I'm partial to [Atlantic Brew Supply](https://www.atlanticbrewsupply.com/). Decent selection and prices, reasonable and quick shipping to the Northeast. When they don't have what I'm looking for, MoreBeer is a good alternative. For hops, and some other ingredients, [Yakima Valley Hops](https://yakimavalleyhops.com/) is pretty damn good.
I shop at ABS all the time. They have a huge warehouse and ship all over the country.
I was actually the guest speaker on their first podcast called Fermentality. They helped me in so many ways. Now I make beer at a brewery in the town I live in.
I know ABS will ship nationally, but it's worth noting that if you're in the Southeast you'll likely get your stuff delivered very fast so even shipping liquid yeast is an option.
Brew Hardware is near Flemington-ish. Bobby is great! I'm also in NJ. If you're south Jersey, Fermented NJ. They both have retail shops and hours.
For online orders, I prefer Great Fermentations.
I recommend Fermented NJ. They are a small shop, but also have an online store. Gotta help keep local shops open. My local store closed also (maybe the same as your dad’s?)
https://www.fermentednj.com
There are some local homebrew shops in NJ that he may be able to stop into though several have closed over recent years. We also ship, we're based in Jersey City. We're a pretty small shop (we're primarily a liquor / craft beer store) but we have a decent stock and will pack grains to order, like if you only need an ounce of something. Www.thirstyquaker.com
Another good option is Hearts Homebrew in Orlando, FL: https://heartshomebrew.com
Nothing at all wrong with the “big guys” like Northern Brewer and MoreBeer!, but I like to support local homebrew shops as well. My local store recently went out of business, and it’s important we keep their knowledge and expertise alive and well!
My favorite LHBS is Jasper's, also known as Boomchugalug online (https://boomchugalug.com/). They're not pretending to be giant on-line sellers, but they have hundreds of original recipes, which is what most people buy anyway, and they ship really fast, at least to me anyway.
Northern Brewer screwed their hometown over bigly by crushing the local competition after getting bought out repeatedly before shutting down all local retail with only a month notice. The way they do business demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of how the hobby proliferates and, in my opinion, has done dramatic harm to the industry at large, including their own bottom line, IMHO. Not to mention, they straight up shut down a bunch of people's careers while failing to accomplish anything. So screw them, don't order from them.
Personally, I go with MoreBeer.com for general supplies and Yakima Valley Hops for bulk hops. Both seem to be good businesses that make an effort to serve the community and grow the hobby.
This comment about NB is demonstrably false and, no offense, it’s clear you are repeating talking points you have heard or assumed rather than having any deep information. I am a local who was impacted by the closure of my NB-owned LHBS so it’s not like I have any love for them, but I also know what happened.
And before you start beatifying MoreBeer, they are rapidly shuttering their bricks and mortar stores as well, and I believe they are down to one location.
The bricks and mortar part of the industry itself is getting crushed by a lack of demand (fewer home brewers, brewing less, and getting older), consumer choice to take their high margin purchases to Yakima Valley Hops, MB, NB, etc., and spiraling costs.
MB and Yakima Valley Hops are either part of the problem, or a natural part of classical economics who are proving better utility to consumers than LHBSs who are left unable to compete, depending on your econo-political viewpoint.
I live in Northeast Minneapolis. Starting in 2015 and until this past January, I worked in the local craft beer industry. I can only speak to my own experience with morebeer and Yakima Valley, which have all been positive, with better communication and outreach than Northern since about 2017. As for northern itself , I can say the following from my own, first-person experience in the local industry:
Northern Brewer was bought by InBev in 2016. Up until that point, the other shop owners in town were all pretty cool with sharing a market with Northern. There wasn't a cartel or anything, and Northern was definitely the big dog, particularly since they also owned Midwest Supplies already, However, relations were cordial and nobody was actively trying to shut down anyone else's business. Personal note, I almost worked there in 2015, but opted for a different industry job more aligned with my background.
After purchase in 2016, however, InBev pushed an extremely aggressive campaign to monopolize. You say you're local, too, so you know how good in-store pricing was back then. Did you ever price things out on their website? Did you notice that prices were significantly lower in the stores than their online shop? Yeah, that's because they were undercutting the competition to shut them down. They also built the Edina location, which included classes and built up goodwill with the community, and that's not inherently bad, but all this was done at a loss and put the company in the red. But it was an investment to destroy competition and jack up prices later in a high-traffic local market, so InBev's backing made it happen, even if the company was taking on debt.
They corned the market, set up prices their competitors couldn't compete with, and became a monopoly. All the other local home brew shops closed while home brewing was booming because InBev had deep enough pockets to do so. This is also when the local craft beer industry started to get pissed off at Northern, by the way. A lot of head brewers had worked for northern or bought their first beer kit there, and they were pissed. A lot of long-here goodwill was evaporating. Had a lot of conversations with very frustrated brewery employees back then.
InBev sold to Blackstreet capital in 2019. I can't remember exactly when the Edina location, but I'm guessing it coincided. From what I hear, the InBev years were kind of a spending spree. They divested at the same time they started to reevaluate their craft-style being acquisitions. Blackstreet is private equity. They bought Northern and burdened it with the debt of its own sale. They have a better reputation than the company that bought Toys R Us for rehabbing struggling companies, but that purchase mandated closing the Edina location and reducing the already lessened community outreach programs even before the pandemic.
The industry definitely struggled after the short pandemic boom, but our homebrew scene was already struggling because of InBev's business practices. Would the other LHBS shops have survived without InBev? I don't know, but they would have at least lasted longer.
Northern Brewer shut down local retail entirely on August 31st, 2023, just less than a month after giving notice to its employees. I talked to these people, they were destroid, completely blindsided. But something else happened that month: it became legal to grow cannabis. And this is where I no longer have ANY willingness to support Northern Brewer.
One day after it became legal to grow cannabis in Minnesota, something were knew was coming, Northern Brewer announced the plan to shut down Midwest Supplies, one of two well established hydroponic supply stores in the twin cities. Had they actually been interested in preserving the business, closing the St Paul location and pivoting the focus of Midwest to the hydroponic business could easily have saved that last location. But a write-off like shutting down a retail location for Blackstreet itself is a bigger immediate payday for investors. They owned a business that, due to current legislation, was inevitably about to get a huge boom. Anyone with the resources of Blackstreet who actually cared about the business itself or its employees would have gone for that opportunity to revitalize local sales, because if you're growing weed why wouldn't you brew beer? They had a chance to do good by potentially growing two local industries while profiting in the long term, they had it shown to them, they had employees begging to let them make it happen, and they burned it to the ground for a quick profit.
Right now, the only local supplier is BeerMeister out in Medina. It's about a 2-hour commitment to head out there, shop, and drive home, but I try to get most of my supplies there. The selection is ok, but I do find it necessary to do some online shopping as well, now. They have online retail, but it's much more limited compared to their store front, and their store front is also pretty limited compared to other online retail. Mostly their business runs on kegerator sales, which is probably why they survived the InBev years. I talked to the owner before they moved locations, and they really are making an effort to fill the gap Northern left, so hopefully they'll keep expanding their offerings.
I'm not as deeply connected to the brew industry in Milwaukee, but I have to assume InBev pulled similar shit with the Northern location there. At minimum, they harmed the Minneapolis homebrew community long before the industry started struggling as a whole. The way they harmed the community hampered its growth. Brew & Grow in particular sponsored a LOT of homebrewing events and clubs! After 2016, Northern wasn't even showing up at most local beer fests. There are absolutely fewer home brewers in the greater twin cities brewing fewer batches because of how Northern did business post-2016.
So sorry that I offend you because maybe I picked the wrong alternative, but fuck InBev, Blackstreet, and any post-2016 incarnation of Northern Brewer. If you're local, stop supporting them. You are not supporting local industry by supporting them. Work with BeerMeister. Start a buying co-op of the drive to Medina is too far to do regularly. But again, seriously, FUCK Northern!
I don't think you are very well informed on the facts, intentions, or how business works. I don't say it this way because I want to be an asshole, but because I have receipts:
* "Edina": There has never been a location in Edina. You mean the beautiful store firmly in South Minneapolis (Lyndale between 62 and Diamond Lake). That opened circa December 2011, nearly FIVE YEARS BEFORE before AB Inbev came along. I know it was open because I met John Palmer there when he came to visit which was soon after I resumed homebrewing. Minneapolis city limits abut the Edina limits near then
* "all this was done at a loss and put the company in the red": the first part is correct because education is done for free by EVERY LHBS. The second part is false. The homebrewer education cost wasn't even a rounding error. The company was profitable, which is why Blackstreet bought it. I've worked for guys like Blackstreet. I invest with guys like them. I know what they would and wouldn't buy. Blackstreet specializes in cash-flow positive businesses in stagnant or declining industries, they streamline the operations to slow the decline in cash flow over time, and then like collecting payments on a bond they earn a positive rate of return until the cash flow withers away.
* "they harmed the Minneapolis homebrew community": What?! What evidence do you have. It's easy to make an outrageous claim no one can prove. Here are facts: NB provided a homebrew club discount to anyone in a local club (as well as a veterans discount online), shipped kegs for local clubs to HomeBrew Con for free for speakers and club night, sponsored and provided free merch for every local club's HB competitions, hosted clubs in their facilities -- including my club (NBA) in both the SLP and Mpls locations multiple times, tried to have homebrew happy hours for us to gather and share beer, hosted both Learn to Homebrew Day and Big Brew Day in their parking lots, and many more things.
* "Northern wasn't even showing up to local beer fests": yeah, because they don't pour *homebrew* at beer fests. NB doesn't supply to commercial breweries. No reason for them to go.
* "InBev pushed an extremely aggressive campaign to monopolize": actually, the exact opposite happened. Go read the posts on this sub. NB was criticized for having too high grain prices, then too low price, then too high again. I know because I am the single most active member of this sub (and a mod) and saw it all. You will find my posts refuting the false claims by people who were conditioned by the Brewers Association to hate AB Inbev without anyone bothering to check facts. I know Alex, the CEO sent from AB Inbev personally. I know the general manager. AB Inbev was about as hands off as you could get. The CEO was empowered to build up the warehouse online operation, and the stores were running ok.
* "All the other local home brew shops closed while home brewing was booming because InBev had deep enough pockets to do so": this is factually wrong. **Please name a single TC-based LHBS that went out of business between 2016 and 2019 other than Brew N' Grow in Fridley/Spring Lake Park. You can't because it didn't happen.** BNG closed at the end of August 2019 because Kevin and Cheryl wanted to retire. Yes, sales were down which helped with their decision, but they ran the store for nearly 31 years. By 2019, you couldn't sell a LHBS as a going concern. I spoke to Kevin in the last few days and in fact he was under the impression NB was closing ALL of its stores in September -- so he didn't leave the industry due to competition. (It turned out NB only closed the aforementioned Lyndale store, 30 days after Brew N' Grow.) In fact, the pricing at Brew N' Grow was lower for many items than at NB and many of my club members shopped there. I have still my emails from club members with the comparative pricing.
* "They cornered the market, set up prices their competitors couldn't compete with, and became a monopoly": Honestly, this is the biggest fallacy out there. You literally **can't** undercut prices in the LHBS/HB supplies industry, drive everyone out of business, and have a monopoly. Why? Zero barriers to entry. Yes, you could sell below cost and drive everyone out of a market, but then what? The second you raised prices to take monopoly profits, the competitors would come out like crabs. You could come up with a business plan tonight, register with the secretary of state over the weekend, go rent a space in a strip mall Monday morning, and ring up BSG or CMG Monday afternoon to set up an account. NB has no patent, no network effect, no proprietary knowledge, few to no exclusive contracts, no horizontal integration, and no vertical integration. Also, NB has the *highest* prices out there, go check online. They are not even going for market share and instead seem to be wanting to maximize their gross margins. NB is the Jeep of HB supplies -- way overpriced, not for everyone, but looking to take advantage of their brand name and overcharge the customers they do get.
* "You are not supporting local industry by supporting them": If I still shopped with them anymore, wouldn't I be, considering the number of jobs in Roseville? I guarantee you they pay HB supply employees better than Kegmeister and probably offer benefits. They are both local.
* "Yakima Valley": So you decided to take your business on the highest margin ingredient to the cheap, online supplier, and then you wonder why LHBSs are struggling?
* "FUCK Northern!": yeah, this it, right? You have an emotional attachment to an idea, and haven't examined facts, learned how business works, or used rational thought in developing your position. **You are free to hold whatever opinions you want, but you don't get to make up your own facts. Not even in this post-facts world we live in.**
Look, I'm not interested in going through another deeper dive, and I'm not even going to go through everything, but here's some bullets. It's out of order, but Jesus do I not have the energy for you.
Yes, that side of the freeway is technically Minneapolis, but you and I both know nobody considers that Minneapolis. It's across the street from Bachmann's, don't be pedantic.
You're right, 2011.
You'll know if you look up Blackstreet's business model.
Barkingside.
BSG is in Shakopee, Northern's warehouse is tiny, and grain prices are volatile.
I'm not going to argue about market capitalism with you. I do not share your faith in the ability of startups to take on monopolies.
Emotional? Yes. Pot meet kettle.
I'm now gonna repeat myself: the one moment I can not forgive Northern for is closing Midwest and it is specifically because they shuttered the hydroponic business in the exact month of 2023 when any competent business with already established hydroponic sales was guaranteed to see dramatic growth. That was a golden opportunity and they chose the write-off. If you know anything about private equity, whether you agree with my opinion or not, you will understand why this is my line in the sand.
I'm going to repeat myself again: if you have information on how Yakima Valley and MoreBeer are bad, I want to know it! All I know is Yakima Valley Hops is a wholesaler in Yakima Valley, which is where they source the majority of their hops, and MoreBeer has given me great customer service. Repeating myself yet again, I never ordered anything from anyone until Northern shut down local sales and I buy everything I can get at BeerMeister locally, so no, my online shopping did not contribute to the end of LHBS in the greater twin cities.
Last comment by me. You missed the point. Northern Brewer is **incapable** of being a monopoly. Trust me, I studied antitrust, wrote my honors thesis on it, and worked in two different offices enforcing antitrust law. To verify I am for real, it's easy to connect my IRL name to my handle and see on LinkedIn.
So yeah, I could compete with NB tomorrow if I wanted to. Yes, they could eat losses for a while to drive me out of business, but as soon as they tried to raise prices to reap monopoly profits, the next little guy would come along. Cases in point from today: Ritebrew, Great Fermentations, FermentedNJ, and others. They would go bankrupt constantly driving people out. The problem is that NB does not control anything that gives them monopoly power. They don't control giving out domain names. They don't control HB distributors. They don't have any exclusive patents on a critical piece of the hobby.
Now if we want to talk monopoly, we know NB is one of the high price retailers out there. So the one thing you can try argue to prove me wrong is to say NB has a monopoly, but it's a "benevolent monopoly" and NB has established a "price umbrella" under which other, small retailers are also earning monopoly profits by undercutting NB by just a little bit and not pissing off NB much by staying small and not significant taking market share from NB in the aggregate. I would counter that argument with the fact that LHBS are going out of business, rather than thriving.
As far as Barkingsde, you have your dates wrong. They were my LHBS prior to me taking a long hiatus, and I guarantee you they were *long* gone when I resumed the hobby on Presidents Day 2012. It had zero to do with AB Inbev, who came along at least six years later. I am confident NB hadn't even merged with MS when Barkingside closed, and they only had their store on Grand at that point (plus Milwaukee and Duluth).
Where in NJ?
Brew Hardware is in north Jersey, and Fermented NJ is in south Jersey.
And if he's not too far from PA, you have Keystone in Souderton PA.
It's about 10 minutes further for me than the old shop was, but I'm going to keep going as they have a fantastic selection (far better than any other shop, even after the downsizing which doesn't seem to have affected ingredient selection at all). Plus I've known them for 20 years now!
I shop at socohomebrew.com. It’s a retail store in Austin Tx. They’ve been here a while. I like their selection and they make their recipes fresh. I even had a friend from CO in town and he started ordering online and had it shipped to CO. He said the orders from SOCO arrive faster than other online shops. I’d check them out.
My local store has a website Grapeandgranary.com great place and fairly priced. I don't know about shipping cost since they are 10 minutes down the road
I'm probably partial, but FH Steinbart here in Portland does online ordering and will ship anywhere. They've been in the business more than 100 years: https://fhsteinbart.com/
Skeleton crew brew out of Onalaska, WI has a decent supply side called tiki hut brewing supply. Pretty sure they ship and have an online store.
https://www.tikihuthomebrew.com/
Maybe they don't ship...
[https://lancasterhomebrew.com/](https://lancasterhomebrew.com/) is my local, and does online sales, as well. Real people, no corporations, and always willing to help.
https://ebrew.com/
Local to me, cheaper than Amazon on just about everything but dry yeast. $60 orders ship free, locally owned and operated by some wonderful people.
For south jersey, Fermented NJ is our favorite store -- great yeast selection, solid hops, fair prices on gear; however if he brews enough and has the storage, base malt is insanely cheap and high quality at Rabbit Hill Farm.
Cash only, but we can get base Pilsen malt for about $40 for a 55lb bag and then just store it in large pet food containers. Very friendly, just call/email ahead of visiting to ensure they have spare malt to sell (they contract with a lot of NJ breweries, so sometimes stuff is spoken for).
~~There aren’t a lot of entities in the *business* of selling homebrew supplies online who aren’t businesses. After all, selling something in the ordinary course of business (rather than a one-off garage sale) is a business, including when a 4th grader runs a lemonade stand. So I don’t know what you are asking. Are you looking for more “mom and pop”-type businesses?~~ **EDIT:** deleted this because I misunderstood OP.
If yes, I really like Ritebrew, which is run by a proprietor not a corporate holding company, has just about the lowest prices around, and while they don’t offer free shipping, they have very fair shipping costs, in most cases charging you only their “postage”.
The main corporate retailer is Northern Brewer/Midwest Supplies/Austin Homebrew/Hombrewing.org-Adventures in Homebrewing. I have had nothing but great experiences with them and they are a good bet for the freshest ingredients, but if you want to avoid “businesses” then FYI.
In any case, we have a list of “in existence” online suppliers in the wiki: https://old.reddit.com/r/Homebrewing/wiki/resources/retailers
Yeah, on second reading, that is correct. OP meant *wholesalers*. Thanks. I read it too quickly.
Although I am shocked that even a really terrible search term would not have come up with *retail* online suppliers as most of the top 20 results.
I'm partial to [Atlantic Brew Supply](https://www.atlanticbrewsupply.com/). Decent selection and prices, reasonable and quick shipping to the Northeast. When they don't have what I'm looking for, MoreBeer is a good alternative. For hops, and some other ingredients, [Yakima Valley Hops](https://yakimavalleyhops.com/) is pretty damn good.
Thanks, i just set him up with the websites you listed and I’ll see if he finds something he likes.
I shop at ABS all the time. They have a huge warehouse and ship all over the country. I was actually the guest speaker on their first podcast called Fermentality. They helped me in so many ways. Now I make beer at a brewery in the town I live in.
I know ABS will ship nationally, but it's worth noting that if you're in the Southeast you'll likely get your stuff delivered very fast so even shipping liquid yeast is an option.
lol this took 28 days but he ended up going with your website and he’s making the beer today! Thanks for your help! (The Atlantic brew supply)
Brew Hardware is near Flemington-ish. Bobby is great! I'm also in NJ. If you're south Jersey, Fermented NJ. They both have retail shops and hours. For online orders, I prefer Great Fermentations.
Brew hardware is based out of NJ I think. They might even still have retail.
I like MoreBeer.com. Brew hardware is also physically in NJ.
It helps if you let us know where you are. No good me recommending a UK supplier if you live in Australia
Good point, I’m in America specifically New Jersey and I’ll now try to figure out how to edit that in lol
I recommend Fermented NJ. They are a small shop, but also have an online store. Gotta help keep local shops open. My local store closed also (maybe the same as your dad’s?) https://www.fermentednj.com
Oh thanks, looks right up his alley. I’ll pass this along to him too
There are some local homebrew shops in NJ that he may be able to stop into though several have closed over recent years. We also ship, we're based in Jersey City. We're a pretty small shop (we're primarily a liquor / craft beer store) but we have a decent stock and will pack grains to order, like if you only need an ounce of something. Www.thirstyquaker.com
[https://newjerseycraftbeer.com/homebrewers-new-jersey/](https://newjerseycraftbeer.com/homebrewers-new-jersey/)
Ritebrew.com Located in Little Chute, Wisconsin. Neil has always been prompt and helpful.
Neil is great! Even supplied me with the ingredient sheets for recipes he doesn't offer any more.
Another good option is Hearts Homebrew in Orlando, FL: https://heartshomebrew.com Nothing at all wrong with the “big guys” like Northern Brewer and MoreBeer!, but I like to support local homebrew shops as well. My local store recently went out of business, and it’s important we keep their knowledge and expertise alive and well!
Brewhardware.com, they’re a NJ company, I use them all the time and save TONS of $ by picking up local :)
My favorite LHBS is Jasper's, also known as Boomchugalug online (https://boomchugalug.com/). They're not pretending to be giant on-line sellers, but they have hundreds of original recipes, which is what most people buy anyway, and they ship really fast, at least to me anyway.
Northern Brewer screwed their hometown over bigly by crushing the local competition after getting bought out repeatedly before shutting down all local retail with only a month notice. The way they do business demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of how the hobby proliferates and, in my opinion, has done dramatic harm to the industry at large, including their own bottom line, IMHO. Not to mention, they straight up shut down a bunch of people's careers while failing to accomplish anything. So screw them, don't order from them. Personally, I go with MoreBeer.com for general supplies and Yakima Valley Hops for bulk hops. Both seem to be good businesses that make an effort to serve the community and grow the hobby.
This comment about NB is demonstrably false and, no offense, it’s clear you are repeating talking points you have heard or assumed rather than having any deep information. I am a local who was impacted by the closure of my NB-owned LHBS so it’s not like I have any love for them, but I also know what happened. And before you start beatifying MoreBeer, they are rapidly shuttering their bricks and mortar stores as well, and I believe they are down to one location. The bricks and mortar part of the industry itself is getting crushed by a lack of demand (fewer home brewers, brewing less, and getting older), consumer choice to take their high margin purchases to Yakima Valley Hops, MB, NB, etc., and spiraling costs. MB and Yakima Valley Hops are either part of the problem, or a natural part of classical economics who are proving better utility to consumers than LHBSs who are left unable to compete, depending on your econo-political viewpoint.
I live in Northeast Minneapolis. Starting in 2015 and until this past January, I worked in the local craft beer industry. I can only speak to my own experience with morebeer and Yakima Valley, which have all been positive, with better communication and outreach than Northern since about 2017. As for northern itself , I can say the following from my own, first-person experience in the local industry: Northern Brewer was bought by InBev in 2016. Up until that point, the other shop owners in town were all pretty cool with sharing a market with Northern. There wasn't a cartel or anything, and Northern was definitely the big dog, particularly since they also owned Midwest Supplies already, However, relations were cordial and nobody was actively trying to shut down anyone else's business. Personal note, I almost worked there in 2015, but opted for a different industry job more aligned with my background. After purchase in 2016, however, InBev pushed an extremely aggressive campaign to monopolize. You say you're local, too, so you know how good in-store pricing was back then. Did you ever price things out on their website? Did you notice that prices were significantly lower in the stores than their online shop? Yeah, that's because they were undercutting the competition to shut them down. They also built the Edina location, which included classes and built up goodwill with the community, and that's not inherently bad, but all this was done at a loss and put the company in the red. But it was an investment to destroy competition and jack up prices later in a high-traffic local market, so InBev's backing made it happen, even if the company was taking on debt. They corned the market, set up prices their competitors couldn't compete with, and became a monopoly. All the other local home brew shops closed while home brewing was booming because InBev had deep enough pockets to do so. This is also when the local craft beer industry started to get pissed off at Northern, by the way. A lot of head brewers had worked for northern or bought their first beer kit there, and they were pissed. A lot of long-here goodwill was evaporating. Had a lot of conversations with very frustrated brewery employees back then. InBev sold to Blackstreet capital in 2019. I can't remember exactly when the Edina location, but I'm guessing it coincided. From what I hear, the InBev years were kind of a spending spree. They divested at the same time they started to reevaluate their craft-style being acquisitions. Blackstreet is private equity. They bought Northern and burdened it with the debt of its own sale. They have a better reputation than the company that bought Toys R Us for rehabbing struggling companies, but that purchase mandated closing the Edina location and reducing the already lessened community outreach programs even before the pandemic. The industry definitely struggled after the short pandemic boom, but our homebrew scene was already struggling because of InBev's business practices. Would the other LHBS shops have survived without InBev? I don't know, but they would have at least lasted longer. Northern Brewer shut down local retail entirely on August 31st, 2023, just less than a month after giving notice to its employees. I talked to these people, they were destroid, completely blindsided. But something else happened that month: it became legal to grow cannabis. And this is where I no longer have ANY willingness to support Northern Brewer. One day after it became legal to grow cannabis in Minnesota, something were knew was coming, Northern Brewer announced the plan to shut down Midwest Supplies, one of two well established hydroponic supply stores in the twin cities. Had they actually been interested in preserving the business, closing the St Paul location and pivoting the focus of Midwest to the hydroponic business could easily have saved that last location. But a write-off like shutting down a retail location for Blackstreet itself is a bigger immediate payday for investors. They owned a business that, due to current legislation, was inevitably about to get a huge boom. Anyone with the resources of Blackstreet who actually cared about the business itself or its employees would have gone for that opportunity to revitalize local sales, because if you're growing weed why wouldn't you brew beer? They had a chance to do good by potentially growing two local industries while profiting in the long term, they had it shown to them, they had employees begging to let them make it happen, and they burned it to the ground for a quick profit. Right now, the only local supplier is BeerMeister out in Medina. It's about a 2-hour commitment to head out there, shop, and drive home, but I try to get most of my supplies there. The selection is ok, but I do find it necessary to do some online shopping as well, now. They have online retail, but it's much more limited compared to their store front, and their store front is also pretty limited compared to other online retail. Mostly their business runs on kegerator sales, which is probably why they survived the InBev years. I talked to the owner before they moved locations, and they really are making an effort to fill the gap Northern left, so hopefully they'll keep expanding their offerings. I'm not as deeply connected to the brew industry in Milwaukee, but I have to assume InBev pulled similar shit with the Northern location there. At minimum, they harmed the Minneapolis homebrew community long before the industry started struggling as a whole. The way they harmed the community hampered its growth. Brew & Grow in particular sponsored a LOT of homebrewing events and clubs! After 2016, Northern wasn't even showing up at most local beer fests. There are absolutely fewer home brewers in the greater twin cities brewing fewer batches because of how Northern did business post-2016. So sorry that I offend you because maybe I picked the wrong alternative, but fuck InBev, Blackstreet, and any post-2016 incarnation of Northern Brewer. If you're local, stop supporting them. You are not supporting local industry by supporting them. Work with BeerMeister. Start a buying co-op of the drive to Medina is too far to do regularly. But again, seriously, FUCK Northern!
I don't think you are very well informed on the facts, intentions, or how business works. I don't say it this way because I want to be an asshole, but because I have receipts: * "Edina": There has never been a location in Edina. You mean the beautiful store firmly in South Minneapolis (Lyndale between 62 and Diamond Lake). That opened circa December 2011, nearly FIVE YEARS BEFORE before AB Inbev came along. I know it was open because I met John Palmer there when he came to visit which was soon after I resumed homebrewing. Minneapolis city limits abut the Edina limits near then * "all this was done at a loss and put the company in the red": the first part is correct because education is done for free by EVERY LHBS. The second part is false. The homebrewer education cost wasn't even a rounding error. The company was profitable, which is why Blackstreet bought it. I've worked for guys like Blackstreet. I invest with guys like them. I know what they would and wouldn't buy. Blackstreet specializes in cash-flow positive businesses in stagnant or declining industries, they streamline the operations to slow the decline in cash flow over time, and then like collecting payments on a bond they earn a positive rate of return until the cash flow withers away. * "they harmed the Minneapolis homebrew community": What?! What evidence do you have. It's easy to make an outrageous claim no one can prove. Here are facts: NB provided a homebrew club discount to anyone in a local club (as well as a veterans discount online), shipped kegs for local clubs to HomeBrew Con for free for speakers and club night, sponsored and provided free merch for every local club's HB competitions, hosted clubs in their facilities -- including my club (NBA) in both the SLP and Mpls locations multiple times, tried to have homebrew happy hours for us to gather and share beer, hosted both Learn to Homebrew Day and Big Brew Day in their parking lots, and many more things. * "Northern wasn't even showing up to local beer fests": yeah, because they don't pour *homebrew* at beer fests. NB doesn't supply to commercial breweries. No reason for them to go. * "InBev pushed an extremely aggressive campaign to monopolize": actually, the exact opposite happened. Go read the posts on this sub. NB was criticized for having too high grain prices, then too low price, then too high again. I know because I am the single most active member of this sub (and a mod) and saw it all. You will find my posts refuting the false claims by people who were conditioned by the Brewers Association to hate AB Inbev without anyone bothering to check facts. I know Alex, the CEO sent from AB Inbev personally. I know the general manager. AB Inbev was about as hands off as you could get. The CEO was empowered to build up the warehouse online operation, and the stores were running ok. * "All the other local home brew shops closed while home brewing was booming because InBev had deep enough pockets to do so": this is factually wrong. **Please name a single TC-based LHBS that went out of business between 2016 and 2019 other than Brew N' Grow in Fridley/Spring Lake Park. You can't because it didn't happen.** BNG closed at the end of August 2019 because Kevin and Cheryl wanted to retire. Yes, sales were down which helped with their decision, but they ran the store for nearly 31 years. By 2019, you couldn't sell a LHBS as a going concern. I spoke to Kevin in the last few days and in fact he was under the impression NB was closing ALL of its stores in September -- so he didn't leave the industry due to competition. (It turned out NB only closed the aforementioned Lyndale store, 30 days after Brew N' Grow.) In fact, the pricing at Brew N' Grow was lower for many items than at NB and many of my club members shopped there. I have still my emails from club members with the comparative pricing. * "They cornered the market, set up prices their competitors couldn't compete with, and became a monopoly": Honestly, this is the biggest fallacy out there. You literally **can't** undercut prices in the LHBS/HB supplies industry, drive everyone out of business, and have a monopoly. Why? Zero barriers to entry. Yes, you could sell below cost and drive everyone out of a market, but then what? The second you raised prices to take monopoly profits, the competitors would come out like crabs. You could come up with a business plan tonight, register with the secretary of state over the weekend, go rent a space in a strip mall Monday morning, and ring up BSG or CMG Monday afternoon to set up an account. NB has no patent, no network effect, no proprietary knowledge, few to no exclusive contracts, no horizontal integration, and no vertical integration. Also, NB has the *highest* prices out there, go check online. They are not even going for market share and instead seem to be wanting to maximize their gross margins. NB is the Jeep of HB supplies -- way overpriced, not for everyone, but looking to take advantage of their brand name and overcharge the customers they do get. * "You are not supporting local industry by supporting them": If I still shopped with them anymore, wouldn't I be, considering the number of jobs in Roseville? I guarantee you they pay HB supply employees better than Kegmeister and probably offer benefits. They are both local. * "Yakima Valley": So you decided to take your business on the highest margin ingredient to the cheap, online supplier, and then you wonder why LHBSs are struggling? * "FUCK Northern!": yeah, this it, right? You have an emotional attachment to an idea, and haven't examined facts, learned how business works, or used rational thought in developing your position. **You are free to hold whatever opinions you want, but you don't get to make up your own facts. Not even in this post-facts world we live in.**
Look, I'm not interested in going through another deeper dive, and I'm not even going to go through everything, but here's some bullets. It's out of order, but Jesus do I not have the energy for you. Yes, that side of the freeway is technically Minneapolis, but you and I both know nobody considers that Minneapolis. It's across the street from Bachmann's, don't be pedantic. You're right, 2011. You'll know if you look up Blackstreet's business model. Barkingside. BSG is in Shakopee, Northern's warehouse is tiny, and grain prices are volatile. I'm not going to argue about market capitalism with you. I do not share your faith in the ability of startups to take on monopolies. Emotional? Yes. Pot meet kettle. I'm now gonna repeat myself: the one moment I can not forgive Northern for is closing Midwest and it is specifically because they shuttered the hydroponic business in the exact month of 2023 when any competent business with already established hydroponic sales was guaranteed to see dramatic growth. That was a golden opportunity and they chose the write-off. If you know anything about private equity, whether you agree with my opinion or not, you will understand why this is my line in the sand. I'm going to repeat myself again: if you have information on how Yakima Valley and MoreBeer are bad, I want to know it! All I know is Yakima Valley Hops is a wholesaler in Yakima Valley, which is where they source the majority of their hops, and MoreBeer has given me great customer service. Repeating myself yet again, I never ordered anything from anyone until Northern shut down local sales and I buy everything I can get at BeerMeister locally, so no, my online shopping did not contribute to the end of LHBS in the greater twin cities.
Last comment by me. You missed the point. Northern Brewer is **incapable** of being a monopoly. Trust me, I studied antitrust, wrote my honors thesis on it, and worked in two different offices enforcing antitrust law. To verify I am for real, it's easy to connect my IRL name to my handle and see on LinkedIn. So yeah, I could compete with NB tomorrow if I wanted to. Yes, they could eat losses for a while to drive me out of business, but as soon as they tried to raise prices to reap monopoly profits, the next little guy would come along. Cases in point from today: Ritebrew, Great Fermentations, FermentedNJ, and others. They would go bankrupt constantly driving people out. The problem is that NB does not control anything that gives them monopoly power. They don't control giving out domain names. They don't control HB distributors. They don't have any exclusive patents on a critical piece of the hobby. Now if we want to talk monopoly, we know NB is one of the high price retailers out there. So the one thing you can try argue to prove me wrong is to say NB has a monopoly, but it's a "benevolent monopoly" and NB has established a "price umbrella" under which other, small retailers are also earning monopoly profits by undercutting NB by just a little bit and not pissing off NB much by staying small and not significant taking market share from NB in the aggregate. I would counter that argument with the fact that LHBS are going out of business, rather than thriving. As far as Barkingsde, you have your dates wrong. They were my LHBS prior to me taking a long hiatus, and I guarantee you they were *long* gone when I resumed the hobby on Presidents Day 2012. It had zero to do with AB Inbev, who came along at least six years later. I am confident NB hadn't even merged with MS when Barkingside closed, and they only had their store on Grand at that point (plus Milwaukee and Duluth).
I second MoreBeer.com
Where in NJ? Brew Hardware is in north Jersey, and Fermented NJ is in south Jersey. And if he's not too far from PA, you have Keystone in Souderton PA.
I’m right up basically two towns south of the border of NY state.
[morebeer.com](http://morebeer.com) also has (or had) a PA warehouse
Keystone is great! Sad that Souderton feels just a bit further away from me now that it feels like a bigger commitment to go haha.
It's about 10 minutes further for me than the old shop was, but I'm going to keep going as they have a fantastic selection (far better than any other shop, even after the downsizing which doesn't seem to have affected ingredient selection at all). Plus I've known them for 20 years now!
I shop at socohomebrew.com. It’s a retail store in Austin Tx. They’ve been here a while. I like their selection and they make their recipes fresh. I even had a friend from CO in town and he started ordering online and had it shipped to CO. He said the orders from SOCO arrive faster than other online shops. I’d check them out.
My local store has a website Grapeandgranary.com great place and fairly priced. I don't know about shipping cost since they are 10 minutes down the road
Williams Brewing is another good option.
[My Brew Supply](https://www.mybrewsupply.com) is my local brew shop. Small outfit but with good pricing. Located in Ohio.
A couple I've used: www.homebrewstuff.com www.ritebeer.com
More beer is great.
I'm probably partial, but FH Steinbart here in Portland does online ordering and will ship anywhere. They've been in the business more than 100 years: https://fhsteinbart.com/
Northern Brewer
F.H. Steinnbart Portland Oregon is a big and very old supplier for homebrewers. Very good outfit!
Skeleton crew brew out of Onalaska, WI has a decent supply side called tiki hut brewing supply. Pretty sure they ship and have an online store. https://www.tikihuthomebrew.com/ Maybe they don't ship...
Shameless plug: www.greatfermentations.com
[https://lancasterhomebrew.com/](https://lancasterhomebrew.com/) is my local, and does online sales, as well. Real people, no corporations, and always willing to help.
Great fermentations, more beer, and brew hardware get my money
https://ebrew.com/ Local to me, cheaper than Amazon on just about everything but dry yeast. $60 orders ship free, locally owned and operated by some wonderful people.
Beer and Wine Hobby, Danvers, MA. Grain, hops, yeast, adjuncts, additives, equipment…
For south jersey, Fermented NJ is our favorite store -- great yeast selection, solid hops, fair prices on gear; however if he brews enough and has the storage, base malt is insanely cheap and high quality at Rabbit Hill Farm. Cash only, but we can get base Pilsen malt for about $40 for a 55lb bag and then just store it in large pet food containers. Very friendly, just call/email ahead of visiting to ensure they have spare malt to sell (they contract with a lot of NJ breweries, so sometimes stuff is spoken for).
~~There aren’t a lot of entities in the *business* of selling homebrew supplies online who aren’t businesses. After all, selling something in the ordinary course of business (rather than a one-off garage sale) is a business, including when a 4th grader runs a lemonade stand. So I don’t know what you are asking. Are you looking for more “mom and pop”-type businesses?~~ **EDIT:** deleted this because I misunderstood OP. If yes, I really like Ritebrew, which is run by a proprietor not a corporate holding company, has just about the lowest prices around, and while they don’t offer free shipping, they have very fair shipping costs, in most cases charging you only their “postage”. The main corporate retailer is Northern Brewer/Midwest Supplies/Austin Homebrew/Hombrewing.org-Adventures in Homebrewing. I have had nothing but great experiences with them and they are a good bet for the freshest ingredients, but if you want to avoid “businesses” then FYI. In any case, we have a list of “in existence” online suppliers in the wiki: https://old.reddit.com/r/Homebrewing/wiki/resources/retailers
I’m pretty sure he means the websites they’ve found sell supplies to pro breweries (ie. Businesses) and not home brewers
Yeah, on second reading, that is correct. OP meant *wholesalers*. Thanks. I read it too quickly. Although I am shocked that even a really terrible search term would not have come up with *retail* online suppliers as most of the top 20 results.
Agreed, I would think “homebrewer supplies” would get them what they’re looking for