Speaking of COHO membership, consider joining the club: we have a club brew stand with kettle, mash tun, and everything you need to brew a batch of beer on (except propane, fermenters, and ingredients) that is freely available to members to use. Need CO 2 or oxygen? OXARC in Bend is a good source and offers deals to Central Oregon Homebrewers (COHO) members. There’s no way around it when it comes to acquiring non-ingredient homebrew supplies-you’ll need to visit another store, order online, or scour sites like Craigslist and the like if you need equipment. Many breweries are happy and able to draw a gallon (or however much) of yeast slurry for you to take home and use just reach out and ask. (And if you want to get really, really adventurous, you could always try to culture wild yeast, something like a sourdough starter.)Īnother possibility-after the COVID-19 crisis has passed-is to acquire yeast direct from a brewery. Unless you want to get really adventurous-the grocery stores do stock dried bread yeast. When it comes to dried yeast, same limitations apply. If you want a particular type of yeast from either company, you’ll need to go online or visit another shop a few hours away. Oregon is home to both Wyeast and Imperial Yeast, who offer a wide selection of liquid yeast starters, though neither sells direct to homebrewers. Unfortunately there are no local sources or purveyors of brewing yeast. I haven’t vetted this, but this farm near Sisters has a page to purchase hops, with whole leaf Cascade and Chinook listed. I reached out and found that there are currently no hops available check back later in the year. One we haven’t heard much from recently but still around. No direct list of hop varieties but what I can see on the site for previous years included Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, Crystal, and Nugget. The website currently appears to be down, but they can be contacted at (541) 388-5626 or tumalohopsco -at- gmail -dot- com. The oldest among the local farmers, they grow five varieties: Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, Nugget, and Kent Golding. For the rest of the year, you can try contacting one of the various local hop growers and see if they have hops available for homebrewers. Homebrewers often seem to have an abundance of hops on hand-I have a bunch in my freezer-and there’s a good chance that come summertime there’s ready access to home grown hops. You’ll either have to travel a few hours to another homebrew supply store (I’ve listed some below), or order this online (also listed some resources below). It’s unfortunate, but there are no local options for either liquid or dried malt extract for extract brewers. I’d suggest trying instant corn grits which can go directly into the mash. If you’re adventurous you might try your hand at roasting your own malts in the oven for those darker colors and flavors.Īnd as far as oats and corn go, you can buy both at the grocery store. But it’s fresh and local and provides an authentic Central Oregon terroir you won’t find elsewhere. No, it’s not a wide selection, and you’re limited if you’re looking for things like biscuit or aromatic malt, chocolate and other dark and roasted malts, other grains like oats and corn, and so on. Mecca Grade also sells several raw grains as well. Mecca Grade offers five base malts, two caramel or crystal type malts, two wheat malts, and a rye malt, all grown and malted right there on the farm. Central Oregon is fortunate to have its very own maltster, Mecca Grade Estate Malt, located in Madras. This is a big one, particularly when it comes to specialty grains. So this begs the question, where is the community going to gets its homebrew supplies? So I thought I’d put together a list of ideas and resources to help keep the homebrewers active while we wait for The Brew Shop to reopen (if/when it does).Īnd of course, with current closures and social distancing in full effect due to the pandemic, you may not be able to follow up with these yet. (I don’t know if the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic accelerated the closure.)Ĭentral Oregon has a thriving, active homebrew community, and The Brew Shop has been here in various forms since the 1990s. The Platypus is already closed, and the lease on the building expires at the end of the month, so after the 31st there will be no homebrew store in Bend. The Brew Shop is the region’s sole homebrew supply store, and unfortunately the owners have been unable to find a new location (so far). It’s been coming for awhile: the owner of the property here in Bend that houses The Brew Shop and the Platypus Pub is planning to raze the building to put in a drive-thru coffee stand and retail space.
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