If you do a search on Google for 'homebrew supplies'. The first three results should be Midwest Supplies, MoreBeer and Northern Brewer. There are many other excellent online home brewing suppliers as well as local shops but these three are by far the most popular in the US.

I have personally purchased from each of these suppliers on multiple occasions and have made some observations that I would like to share. I am going to start with the supplier I have used the most and work down to the one I have used the least.

Northern Brewer

I have been shopping with Northern Brewer for a long time and have always found them to be excellent. They have a great selection, fast order processing, quick shipping and excellent customer service.

On average orders for me take 2.25 days to process and are at my door in 6.3 days.

Highlights for Northern Brewer include a huge selection of great ingredient kits, awesome for when you are too lazy to put a recipe together. Very competitive ingredient pricing and free milling to boot

MoreBeer

I first starting ordering from MoreFlavor through MoreWine for my winemaking supplies. Since then I have been using MoreBeer more and more for home brewing supplies as well. As with Northern Brewer I have always had a good experience with MoreBeer. Super fast order processing and shipping.

On average orders for me take 1.5 days to process and are at my door in 3 days.

Highlights for MoreBeer include super fast processing and shipping, great for when brew day is a few days away and you just realized your are missing a critical ingredient the LHBS doesn't carry. They also carry a huge range of higher end brewing equipment including conicals and brewing rigs at decent prices

Midwest Supplies

While not my "go to" supplier, I have used Midwest on several occasions. They have a pretty decent kit selection but I always seem to find something that they don't have in an all grain kit. Not to be a snob but once you go all grain it is not enough of a technical challenge to do an extract kit.

On average orders for me take 2.5 days to process and are at my door in 8 days.

Highlights for Midwest include competitive pricing and milled grain at no extra charge

I have to say that Midwest Supplies is one of the only suppliers where I have had major packaging issues. In my latest order a 2000 mL Erlenmeyer flask was not protected by a wrapping of bubble wrap, just placed on top of the grains from my order and a bubble sheet placed over it. It was unbroken so no harm no foul, right? Also, in the same order a Kombucha starter kit was missing and in its place a box from an order that should have been shipped to someone else. I will update this post on the responsiveness of Midwest Supplies customer support when I hear back from them.

Summary

• Northern Brewer great selection, competitive pricing
• MoreBeer fast processing and shipping, lots of great equipment
• Midwest Supplies competitive pricing

Leave comments with your experience with these and other suppliers.

EDIT It has been three days since I contacted Midwest Supplies to notify them of the order mixup and although I received an automated message back, still no word on what they are doing about it...

EDIT 2 Midwest finally got back to me three days after the last edit. That is six days after I notified them of the issue. Not really the best customer service. They are shipping out my kit and a shipping label to return the misplaced package.

In the meantime I ordered a bunch of hardware for my new keezer project from MoreBeer. Placed the order last night and it is already shipped, I bet it gets here before the Midwest shipment does.

EDIT 3 Indeed the MoreBeer order arrived before the Midwest replacement shipment did. Still waiting for the return label for the packaged I received in err.