DME/LME/Hops pricing questions and sources for Eastern Canada

[drumma]

I'm in New Brunswick, Canada (east coast for those who aren't familiar). I'm quickly finding that my options for quality ingredients are pretty limited. I have 2 local brew shops in my town/city. One is basically a brew on site type of place. They sell Baron and Festa Brew Kits that you can take home but they prefer you pay them $100 to ferment it and then you come back and they filter and force carbonate it and you get to can it. They don't sell anything else besides those kits. The other place sells a lot of equipment. You can get buckets, carboys, caps, dextrose, etc. A lot of the little things. They also have the Festa Brew and Barons kits plus a few coopers as well. The only sort of raw ingredients they sell is little plastic tubs of LME(Light or Dark). It's $8.99 for 1.3Kg(2.8lbs). They sell pellet hops for $4.99/Oz. They didn't even have any yeast for sale. The lady working said they usually have coopers yeast but couldn't tell me if there were different types or anything.

So that's what I have to work with. Do the prices for the LME and hops seems a little high? or is it just me? It seems my only other option is buying in bulk but since I live in Canada shipping costs a small fortune and if it comes from the states I have to pay tax and duty which just makes it even worse.

I'm looking for any feedback from fellow maritimers to see where you get your ingredients from. I tried googling brew shops but didn't come up with much. It seems wine stores are a dime a dozen but not beer.

 

[lady_brewer]

I haven't actually done any ordering, but I have heard back from a number of people that have used http://www.homebrew-supplies.ca/ and had good things to say. I have also heard of Canadians buying hops from http://www.hopsdirect.com/. I will be placing an order with them in a few weeks.

Shipping is the giant pain. My understanding is that homebrew supplies.ca has a more or less flat rate for your area. So if you buy $1.50 worth of yeast shipping will cost you about $15, or if you buy $200 worth of grain, yeast, hops, etc it will cost you $15.

There is a LHBS here that stocks more stuff, grains, hops etc, but he doesn't always have everything (well I am looking for this hop... yeah we have some, no wait to you want whatever else instead.) that I am looking for. Also the prices seem to be high enough that ordering enough online makes up for the shipping.

As well Austin Homebrew will ship to Canada, as will some other vendors. You want (from what I hear) to make sure to ship by USPS (not UPS or FedEx) to avoid crazy brokerage fees. Most places will let you pick that as an option, even though it isn't their preferred method.

Welcome!

 

[TRainH2o]

For hops, hopsdirect has the best prices I have found. Here in the U.S. hops are around $3.99 USD per oz. Hopsdirect has a pound for $8.99-11.99 USD or so. That's a huge difference. I haven't ordered from them but I am placing an order soon. They state that UPS is their prefered shipping but USPS is an option. You might try contacting them.

I am still looking for the best deal on LME and DME. So far morebeer.com has the best bulk prices, but I am still looking. Good luck.

 

[drumma]

Thanks for the links lady_brewer.
home brew supplies looks like a winner. Hops prices are half the price and shipping is $17.77. So if I order at least 7 Oz of hops at a time I'm breaking even or even better if I order more even with shipping. They have a good selection of DME and yeast. So I think i'll definitely be giving them a try.

 

[lady_brewer]

Glad to help... I just made a guess at the shipping since it really depends where you are...

Let me know how it works out as well... I am thinking of ordering from them before too long as well. I know that middleofnowhere (from Labrador) had good experience with them recently. And the the Canadian group has a thread with some feedback as well. Overall they seem to be the answer to the Canadian brewer's biggest problem (not a lot of selection in LHBSs and US shipping being a nightmare.)

 

[Rentachik]

Everything is a trade off. hopsdirect.com has awesome prices and I'll bet they'll ship to Canada. 8-15USD per pound is a good price. My LHSB just received a new shipment of hops from a new harvest. Everything they sell is 2USD/oz. Since I brew about once every 6 weeks or so... Ii buy locally and what i need. Buying bulk just to have to have them sit around is a waste of money. Hops do go bad/loose potientecy.

So all in all. If you are a very casual brewer, couple times a year.. I say pay the high prices and buy what you need when you need it. If you are brewing 15gal batches every week, buy bulk.

Last note... Get some friends into the hobby and split the cost. Order three/four times a year. Split the shipping and enjoy some home brew.

 

[drumma]

Rentachik,
My next step is to see if there are/is a local club or group of people. I can see how that would certainly help cut costs. I'm hoping to have 4 brews going at any given time probably at various stages. That way I can always have something to plan for or going on. I get bored easily and the thought of waiting 2-3 month for my current lager to finish is driving me crazy. Obviously price will be a factor so I'll have to do it gradually. I'm planning an extract ale of some sort next and I want to actually do something other than pour a premade wort into a fermenter and pitch yeast. It seems that all the fun and creativity is taken out when you do it that way. I'm sure it will produce a great tasting beer. But I didn't really DO anything at all.

I got into this hobby to be creative and design beers that I like and want to share. I haven't really looked into it but what sort of freshness lifespan do hops have? is it weeks/months.

 

[Rentachik]

Also going all grain will cut your cost significantly. You'll recoop your investment on the equipment in just a few all grain batches. If you wanna get into all grain really cheap, look up BIAB (Brew in a bag) on here.

I just bought ingredients for an all grain irish red with a Wyeast smack pack, $25(LHBS)

If you plan on having that many batches in rotation, I'd buy bulk. hopdirect.com is the way to go. When it come to grain, look around online. You might find the shipping costs making it cost prohibited to buy that online. 50lbs sack of grain cannot be cheap to ship.

Good luck.

 

[Lep]

Also going all grain will cut your cost significantly. You'll recoop your investment on the equipment in just a few all grain batches. If you wanna get into all grain really cheap, look up BIAB (Brew in a bag) on here.

I just bought ingredients for an all grain irish red with a Wyeast smack pack, $25(LHBS)

I've just started doing partial mashes w/ quite a bit of grain. Not counting the dme I add to boost the abv, my cost per batch has been closer to forty. Still pretty reasonable (and cheaper than a festa brew kit for fifty, although my one festa brew turned out REALLY well), but not quite the huge savings I was looking for. I've got some friends getting interested in buying in with me to held reduce costs.

 

[jim_reaper1066]

Im looking to switch to all grain but don't know if I can. The only place I know to get grain from is Nobel Grape and they have to ship it in from Halifax. Anyone in New Brunswick find a good grain supplier, particularly around the Fredericton area? Its so annoying that the only homebrew shops around here sell only wine stuff and a minimal selection of extract kits. Im pretty envious of people in the states with stocked HB shops which sell bulk grain.