Brewers Connection

It has to be pretty tough for a brick and mortar Home Brew shop to compete with the online universe. That said, I tip my hat… or at least I would if I were wearing a hat, to Brewers Connection for holding strong for over 20 years.
The biggest reason I go to BC and one of the reasons I’m sure has given them their longevity is because of the great customer service. As soon as, or shortly after walking in the door, someone is asking if they can assist you with finding anything.
Most of the guys know their stuff when it comes to brewing as well and are more than happy to answer questions. Another «fake hat» tip to George. He’s generally the person who I’ve encountered on my visits to the shop and he’s great, friendly and always helpful.
If you’re interested in home brewing, wine or cider making, then definitely check out these guys. From what I understand, they also offer free shipping in AZ. I’ve never used the service so I’m not 100% sure how it works, but that’s a good incentive to keep your brew shopping local.
Happy Brewing!

Five stars does not do this store enough justice. Everyone who works here is incredibly knowledgeable and very willing to help. I’ll never purchase my home brew products anywhere else.

Very helpful place to get your goods! Too notch!

I love supporting local, independent stores in Tempe. However, I will never shop at, support, or recommend this store again. I am a new customer and new to brewing. I went to this store and bought supplies that I needed to start my first few small batches of home brew and later decided that I didn’t need 2 of the 1 gallon glass jugs that I purchased. I went to return them today and was told that «all sales are final.» The worker even called the owner, Jeffrey, to find out if the bottles could be returned. The bottles still had the original store price tag and sticker and had obviously not been used. The store also had the record of my transaction in the computer. The owner refused to allow the worker to return the product which could have been placed right back onto the shelves without any problem. I would have understood the policy if it had been yeast or some other perishable product. This is a terrible policy for any store. This place just lost ALL of my future business over a $ 12 return. I’m glad that I can find all of the supplies I need for future brewing on Amazon. Oh and guess what, Amazon is cheaper AND backs ALL of their products! I refuse to support a business that doesn’t have reasonable customer service policies.
Oh, and since I commented on Brewers’s Connection Facebook page, they have disabled the ability for any comments to be made on their page. My comment was removed as well.
The best part about this whole experience is that I found another local brew shop in Gilbert called Brew Your Own Brew. It looks like they even have cheese making supplies. I can’t wait to go check out this shop! Hopefully the owner isn’t a jackass.

Great place with prices comparable to online shopping. The staff are more than willing to help even the most inexperienced of brewers.

One stop home brew shopping for the Tempe/​East Valley area. These guys have been in the business for over 20 years and can answer any questions you might have. A great selection of equipment, as well as plenty of recipes and ingredients on hand, make this the only place you need to go for your home brewing needs.

I’ve been a regular customer of this place a few years now, and really love coming here. They have an excellent selection for the relatively small floor space — the liquid yeast selection alone is impressive, and it’s rare that I ask for a hop variety they don’t carry. The staff has always been helpful and friendly to me, and very knowledgeable as well. I also really like being able to email in an order ahead of time.
Prices are a little higher here than online, but with shipping factored in, it’s pretty close for most items. Plus, if it’s only a few bucks more, I’d rather put the money into the local economy and get my stuff immediately.

This place is great. My husband and I started brewing a few years ago and have never gone anywhere else. The staff is friendly and knowledgeable. It’s a great place for beginners and people that have brewed for a while. They offer kits and great recipes shared by those more inventive!

I cannot support this store enough. Sure you might be able to get your kit and ingredients cheaper through another website, but you will NOT get the 1 on 1 guidance and direction that comes by visiting these fellas. They are incredibly friendly, and always have a good recipe on hand to suggest or recommend. You can get everything you need for brewing beer or wine here, including specific and special ingredients that you might want to experiment with. I will always recommend them and support this beautiful local business. The only suggestion I would add is that they offer labels for the DIY brewer… luckily I’ve got a guy! If you are even considering home brewing, come here and chat with them, they are excellent!

Great staff, Great selection of yeasts and grain, and a great selection of gear!!! If you need buckets, be sure to call ahead… that’s one of the oddly specific things that are very infrequently sold out… conveniently located in Tempe, but a little pricier than Brew Your Own Brew

I have so far been here over 10 times to buy my brewing supplies and I have always had a good experience until this last time I went. The staff is always extremely helpful and very knowledgeable whenever you have any questions. This day however, they were having some issue accepting payment, which I had no issues with what so ever as I enjoyed looking about the store while the clerk was working on the issue. What really rubbed me the wrong way was who I think was the owner or at least one of the managers started yelling at the clerk, blaming him for their ancient QuickBooks based POS system breaking. He went on, complaining, out loud, about the poor quality and knowledge of his staff.
Sadly, in my eyes a company where the owner/​manager treats their employees in this manner is not worth supporting and this has since been my last visit to this location. However, if you do not care about how non-​managerial staff is treated, I can highly recommend this place.

I’m a home brewer and Brewer’s Connection is my local brewing supply shop. I’m someone who needs to ask questions in order to learn or confirm things that I’ve read about brewing. The staff is always patient and helpful, usually providing solid, practical answers. Each of the staff has a passion for making beer that shows.
But the reason I feel compelled to write a review today is that yesterday my wife and I decided to stop in to get information on making wine. We both met the owner (Jeff), who clearly had experience and knowledge about making wine. He was quick to offer advice and recommendation on a Chardonnay kit. Unlike typical sales people, it was easy to talk to him and he didn’t talk down (or around) my wife or her wine preferences.
We’re about to make our first batch and we’re both pretty jazzed about it.

Marijuana legalization may be slowly coming to America these days but in 1979 another green herb started becoming popular (yes, hops) when the signing of Bill 1377, by Jimmy Carter, made brewing beer at home a legal versus an illicit affair and since then, interest in brewing one’s own beer has only grown (I have no explanation for the surging popularity of owning chickens but that is a whole different issue).
Well, if you live in Tempe, and want to start making your own beer, rather than paying $ 9 plus tax for a local micro-​brewed six-​pack, then this is the place you need to go! You can get yourself a starter home brewing kit, make your first batch (first born pale ale, delicious) and then let your addiction to the use of the already legal and increasingly popular herb, hops, just keep growing as you improve the quality of your supplies and start making an increasingly varied array of beers to consume on your own or even better, start sharing with your friends. The store has a big book of possible recipes and you just pick one out, they give you a copy and will quickly put together the supplies you need to make the next magical batch of home brew. Currently I’ve got the Hammered Rye Pale Ale and a local recipe Hefeweizen (Dry Heat Wheat) happily fermenting away in my own humble abode.
By the way, if you have questions, ask away, the folks who work in the store also brew their own beer and if you join the local Arizona Society of Home Brewers you’ll see those some folks attending the monthly meeting of that group, tasting a multitude of locally brewed beers by your fellow home brewers, right along with you. Hey, they might even raise their own chickens as well, you never know!

Best brewer supply shop in Phoenix. Staff is helpful and knowledgeable with all aspects of brewing. They even do brew outs on the weekend with ASH that are pretty cool. This place is great for everyone from never brewed before and just interested to pros.
I go here quite often to use their recipes or my own for brewing. If I ever have a question or just want some input on something, they never let me down. Can’t say enough about what they do and how they do it.

I threw all my stuff away when I moved down here so wanted to get the basic supplies and ingredients for my first ‘restart’ batch. It was crowded there so I started gathering my stuff. The staff were very helpful, but you could tell there was a little acrimony between the manager and his employees.
I’d say stuff here is about 30% more expensive compared to buying online, which I’ll do next time.
Some things that bothered me:
They put the UPC paper sticker on the bottom of the racking cane, not the top, so I had to really clean off the sticky goo that I didn’t want in my beer.
The bottom filter of the racking cane fell off in his hands when the dude was giving it to me — when I got home it turned out it was broken. I think he should’ve given me another one, but I’ll chalk that up to my not being a careful buyer.
They actually have the gall to charge a $ 1.50 deposit on the malt extract (wtf ??) plastic container, which is a cheap plastic piece of junk.
Anyway, it’s one of the very few brew supply places here in the PHX area (probably because of the internet) so if you’re just a beginner and/​or you want to start quickly I’d recommend, but I’m purchasing everything else online. I’m definitely into supporting local businesses when possible, but not at such a steep price.

Fantastic brewing supply store, the staff is incredibly helpful and friendly. I’m an amateur first time brewer and i had a really positive experience each time I’ve been there, very helpful with all the questions i’ve had. Wonderful resource for all your brewing needs!

Excellent selection of yeasts, malts and hops and all kinds of random cleaners, enzymes, additives and other stuff that I have no idea what it is. If it’s for making beer or wine, they have it. Only encountered one time when they didn’t have a Lacto strain I wanted and they ordered it for me and called me when it was in.
Prices seem pretty standard for homebrew shops. They don’t skimp on ingredient quality just for a little bit lower price, and they aren’t ripping anyone off either.
Bring in (or email them) your own grain bill or come in and tell them what kind of beers you like and they will help you out, or you can just take a look through their recipe books. I made their Pumpkin Porter last year and everyone I know liked it more than Four Peaks’.
They always answer any questions I have, are always friendly and don’t even mind me tasting a few grains of different malts to see the flavor difference between them.
Highly recommend. Like getting homebrew supplies (that you have to pay for) from a friend.

Bought my starter homebrew kit from here a few months ago and have made several more trips since, as well as a few batches. Everyone is very knowledgeable, but more importantly, extremely friendly and eager to share with you what they know about brewing. I’ve even had another customer share his clone hoegaarden recipe with me, which the employee gladly copied for me.
They seem to have pretty much everything you need, including a really thick book of recipes. My only complaint is that their prices for equipment, in particular, are significantly higher than other places I’ve seen online. So, you either support a local business with friendly staff and a wealth of knowledge or shop online to save a little money. I guess it just depends on the scenario but I will definitely continue to come here for all things beer, wine, even hard cider homebrewing-​related!

If you have no clue about homebrewing, homebrew supplies, or any of the terminology DO NOT HESITATE to come in. Jeffrey Haines is highly knowledgeable, friendly, and has got myself and many of my comrades started in the art of brewing beer. They have a large collection of partial (or all grain) mash recipes that you can buy as a kit with good directions. Check their facebook page for the sale of the month (usually about $ 30 for a 5 gallon recipe).
The only negative’s which aren’t worth taking a star off for are the directions are in paragraph form (probably to fit on a single page) and the website is AWFUL!

These guys are great. My husband loves to homebrew, and we always go here to get supplies. The employees are always friendly and knowledgeable. I also love that we can go in, say, «Hey, we want to make a beer that tastes like (whatever brand)» and they usually have a recipe for a similar tasting beer or can at least point us in the right direction.
Bonus points to the employee with the massive beard (which my husband is envious of) — thanks for letting us know about how quick of a walk it is to Four Peaks from Brewers Connection. Made for a fun afternoon of shopping for beer supplies and then getting a quick celebratory pint. :)