I usually buy locally just to save on shipping. But occasionally I’m looking for something that my local guy doesn’t have. Does anybody have a favorite online or mail-order shop that they are passionate about? 
There are quite a few that are pretty good. If I order online I normally use More Beer, Austin Homebrew, Midwest, or Norther. Depends on what I am looking for. Probably got more from More Beer than anywhere. I have found that Midwest normally has the best price shipped. Depends again on the item. I normally buy local to though. There was a new place called Rebel Brewer I believe that was just getting started the last time I ordered anything online. Shipped fast, cheap and had good prices. If your looking for wine supplies FIne Vine Wines gets all off my business. He is expanding to a full line of beer supplies as well. Can’t wait for that.
I just ordered from Brewmasters Warehouse. They have a cool application on their site that allowws you to build your recipe and then place it in your cart. What’s nice is that you can order just what you need, so if you only need .25 lbs of Black Patent, you don’t have to buy a pound. Flat rate shipping and if you listen to The Brewing Network, there’s a 10% discount code.
They are very customer oriented. They actually called me the other day because they had a question about my order. They could have easily sent an email, but I give them props for wanting the interaction with the customer.
I buy my hops from Nikobrew.com ( also with a Brewing Network discount ) who sells by the ounce, pound ( 1, 5, & 11 ).
Austin, Northern and Rebel in that order. Rebel is relatively new, but their prices are the best . . especially on grains and hops.
I’ve never used these guys online, but I really like em- http://www.brewbrothers.biz/ . They’re located near Portland, OR (I think near Hillsboro) and they deliver free to PDX metro if you order over $200 worth. I live in Boring, OR (over an hour from them) and they’ve delivered to me 3 times so far. Great pricing and really nice people. I only know them from having them deliver to my house. It’s cool having 3 or 4 hundred dollars of grain delivered to your house.
I like Homebrewers Outpost in AZ. They usually ship within hours of placing an order. Plus, the ship to APO addresses which is obviously important to me!
Try the Grape and Granary in Akron, OH. They have a great grain and hop selection as well as a whole lot of equipment and other necessities.
For online hops, check out Puterbaugh Farms at www.hopsdirect.com. I’ve used them for years and have got great hops and service from them.
I like Austin, I think their shipping costs are pretty good. It used to be 6.99 no matter how big your order was? I’m not sure if it’s still like that or not. Sadly, I haven’t ordered anything for a while.
$7.99 now . .
About 2 weeks ago, I got a 25 gal megapot delivered from them for $6.99 shipping. Great deal for a heavy item
I always throw on a wine kit to the flat shipping. Naturally they’re not the cheapest wine kits around, but I still come out way ahead when you consider the shipping. I’ve only used them for ingredients and small stuff like flasks. Grain I get local.
-OCD
+1 Love the Plug hops that they purvey…
I’ve ordered from Northern Brewer, Midwest, Austin & Brewmasters Warehouse. I’f I were ordering something today, Midwest and Northern would be my first choices.
Yep Rebel has such good grain (and a ton of different malts) and hop prices that is my HBS of choice
The styreen packing peanuts from Austin drive me freaking wacko,
man I hate those things.
I prefer the air filled cells from the Northern Brewer soooo much better.
The trash factor probably does not matter to you folks… :o
+1
I had to unpack a Cellar Classics wine kit from Austin last week and it took me 5 minutes to ladle out the styro peanuts just to get to the kit. >:(
All great guys.
Where else? The MoreBeer Deal-of-the-day…
Rebel Brewer is the best I have found. It is a “local” shop for me so I can go with ground shipping and still get it in like two days. Other than that Rebel Brewer, has good selection of grains and hops, with a lot of information on the website of each batch of hops. Tom is pretty cool guy to chat with also.