Austin Homebrew Supply

Usually pretty stoked on this place. But, I went there on Sunday for a for some supplies for a spur of the moment brew idea. Got what I needed no problems. The issue is that I was charged for two different yeasts. I only bought one. I was also charged for two separate lengths of siphon hose. Only got one. In all, I was over charged about $ 10. I didn’t notice until a few days later, not really worth my time to go back for a refund. I’m not sure if it was intentional, they were very spaced out on the receipt. A stain on an otherwise good experience.

Customer service is back with new ownership!
I had been an Austin Homebrew Supply customer since 2009 and always loved the place until I had a very dissapointing customer service experience this past May. I had sworn off returning to the store, but this past weekend I needed to pickup some grain and yeast for a recipe I wanted to have done in time for a holiday party. When I was making my purchase, for the sake of venting, I shared with the clerk my previous experience. He told me that the store changed ownership in June and also said that I was not the only one who had felt jilted by the prior owners. The clerk asked the store general manager Dan to meet with me. I shared with him the details of my prior frustrations. Dan listened, cared and apologized. He made everything from six months ago right and then some, which he was under no obligation to do. I was truly appreciated as a customer and Dan and crew have won my business and loyalty back. I am now eager to share with everyone the very positive experience I just had. If they let you down prior to this past June, give them another try!

Awesome place. The staff were very friendly. Renee was very kind and knowledgable. She even stayed past opening hours to convert a recipe for us and explain the process to us first timers. Definitely recommend this place for anyone looking to brew their own tasty drinks!

love this place! Highly recommend going, even if you go in knowing nothing (like me). Renee was the best, she was friendly, knowledgable, answered all of our questions and was honest. We really felt taken care of by her and benefitted from her knowledge. Great customer service.

Made my first beer a couple of weeks ago and it was awesome. This process takes some time, but this place makes it fairly easy. They are very knowledgable on the process and willing to answer any and all questions. Unilocal should create a beer master badge, because I’m hooked! Decent prices and friendly

Loved it! Jeremy was super helpful and guided us to the essentials for my brothers first brew for under $ 100 with equipment. Was in and out with no problems.

Wow– it’s amazing the friends you discover the moment you announce your intention to ferment something! I went inside as a total newbie, and yet staff were extremely nice. They didn’t have the vinegar mother culture I was looking for, but gave me some great leads, and even invited me to come back to let them know how things go. Thanks so much for the positive encouragement!

I feel like I’m raining on a five-​star parade here, but while I like AHS quite a lot, there are some things I could like better.
On the biiiiiig plus side: the place’s mere existence. In the previous two towns that I lived in (Columbus, OH and Wilmington, NC), there was no such animal as an exclusive brewing/​vinting/​distilling store. Places had stuff, sure, but it was often as an afterthought, and you frequently had to piecemeal your kit and your ingredients together from several different stores, even as an extract brewer with fairly modest needs.
So yay for them for just having all this stuff in one location. Although I occasionally get bulk hop orders online, it’s otherwise one-​stop shopping. And whether you want to do extract, all-​grain, cider, wine, sparkling, mead, or kegging any of the above, they’ve got the equipment that you’re looking for.
Prices are fair, around the industry average. There are occasional sales and the multiple sizes available for many items (and malt extracts in particular) is convenient and allows for flexibility in your kitchen. Yeast prices seem a little high, and entry-​level brands that suit my needs just fine aren’t carried there.
The staff are pros and know their stuff, although they could be a little friendlier at times. I think home brewing might just be an introvert’s game, so no big deal. I’d rather have someone knowledgeable-​but-​shy than the the other way around, of course. As other reviewers have noted, they do rock some beards.
I do wish they’d stay open a little later, as there’s often a short window between the wife and I getting out of school/​work and getting there. To their credit, they don’t make late customers feel rushed, but added flexibility within reason would be nice.
There do, however, seem to be a fair amount of shortages, and inventory levels are often pretty low. Since I don’t own a car and usually have a rental or Car2Go when I go there, something being out of stock is a major letdown. Yes, I can always make a different style with a different malt, it is true, but it’s like your favorite thing on the menu being 86ed.
So, if you home brew and live in or near Austin, you should definitely go to AHS (and probably already do). But it’s not quite the Mecca some make it out to be.

My brother and I went to Austin Homebrew Supply to get everything we needed to homebrew for the first time. Though we love our craft beer, as total noobs to brewing, we didn’t really know where to begin.
I had heard this store described as pretentious, so I was definitely worried going in that I wasn’t going to get the help I needed without being made to feel like an idiot.
I’m happy to say that my experience was absolutely nothing like that and everyone who worked there yesterday was extremely helpful and friendly, especially Jacob.
Jacob is AWESOME. He told us everything we needed to know and made it all seem very approachable. He told us things to do, things not to do, and tons of other little tips and preferences he has based on his own home brewing experiences.
We now have everything we need to get started, and it’s awesome to know that we have a very friendly and helpful resource if we have any questions along the way.
Thanks for making what could have easily been a frustrating and overwhelming experience a really great and informative one!

These guys are wizards at giving you all the best tools, supplies and ingredients to brew the beer of your choice. Just brewed my 1^st –5 gallon batch of Hefe and it turned out awesome (albeit a little higher alcohol than expected). High praises for this place– they know their stuff. Step by step instructions were excellent. They also have a great website.

This place is a great local resource for all things home brew. The helpful friendly staff make the whole idea of making beer in your kitchen very accessible. They have everything you need to get started and will take the time to help you with any questions you have along the way (even over the phone!). They also carry wine and cheese making products. A great resource for beginners and advanced at home crafters.

Meh… I’m tired of everything being out of stock there. What is the point of a homebrew store if you can’t go in with a recipe and get the ingredients? Sure it is a great store when stuff is in stock.
The last four times I’ve been there, there has been something I wanted that is out of stock. This time I got shunted three times… it looks like a going out of business sale in there.

Yes, their site is down now, Sunday and has been since last night. About 24 hours now.
Some changes on Austin Home Brew I have noticed as a regular customer for years;
1) Yes, as ya’ll have mentioned their website went offline in FEB, they opened using a cloud company with a new site that changed the dates of all of the previous product reviews to all 4 star ratings given on FEB 11^th, 2014. So obviously all of the ratings were lost. All of my previous orders were missing from online records and I had to ask them to E-​Mail PDF copies for my hobby records which they did provide. But nothing is available online anymore before FEB 11^th, 2014. The true ratings being lost and all averaged to 4 of 5 stars destroys the rating system as it’s obviously incorrect.
2) After the new site went up they started including a dry yeast, whirlfloc tablet and 14 oz. of Malto-​Dextrin to every order free. The Malto-​Dextrin was labeled as such yet also called «Body Builder». They have sense changed «Body Builder» to a new label with no ingredients listed in an 8 oz. bag instead. Whirlfloc should never be used in a Hefeweizen and including it can cause someone to mess up a brew.
3) I ordered (2) kits last Wed. (Brewed one tonight in fact, a Kolsch). Then suddenly the next morning their announcement was that they were no longer including dry yeast. As I always double pitch a dry and liquid I was wondering if I would get the dry. I did. The order had an extra free 1 oz. hops as a sample I guess but the Styrian Goldings hops were accidentally Kent Golding off by 1 oz. thus delaying one of my weekend brews of an Amber. E-​Mailed and got an E-​Mail back on Sunday this morning, early. They are mailing the correct St Golding tomorrow.
4) I asked by E-​Mail if all of the kit prices have dropped by $ 4 (the cost of a pack of dry yeast) since they no longer come with one? While they answered another question in the same E-​Mail (What are the ingredients of Body Builder?), they declined to say that. So as far as I know their kits are now the same price but don’t have yeast anymore. NOW, I am looking elsewhere. I brewed my 1^st 6 batches with nothing but 100% of everything from them. But it’s time to look around cause that’s just not cool.
5) Their website has been down for over 24 hours. I placed an order last night almost exactly 24 hours ago. I noticed that the site was very, very slow. It got so slow that I quit shopping and just decided on $ 70 of basics needed including yeast to brew (2) other kits I ordered from California at the same online session as shipping was free over $ 59. Sigh. But I didn’t want the yeast exposed to a heat duration as my location 1.5 hours from Austin provided overnight delivery at ground rates (plus TX tax which makes it okay). And the site crashed when I entered my order. No order confirmation, don’t know if my card was charged or not and it’s been down ever since.
I like Austin Home Brew because of their great past service. Let’s admit it, the websites of home brew suppliers suck. I forced myself to learn their old site and then the new one. But I think they are getting too busy to be able to keep up. When ordering they were out of almost 50% of everything I was looking for including basics such as sugar.
I hope everything is okay with them. But the website problems have caused me to order my next (2) kits from out of state. And now I can’t not order my yeast from them to match the arrival of the kits, cause their site is indeed down and has been for about 24 hours.

Great customer service, and well knowledgeable staff. Helped me out with what I was looking for without a hitch. These guys are the hops to my barley, the beer to my lips.
Great job helping me out when i was so damn confused about what I was supposed to do! Props!

I came here last week to grab a few things for my first brew and the place isn’t as expensive as I thought it was going to be. I thought the ingredients were a bit on the high end, but you can’t put a price tag on great beer. As for the staff, they stay out of your way unless you need something, but they extremely knowledgeable guys that will explain or answer anything for you. Take a look at their recipes online or at the store. They have a huge selection of brew recipes. I think it’s pretty awesome that they even have mock recipes for some of the popular beers out there.

This store makes me wish I lived in Texas! They have outstanding prices online for home brew fanatics like myself. I appreciate all the recipes have the choice of full extract, mini-​mash and all grain :) Very simple to navigate, shipping is flat rate $ 7.99 or free at times. Great selection and pricing.

I order online as I’m up in North/​East Texas, but they are extremely helpful and have competitive prices.
They’ve been my exclusive supplier for my beer brewing grains, sugars, yeasts, and hops. They have a very good stock and selection.
A must-​visit for any beer-​crafting or wine-​crafting enthusiast!

If you like beards or beer, I assure you, you will love this place.
I know several craft brewers who swear by this place. I visited once last week to pick up some yeast for a friend and was almost overcome by assistance. Nice guys, super helpful. They seem to have a pretty good selection considering how huge they are.

I love this place. My brother introduced me to Austin Homebrew Supply last year. I started out with one of their beginners classes. It seems like pretty basic information now that I can «look back» on taking the class… But at the time, as a «newbie,» it was all good info… So if you’re new to homebrewing, I’d suggest a class.
As for the service, the heavily bearded guys at AHS are always helpful. Sometimes I’ll buy one of their budget recipes and I’ll ask if there are one or two additives I can buy to «bump up» the recipe a bit… They always provide good advice for my questions.
I’ve read on other reviews that there can be a wait if there’s a rush of customers. I haven’t had that experience. Maybe it’s because I usually go mid-​afternoons on weekdays.
Overall, it’s always a good experience shopping at AHS. I’d sugest this place to anyone.

I dont brew beer at home, sadly. Turns out I don’t have the patience for the whole business. I have been into Austin HomeBrew for a jockey box and it was a seamless process. Call in, reserve a jockey box, pick it up, set it up and bring it back. The whole thing was about as painless as possible.
They’ve got a ton of brew kits, equipment, recipes, decent prices and a cool mostly bearded staff. It’s a total bonus that it’s close to me. Two things that were troubling: We had to jimmy rig one of the boxes with some extra seals and the deposit for these things was really pricey… which I would expect if it was a Yeti cooler or something but it was just a normal igloo.