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Frequently Asked Questions

What is U-Brew?

We sell you the ingredients, and the service of handling your beer, wine or cider through its fermentation cycle. Once it’s complete, we set you up to bottle it yourself and take it home. We care for it and handle all the “tough” parts of brewing while still making you your own individual batch made to your tastes.

Since you own the ingredients, there’s no liquor tax on what you make – it’s similar to home brewing, but without the mess. Want to add your own special something? Fresh hops from your garden? An imported vanilla bean to your Merlot? Earl Grey Tea to your Cider? We can help you out. You can enjoy your own personal batch!

Since this is what we do, we have the facilities to properly clean things easily, to keep your batch at consistent temperatures, to properly filter and process what we’ve made together in a way that most home brewers can’t achieve without a significant dedication to the hobby.

How long does it take to brew?

Beer

Ales: 2-3 weeks for fermenting
Lagers: 4-5 weeks for fermenting

Wine

4, 5, 6, or 8 week kits + desired bottle aging time

Cider

3 Weeks

What is the average cost of beer, wine and cider?

One of the funny little details of BC Liquor regulations is U-Brew facilities cannot advertise the “price per bottle” or “price per can” of what we make together – we’re only allowed to advertise the price for the full batch size! You’ll have to do a little math, but here we go:

Beer

All of our Beer batches yield about 48L of finished beer. Co-incidentally, a standard beer can is 355mL.

Beer starts at $170.00 for a 48L batch of our basic Glacial Lager, and goes up to $200.00 for a fully Custom IPA with your own selection of hops.

Wine

Our wine batches produce about 23L of quality wine ready to be aged to perfection (or maybe consumed a little sooner than that, it’s up to you!). A standard wine bottle is 750mL.

Our 4-Week WineXpert Classic kits start at $165.00 while our absolute premium 8-Week WineXpert Reserve kits for those who intend to cellar their bottles for quite some time comes out at $285.00. We carry 4, 5, 6 and 8-week wine kits. How to Choose your Wine

Cider

Our in-house crafted cider is made exclusively from BC apples and comes in either a 23L or a 46L batch. Most cider cans are 355mL.

A 23L batch of TCB Premium Cider is $114.99 or we can make a 46L batch for $199.99. We can also do Hopped Cider for $124.99 per 23L or $219.99 for a 46L batch.

What are the batch sizes of beer, wine and cider?

Beer

Approximately 48 Litres

48 Litres is about 135 standard beer cans or bottles, or about 74 650mL “Bomber” bottles like we used to see in the craft beer section of the liquor store.

Wine

Approximately 22 Litres

22 Litres is a bit over 29 standard sized wine bottles.

Cider

Approximately 23 or 46 Liters

23L is about 64 355mL cans. 46L is about twice that, at 128 355mL cans.

Are gift cards available?

Absolutely! We have gift cards available for purchase in our store at 1616 Clark Drive – pop by any time and we’ll be glad to help you out.

Alternatively you can give us a call at 604-875-0600 and we can help you over the phone then mail you a gift card at no additional charge.

Why is it better to brew onsite at Terminal City Brewing?

Terminal City Brewing is a Micro Brewery on a Nano Scale. In addition to the best materials, ingredients, and technology available onsite, you get:

  • NO Beer Kits
  • NO Chemicals
  • NO Cleanup
  • NO Sediment
  • 100% Natural ingredients

We can provide better facilities than most folks can achieve at home; we have temperature-controlled ale, lager, and wine fermentation rooms along with our massive walk-in cooler for cold crashing finished beer and cider. We have the equipment on-site to ensure proper sanitation, which is about half of the work involved in brewing. Our force carbonation system gives commercial-level finished results for our beer and cider without the yeasty bottle bottoms and waiting that you’d get from bottle-conditioned beer or cider at home.

Can I provide my own recipes and ingredients?

We will always do our best to accommodate special requests. Here are some things we are happy to do:
  • Custom hop or grain additions to beers
  • Beer recipes that are compatible with our wort production
  • Addition of special adjuncts (honey, chocolate, espresso, caramel, etc)
  • Use of your own fresh hops
  • Cider made from your own juice
At this time, we are NOT able to handle any of these in store, though we carry almost everything you’ll need to do these at home:
  • Mead (the fermentation time for mead is several months)
  • Wine from your own grapes or grape juice
  • Processing of apples or other fruit to extract juice

We are always happy to provide advice on home brewing projects and we carry a wide range of supplies and equipment:
Home Brewing Supplies and Equipment

How many bottles do I need? Can I bring my own bottles?

We have Beer Bottles and Wine Bottles are available for sale – the number of bottles you will need will depend on the size of bottles you choose. Generally, a batch of beer will be about 135 standard size beer bottles/cans and a batch of wine is about 29 standard wine bottles.

You are welcome to provide your own bottles, however the cleanliness of your bottles has a significant impact on the storage life and quality of your end product. As a result, we cannot guarantee anything packaged in used bottles. We are happy to help you assess any bottles you may have and we have facilities to properly sanitize otherwise clean bottles before filling.

BEER/CIDER BOTTLING OPTIONS    WINE BOTTLING OPTIONS   CARING FOR YOUR BOTTLES

What is the environmental impact of U-brew versus other breweries?

U-brew by its very nature is environmentally friendly. Our customers typically re-use their bottles dozens if not hundreds of times, preventing packaging waste. While you can of course return or recycle beer and wine bottles, very few breweries re-use bottles – at best they are destroyed and recycled to create new bottles. Reducing the amount of packaging associated with your beer, wine or cider is an environmental bonus.

We try and minimize our environmental footprint here at Terminal City Brewing – for instance all of our spent brewing grains are used as cattle feed at a local farm in Richmond. We have a recycling program in place for the other waste involved in our production process such as soft plastics and cardboard. We also make our wine kit boxes available for our customers to take home their products – reuse beats recycling every time!

Can I sell products I make at Terminal City Brewing?

No. All Terminal City Brewing products are meant for your personal use. All liquor sold must be supplied by the BC Liquor Board. For more information, contact the BC Liquor Control Board and BC Liquor Stores.

LIQUOR AND CANNABIS REGULATION    BC LIQUOR STORE    SPECIAL EVENT PERMIT MANUAL

Can I serve Terminal City Brewing products at my wedding or other event with a Special Event Permit?

You may serve UBrew/UVin or homemade beer, cider or wine, as long as the event is a family event or a wine or beer competition and the liquor is provided free of charge.  You can find more information on Special Event Permits here:

BC Liquor and Cannabis Licensing – Special Event Permits

Can I give away my Terminal City Brewing products?

Yes. You can give away your TCB products to friends and family.

How long will the beer last?

All our brews are 100% natural with no preservatives added. It is imperative you store your beer in a cool dark place (a fridge is ideal). Basically, we think the shelf life is about 2 months. The more hops in the beer the longer the life. Beer lasts longer in the winter than in the summer. Storage and bottle cleanliness are the main factors in shelf life.

For more information about TCB Beer

BEER

How long will the wine last?

Provided you are using clean, sterile bottles your wine can last for many years, depending on your storage conditions. The standard wine corks we provide are suitable for about 18 months of bottle storage; if you are planning on storing your wine for longer periods of time, talk to us about specialty corks. Wine should be stored upright for the first few weeks after bottling, then turned on its side. Light and heat will both degrade your wine; the best storage place is somewhere cool and dark such as a storage unit, back of a closet, corner of a basement, etc.

For more information about TCB Wine

WINE

How long will the cider last?

Cider should be treated like beer and kept in a cool, dark place. We have stored cider for over a year in simple PET bottles kept refrigerated

For more information about TCB Cider

CIDER

Terminal City Brewing As Craft As It Gets

CONTACT US

Hours

Mon: Maintenance Day (No Bottling)
Usually here 11:00am-7:00pm but no guarantees! 
Tues - Fri: 10:00am - 8:00pm
Sat/Sun: 10:00am - 5:00pm

Address

1616 Clark Dr.
Vancouver, BC
V5L 4Y2

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