Beer making kits. My buying experience.

Home beer brewing or beer making kits are becoming increasingly popular among beer lovers all over Europe. Making beer at home seems to be becoming a popular hobby. I have always wanted to have a personal home beer making kit which allows to make different flavored beers right at home. I have heard a lot of good responses from the happy owners of beer brewing supplies but unfortunately I was not able to find anybody who has bought his beer brewing kit here in Estonia, most of the people who left positive feedback regarding the use of beer making supplies have bought it in the internet or some small local shop.

I am new to beer making at home and beer brewing kits, so I know almost nothing about them, how they work, what are the differences, what is required for them to be used, how to maintain. I have made a small research of beer making kits sellers in Estonia and USA/Europe in order to compare the prices and range of beer making supplies available for sale.

In Estonia I have found only one seller who's business is based only on beer brewing kits and supplies of two models. Their site was pretty attractive and had a lot of information about making beer at home, but I am a lazy person to read it all so I decided to give them a call. The salesperson on the other side seemed to be polite, but only during the first seconds. When I started to ask question regarding the two types of beer brewing kits that they had on their website, he started to become inpatient and I had a feeling that he just wanted to get rid of me, not to make me a happy client and owner of their beer making supplies. I have asked about the difference of their brewing kits in comparison to others, asked to explain how they work and how to maintain them. The last question was “Why are your beer making kits better than those sold by the competitors in the internet?” – before this question I was almost sure that I would buy the beer making kit locally to avoid extra tax fees, shipping fees and save time, but the answer of the seller has changed my attitude. He said with an arrogant tone something like “If you need any information, just go to the internet and read it all instead of asking me all the stupid questions”. How's that? So my reaction was evident - just hang the phone. And to be honest I had a very unpleasant feeling.

I though, that it is a normal thing to ask all sorts of questions if you want to buy a beer making kit costing more than 100EUR that you know nothing about. After having analyzed our conversation trying to understand the situation, I have come to conclusion that I did nothing wrong. The person started to become more arrogant with every question about the beer brewing kits he was selling, though I was asking in a polite tone. Maybe it was a bad day for him or else. Anyways, he has lost a customer, gained a bad reputation in my eyes which caused me to write this negative review of his services. He should have been more polite and avoid showing any negative emotions if he was a good seller (apparently he was not). It seemed that he knew not so much about the market of beer brewing kits and beer making supplies to be able to provide relevant information for a client.

I have received a negative experience but still I needed a beer brewing kit so I started to browse those few sites that I have chosen online. It seemed than most of them had all the same beer brewing supplies and kits so I have chosen the one with the widest range of products. A pleasant thing was to find a toll-free number in the header of their webpage. So I decided to call them with my “stupid questions” and maybe buy a beer brewing kit. A salesman had answered the phone with a pleasant tone (more polite than the first one). I have told that I am searching for a good and not very costly beer making kit and needed more information about the differences etc. After that the salesman started to speak about different brands, classes of beer brewing kits, usage etc. I have been surprised that I had no questions left after his speech. He recommended me two models that fell under my price/quality criteria. Now this is what I call a service! The salesman knows his business, knows what he is selling and can provide any sort of relative information in a very polite way. He also seemed to have a pleasure to talk about it. As a result, I have ordered a beer making kit from him with additional pack for making different flavored beers. After-sale conversation about shipping info and tracking was also a pleasure. So now I have my tracking code and waiting for my own beer making kit with anticipation.