Brew-your-own beer has long suffered from an image problem, with folks believing it’s little more than swill; the unrefined work of amateurs; something you’d only do because it’s cheap.

No longer.

These days, making your own is more about raising the bar than lowering the price (though it’s still pretty cheap); more like whipping up a fancy custom dish than slapping together a stir-fry.

Coffee, chocolate and bourbon infused beer, anyone?

“You can experiment with every part of the process; with flavours, ingredients,” says libation entrepreneur Zack Weinberg, 30.

“People are getting into craft everything these days and beer is a big part of that. It’s a big thing right now.”





Especially at Toronto Brewing, near Sheppard Ave. and Allen Rd. Forget the small, weird, head-shop type stores of the past — this place is more like the Whole Foods of brew your own with fresh, whole, exotic ingredients — if in a more industrial setting.

Hidden at the rear of a low rise office complex off Chesswood Dr., the airy space is filled with everything you need. Stroll past the starter kits (the science lab type stuff of pipes and glass bottles range in price from $40 to $100 to make about 20 litres each) and confront rows of fresh, whole grains in every flavour and colour: chocolate malt, caramel malt, biscuit malt, honey malt, amber malt, even flaked corn and rice (bags cost about $2 to $3 per pound). Some are grown locally, others come from afar.

Weinberg stocks more than 100 different strains of fresh yeast imported from all corners of the globe, including sorts that make Belgian wit or German Hefeweizen, he says.

Then, step into the hops room — a cold walk-in space, lit mainly by a string of green Christmas lights, and crammed with more than 100 varieties of the whole cone wheat — some with notes of pine and herbs, others with mango, passion fruit and peppercorn.

Since beer is made by doing little more than infusing water with grain, boiling with hops, then adding yeast for fermentation, (brewing takes about a day and fermenting another seven to 10 days) — the drink is a blank slate, he says.

Infuse with any flavour (staff can help with recipes) after fermentation.

How about a peanut butter and jelly beer to pair with lunch? Or, honey pineapple blond to go with dessert?

Weinberg once brewed a curry beer with cumin, cayenne pepper, kefir lime leaves and toasted coconut (it ended up as a limited edition Great Lakes Brewery beer in 2012 — Weinberg will share the recipe with desiring home brewers).

“You can craft any conceivable beer imaginable,” he says. “You can do anything.”

Which is exactly why and how he started the business. On a trip to San Francisco two years ago, Weinberg was blown away by the taste of a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale — a foreign brew that was citrusy and floral. So when he returned to the city, he went on a mission to match the taste.

When he couldn’t find it — even after sampling “every” bottle at the LCBO — he bought a kit, hunkered down with friends and spent months experimenting with different ingredients.

“We came encouragingly close,” he says, after tracking down specialty grains about an hour outside the city. He fell in love with the craft and the business was born.

Since he opened two years ago, he says, more and more make-your-own enthusiasts pour in ever month.

For now, he doesn’t sell any of his special brews in the store — but, there’s always one of his craft drinks on tap (for him and staff) — and another in the works.

On a recent March morning — barely 10 a.m. — Weinberg strolls along the grain isle of his store with beer in hand. He picks up a bag of Canadian two-row malt, the standard grain for brewing a basic Pilsner; the one that used to dominate the brew-your-own market back in the day.

“This is like the cheese pizza of beer,” he says. He puts it back and looks at the dozens of different types of grain before him.

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“And there’s nothing wrong with that. But what if you want a meat lovers pizza or anything else — something outside the bar.”

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Take a look inside Toronto Brewing at thestar.com/life