes it worthwhile. I got a free coffee stout extract kit the last time I ordered that has turned out to be just fantastic!

But mostly I price compare and on my last few items MoreBeer was cheaper by quite a bit, and when I order from them I receive my order in 2 to 3 days max so far!

Just my two bits.

 

[Paps]

The new glass big mouth bubbler is supposed to be way better now

Those things are dangerous,defective, and have severely injured brewers.
Sure they have 17% more glass now.
To make them safe they should have 170% more glass.(if not more)
I wouldn't use one even if they sent it to me for free.

 

[venomfast]

i have yet to break mine and have used it a dozen times now you have to be careful when using glass products

 

[Mcbobs]

Anybody having trouble with their beta website tonight? I've been trying to put in an order for a largish amount and wanted to make sure that I could use the discount offered until midnight. Doesn't look like the website wants to take my order.

 

[Mcbobs]

Anybody having trouble with their beta website tonight? I've been trying to put in an order for a largish amount and wanted to make sure that I could use the discount offered until midnight. Doesn't look like the website wants to take my order.

True to Northern Brewer style, they were extremely prompt in correcting things and taking care of me as their customer! I've never had any problems with them in the past and they continue to do a great job.

 

[Kirkwooder]

True to Northern Brewer style, they were extremely prompt in correcting things and taking care of me as their customer! I've never had any problems with them in the past and they continue to do a great job.

If you can't get your order in, call them and tell them what happened. I would bet my last dollar that they make it right with you!

 

[Mcbobs]

If you can't get your order in, call them and tell them what happened. I would bet my last dollar that they make it right with you!

That's exactly what I ended up doing. They made it super easy. 5 minutes after I got off the phone with them, I got an email stating that my order had been processed.

 

[aprichman]

I just wanted to give everyone a public service announcement about deceptive business practices that Northern Brewer in order to increase the perceived value of the products they sell.

I don't know about you guys but I tend to put a lot of emphasis on user reviews. If I see a product has had some bad reviews I am usually much more hesitant to purchase it. Even 1 or 2 bad reviews can sometimes put up a "red flag" for me.

At the beginning of the month I submitted a user review for the Big Mouth Bubbler. The Big Mouth Bubbler I received is incapable of making an airtight seal. It's not the end of the world but the product description included this gem:

"Your wort is protected during fermentation by innovative flared-fitting lid construction, creating an airtight seal between the lid plate and top of the fermentor."

I submitted a very reasonable review of the big mouth bubbler, detailing that it was a good idea but was not designed properly and should have included a gasket in order to create a true airtight seal. I rated the product 1 star - I felt like even though it was a good idea the product did not work properly.

A month later the review is still not on their site. After doing a little more research I discovered that other people have had the same problem.

Northern Brewer will only post reviews that reflect their products in a positive light. They will not post any reviews of products that are "negative" or have lower than 3 stars.

Looking back this makes a ton of sense. I wondered why all the reviews on Northern Brewer seemed so high. I just thought it was that they offered good products that they would stand behind.

WRONG.

They just post the good reviews. How many reviews have they refused to post - your guess is as good as mine.

What I can tell you is that ANY product you read reviews about on Northern Brewer is not going to be accurate. You are literally only getting one side of the story.

I think it's an incredibly deceptive business practice. If other people have had problems with a product I WANT TO KNOW. That's the entire point of having a review system. They are supposed to help the user make an informed decision about the product they are buying.

The way Northern Brewer is using reviews is the opposite. They are using it to misinform the customer giving them a false impression about the quality of the product. Anyways, I was pretty shocked and disgusted to find out that Northern Brewer was taking part in this incredibly deceptive business practice and I thought you guys would like to know.

As for me, I will not be using Northern Brewer to buy anything again. I refuse to support a company that would engage in such deceptive behavior.

 

[Pappers_]

The above post was moved here from its own, separate thread. Please feel free to add your review to this thread, but please don't only respond to this review - the reviewer is allowed her/his opinion. You may give yours, in a review. Thanks!

 

[Trippel-A]

I have also given at least one Northern Brewer product a bad review which never showed up on their site. It was the aluminum 1 gallon pitcher, and my issue is that the volume markings are incorrect. Also, I've never received the promised merchandise credit for my reviews, good or bad.

OTOH, their service is good and they work to rectify errors immediately.

 

[AndyNorman]

I have used Northern Brewer multiple times in the past and have never had an issue with any of the products I have received. The hardware is always as advertised and the prices are competitive. I would not hesitate to recommend them to other brewers or to use them again in the future.

Wondering if you knew which unit northern brewer uses as the priming calculator. Is it imperial, or US gallons?
Thank you.

 

[Trippel-A]

I don't understand why they constantly make up different brand names for all their own merchandise. Edalmetal, Bubbler, DarkStar, Megapot... Why not just call it all Northern Brewer gear? It's like they're trying to trick people.