Brew Lab

We’ve been here twice now as a family event over the holidays. The kids and hubby have a great time creating the recipes and designing the labels with the names they’ve chosen. We bring snacks or take advantage of the many great downtown OP restaurants while the brewing process is taking place and the time goes by quickly. The return visit to do the bottling isn’t as exciting, but the guys are as helpful as ever in ensuring things are done correctly. The staff is friendly and welcoming and seem to know when to help, when to advise or when to just jump in and take care of it!

Brew Lab has the best selection of malted barley, hops and yeast that I have found in the metro. I stopped in the grab an Irish Red All-​Grain kit for the upcoming St. Patty’s holiday, so I gave my list to the fella working and he weighed it, milled it and packaged it all while I browsed the rest of the store. Great service!
A unique thing they do here that I have not seen anywhere else is that you can actually brew your own beer at Brew Lab. They have really nice electric kettle setups (dream system for this garage brewer) that you can brew on as they help you through the process. It would be a cool bachelor or bachelorette party idea.
Prices are on point with the rest of the area. I give Brew Lab a huge thumbs up for selection and service! Cheers!

My wife gave me a GC for my birthday to brew my own, and I was very impressed with this place. The beer? I have to wait 9 more days for secondary fermentation then we’ll see.
The operation is in a small storefront in old OP. Right near the farmer’s market. They have retail home brew supplies, but focus on «home» brewing for the veteran or novice (me) in the store. They have all the muckety muck and you take home the beer. Brilliant!
And there’s a lot of muckety muck from jars, to tubes, to burners to ingredients. I don’t want it in my basement, trust me.
When you schedule a brew session, they’ll ask if you want to do whole grain or extract. What? It means do you want to start your batch with a shortcut, that most homebrewers think it totally fine, and will save you an hour and a couple of bucks. If its your first time, just say «Extract».
From there, they’ll ask what type of beer you like. I said «Yes.»
Unless you have a recipe, Tyler or someone else will suggest one. Its kind of greek mumbo jumbo, but he insists by the third time you’ll know what hops you might want to try, grain etc.
Then you follow the recipe, adding malt extract (think syrup) to boiling water, the hops at various times for an hour.
There is a lot of down time, and plenty of good restaurants nearby, or bring a book and a friend and a sixpack. The staff will watch your brew while you’re out.
Then you put yeast in a big bottle with the brew (wort) and come back to bottle in two weeks. Then you wait two more weeks (me now).
I had fun. They don’t mind if you bring a bottle or two in (if you share), and my kids were welcome too, when we bottled. Don’t tell child welfare, but my 7 year old daughter loved bottling beer, and she was good at it too.