beginner looking for advice

[bwints]

Hey everyone. I'm recently new to brewing with only 2 brews under my belt. First was a brewhouse IPA kit, turned out pretty good. Second was a recipe I found for a blue moon clone. Had many problems with the recipe. Being new to brewing and my LHBS having next to nothing for brewing supplies and ingredients. The clone is still in the fermenter, hopefully it turns out.

Living in Northern Ontario definitely has its perks but when it comes to homebrewing... Not so much. As I said LHBS has extremely limited options for ingredients and closest town is about a 3.5 hour drive.

So my question to everyone here, any thoughts on ingredients or extract kits from ontariobeerkegs. Read a few threads about people purchasing keg equip but nothing on there ingredients. Also any other suggestions for online purchasing.

Thanks.

 

[ja09]

I've tried many kits from Midwest and Northern Brewer. They both have great kits for beginners but most of the time I find Northern's to be better. Plus Northern has better instructions for beginners and better phone support. Cheers!

 

[Cyclman]

Welcome and good luck. Homebrewing is worth the extra effort to seek out ingredients not easily found. Nothing like the pride of your own brew!

 

[Pratzie]

Plus Northern has better instructions for beginners

I have to agree with this. I still have yet to find a kit that has as good instructions as an NB kit. They also have ALOT of different kits available for almost every style of beer. My only complaint is that the IBU's aren't listed anywhere on the kits, I normally have to use my iBrewmaster app to figure it out with the hop type and boil time.

Def check them out, I think u'll be happy with what ya get.

 

[franzy]

I agree with the northern comment as well. They have some great offers every month as well. They have offered better bottles in a B.O.G.O. a few times. Nothing like upgrading!

 

[amie]

OP lives in Northern Ontario... Canada. I'm not really sure it's worth it for Canadians to order ingredients from the US, seeing as the extra shipping costs and customs fees can really add up quick. IIRC, NB doesn't ship internationally anyway.

I haven't tried OBK yet, but I'm about to make my first order from them, as soon as I figure out if I want a 9 or 15 gal kettle... They have good reviews on the Canadian home brewers forum (different website) and they have a thread in the HBT vendors forum that you can request a coupon code in for a small discount. ihomebrewing.ca has some good reviews too... But I only have 2 brews under my belt right now, so I don't have much online ordering advice to offer yet... My only other order has been from torontobrewing.ca which offers local pick-up near where we live.

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

IIRC, NB doesn't ship internationally anyway.

My wife works for UPS, until a few yrs ago in international at the Mpls hub. Unless NB has changed their policies since then, they surely do ship to Canada.

One of the ways we became interested in home brewing was that she very often saw NB shipments going to Canada through the international hub and mentioned that I should check out "this brewing store in St. Paul". Which I did, once, and have been a loyal Midwest Supplies customer ever since.

 

[amie]

According to this, NB changed their shipping policies quite some time ago. No international shipping.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/groups/canadian+brewers/northern+brewer++shipping+policy++canada-1525/

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

According to this, NB changed their shipping policies quite some time ago. No international shipping.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/groups/canadian+brewers/northern+brewer++shipping+policy++canada-1525/

Lame. That sucks for you Canadian brewers.

 

[IkeKrizzule]

I ordered some ingredients (hops, specialty grains) for OBK a couple months ago. Everything came quick, was well packaged, no complaints. I will order ingredients from them again, and eventually get my kegging equipment there.

 

[DSorenson]

Is buying a barley and hops farm out of the question? now THAT would be amazing.