BeerBorg

Usually, I use my LHBS for my ingredients. Freshness and the convenience of picking up grains, hops, and yeast on Saturday, and brewing on Sunday.

When I use an online supplier, I've usually gone with Northern Brewer. They're great! I bought my Five-gallon set-up from them, and a bunch of other things. Never been disappointed. Never. Northern Brewer is great.

So is Midwest Supplies. I've used them, as well, and my complaints regarding them can be counted on the fingers of one nose. Less than one, is what I'm saying.

But I wanted a specific type of malt for my Bit O' Bitter, and I wasn't able to find it at those three places. But Austin Homebrew Supply had it. They had the other ingredients I wanted, too, which isn't surprising; they're something every supplier should have. So I ordered the stuff from Austin, with a 2-8 Business Days delivery. And I was hoping it would arrive before the weekend, because I really wanted to brew this on Monday, which I have off.

I just checked, and it's due to arrive before the end of day tomorrow, Thursday. It left Secaucus, NJ, sometime today. It'll definitely be here tomorrow, but even if it's delayed until Friday, I'm really impressed. And the prices for the ingredients and shipping were much to my liking, as well.

No knock on my LHBS, Northern Brewer, or Midwest. They're all top-notch. But add Austin Homebrew Supply to the list. They may be getting quite a bit more business from The Hat hereafter.

I'm with you Dave, I like AHBS also.

I've eyed AHBS often, but am leery of the yeast getting here alive. Same reason I didn't buy yeast from MoreBeer - but now I can since MoreBeer opened up a eastern distribution center.

That hadn't occurred to me about the yeast. But as it happened, I ordered Nottingham Ale dry yeast, so no worries.

I find that they ship out faster now than a few years ago, usually the same day. So, I get my goodies in 2 days.

Have u tried Rebel Brewers? They would be closer to you, TN I believe. I've had great luck with them.

I'll put a kudos in for AHS since they are my LHBS and I talk to these guys in person all the time. Adam is who you will probably talk to on the phone if you want technical answers and he is very nice, helpful, sincere and seems very knowledgeable. He has helped us a lot with checking inventory and offering suggestions if we need substitutions. The in house guys who fill your orders are all also very nice and very smart. They really know the product and about brewing and have helped us a lot as well. They have been asked to taste some pretty odd beers when we didn't know what was wrong with them and were always able to identify possible solutions. They all seem happy to be working there. They replaced items and ingredients without any problems.

That being said I agree with FIT that unless the nearest online store is horrible or you only order during free shipping specials everyone who has to order online could save potentially save money by using it.

Well, I am glad you had such a good experience, Dave. I read this post and checked out AHBS. 6.99 shipping, and they got my order out quick! I would say same day, but I ordered Friday night and I am sure they were closed on the weekend, but my order left yesterday and I get it tomorrow! I think AHBS might help me make the jump to AG. Since I don't have a LHBS and I don't have the room to store a bunch of grain (to offset the cost of shipping several pounds) I didn't have a solution. But 2 day turnaround means I can get it fresh, and low shipping cost makes it practical to order just enough grain for a batch or two.

Even if they are open on a weekend, shipping only takes place Monday - Friday. After the last pickup on a Friday night, none of the trailers are usually touched until Monday. When you think that your package has shipped from any company on a Saturday or Sunday, it's usually just the scanning in of a number so they can load into a trailer (companies often have UPS trailers at their loading docks and UPS just comes and drives the trailer away Monday morning or end of each business day).

The 6.99 flat rate shipping is what got me. My grain mill will be here on Friday. Too bad I won't.

Chuck N wrote:The 6.99 flat rate shipping is what got me. My grain mill will be here on Friday. Too bad I won't.

You could have it sent to my addy, I will be home. I've got a new bag of 2-row to crush up....

Good flat rate shipping and good prices on other items. The "Magic Hop Dust" sounds interesting. $1 an oz. to experiment and have some fun with.

DirtRacer wrote:Good flat rate shipping and good prices on other items. The "Magic Hop Dust" sounds interesting. $1 an oz. to experiment and have some fun with.

I'm in Austin, and I thought the same thing, myself. Turns out there's a few places online you can buy specific varieties of pellet hops rather than mystery dust for just about the same price. Just something to consider. Sorry I can't list specific places right now, heading out to work, but there's folks here who know where the places are. I've come around to where I like having a specific variety better than the mystery dust, especially if I can get it for almost the same price anyway. Good luck.

Okay. So I did a little comparison shopping.

On page 60 of the Sept./Oct issue of Zymurgy there is a recipe for a NHC award winning English Brown Ale. I like brown ale and my nephew, who had been to England late last year, has been asking me to make one. I think I may be ready.

But anyway...I went to both Northern Brewer and Austin Homebrew Supply and compared the cost of making this recipe with ingredients from each respective site. All the ingredients and quantities were the same.

Northern brewer came in at $25.45 for the ingredients (this was based on buying 1lb - 4lb each of each malt leaving anywhere from a 1/4lb - a 1/2lb left over for future batches).

Austin Homebrew Supply came in at $27.99 (same thing as above in regards to left over ingredients).

But NB wanted $13.49 shipping to send the ingredients to me (and I live less than 1 1/2 hours from their store) bringing the total to $38.94

AHS's $6.99 flat rate shipping brought their total up to $34.98 (and that's shipping from one end of the country to the other).

I like to try to keep my shopping as local as I can but I have to try to save money whenever and where ever I can.