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"newkie":2p2wspja wrote: I am amazed that no one in the UK or Ireland is cashing in on this. We do have a load of 3kg kits, and a good few are quite nice. But the packaged kits in the US look brilliant. All the grains, hops, yeast, measured out with a sure-fire recipe. 3kg kits, while good, can't compete with that.[/quote:2p2wspja]

Barleybottom do all grain kits in the uk for £18.50.think they have 3 or 4 available.never bought one but sure they are very good as it's an excellent shop.

but ye i agree i'm surprised more people don't do them but maybe it's beacuse most people doing all grain like to formulate recipes themselves.

"marceldesailly wrote: but ye i agree i'm surprised more people don't do them but maybe it's beacuse most people doing all grain like to formulate recipes themselves.

I've seen the US sites do both types. I like to do my own recipes too. But sometimes you don't have time and just want something guaranteed. I'd prefer a proper kit with grains and hops than a extract kit if I had a choice.

"newkie":zk8sm2ig wrote:

"bigears":zk8sm2ig wrote: Personally I am prepared to pay a little more for supplies from an Irish stockist as long as there is a justifiable reason for the differential.[/quote:zk8sm2ig]

Meh. Whoever had the lowest price, shipping inclusive, gets my business. I'd order from Zimbabwe if the price was good enough.[/quote:zk8sm2ig]
I totally underdstand that. I guess what I'm driving at is that supporting local (as in Irish) homebrew suppliers who carry a good range of stock means that they will have the turnover to continue carrying a wide range. That should also ensure that prices should be reasonable as more turnover may lead to lower margins. What I would hate to see is a good supplier going out of business because someone else is stocking kits cheaper. I'm not for one moment suggesting that this going to happen but shopping local where choice, service and reasonable prices are available benefits everybody.

I know what you mean. I'm just a jerk. <!-- s:twisted: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_twisted.gif" alt="" title="Twisted Evil" /><!-- s:twisted: -->

I would be happy to support a local business, but being this isn't a shop but a mail order biz they are in the same market as more knowledgeable, competitive, and technically savvy shops in the UK. Unless they can differentiate themselves with shipping costs that's a hard nut to crack.

I personally would hate to see the irish homebrew suppliers involved in a price war; it will only end badly for everyone concerned - one of the shops will win out in end, but will then need to escalate the prices again to recoup losses. Ideally I'd like each of the suppliers to focus on some different products rather than going after the same market space, so that they all could survive beside each other.
We'll see.

On the contrary, competition is the one thing Ireland needs more of. We have rip-off prices, horrible customer service, and no variety of choice. Every time a UK conglomerate opens I rejoice that another bit of old ireland is on the chopping block.

This rant, of course, doesn't apply to a struggling new business or any biz in the homebrew market. But in general, competition is a good thing and we need more of it.