Homebrewing beer in Canada doesn't seem as popular as in the United States. Most Local Home Brew Supply (LHBS) stores are wine-centric and offer on-premise brewing of wine. These stores will usually have some basic beer kits but most are limited to beer in a bag or Liquid Malt Extract (LME) kits and don't offer specialty grains or hops. These stores will carry equipment kits for wine making, which can also be used for beer, but don't usually carry items that are more specific to beer. If you want to evolve your hobby beyond the basic kits and create something with more character, fresher malt and hop profiles, and have more fun, then the average LHBS doesn't cover it. In Ottawa, I'm lucky enough to have a chain of stores named Defalco's which carries a range of Dry Malt Extracts (DME), LMEs, malt, and hops. Their selection of equipment is fairly reasonable as well, except that they don't carry mash-tuns, lauter-tuns, cooling coils, or other advanced equipment useful for all-grain brewing. Defalco's seems reasonably priced if you're just doing the occasional batch, but their prices seem much higher that what I've found on-line in the US. This led me to seek out some on-line stores in Canada that can provide me with a better selection and value. I found these sites by searching through forums, search engine results, and homebrew magazine advertiser listings. Most of the sites that I found felt behind in terms of web design, which is also probably why they can be much harder to find than their US-based competitors. Note that these descriptions are my opinion and based on my initial impressions after a quick browse and comparison of each site. Since I haven't purchased from any of these on-line stores yet, I can't comment on their customer service.
After briefly surveying these sites, Canadian Homebrew Supplies, in my opinion, has the best selection and pricing of both ingredients and equipment. I will most likely be purchasing from them in the near future. Of the other four sites, each has its pros and cons. Defalco's and HomeBrewGearCanada both have a decent selection of malts and hops. Defalco's has the best site but they lack in equipment. Hop Dawgs has one of the best selection of hops (I especially like the fact that they carry local hops) but their site is lacking and they don't have much equipment. I hope that this summary helps you find an on-line homebrew store that works for you. If you come across a site that I've missed, please contact me. Update 2011-01-03: Since the Mashing Heads website is reported by Google as containing malware and because I've received a report of someone who's lost money from an unhonored order, I've removed this site from the article. Beware of this merchant. Update 2012-02-19: Added Brewer's Pantry to the list. |