Hello from Canuckistan

First, allow me to take a moment to introduce myself.

I'm a happy Canuck who has been wanting to take on a home brew setup for quite some time, but have never had room for it. SWMBO and I have recently moved into a new house, and we're in the process of finishing our basement, in which I'll have room for a Wet Bar/Brew Station including Refrigerator/Sink/Slate Work Surface and storage that resides at a comfy and reasonably stable 69 degrees.

The Wet Bar/ Brew Station will be an against the wall affair, kind of like a mini kitchen, and we'll have about 8' of counter run (including the sink) with some uppers including a custom Carboy Rack I’ll hand-build for fermenting/gravity-siphoning – with some special safety features such as a heavy-duty lever operated swing-up holder to eliminate lifting and pushing heavy/full carboys onto a high shelf. We'll have a slate or stone countertop and backsplash, so we can use a burner to boil wort right on the counter (if desired - and with some safety precautions).

We'll have the capacity to store up to 4 5g carboys or demijohns for fermenting and plan to have a 6.5g primary with several 5g secondary’s on the go in light controlled conditions at any one time. (I like a variety of beers, so the ability to have some pale/reds/fruity/unusual beer on the go at any one time will be a nice side benefit.)

I've been looking at "Kits" and starters and whatnot, but think I want to personalize my setup with equipment chosen by me.
Based on the very good information on these forums, I've decided to start with extract brews and work toward partial mash or all grain at some future point.
To these ends, I think the following shopping list will allow me to begin my brew odyssey and really experience the joys of creating my own.

I'd be happy to listen to any feedback on my parts-list and/or tips from the community here. Everyone seems like good folks, and there's never a bad time to talk about beer, or help others enjoy their own beer, IMHO.

From morebeer.com:

BE300 Boiling Kettle 5g ~$34.95
FE330 Glass Carboy 6.5g ~$22.00
2x FE505 Carboy Hood (6.5 G) ~$2.50ea
2x FE510 Carboy Handle (6.5g) ~5.50ea
2x FE320 Glass Carboy 5g ~$18.50ea
2x FE500 Rubber Carboy Hood (5gallon) ~$2.50ea
2x FE510 Carboy Handle ~4.50ez
2xBE450 Carboy Drainer ~$6.75ea
2x R375 :Racking Cane, Stainless 3/8" x 26" ~$10.95 ea
~10-15' of 3/8" ID tubing ~$5.00
R410 Plastic Ball Valve (3/8" ID) x2 ~$2.25 ea
2xFE370 3 Piece Airlock ~$1.00 ea
Y410 500 ML Erlinmeyer Flask ~$5.95
MT380 Thermometer ~$7.95

For 1 6.5g and 1 5g carboy ~$144.00
For Complete List ~$185.00

Upgrade Wishlist:

FE550 Fermentap (Turn a carboy upside down into a pseudo-conical) ~$24.50
A burner/Stand to use with the kettle (May go to a camp equipment store for this) ?

Subtotal with wishlist ~$210+

Now to make it go:

KIT05: Light Ale Extract $18.00
KIT115: MId Brown Extract $18.00
KIT118 Berry Beer - Extract $24.00
KIT 145: Irish Red Ale - Extract $24.00
KIT605 Thanksgiving Ale - Extract (pumpkin) $21.00
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$113

For $~325 get All brewing equipment, ability to brew ~10 gallons at one time, and 25 gal worth of a variety of beers.

Note: I’ll get bottling supplies as I go along so as to alleviate the initial expense, and so as to possibly alternate bottle colours for different beer types. I may also look at some sort of 1 g solution as a mini keg or beer-pig sorta deal for in the fridge, on-tap.

Where in canajunland are you located? Importing stuff from the US will kill you with shipping and brokerage fees.

If you're serious about building a homebrew set up and wet bar, why not plan to go to all grain/keg and incoporate the plans and space now?

Most bewers get fed up with bottling in short order and go to kegs. Kits are OK to start off with, but you'll soon want to upgrade to partial/full mash.

Calgary AB.

Yah, the Betterbeer.com pricing were just estimates for my local shopping trips.
We have a wealth of home brew stores around, so I'm going to be checking some out 'tween now and the holidays to find one that I like, who has a reasonably good selection of extract/grain supplies for me to choose from, and who's prices I like.

I'm ahead of you on the keg situation.
Its already been planned for space.....just that I'm in no particular hurry in that regard.

For me, I want to relax into the hobby and not get stressed out about equipment right away. I want to brew a few in carboys, and enjoy em, then expand my serving/brewing options in a methodical, leisurely fashion.

Thanks for the thought though. It was appreciated!

Yeah, where are you? You should be able to get most of that stuff, even in Canada :cross: I have been able to get most of my setup locally. Safeway and Co-op carry a ton of homebrew stuff at good prices (even including carboys.)
A couple observations. You have three carboys and only two airlocks, even if you're thinking you'll use a blow-off for primary, it's always best to have an extra, they're cheap. If that erlenmyer flask is for starters, 500ml will be too small. Even the smallest starter is about 500ml and you still need to have room in there for fermentation, get at least the 2l version.

Welcome to the board!

Edit: Calgary! I'm from Calgary! Finally someone to brew with!!!! In that case, you can get most, if not all that stuff around town. Go to Safeway and Co-op first, then go to The Vineyard for the tough to find stuff.

One word...KEGS

I'm here to TELL YOU, as a first time brewer early last month and have bottled 4 cases of brew, I already ordered and received my KEG setup. Do your self a favor and save the money from bottling by investing it in kegging. TRUST ME, you will absolutely thank me numerous times. Kegging, IMO, is easiest to learn and by way far the easiest to condition.
I'd go with the following if I had to do it all over:
1 plastic 6.5 gal fermenter
1 glass 6.5 gal secondary
plastic racking cane
5 feet of 3/8ths hose
10 pound bottle of CO2
2 rebuilt kegs
1 dual regulator
all the hoses used for kegging
5-8 cu.ft. chest freezer
freezer temperature controller
digital thermometer, get a good one.
hydrometer
Most of all that I suggested here have been argued back and forth on this forum. To me, this would be the best of both worlds. Just remember, when you start your first brew session, it will be at least 2 to 3 weeks, depending on the conditioning, before your able to drink it. That wait will drive you NUT-SO.

welcome to the homebrew scene. Nice to see a few canadians. I'm from Petawawa, ON. I'm sure most of you fellow canucks out there have heard of this place recently...Back to to topic now.

Anyway I see you have no mention for a burner(turkey deep frier stand)

If your Gonna brew beer you need one of those baby's. And Probably a good idea to have an extra Propane tank around. Cause you don't ever want to unexpextedly run out of gas in the middle of a boil.

Price.. $50.00-$75.00 @ crappy-tire. Or just watch the flyers in the mail, some times on sale at all different places.

Jason Halter said:

crappy-tire.

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Ah yes, the mark of the true Canuck!

Welcome aboard!

I recommend going for a simpler set up to start. You can always add more as needed.
Brew pot: go with something bigger, 7.5-8 gallon range it will save u $ in the long run when you switch to full boils of 5.5+ gallons.
I would avoid the US stores because of brokerage fess for the border.
www.paddockwood.com has excellent service, variety and shipping times.

Carboys, airlocks and bungs are needed. A hydrometer and thermometer would also be handy. A milk crate also works in place of carboy handles.
I would also look into a bottle washer and auto-syphon (as seen on the review part of this site).

As far as getting a bunch of kits at once...I would get one or two at a time so that they arent sitting around for months...and it will give you a chance to experiment
with variations on the same recipe.


Good luck and let us know if you need any info on specific items.

P.S. www.howtobrew.com is a great source on beer making.


Cheers.

Yep Kegging will save you a lot of time and is less annoying. That said I think you should bottle a few brews so you know what that is like. Besides you aren't really a true homebrewer if you haven't bottled at least once!

Before long you'll be installing 3 burners and be doing AG brewing... I suggest hooking up with Cheyco some time and seeing what that is all about.

Ubrews can be good sources for bulk liquid malt. Many out west use "Canadian United Malting" malt which has diastatic enzymes (amylase) added so you can convert adjuncts. Out here it's about $6/ Liter ( 3 lbs). And hops can be found there for cheap, at least they are here.

Good luck, welcome to the board. And post pics of your project.

So how many of us northerners does that make now..eh?

Dennys Fine Consumptibles said:

So how many of us northerners does that make now..eh?

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Pronouncing your punctuation? You really ARE a Canuck!

Do a search for the Fermentap I wanted to get one as well, but the reviews from others have made me hold off to purchase a real fermenator

Good recipe choices, but dont be afraid to use 'well known' recipes from here on this board as well as other places around the web. My first 4 brews were with 'kits', because they seemed to be easier. Any decent LHBS will have no problem helping you pick out the ingriedents for your recipe

I saved money by not purchasing a propane burner and just use the electric stove to do partials for now. So far everything has come out really well. My favorite is the MoreBeer (B3) Honey Pale Ale we did.

As for kegging, its something I want todo but of you are like me, and arent rich, itll just have to stay on the 'wishlist' until I hit the lotto

-=gp125racer=-

Kegging isn;t reallt that expensive. You can rent a 10lb tank from Praxair for 60-70 bucks and fills are under $45, whcih should last you a year.

Kegs can be scored cheap sometimes. I got one free, paid $30 each for 2 others. Kegs are hit and miss price wise. Know anyone who works at Pepsi? They can probably score you some for free since they are slowly getting rid of soda kegs and switching to a syrup in a box system.

You need a regulator and connections for your keg(s).

Under $300 for sure. That's less than an xbox.

Yeah but some of us cant even afford an xbox, thats on my wish list for when I win the lotto too

-=gp125racer=-

I dunno...personally, I like bottling it. I can take it wherever I want...which is pretty often.

Thank god for homebrewing in Canada! The quality of beer available here is pitiful compared to what's available to Americans. The microbrewery industry in the US is amazing! In Canada, they call Keith's an IPA!!! (I had the opportunity to taste a real IPA in Colorado recently. Wow!)

Yeah, the Micros on the West coast were great until they started getting bought out by the big guns; Labbatt's and Molson an Sleemans. All of which are now foreign owned.

There is a resurgence of micros happening out west right now, but are mostly small market breweries and serve a local area's pubs. Near me there is Cannery out of Pentictan. Hard to find their beer at liquor outlets but is available at a lot of pubs. Their Anarchists Amber is great. Very friendly brewing team as well. Met the at FestofAle in the spring.

I worked for Tree brewing a for a bit. They have a great IPA called Hophead. It has won a number of brewing awards. They are always fighting to distribute their products in BC and in fact sell close to 40% of their beer in Alberta.

The single biggest problem affecting micros in Canada is distribution. Their are many many micros out there that a lot of us have never heard of because their product doesn't get the same distribution as the big boys do. Canada wide distribution is nearly impossible unless you have big bucks and a large operation.

In BC Shaftsbury was bought by Okanagan Springs which was bought out by Sleemans which was recently bought by Sapporo (or another large Japanese dry beer maker). Shaftsbury used to make great beer, but when they were bought out the recipes all changed. Their Cream Ale was fantastic but now it's run of the mill average for a micro.

There are brewpubs popping up all over in BC. Victoria alone has, I believe, eight brew pubs and at least three micros.

Soon we'll have to do a poll to see how many of us canucks are on this board.

grinch...the're a lot of brewers in the Ottawa region. Most of the guys on the
http://barleyment.wort.ca/biz/?biz=48 are from Ontario. There are a few of us east.

A few years ago I went t the Beer Festival downtown T.O. It mainly featured Cdn micros. One complaint I heard from several owners was that the Ontario owned Beer Store would not allow the micros into the store since they wouldn't accept their bottles for deposit...I think this was a combo of the big breweries and their influence on govnt that held back a lot of the micros.

Axe.. you may have something there. A local micro Storm Brewing don't have beer in any Gov. owned stores but do have them in corner stores, etc. I never figured the size of the bottle as per return deposit would have anything to do with it.

I think I remember that the beer stores didnt want to take the returns, and therefore the govnt made the recycling premium add too much cost to the beer.
(or made it unlawful to sell without a separate recycling program)
If you have a monopoly, and are getting feed by big business, it is pretty easy to push around the little guy.

For those of you in the western provinces, the Yukon Brewing Company makes an awesome red/copper ale: Arctic Red. I had the stuff once going through Whitehorse. If their other brews are anything like that, it would be worth checking out.

boo boo said:

Soon we'll have to do a poll to see how many of us canucks are on this board.

grinch...the're a lot of brewers in the Ottawa region. Most of the guys on the
http://barleyment.wort.ca/biz/?biz=48 are from Ontario. There are a few of us east.

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boo boo, I was referring to commercial microbreweries. I believe that homebrewing is the only place we can get quality beer, shorting of making a run for the border.

Axegod said:

A few years ago I went t the Beer Festival downtown T.O. It mainly featured Cdn micros. One complaint I heard from several owners was that the Ontario owned Beer Store would not allow the micros into the store since they wouldn't accept their bottles for deposit...I think this was a combo of the big breweries and their influence on govnt that held back a lot of the micros.

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I think that is one of the biggest problems. Gov't controlled booze. If they'd privatize it, we'd probably get a lot more variety and easier access to the consumer.

Actually with privatization you would probably get less variety. At least here in BC the LDB guarantee's regional placemnt of beers form small micros. If the beer is successful it will look at spreading distribution amongst gvt stores.

Private sales means big distributers that come along and give you deals to buy only what they offer. I worked in a Beer and wine many years ago and that was what it was like with the wine distributors.

Ok, I'm just another dumb American sticking his nose northward but lemmee get this straight... your government owns national breweries?! Or are they just gov't owned beer stores? Just curious.

Carne de Perro said:

Or are they just gov't owned beer stores?

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In some provinces, though in Alberta (where I live) they are private. For some strange reason, a store which sells food cannot also sell booze in the same building, ie. no beer section at 7-11 or Safeway. I never understood that one.

Carne de Perro said:

Ok, I'm just another dumb American sticking his nose northward but lemmee get this straight... your government owns national breweries?! Or are they just gov't owned beer stores? Just curious.

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The government doesn't own any breweries.

Depending on the province, they may or may not run the liquor stores (like in the US) and may also run beer stores.

In Quebec, you can buy beer just about anywhere you want, corner stores, supermarkets, Costco etc. any time you want. In Ontario (right next door), beer can only be purchased at government outlets!?!

Mikey said:

Depending on the province, they may or may not run the liquor stores (like in the US) and may also run beer stores.

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In what US state does the gov't own liquor stores? I'm not saying they don't exist but I've never heard of them. Are you talking about a duty free shop?

grnich said:

boo boo, I was referring to commercial microbreweries. I believe that homebrewing is the only place we can get quality beer, shorting of making a run for the border.

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I've been to many Beer Stores and LCBOs in the Ottawa area and have been surprised at the large selection available. I think there's one near Bank and Walkely that was particularly good.

Carne de Perro said:

In what US state does the gov't own liquor stores? I'm not saying they don't exist but I've never heard of them. Are you talking about a duty free shop?

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According to wikipedia, the 19 control or monopoly states as of 2005 are:

1. Alabama
2. Idaho (Maintains a monopoly over sales above greater than 16% ABV.)
3. Iowa (Does not operate retail outlets; maintains a monopoly over wholesaling of beverages greater than 6% ABV.)
4. Maine
5. Michigan (Does not operate retail outlets; maintains a monopoly over wholesaling of distilled spirits only.)
6. Mississippi
7. Montana
8. New Hampshire
9. North Carolina
10. Ohio
11. Oregon
12. Pennsylvania (In the process of opening retail outlets inside some supermarkets.[2]
13. Utah
14. Vermont
15. Virginia
16. Washington
17. West Virginia (Does not operate retail outlets; maintains a monopoly over wholesaling of distilled spirits only.)
18. Wyoming

Well that explains it, I've never lived in any of those states and so paid no attention. Can't say I agree with it. IMHO there are some things the gov't should stay out of. Back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Yeah. it's amazing how you can but beer at a gas station in Washington State (and many others) yet we have to go to a liquor store or beer and wine here. Bloody stupid.

I personally think it Increases drinking and driving since one can not simply walk to the corner store to get more booze. In some towns you have to drive several kilometers/miles to get to a beer and wine.

Mikey said:

I've been to many Beer Stores and LCBOs in the Ottawa area and have been surprised at the large selection available. I think there's one near Bank and Walkely that was particularly good.

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Well if getting a pilsner from every country in Europe was my thing, I'd agree with you. But the wide selection of interesting, unique microbrews you can get in the US isn't in the same league with anything with the "traditional" brews you can get here. Take a trip south to Verment and try some Magic Hat. Great stuff!