Cedar Rapids Brewing Society

There is a new homebrew and winemaking shop open in Cedar Falls. It is called Kitchen Wines and Brews located at 1804 Waterloo Road. I spoke with the owner today. He has many beer and wine kits and is increasing his grain supplies weekly. He has most base malts and is getting in some more specialty grain. Also some hop pellet bags from Hop Union and dry yeasts. He has placed an order with White Labs and is expecting that in soon. I am planning to pick up a few things either Friday or Saturday so will update this post on what he has. He said you can call and order about anything and he will try to get it in. He is really interested in helping out the homebrew clubs so could maybe have him down to a meeting and he could plug his store there. Their phone number is 319-266-6173. He is open Tuesday through Saturday 10-5ish.

That's great news! I would be very curious on his pricing for grains.

Definately would be worth a trip up there.

Would be cool to be able to get sacks of grain other than Briess. I know it would be homebrew retail price but at least you could take shipping out of the equation.

are there any other close homebrew shops?

I probably will not get there this weekend. The next closest shop is in Dubuque, I've never been to that one.

I have been to the one in Dubuque. It's a nice shop and the owner was friendly and had a nice selection of stuff. He had a good selection of grains and you can buy whole sacks. I seem to remember hum having Wyerman, Best, Cargill, and a few others.I can't recall what his bag prices were, but they seemed reasonable.


On 01/27/2012 10:08 PM, johnnyik wrote:

I probably will not get there this weekend. The next closest shop is in Dubuque, I've never been to that one.



John Eikenberry

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It will be nice to know that you can get something with a 2 hour trip instead of a 4-5 day wait.

In case nobody knew, Dubuque is about the same distance and they have the Bluff Street Brew Haus on Bluff Street. It is a very nice place and the owner Jerrry Anderson is very knowledgeable. He has a full line of wyeast, grain, pretty much anything you could want and he is very reasonable. New Glarus beers and some good liquor stores in east dubuque are also just across the river.

Of these two places, which do you guys recommend making runs to get some grain?

I want to plan ahead for maybe some speciality stuff that I didn't order or if I end up running out of any ingredients. What kind of prices can you expect from these places?

The Brew Haus usually charges $1.50 per pound for his base grains, but that isn't to say the specialty grains aren't a little more. You can also buy 50lb sacks from there.

Here is a link to the dubuque store, keep in mind he has more in his store than what is listed on his website.

http://www.bluffbrewhaus.com/

CMLarrison wrote:The Brew Haus usually charges $1.50 per pound for his base grains, but that isn't to say the specialty grains aren't a little more. You can also buy 50lb sacks from there.

Here is a link to the dubuque store, keep in mind he has more in his store than what is listed on his website.

http://www.bluffbrewhaus.com/

You can buy a sack of base malt as well. He usually keeps some on hand.

brownbeard wrote:

CMLarrison wrote:The Brew Haus usually charges $1.50 per pound for his base grains, but that isn't to say the specialty grains aren't a little more. You can also buy 50lb sacks from there.

Here is a link to the dubuque store, keep in mind he has more in his store than what is listed on his website.

http://www.bluffbrewhaus.com/

You can buy a sack of base malt as well. He usually keeps some on hand.

Talked to the owner.

2-row - $45
Pilsner - $50

Those the only two I found out. FYI

When you stop at Bluff Street do yourself a favor and go next door and get some fresh pressed peanut butter. It is incredible!

OK, went to Kitchen Wines and Brews last saturday. They are mostly a wine kit store but he is trying to get more beer stuff all the time. He really wants to know what types of things to get, especially grains. He carried all Briess malts and had all base malts plus a handful of 1# bags of specialty. Also just got White Labs liquid yeasts in. I think the grain was around $1.50 a pound. The wine kits seemed really inexpensive at $60 each (never made a wine kit but some of the kits at NB are $160!!) May be a good way to appease the Mrs.! Anyway, nice little store and a pretty short drive. The more we buy as well, the more he is going to stock.

Sort of related but not totally, I ordered a bunch of grain and some other items from Midwest Supplies last night. Shipping was almost $20 for a little over 50 lbs. of various malts. You say why not use Northern Brewer's flat rate shipping for $7.99. I usually order from one of the two and I put all items I need in to a spreadsheet so I can do a price comparison. Total with shipping from Midwest was $132.17. Total from Northern Brewer was $151.66. That's almost $20 which could buy me some other stuff like beer. I really like Northern Brewer but they usually have much higher prices than other shops. In this case every single item cost more at Northern Brewer. One item I was pricing was $15 at MW and $20 at NB. They were also out of Special B which I needed. Again, I really like Northern Brewer, but they tend to have a premium on pricing.

I get stuff at Bluff Street whenever I am in Dubuque (not frequently) and have had good experiences. Got some close to expired yeast their before but you can bring it back with a starter. Beer Crazy in Des Moines is nice too. My sister brings me stuff from their shop when she is coming to town from Des Moines. I'll check out this new place if I get up that way some time.