Most inexpensive vendor for Canadians? also need simple recipe.

[mcgeeman]

Hi everyone!

My name is Jeremy and this will be my first time posting in any beer related forum so please bare with my extremely uneducated questions for the first couple months until I brew a few batches and actually understand the process.

I am looking to get an entire setup with a budget of about 300(this includes the cost of the first batch of beer) and have been pricing fairly vigorously while at work. I have realized that almost every item it is best to buy from Ontariobeerkegs.com.. but knowing you all have been in the same situation as me, I was wondering if any Canadians here had any suggestions on where I can get the best bang for my buck. I will only be doing BIAB for about the first year or until I have more space for storage.

As for the recipe portion.. I do not want to do extract anything. I would rather have the full experience and make a sub-par brew or complete failure to learn from my mistakes and become better with time than use extract. I am looking for a SIMPLE beer that will make my friends will appreciate(hopefully). I also do find that most recipes do not have the amount of water required for each batch? so please include that aswell.

I am sorry to bombard all of you with these potentially over posted questions so I will also include a quick intro to myself for all of you as a bonus

I am 23 and am looking to start home brewing. A few weeks ago I realized the potential profit of a brewpub. The profit earned from a pint of craft beer at a bar is pure gold. I planned out the majority of the costs associated with running a brew pub along with the potential earnings as well.. what I saw amazed me. I then realized THE ISSUE.. I had no idea how to brew. I have all of the financial requirements(investors, personal savings etc) and restaurant experience but without an amazing beer, the brewpub would just be a pub. I am coming to all of you knowledgeable brew masters at homebrewtalk to teach and mentor me. I have decided that I will not even consider buying my 7bbl brewery for the pub for a few years or until my friends and family all appreciate my brew.

Thank you,
Jeremy

 

[JayMac]

Hey Jeremy!

Welcome to HBT! I go to Queen's University just south of you in Kingston, ON! I have recently been buying from torontobrewing.ca, not because they are the cheapest, but they are one of the only stores in Canada that have amber malt, amarillo hops, and some of the more "rare" (rare in terms of availability in Canada) products, and are located relatively close to us.

I have previously bought from Innovation Homebrewing (http://ihomebrewing.ca/), Beer Grains Supply (http://beergrains.com/), and Canadian Homebrew Supplies (http://homebrewsupplies.ca/) in addition to Toronto Brewing. Check out those places for what you'll need, but most likely Ontario Beer Kegs and Canadian Homebrew Supplies will have what you need to create your setup.

In terms of buying brewing equipment, you'll probably have better luck buying a beginners kit, and a few pots. The beginners kit will give you a fermentation pale, racking cane, a bottle capper, and some of the other essential brewing equipment you will need. When you start, you're going to start with either extract or extract with grains. The reason is that you will likely have trouble buying a mash tun, boil kettle, and hot liquor tank with grains and fermentation vessel etc... for $300. Extract w/ grains is simple because you really only need one pot, and some muslin bags for the grains. Competitions have been won with extract brews, so don't think you wont be able to make a good beer out of it. Simply put, it will cost you more than $300 to get everything you need for AG brewing.

For AG equipment, I suggest you check out Flyguys DIY MLT (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/cheap-easy-10-gallon-rubbermaid-mlt-conversion-23008/), and research on how to make your brew kettle and hot liquor tanks by inserting weldless ball valves, sightglasses, and thermometers. A quick google and youtube searches will return tons of blog posts and videos of people drilling into kettles and putting on the necessary valves.

In terms of reading, the first book you should read from cover to cover is John Palmers How to Brew (http://www.howtobrew.com/sitemap.html). This will tell you almost everything you will need to know, and will help you make the conversion from Extract to AG.

If you have any more questions, let me know! We are all here to help. But in all honesty, if you are only willing to invest $300 up front, creating an entire AG system may be a little out of the picture, especially in Canada (everything is cheaper in the US). Now, if you can allot something more like $500-600, then you could probably do it. But first, I suggest reading How to Brew so you can get a good handle on the brewing process, and which brewing method you will begin with.

Cheers,
Jay

 

[TheFurstyFerret]

Hi Jeremy.

I'm an hour SE of you in Cornwall.

I got a beginners kit from a LHBS. You can get this for about $80 or so. Then add the pieces you need.

For ingredients I travel to Ottawa to DeFalco's and other times Toronto Brewing Company - they are real helpful. Zack is very helpful - especially when I need 1oz of hops shipped!

DeFalco's
957 Gladstone Avenue (1 block west of Preston St.)
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
K1Y 3E5
613-722-9945
http://www.defalcowines.com/

http://www.torontobrewing.ca/servlet/StoreFront

 

[jwalk4]

Hello fellow Ontarian,

Wise decision to not jump into anything too hasty until you start brewing some classic styles well, and then making a few inventions of your own! Like with any hobby worth pursuing, understanding the fundamentals are key to success. At the very least, you'll have a fun new hobby and will blow people away with all the good beer you brew!

But hey, you gotta start somewhere, and its good that you have aspirations!

I guess if you are just planing to jump into AG brewing you should pick up a quality brew book to get you started. I learned from John Palmer's How to Brew, but Charlie Papazian's The Complete Joy of Homebrewing is good too. Reading all that you can will be your biggest assistant if you don't know anyone else that brews.

As for compiling your setup, I guess for $300.00 you'd be looking to do a BIAB setup, and brewing on a stove top. This will require you to get a large 10 gallon pot, a 5 gallon paint strainer bag (or some other voile material), and all the other things you'll need for brewing beer (ie. 6.5 gallon carboy or bucket, a large autosiphon, some kind of wort chiller, a bottling bucket, some no rinse sanitizer, bottles, caps etc.), plus your ingredients.

Seven does a good basic tutorial on BIAB on here (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/biab-brewing-pics-233289/ ) should be enough to get you started.

But if you have the cash, I suggest springing for a cooler and homemade mash tun fittings. (personal preference really)

Hit me up, or anyone else on this forum for that matter, if you have anymore questions (you will), HBT is a treasure troveof good information!

If you are seriously interested in pursuing brewing, or a brew pub, for a potential career or investment, I came across this not too long ago and its worth a read. Canadian content is a hard thing to find!

http://www4.agr.gc.ca/AAFC-AAC/display-afficher.do?id=1171560813521#s1

 

[jwalk4]

Lol, I had no idea that there were so many of us in here!

 

[kontrol]

I live in Canada/Quebec, and I'm lucky I live close to a huge HBS; Moût International. (http://www.biereetvin.com/pdf/liste-de-prix.pdf) (Sorry it's in french, but most of the names are english names.)

Their price are awesome. I often compare them with other store and very rarely they are pricier. Most of the time they are cheaper. And sometimes by far

They are huge, they are the main supplier to micro-breweries in Quebec. (We have a lot). They have everything (They have a lot of malt from many popular malt producer around the world) in in stock. Only downside is they might not have all the hops in store because they are so much in demand here.

Sadly they don't ship. It's pickup in store only. (Sorry for teasing). If they ever start an online shop I'll let you know. In the meantime if you sometime travel to Quebec (Montréal) take sometime to visit the store.

 

[CraigTheKeg]

It's great to see so many other Ontario brewers! Somehow I always get the feeling that I'm the only one brewing in the Toronto area... How could that be?
Anyways, welcome to the hobby that will dominate your life from now on (in a good way )
I have used Zach from Torontobrewing.ca a bunch, he's pretty good and you'll get some good deals from him too. But, personally I have had the best overall customer experience when dealing with Ontariobeerkegs.com. They are the best! Prices are great, they have frequent sales and shipping is super fast! I would also give an honourable mention to ihomebrewing as well. Great service there too.

 

[slacker1]

Going to take a slightly different tack here. Your $300 isn't going to get you far on the road to all-grain brewing. unless you get a Mr. Beer kit and do biab on a stove.

Personally, I would get the fundamentals in place first: 7 gallon fermenter, similar bottling bucket, auto-siphon, tubing, bottle filler, cleansing and sterilizing supplies, vinator, various buckets, bottle capper, caps, bottles (here I use 500ml Hacker Pschorr bottles with flip lids - saves the cost of capper and caps), books, etc.

Then I would start with Festa Brew wort kits and work your way through a number of styles. Read, taste your finished beers until you are very familiar with the styles.

Now you should know what you like and whether the discipline and routine of home brewing is for you - cleaning 4 dozen bottles is not a happy chore, especially with PBW or Oxyclean which are both caustic and always find their way into your rubber gloves. Also, you will know what styles of beer you prefer.

And you should have been able to save up enough to get a brew kettle, wooden stirring spoon, kegs, kegerator, nylon bags, chillers or no chill carboys, propane burner, etc, etc.

Not to be a Doris Downer, but there is a learning/experience curve involved and if you proceed step by step you are less likely to get overwhelmed - as in reading the Palmer book, while still so new and all. And as well you will get to enjoy a lot of good, well crafted, brew in the meantime.

As the man said, 'Patience is a virtue, cricket'.

 

[mcgeeman]

Thanks for the replies everyone! I went over budget but believe it'll be worth while.
I bought:::

9g 2weld brew pot with thermometer and valve
12" false bottom
6g carboy with stopper and airlock
adjustable 1.7l grain mill
capper and caps
pbw cleaner
5.2ph powder
14lbs of grain with yeast, hops and irish moss
mesh nylon bag
priming sugar
hydrometer and tube
autosiphon, tubing and bottle filler

All of this cost me roughly $360.

I purchased bits and pieces from ontariobrewkegs.com, torontobrewing and ebay.

I will be going to a home hardware store to buy some copper tubing to make a wort chiller sometime next week and will try brewing my first beer (Belgian dubbel) sometime in the next couple weeks when my parcels arrive. I understand its foolish of me to start off with anything other than a simple ale but I am fairly stubborn and learn quickly so I'll stick with my brew recipe of choice and let you all know how the primary brew goes and how the final product tastes. I am 90% sure I will stick to Belgian styles because I prefer Duvel over any beer at our Beerstore or LCBO.

Cheers!

 

[mcgeeman]

UPDATE: I brewed my first beer ago a week ago. Tastes great. I'll leave it in the primary for another 3 days. Its at something like 5.6 ABV(i forget the amount the calculator said) at the moment.. Still a ways to ago for the beersmiths approximate 6.8 that its supposed to have. Going to secondary it for 10 days also.

This is what it looks like.

 

[JayMac]

UPDATE: I brewed my first beer ago a week ago. Tastes great. I'll leave it in the primary for another 3 days. Its at something like 5.6 ABV(i forget the amount the calculator said) at the moment.. Still a ways to ago for the beersmiths approximate 6.8 that its supposed to have. Going to secondary it for 10 days also.

This is what it looks like.

Secondaries are overrated. Personally I just keep my beers in the primary for 3-4 weeks.

I only secondary if I'm dry hopping or fruiting my beers. It's just another opportunity to invite infection and oxidation in to your beer!

 

[Math0]

I live in Canada/Quebec, and I'm lucky I live close to a huge HBS; Moût International. (http://www.biereetvin.com/pdf/liste-de-prix.pdf) (Sorry it's in french, but most of the names are english names.)

Their price are awesome. I often compare them with other store and very rarely they are pricier. Most of the time they are cheaper. And sometimes by far

They are huge, they are the main supplier to micro-breweries in Quebec. (We have a lot). They have everything (They have a lot of malt from many popular malt producer around the world) in in stock. Only downside is they might not have all the hops in store because they are so much in demand here.

Sadly they don't ship. It's pickup in store only. (Sorry for teasing). If they ever start an online shop I'll let you know. In the meantime if you sometime travel to Quebec (Montréal) take sometime to visit the store.

Sorry for bringing back an old thread but I was looking for more info on where to get my supplies. I usually buy them from that same web site. They do ship with canadapost. You can go on canada post website to check the prices of shipping by the pound. Not very expensive (less then other sites from the States to here in Quebec/Ontario). They have everything you need. The only problem i've occurred was that they don't have every hop in stock at all time. Quite frustrating sometimes. Buying hops from hopdawgs and grains from moût internationnal