Comments on: Homebrewing

By: Ken

Ken — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:58:57 +0000

I buy yeast, hops and extract from BrewTime in Hamilton…they likely sell grains too and will order in specialty yeast. Nice people. I used to travel to Michigan often and I would go to either Adventures in Homebrewing in Taylor or WineBarrel in Livonia. I would buy 50kg bags of Briess 2-row for around $50. I would be interested to talk to any serious homebrewers in the area..I live in Brantford.

By: Bruce

Bruce — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 20:13:54 +0000

Ron there is a spring with nice water in New Dundee. If you are interested give me a call. 519 696 3358. Bruce

By: piper

piper — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 20:18:03 +0000

There aren’t any really good suppliers in Canada that I know of. I mean, nothing that can remotely compare to US suppliers like Northern Brewer or Austin Homebrew Supply.

If you want malt in large quantities (your base malts), you can get it in 25kg bags at Gilbertson & Page in Fergus. They’re quite economical, in quantity.

For smaller quantities of specialty malts and liquid yeast for my last batch I used Homebrewer’s Retail (http://www.homebrewersretail.com), which is an online store, shipping from Whitby, ON. He was good to deal with.

There used to be a Canadian Homebrewing Supplies, but the web-site appears to be defunct now.

Canada just doesn’t seem to be able to support a decent homebrewing supply shop. But dealing with the US shops is a minefield, because of the borderline criminal “brokerage” fees charged by the couriers to bring anything into Canada. The only shops you can safely deal with are ones that will ship by US Postal Service. Couriers like UPS/Fed Ex must be avoided like the plague.

By: Gregr

Gregr — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 20:02:49 +0000

I’m just starting to learn about homebrewing and need to find a good supplier of equipment and ingredients. Now that Paddock Wood is no longer selling online, where do you guys suggest buying equipment online in Canada or even in you’re own local. Piper, looks like you’re in the KW area, I’m in Burlington so not that far away.

By: James 2

James 2 — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 19:00:26 +0000

Hey brewers:
I did my only mash homebrew in pittsberg a bunch of years back. I was a guest of my brother in law, but had studied brewing at work at a local microbrewery and homebrewing from library books. Together that day we made a 100% malt mash brew and hopped generously from start to finish with cascade plugs and flowers. When my samples arrived I devoured them at one sitting they were so tasty.
I have also had success with on premise brewing using distilled water. This is also reccomended in my home brewers bible. In 2009 I want to aquire/make equipment for a 50L batch of mash brewing.I live in Guelph andam looking to link up with serious brewers.

By: Chris Dion

Chris Dion — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 00:45:56 +0000

Hey Ron, you’ve really got some great stuff up here. Its all stuff that is doable by anyone who is even modestly handy.

I’ve brewed in the past with those kits and have had varying results. The brewing I’ve seen you talking about sounds far more involved. Just curious weather you have some sort of “How To Guide”. Something that you may have put out for someone new to the game like me?

By: piper

piper — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 22:55:36 +0000

I haven’t brewed with tap-water in years. The last time I did was an extract brew, and it turned out ok. My friends in Guelph, though, have had very bad results with tap water. Too much chlorine. It may not taste that bad out of the tap, but when you brew, it reacts and forms chlorophenol compounds, which have very nasty chemically taste, even at low concentrations. Entire batches were dumped because of it.

These days, they don’t even sanitize with bleach… they just use their tap-water!

Personally, I’ve done all my recent brews with bottled spring water from Glenbriar on Frobisher Dr. Probably expensive, but I don’t homebrew because it’s cheap.

I’ve heard there’s actually a public spring-water tap somewhere on Hwy 6, where you can get water straight from the spring. Probably in Aberfoyle, since there’s a bottling plant there. Untreated, of course. Not even so much as filtered. So I guess it would be taking a little bit of risk with it. But no more than our ancestors took. I’ve been tempted to try it.

By: James

James — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 16:06:37 +0000

Ron, thanks for all the information.

Did you say that you’ve been brewing in Waterloo, Ontario?

I am in Waterloo as well and I am curious as to what your thoughts on how suitable the water is here for homebrewing?

So far I’ve just been using tap water that has gone through my household water softener. But I have been considering getting some sort of water filtration system for some time. Even just to filter out excess chlorine.

What do you think?

James

By: piper

piper — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 04:29:46 +0000

I don’t know Burlington. I suggest you do what I did: let your fingers do the walking. Open the yellow pages and start calling metal recyclers.

As I said on my “keg conversion” page, I got mine at Madison Steel in Kitchener. It’s not too long a drive from Burlington.

By: tjboadwa

tjboadwa — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 22:07:08 +0000

Ron,

I’m trying to locate a few stainless steel kegs to convert over to a full grain brewing setup. Do you know where I could find some? I live in Burlington and would like to find a supply of old kegs form my system.