Canadian and Toronto Members look here

[b33risGOOD]

Is anyone on this forum from Toronto, Canada, or just Canada at all? I ask because surprisingly I have a hard time finding anythingi decent local, and online is all from American with crazy shipping prices.

Any Canadians, or members with this knowledge please let me know. MOREBEER has a good selection, but they rape me on the shipping.

 

[springer]

East Hamilton isn't that far is it?

homebrewsupplies

 

[b33risGOOD]

I have heard of that place, Im in toronto and I think my best two options are east hamilton or Brampton, its about 40-1hr. Reasonable but I assumed a big city like Toronto MIGHT Have semi local buisnesses

 

[johngie]

There is also http://www.homebrewersretail.com/servlet/StoreFront
out in Whitby.
Pretty good selection and prices.

 

[Veinman]

Not trying to hijack but was wondering in general where the Canadians on here ordered their ingredients.
I am in Edmonton and the stores here are considerably higher than places like morebeer.com but then shipping kills me.
What's the best site for Canadians to order supplies from with reasonable shipping?

 

[demonrichie]

Im in kingston and theres a homebrew store here. i think theres also a hops farm somewhere outside of belleville or napanee that you can order fresh hops from or maybe even pick up if u got transportation

 

[b33risGOOD]

yaaa now we are talking 5 hrs away heheh. I do have family out that way though and will keep it in mind if im making the trip

 

[b33risGOOD]

Hey Veinman

You might want to check these guys out

http://www.homebrew-supplies.ca/

They are west of Toronto and they do ship so at least it is inside of Canada.

 

[Beer-Baron]

East Hamilton isn't that far is it?

homebrewsupplies

I live in Hamilton and have been to this place. Although the service is good and friendly. Don't make the drive here for beer ingredients. They have the extract cans but thats it. This store is primarily a wine shop over beer.

But the owner told me he is going to be expanding his inventory for all grain brewing, but it hasn't happened yet. But it is coming. . ..

On a side note . . . THAT is the store where Craig from the famous CraigTube gets all his stuff. . . . (Not a bad thing, just saying . . . . )

 

[Erythro73]

Yeah, anyway, their website doesn't seem to show a lot of ingredients. There's some yeast available, but most are seasonals.

But you can get a lot of stuff there. THe service is quick and efficient with decent pricing. I ordered Star-San from them on a monday, and I received the package on a thursday(or wednesday? Not so sure right now).

As far as ingredients goes, I think Morebeer and Austinhomebrew are you best bets. And hopsdirect for bulk hops shipping. Yeah, you need to pay shipping, but... anyway, you're not in this hobby to save money, are you?

 

[demonrichie]

ktowns about 2-3 dependin if ur goin 100-120 not 5 hours.bellevilles less then that but i dunno whered u pick up there

 

[KFBass]

www.homebrew-supplies.ca is pretty good. THe guy who runs it is pretty knowledgeable, and he has a decent selection. That's one in whitby ive heard good things about too.

Basically you are going to have to pay for shipping regardless. Unless you drive out to Hamilton. There is a store on upper James and rymal called Brew Time that's pretty decent. I've never got grains from them, just extracts and the like, but they seem to have it covered. http://www.brewtime.ca/

 

[rchopin]

What a frustration it is to find such place, in a city like Toronto. There must not be enough demand for brewing supplies, here. But then how do you explain the fact that finding to buy a corny keg is a challenge (Princess Auto sold hundreds of them instantly, last year).

I am in a need of some base and specialty malts and I've been trying to contact both
http://www.homebrewersretail.com and http://www.homebrew-supplies.ca/, for a few days now. Nobody picks up the phone and no e-mail responses.

Looks like the only reliable place to buy is in Fergus, ON:
http://www.gilbertsonandpage.com/
They have a good selection of the base malts, but not so good of the specialty ones.

 

[Dunkel_Dude_2010]

hey,

I also found a website out of London On that says shipping in ontario is 7.99 up to 11 lbs and 10.99 up to 20 lbs.

www.mashingheads.com

I have never oredered anything from them yet so i do not know anything about how good they are.

 

[Erythro73]

What a frustration it is to find such place, in a city like Toronto. There must not be enough demand for brewing supplies, here. But then how do you explain the fact that finding to buy a corny keg is a challenge (Princess Auto sold hundreds of them instantly, last year).

I am in a need of some base and specialty malts and I've been trying to contact both
http://www.homebrewersretail.com and http://www.homebrew-supplies.ca/, for a few days now. Nobody picks up the phone and no e-mail responses.

Looks like the only reliable place to buy is in Fergus, ON:
http://www.gilbertsonandpage.com/
They have a good selection of the base malts, but not so good of the specialty ones.

Well, if I was living in Toronto, I would surely think about opening a homebrew & home wine making supplies store. If there's no store there, then I guess there is some business to make there.

 

[BlackTieBrewing]

I've ordered from mashingheads a few times and they've always been great to deal with. They have great prices and fair shipping, probably the best prices you'll find in Ontario for ingredients.

 

[b33risGOOD]

Wow I didnt think it was this bad. Well for those of you out here, I went to winekits on wilson road near york dale. Had a few kits, some yeast and only dark and amber DME

Hops were 10 dollers

I didnt buy grains but he had some. So you guys might want to check it out, he said he would be getting more kits and i asked him about it, but i havent got a reply.

Who wants to open a good home brew store with me? lol

Oh guys check this place out, i totally forgot about them in scarborough

http://www.sodacentre.com/history.swf

 

[Lefe21]

hey,

I also found a website out of London On that says shipping in ontario is 7.99 up to 11 lbs and 10.99 up to 20 lbs.

www.mashingheads.com

I have never oredered anything from them yet so i do not know anything about how good they are.

Do yourself a favor and DO NOT order from mashing heads. Terrible service and I am not sure its a legitimate business. Had to file a paypal dispute with whoever runs the place. Long story short I placed an order and it never got deliver, the business phone number is some random woman's cell phone, and the listed address is not a store at all, just residential area.

 

[b33risGOOD]

I found a kit I really want on Austinhomebrewing, really good price something like 25$ and guess what. Cheapest shipping is 30, more then the damn kit itself!

All of the Canadian sites who have online stores basically have 0 selection, total crap

rant

 

[grover69]

I have a solution for the shipping, I use a service called CBI. You can google it to get the address. Basically they are located in Niagara Falls New York (5 mins from the Rainbow Bridge) and they accept any package that you have shipped to them. Then you go to their warehouse and pay $5 a box and receive your package. Of course this only works if you live close to the border, or if you are like me and find yourself going over there quite frequently.

Bringing it back over the border is then of course your problem. But most likely you will only have to pay the GST and PST. The CBI service not only works great for homebrew supplies, but anything you buy online that won't be shipped to Canada. And it allows you to take advantage of the cheap shipping that is usually provided through UPS/FEDEX without the brutal brokerage charges.

As for stores, since we have no proper ones, I head down to Niagara Traditions in Buffalo. Its a pretty decent store. The staff there if very knowledgeable and friendly. The store will be absolutely rammed on the weekend and has tones of supplies, bulk malts, DME/LME grains hops liquid/dry yeast and kits etc. They have a website http://nthomebrew.com.

I also find that Canadian Homebrew Supplies is quite good. http://www.homebrew-supplies.ca/

Actually the prices there are better on ingredients than Niagara Traditions(factoring in travel), and also it is located in the GTA. They also offer pick up, so you don't have to pay any shipping.

I have been to Soda Centre and its ok, prices are high and selection is poor. As for the other locations I have not tried any others yet.

 

[b33risGOOD]

seems like you have been to most of the options around here, thanks for the INFO! I might have to look into this.

 

[grover69]

I understand the frustrations, which even though its a bit of a drive, I will be at
Niagara Traditions sometime Saturday. Sometimes you want to talk to somebody at the store, or actually see what you are buying.

Good luck with your search

 

[b33risGOOD]

what happens when i try to bring stuff over the boarder, that scares the heck out of me lol.

 

[grover69]

There is absolutely nothing to be scared of. Just Declare Everything you have with you. It will be up to the discretion of the Customs Officer if you will be charged duties and taxes. Duties are usually never charged if you declared your goods. Also since most homebrew supplies are made in America such as the ingredients they are not dutiable under NAFTA anyways. Basically you will have to pay GST/PST, so 13% added on your declared value in the worst case (same if you bought here in Canada).

Example, my buddy and I were at Niagara Traditions a couple months back. Spent around $300+ we declared it, and we had to pay GST/PST on the full amount. Taxes were around 36 dollars I think. Usually if you have low amounts they let you go, $300+ was quite a bit of stuff that we had so I was expecting to pay taxes.

Although my wife bought a high chair for $200 at target around 4 months ago, and the officer let her go, she didn't pay anything. The same high chair was around $350 at Toys r us in Toronto, so paying the GST/PST was the chance we were willing to take.

Also it is only fair, maintaining a society isn't cheap.

 

[BlackTieBrewing]

what happens when i try to bring stuff over the boarder, that scares the heck out of me lol.

There's nothing to worry about when bringing homebrew stuff over the border. I've made a couple trips to Adventures in Homebrewing near Detroit and never had to pay duty on anything; one time I had like $400 of stuff including a trunk full of cornies and just got waved through, but it probably depends a lot on the officer you're dealing with.

 

[jjones17]

I have ordered from all three canadian sites, and my experiences were as follows:

homebrewersretail - Selection on dry yeast kind of limited, but good prices and fast shipping. No issues.

homebrewsupplies - Guy will give you a credit if your shipping is lower than quoted. I ordered 5 packets of Notty (never again given slow start, but thats another story), he placed in a small envelope for me at my request using only 2 stamps. I paid full price (as payment is advance), but used the 16$ credit on my next order. Awesome. Prices are MUCH higher than the other 2 for yeast, and many other things. However, great selection. Rhizome prices are literally 4 X higher than Crannog Ales of BC. Meh.

Mashingheads - Fast shipping, flat rate shipping, ordered 2X with no problems. Although, I did recieve some hijacked phishing email from a source that obviously recieved my information from their website somehow. When I notified the owner of mashingheads, no response. Was kind of strange. I wouuld reorder from them though, given they do have good prices.

 

[BlackTieBrewing]

I believe mashingheads had their website hacked for a while which is why they weren't answering emails. I had the same problem but they got back to me and everything is fixed now.

 

[jspence1]

If you are in Toronto become an SOB. Join the facebook group Are you an SOB and join the mailing list. You just missed the bulk grain buy (162 bags) We seem to do an order about every 6 months

If you are looking for hops I'd recommend just ordering from hops direct and shipping USPS hops are tax and duty free.

I personally order most of my other stuff cleaners, sanitizers, yeast from the US.

 

[jjones17]

Yeah, Canada is lacking in affordable online Homebrew supplies. I guess it is party because the manufacturers for many of the products are in the US, however I am hoping the homebrew movement continues to grow and help our purchasing power. After all, demand dictates supply - and I want better choices.

 

[b33risGOOD]

There are some kick ass beer kits on MOREBEER

damnit lol