Where to buy grains and other stuff in NB?

[d_hilchie]

Hello everyone,

New to brewing and new to this forum, located in Saint John! I have been gifted a lot of brewing gear and I have a million and one questions but I will try and make different threads as I think of them rather than spewing them all here!

So far I have only been brewing Festa brew kits but I have recently stumbled upon a free turkey cooker. It has a 38000 BTU rating and a 5 gal pot (I also have a 10 gal cooler for a mash tun) . My next step would be buying grain to do an all grain (maybe partial boil)  boil. I am interested in doing wiesen, hefewiesens, shocktop style, lagers, sours, stouts, red and blond ales. As you can already probably tell I'm not a huge fan of hops by my beer selection. The question is where do you buy your grains at? Is there a local place to buy the bulk of it then go to the "interwebs" to find the specialty. Also I'm not picky on hitting the German styles exactly so if I could find a substitute locally that will do the trick that's fine with me. I will also need yeast and hops as well I guess.... 

Any thoughts or suggestions would be awesome!

Cheers 

[shazapple]

When I got into all grain I started off by ordering kits online which I would recommend because it allows you to get familiar with your equipment and process. Recipes can get confusing and there seems to be 100 different names for the same grain. The kits come with instructions, and the grains were pre-crushed and measured, which eliminates the need for a grain mill, scale, grain storage, etc. I got some from ontariobeerkegs.com and I think everwoodavebrewshop.com (based in halifax) offers them too

Once you are familiar with that you can check out local shops that have grains available. I believe nbcbm.ca is in the SJ area, and maybe some of the wine making stores might have some supplies as well (the Fredericton Noble Grape has a decent supply of grains available, as well as a grain mill to use). You can also order bulk off the internet from the sites I mentioned above.

Once your addiction is fully entrenched you can become a paid member of this group in order to be part of the group buys. You can order full bags (55lb) or splits (5.5lb) of grain (pickup is in Fredericton though).

[Roger]

I see you have a 5 gallon pot if you're planning to to 5 gallon batches you're going to need a pot that's bigger like 7-8 gallon capacity. Due to the foam that's produced before the hot break and the expansion of the liquid when it's hot. Bigger is better when it comes to pots that way you don't have issues with boilovers.
Good luck with your new addiction... 

[feldmann]

The advice from the two posters above me is pretty spot on so I'll just talk a little about vendors. shazapple is right, the The NB Craft Brewer's Market is your closest vendor, they have a pretty good selection and you'll probably get the best price from them when you factor in shipping. In all my interactions the owner is really good at communicating if you want a certain thing or have questions.

Personally I bounce between Ontario Beer Kegs, Everwood Ave Brew Shop, East Coast Hoppers and the NB Craft Brewer's market based on who has exactly what I need, who is having a sale or who just recently posted that they got a fresh order of yeast in.

[d_hilchie]

Thanks everyone for the replies! 

I see you have a 5 gallon pot if you're planning to to 5 gallon batches you're going to need a pot that's bigger like 7-8 gallon capacity. Due to the foam that's produced before the hot break and the expansion of the liquid when it's hot. Bigger is better when it comes to pots that way you don't have issues with boilovers.
Good luck with your new addiction... 

This is why I was thinking on doing a partial boil. I would make my mash really concentrated do the boil at 4 gals  (throwing a number out there) and then top up in the wort with bottled water to 5 gal as it holds 5.5 gal. this will also help with cooling as I don't have a chiller. The only issue I have read by doing this is that it makes your hop flavor absorption low because of the high sugar concentration from the mash but I could always tinker with that.

I do ultimately plan on going bigger here shortly but I would like to get going sooner rather than later so I thought the partial boil method would suffice. Also I don't mind weighing out things and calculations as I have a heavy laboratory background so buying grains right off would be ok but if I could by milled stuff that would be helpful.

[robcoombs]

Hello everyone,

New to brewing and new to this forum, located in Saint John! I have been gifted a lot of brewing gear and I have a million and one questions but I will try and make different threads as I think of them rather than spewing them all here!

So far I have only been brewing Festa brew kits but I have recently stumbled upon a free turkey cooker. It has a 38000 BTU rating and a 5 gal pot (I also have a 10 gal cooler for a mash tun) . My next step would be buying grain to do an all grain (maybe partial boil)  boil. I am interested in doing wiesen, hefewiesens, shocktop style, lagers, sours, stouts, red and blond ales. As you can already probably tell I'm not a huge fan of hops by my beer selection. The question is where do you buy your grains at? Is there a local place to buy the bulk of it then go to the "interwebs" to find the specialty. Also I'm not picky on hitting the German styles exactly so if I could find a substitute locally that will do the trick that's fine with me. I will also need yeast and hops as well I guess.... 

Any thoughts or suggestions would be awesome!

Cheers 

You don't like hops? Better keep that to yourself or they'll boot you from the club.

All joking aside, welcome and feel free to post any questions you may have. Lots of knowledge collectively in this group.



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