Hello Everyone, I’ve been a member for a while and learned a lot.
I want everyone to know what my/our experience has been with eBrewSupply. In short, not good - not good at all. Here’s why.
I’m well aware that some of you may say “this is just a guy venting”. Go ahead, I don’t care. I’m looking for one of two things here. 1. Someone else will be spared the aggravation and frustration and expense I’ve been through in the last 6-8 weeks, or 2. that eBrew will take note and change.
We’re on the Prairies north of the 49th. In late January I inquired with eBrew about a custom built panel for our very oversized home brewery. We have a 1BBL brewhouse and 8bbl of fermentation space - not boasting, just setting the stage. We’ve built the whole thing from scratch, and have just moved to a much bigger space. The design that we planned is 2 5500W elements in the HLT, HERMS for the MLT, one 5500W elements in the BK, and 2 3000w Burton induction plates under the BK. We run 3 pumps - Water, HERMS, and Wort.
After a series of emails with eBrew we set a plan and a quote. It was for a panel, 4 temp probes (HLT, HERMS, BK, and the outflow of our chiller. Amperage and voltage meters on both 50a feeder circuits. Needed 2 3 meter cables, and 2 5 meter cables), and 2 stove plug wires to feed the panel, but 12’ instead of the usual 6’. I paid the deposit that day, and was given an 8 week build time - putting us at late march/early april. Great.
In the interim I ordered some switches, LED’s, and plug ends and had them shipped to me. We’re in Canada. Those arrived, and I got to work making up cord ends and switch boxes, etc.
About a month after the small parts arrived I received a “brokerage invoice” from UPS, despite requesting that the pre-paid brokerage service be used. When I asked Ryan, the owner of eBrew about this, his words were “someone has to pay, either you or me”. That’s not true. If a pre-paid service is used then I don’t end up getting a surprise bill later on. This was clarified and all seemed good.
Time passed, and the panel made it’s way north and got to me in Early April. We got it un-boxed that night. The first thing we noticed is that the entire HERMS pump circuit was missing. This was very disappointing given the time and money put in. I confirmed the email where I asked for it. I let Ryan know, and he offered to send it back to add it, or we could do it ourselves later on. One of our group is an electronics tech, so it was easiest to have him do it. We were sent 4 3M cables instead of 2 3M and 2 5M, and the feeder cables were 6’ instead on 12’.
At this point I learned that eBrew works with BrewersHardware for the probes and the wires - so the temp cables were blamed on BH. 2 5m cables were dispatched and arrived. They arrived without the protective loom that I paid for, but for now, whatever, lets just get brewing.
Tim, our tech friend, opened up the panel before we plugged anything in and found no less than 15 loose connections. No exaggeration, one-five.
We powered the thing up things seemed good. The panel comes with a nice bound book to get things rolling. I did my absolute best to not be a guy and skip steps. I went through every single step. I’m not a networking genius by any means, so I was super type A about taking the right steps. I spent the better part of 6 hours that night, until about 3am, trying to get the BCS-462 to connect to my network. Angry and frustrated, I went to bed. I emailed Ryan. He responded by saying “oh ya, sorry, I forgot to change the manual. Since BCS has gone to 4.0 firmware now that manual tells you to do the EXACT OPPOSITE of what you need to do”. Great, thx.
So, I got my DHCP settings right, and sat down again to get things fired up. I got the temp cables plugged into the probes, threw some water in, and wanted to start programming away… all probes read zero. I think to myself “I must be doing something wrong, there’s no way all of them can be dead”. I spend another 2-3 hours troubleshooting things, with no luck. Another email to Ryan and this time he says “oh ya, sorry about that, can you solder??”. No, I can’t - that’s what I paid you for. BH and eBrew have their wires crossed, again, so over comes Tim with his soldering iron to dismantled and re-wire these temp probe cables.
Voila!!! Temperatures!!! Now I’m laughing!!! No, I’m not. In fact, soon I’m swearing, again.
I started programming the BCS. This is not straight-forward. Maybe it is if you’re a process engineer, or programmer, but I’m not. However, I realize that it’s for me to learn, so I get to it.
If you call eBrew, be prepared to be talked to like you’re a PEng of some type, and hacking your home router is something you should’ve learned in grade 3.
I get the kettles full of some wet stuff, and fire off the big elements… Click, half the panel is dead. WTF. I open the panel and see a breaker is thrown - OK, reset it, and away we go. Fire it up again, run it for a bit - CLICK. Pops again. Hmmmm… I start troubleshooting and seeing whats on what feeder line of the panel (it runs off 2 50a feeders). One of the amp meters shows about 55A max, and one about 35 max. That doesn’t seem balanced to me… I start clicking things on and off to see what draws from where.
The wort pump isn’t even included in the amp/voltmeters - great.
A small but relevant thing an a 3200USD/4200CDN purchase - the panel door sags like a saggy rotten old cupboard door. Great.
I get a hold of Ryan and we chat very civilly on the phone. He asks for some pics of the inside of the panel, which I provide, and makes a couple of suggestions for me to try. So I do.
The breaker keeps popping under load, and on one of the times I had to open the panel and reach in to reset it I got a SHOCK FROM THE DOOR. I’m not an electrical hack. I’m capable of installing breakers and breaker boxes, so no, I didn’t touch something I shouldn’t have.
After this, Ryan says that this panel is likely a lemon, and needs to go back to him for a rebuild. I’m hesitant about this since I knew this would be, at minimum, a 2 week turn around time. That was May 8th. Ryan was adamant that if I got the panel to a UPS outlet on the AM of the 9th, overnighted it to him, he’d have it turned around and back to my by that friday, the 13th. He admits, and apologizes for, the panel not being tested properly before it was sent out, citing he had just moved and couldn’t. I agreed to send it back, and had it with UPS by 1100CST on May 9th, to be with eBrew by 1000EST on the 10th.
I track the package to check progress, and see UPS has made it a day late despite paying 3-400$ for super fast service. I hear from Ryan on thursday 12th. He’s sounds upset in his email and tells me that I’ve inadequately packed the panel, and UPS has destroyed it. I packed it in the same box, with the same packing (plus some more) that it was sent to me in. Now I’m pissed. After all the work and wasted hours and 4000$, you think I’ve sent this thing off in a bare cardboard box ??? He then tells me that I have to take it up with UPS, despite the fact that the build screw-ups that led to the return where all his fault, and that it was sent on his account #. He says he’s going to build a new one, with the timeline being design thursday eve, build on weekend, ship monday.
I get design drawings sunday the 15th. I’m told it’ll be built and tested monday the 16th, shipped tuesday the 17th.
On wed the 18th I looked into progress and I’m now told it won’t be until thursday the 19th, but it’ll be first thing in the AM and overnighted to be with my for friday the 20th - in time to do the brew that we were supposed to do 3 weeks prior.
On the 19th, around noon, I checked again - STILL NOT OUT THE DOOR!!! F!!! Really???
UPS gets a pickup request at 1700EST on the 19th - is that “first thing in the AM” ??? I’m now told bluntly, and un-apologetically, that there’s no way it’ll get to me for the weekend. Now 5 guys that have made plans and taken time away to brew, can’t. Great.
UPS decides they need a signature from me along the way, but no one at eBrew keeps track of the shipment, so no one knows. It’s now May 24th, and as far as I know the panel is in Winnipeg and will be here in the next 48hrs, maybe… over 2 weeks now, just like I predicted.
Ryan has now taken to not responding to my emails, which for me was the last straw, and hence this post. I see no other recourse other than to educate other brewers that may be looking for a 1500-3000$ panel that Spike Innovations might be a better choice.
That’s the facts of what happened. You’re welcome to draw your own conclusions and make your own decisions, but that’s been my experience. I’m very very disappointed that such an expensive and crucial piece of our brewery, that’s supposed to be really fun, has been such a cluster.
I know that lots of people have had great experiences with Ryan and eBrew - that’s why I gave him a 2000$ deposit without ever meeting the guy.
I’ll update if anything new - good or bad, happens.
-Jeremy.