Help getting brewing supplies in Canada

[DonPolo]

A fellow brewer and colleague at work has a son who is living in Moose Jaw in Canada.

 

He told me today that his son had done some investigation about getting brewing supplies and he only found extraordinarily expensive supplies that were very hard to come by.

 

Ideally he would be accessing some Cooper's stuff but doesn't know how to go about it. Even the equivalent gear that he would get in Coopers DIY Beer Brew Kit would run into several hundreds of dollars sourcing them from around his immediate vicinity, he reports.

 

I suppose he could order online though I don't know how easy/costly that would be for him.

 

Are there any ideas from those living in Canada? Christina?

[Beervis]

Don't live there but wouldn't Mr Beer and Northern Brewer deliver pretty much everywhere in Canada? Mr Beer is the US subsidiary of Coopers. Unless Moose Jaw is way out in one of the northern provinces or something, in which case I guess the postage would be steep.

[Otto Von Blotto]

Several thousands of dollars for a plastic bucket with a tap and some PET bottles sounds a bit ridiculous

[Graculus]

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=homebrew+store+regina+canada&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b&gfe_rd=cr&dcr=0&ei=PpmOWvT0Cu7c8wfKzZLAAQ

 

https://prairiebrewsupply.ca/

 

There appear to be homebrew stores in Regina and Saskatoon

 

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=Saskatoon+homebrew&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b&gfe_rd=cr&dcr=0&ei=A5qOWpjaBvTc8wfqopWQAQ

[Gag Halfrunt]

Surely shouldn't be that hard. If you can get a bucket or drum that holds 25 to 30 litres of liquid you can brew beer.(or anything fermentable for that matter)

 

 

[DonPolo]

Several thousands of dollars for a plastic bucket with a tap and some PET bottles sounds a bit ridiculous

 

Whoops my typo. I meant to write hundreds. Corrected the original post.

[DonPolo]

Surely shouldn't be that hard. If you can get a bucket or drum that holds 25 to 30 litres of liquid you can brew beer.(or anything fermentable for that matter)

 

 

I shouldn’t have made so much about the hardware. He was also talking about the ‘makings’ as well. I did mention the tie in with MrBeer to my colleague so that may be an avenue as well as the LBSs in Regina and Saskatoon, Regina is much closer.

 

Ta

[The Captain!!]

Christina is from over that way yeah?

I’m sure she’ll pipe up when she wakes up.

Cheers,

Captain

[DavidB44]

according to google... one of the reviewers here thinks it's worth the 50 minute drive from Regina to Moose Jaw for H.B. supplies.

 

They don't seem to have a website though. Perhaps they don't cater for kit/extract brewers - and that would explain the high setup costs.

 

(I have lived and brewed in Canada - but that was a long time ago and in Ontario)

[DonPolo]

Thanks for all the info, my colleague is well chuffed!

 

However, turns out he is very keen to find out if there is somewhere he can get a cooper's style kit which has most of the gear in the one package.

 

Mr Beer has such kits ranging from a 8 litre FV to about 22 L and 11L and 30L conical FVs. Interestingly none of them include a hydrometer. https://www.mrbeer.com/equipment/fermenting

[Joe1525230251]

I give Prairebrewsupply.ca my vote. I have ordered online through them and no complaints. Looks like they have Coopers cans for 22-24 Canadian dollars which is about as cheap as ive seen. If he waits a few months and drives to Regina, he can go catch a RoughRider game (Canadian Football) and get beer supplies, what a way to spend a weekend.

[ChristinaS1]

Hi there. Okay, I am awake now. I live on the east coast, so a long way from Moose Jaw. In Moose Jaw he'd be at the mercy of the local Wine Kitz store. They often have a small selection of kits, often near expiry, but they don't carry specialty grains, and their DME and LME are way over priced.

 

His best bet might be to drive to Regina, which is less than an hour away, to Prairie Brew Supply, which I see Joe has already mentioned. Looks like they carry everything he would want for kits or all grain.

 

Personally I have never order brewing supplies online; that gets extremely expensive. Probably cheaper for him to drive to Regina every few months and stock up....Eventually he might want to buy a small grain mill. Grinding any amount of grain with a rolling pin gets tired pretty fast, and it is not a good idea to buy them in bulk pre-ground. He might be able to find a new or secondhand Corona mill for a reasonable price. I have not used one myself, but I can't see why they wouldn't work.

 

I would not recommend getting MrBeer / Craft fermenter starter kit at this stage, which are sometimes at Canadian Tire and big box stores, as it would be very difficult to find cans for subsequent brews; Prairie Brew Supply does not carry them.

 

Cheers,

 

Christina.

[donp1]

Save on foods carries Coopers beer kits, last week on sale $14.99 each, carry all the original series, only the TC Pilsner and TC IPA, and English Bitter, Canadian blonde, Cerveza, bigger stores carry more brew stuff but they all carry only the kits listed. First Tuesday of the month get 15% off $50 so sometimes the kit sales overlap.

 

Now i buy my hops/crystal grains(LOVE the Special B) and dry malts via mail order from homebrewsupplies.ca, GREAT phone service too and occasional shipping deals, also has a 10% off promo each weekday on different categories of stuff.

 

Brew for Less in Edmonton has cheap prices on everything but amazinly crappy service from the dudes, gals are much better, sent a handful of people there who will never go back, but huge volumes especially on wine kits/juice. No coopers but other brands and stuff.

 

Winning Wines Plus 111 street can order in liquid yeasts and stuff, just an hour drive each way for me and lets u borrow their grain mill to crush your own grains there in the parking lot as the do not sell pre crushed grains which is problematic for us. Use them for liquid yeasts, Belgians etc. cheaper if you plan a few brews in advance and repitch a cup or so of trub directly into the next brew(not 100% of the trub will overpitch and I have never had an infection. Compared to washing/rinsing the yeast for later use got me my only 2 infections so not worth the risk to me at least.)

 

Amazon.ca kit has crazy price changes daily, just yesterday had the TC Porter $19.12 with free shipping over $35, but would arrive FROZEN most likely to you right now.

 

GREAT prices is Valentines in Red Deer via the wine making forums, and they carry beer stuff including some coopers. My wine club makes a yearly trip there to stock up easily 25% cheaper then here HUGE selection.

 

Buy the green Grolsh flip top bottles for 25 cents each from the downtown bottle depot on 108 street, much easier than capping and these used bottles just need a good cleaning/sanitzation we assume the worst to be safe. Use 1 TBSP bleach in 23L water, THEN add 1 TBSP of Vinegar to create a 30 second sanitizer, supposidly no rinse but we rince. Do NOT ADD vinegar directly to Bleach or else make DANGEROUS gas like Mustard gas or something. The vinegar dramatically increases the POWER of the bleach so you can use much less. If you can smell bleach then it is still working and was not used up fighting the bugs. That is how the city water main breaks are detected, by the MISSING chlorine/chloramine smell.

 

I have a bunch of extra carboys you can have next time your around both plastic and glass, or check kijiji.