Eat & Drink
Where to buy brewing supplies in Toronto
Brewing supplies in Toronto offer a fantastic alternative to your bathtub and that broken oar from the cottage. Yes, there's actually a place where you can buy everything you need to make your own craft brew at home, just in case you feel stifled (who are you?!) by Toronto's existing beer offerings.
Grampa Simpson in The Simpsons stumbled upon his best-selling "revitalizing tonic" when he was trying to find a cheap substitute for holy water. He used a combination of elixirs from his medicine cabinet, which, while I'm sure quite potent, doesn't really work for the everyman trying to impress company with his own home brew (and avoid liability, at that).
Toronto Brewing Co. is an online operation offering aspiring brew-kings pretty much everything they need to make beer at home. For the novice, the site has handy starter kits, which include a recipe kit, fermentation jug, mini auto-siphon, and bottle filler, though you need to supply the bottles and kettle. And for the more experienced (or else, ambitious) brewer, Toronto Brewing offers various types of hops, malts, yeasts, and flavourings to customize your own creation.
Though primarily an online operation, Toronto Brewing Co. does allow customers to pick up from its temporary location at Yonge and Eglinton, which cuts down on shipping costs when ordering a 27-gallon conical fermenter. Though consumption and distribution is totally up to you, I've heard father and son travelling roadshow typically lead to great success.
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I've purchased from:
homebrew-supplies.ca
Which also has an retail store just north of the airport. They also have home keg equipment and sell CO2 refills.
My favourite place is www.ontariobeerkegs.com ... while not in Toronto (they're actually in Mitchell, Ontario -- outside of Stratford)...they offer the best prices by far and also offer flat rate shipping on larger orders.
One virtual store in a city of 2.6M is a little thin on content.
If you're able to get to Mississauga, the Brew Cellar is a good in store option as well.
I'm sure this Toronto Brewing Co. is great, but this was a very poorly planned article. It's more of a poor man's review, than a guide.
The store also has a great selection of recipes and oddly enough has a shelf of hard-to-find hot sauces up front!
They are without a doubt the best place to get supplies from. Tried the shop in Brampton but was cheaper to just get it shipped from OBK and better service too.
Torontobrewing has big city prices.
I live in Quebec and my goods arrive two days after ordering every time from Ontariobeerkegs.com
I ordered from Torontobrewing once and it took four days before they even shipped it.
I won't go back. I made three orders. Every single one of them was messed up, and I kept going back because he wouldn't fix it until I did go back. I would call ahead and ask if he had everything, he'd say yes, I'd show up, and he wouldn't have everything and would instead make bad compromises with inadequate equimpent/ingredients. When he finally pushed cracked/broken equipment on me was when I gave up. Don't go here.
My brother had the same experience. He ordered a grain mill and it came 5 MONTHS late with constant promises that 'it'll be here soon'. It showed up totally disassembled with no instructions and TorontoHB offered no help. He had to go out and buy feeler gauges and everything to get it put together.
DON'T GO HERE.