HomeBrewing

[agulati]

I was looking into getting a homebrewing kit for my dad for Christmas. It sounds like a cool hobby for a father/son combo who are both fond of beer, even if the beer that we will start brewing won’t necessarily taste the greatest, to start of with.

Any recommendations on kits? Or a guide to build your own setup?
Also general tips are always welcome.
I was looking at this kit by Northern Brewer, but it doesn’t look like they ship to Canada
https://www.northernbrewer.com/produ...ng-starter-kit

[Fuzz]

Check out The Home Vinter on 14th st NW. I think they are doing curbside only right now, but they can set you up, but you can support local. I think they have a starter kit, so you can just call and ask for pricing. This is where I go for stuff I can't find through them:

https://homebrewsupplies.ca

Highly recommend starting simple with a kit. These ones are really easy, and will let you figure out the important steps, before going complicated:

https://homebrewsupplies.ca/category...-best-partial/

Home Vintner sells them, or did last time I was there.

[agulati]

This is good! Would definitely love to support local. Was looking for an actual kit like I had attached, but I guess it would be better start with brew in a bag/box set-up.

[Fuzz]

Ya, you can get more in depth kits from Home Vintner, but those Brewers Best are pretty foolproof. You don't want to put all that effort in on your first try, and end up messing something up and getting discouraged. They also have all sorts of add-ons you can get for those kits, which are nice to experiment with early on in your learning.

The nice thing is once you get one going, you can start another in a few weeks, so you don't have to wait months to experiment. You just need extra carboys. I have 3.

[Puppet Guy]

If you're in the south of the city, The Vineyard sells (or at least used to) a beginners brew kit that includes all the equipment you need (brewing bin, carbuoy, pump, etc) for about $120. and they've got a good selection of kits. It was a pretty good deal I recall. Check 'em out.

[Canadianman]

Grapes to Glass is the store in the SW if you are on that side.


Great place.

I did a brew kit a few years ago. For all that work for a case of beer was not worth it for me. I'm halfway through the process of some homemade wine and I think it will be better for me. I think I'd like to try a cider after.

[Wormius]

Cider is pretty cheap to get into. You can also just buy apple juice if you want to make it even easier.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Puxlut

I did a brew kit a few years ago. For all that work for a case of beer was not worth it for me. I'm halfway through the process of some homemade wine and I think it will be better for me. I think I'd like to try a cider after.

A case of beer? Was this a mini kit or something? Most make 23 litres.

[agulati]

I spoke to Home Vintner yesterday. They were out of primary equipment, but expect stock to come in on Monday.

$105 for the starter kit + $70ish for the U-do Brewery kit. Solid pricing. I was thinking of starting from scratch and getting a kettle and proper grain etc, but it does make sense to first work on half the process and get a palatable beer. Will give a call to the other stores as well since they are probably closer to where I am.

[Canadianman]

If you find the beer kit halfway enjoyable, I'd recommend expanding into all-grain brewing. It tastes 100x better and is a more fun experience.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by agulati

I spoke to Home Vintner yesterday. They were out of primary equipment, but expect stock to come in on Monday.

$105 for the starter kit + $70ish for the U-do Brewery kit. Solid pricing. I was thinking of starting from scratch and getting a kettle and proper grain etc, but it does make sense to first work on half the process and get a palatable beer. Will give a call to the other stores as well since they are probably closer to where I am.

I had a good experience with Wine Warehouse for equipment.

Originally Posted by Fuzz

A case of beer? Was this a mini kit or something? Most make 23 litres.

Yup... just a small kit. I think it was similar to this one: https://www.ebay.ca/i/293022637247?c...evt=1&mkcid=28
But I can't imagine boiling more hops than what came in the kit?

[doozwimp]

Got into the hobby about a year ago myself. First off, have faith in your abilities. Not all my brews have been as successful as eachother but a couple have been absolutely splendid and at least comparable to commercial efforts with a very simple setup. Second, sorry to poo poo the 14th St Home Vitner reccomendation but I'm not overly fond of the gentleman who runs it. Wouldn't sell me campden tablets and was very insistent on his methods and told me not to believe the internet. Pretty bonkers if you ask me. Gone to Grape to Glass for most of my grain. The guy is a little fussy in his own way too. Seems to prefer to do business over email and was a little grumpy when i phoned him, regardless his stock seems second to none.

Unfortunately their stock is a little limited especially when it comes to beer but I would very much recommend Wine Kitz in Varsity. They've been tops in terms of customer service and I have no hesitation whatsover when i've had to ask for guidance whereas the other guys have been a little finicky.

Cheers and good luck.

[Hockeyguy15]

If you want to do a small stove top batch and have a sous vide it’s super easy. Check out brew in a bag and there will be a tonne of info. You can make about 12 bottles for like $15 of grain and hops.

[McG]

I brewed for years and then stopped when life got busy. It’s still pretty busy but my buddies discovered that I knew how to brew beer and for the last 9 months I have had on average 4 to 8 carboys of beer and cider brewing or more correctly resting in carboys for bottling. I know that many recommend starting from scratch and I really want to get there too but I just don’t have the time.

I use festa kits. They are all in one and tbh pretty difficult to mess up. 23 litres of wort means that you pour it into a sterilized primary and add the provided yeast. We have been experimenting with malt extract both introduced in place of dextrose for priming and added prior to primary fermentation. I’m getting to the point of adding hops etc to see what happens to the flavour.

As a rule, I find the darker beer/ale much more forgiving than lagers to brew. I’ve been using star san exclusively to sterilize. For bottles, I prefer the 1 litres these days. I find bottling to be the hardest part of the process actually.

Festa stout, brown, red, pale, ipa, are probably the top ones for me. I made one cream ale that was ok and another that was great.

I wouldn’t buy complete beer or winemaking kits from a store now. Kijiji has plenty of people selling the gear and then buy the smaller pieces from a local store to top up your equipment.

You will have to learn patience to let the beer sit. You will also need a good area just to leave the yeast to work it’s magic