OVERALL RATING 4.3 STARS
PROS:
- Huge selection of supplies and recipe kits
- Lots of videos with how-to content
- Quality seems consistently good
- Good place to start for beginners
CONS:
- Minimum shipping cost is $19!
- Their prices keep going up.
- Recipe kits get expensive with various add-ons
- Customer service (from our experience) is slow and very generic.
THE DETAILS:
Northern Brewer seems to be the big dog in the realm of online homebrew supply stores. Christopher Farley started it in 1993 in Minneapolis, MN.
In 2015, they acquired a competitor in Cleveland, Midwest Supplies. In 2016, Farley cashed out and sold to InBev.
Let’s fast-forward through the history lesson. Northern Brewer is now owned by J&P Park, Inc. The J&P stands for Jackson and Perkins. Yes, the online plant nursery.
There are now 4 homebrew sites operated by J&P Park. They are Northern Brewer, Midwest Supplies, Austin Homebrew, and Adventures in Homebrewing.
They are based in South Carolina. No, the irony is not lost on me that ‘Northern’, ‘Midwest’, and ‘Austin’ are now nestled in the Southeast.
Shipping Costs Are High!
I live 90 miles away. The cost to ship one recipe kit was $19. One recipe kit! Out of curiosity, I took the box to a UPS Store and got a price to return the order to their warehouse. It was less than $15. C’mon, that’s just regular ground rates. You would think someone as large as Northern Brewer would be getting volume discounts with the carriers.
It appears $19 is their minimum ship charge. You need a packet of overpriced dry yeast? $7.99 + $19 shipping.
I can buy a recipe kit from a store in WI or OH and their shipping costs are much lower. It kind of gets to the point where I would rather support a smaller homebrew store than a company that started by selling roses.
Maybe it is just me, but $19 seems extravagant. I rarely shop at any of their sites anymore.
| Selection | 4.5 Stars |
| Pricing and Affordability | 3.5 Stars |
| Shipping and Delivery | 3 Stars |
| Quality and Freshness | 4.8 Stars |
| Customer Support | 4.5 Stars |
| Customer Reviews and Ratings | 4.5 Stars |
| Educational Resources | 5 Stars |
| User-Friendly Website | 4.5 Stars |
| OVERALL RATING | 4.3 Stars |
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