Great Fermentations Your HomeBrewing One Stop Shop

Great Fermentations Your HomeBrewing One Stop Shop

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By Writing & Reporting Community Member Lancy Ryskamp 

Fish sticks and Mac-N-Cheese… Most people would not equate this combo with craft beer and wine (though truth be told, I might not be able to resist a Mac-N-Cheese infused beer). But, without this…interesting…food pairing, Indiana’s largest beer and wine making supply shop, Great Fermentations of Indiana (GFI),  may never have come into existence.

For it was a meal of fish sticks and Mac-N-Cheese that was the price to pay for GFI’s founder and owner, Anita Johnson, to learn home brewing from a friend in 1995. After Johnson’s first batch of homebrew, her new passion became her new business, and GFI was born.

GFI’s mantra is “Craft Something Great”, and they have everything you need to do just that. Whether you are a beginner, or a professional, GFI offers top quality supplies for home beer, wine, cheese, soda, cider and mead-making.

If beer is your home brew of choice, Great Fermentations has beer kits that can take out all of the guesswork for a beginner, as well as All-Grain kits and ingredients to challenge advanced brewers. As for equipment, GFI has everything to brew, clean, bottle and keg your beer, including all of the stainless-steel Blichmann Engineering products you need. One of GFI’s newest products is malted brewing malt from Sugar Creek Malt Company, locally grown in Indiana’s Boone County. Add this to you beer-making supplies, and your home brew will be truly local.

If wine is more your style, you can turn your home into the finest wine country from around the world. Winemakers have a choice of fruit wine bases and fresh grape juice, as well as a wide array of wine kits, featuring domestic and foreign varieties of Cab, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Zinfandel, just to name a few. And you will need something to make your wine in, so GFI offers bottling and wine-making equipment, including several one-gallon, small batch kits.

And Great Fermentations does not stop by just selling you supplies. GFI also offers monthly a wide range of classes, from beginner to advanced, in how to make all of these products. And if that is still not enough for home brewers, the shop also sells books on beer and wine-making and other hobby-related topics, ranging from distilling whiskey to keeping bees in your backyard.


Along with all of these fine product choices, Great Fermentations also gives its customers the option of two store locations: Indianapolis, at 5127 E. 65th Street; and, Avon, which is west of Indianapolis, at 7900 E. US Highway 36.

But, say you don’t live in Central Indiana (or even in Indiana at all), or you want the convenience of being able to order at home… maybe while enjoying your own Mac-N-Cheese and fish sticks. Great Fermentations has you covered there, by offering the convenience of shopping for all of its products online on its website at www.greatfermentations.com. Buy their products, enroll in a class, read their blog, and meet the GFI team, with a combined 45+ years of beer and wine-making experience between them, all with the click of a mouse. 

Besides their website, Great Fermentations can be found all over social media, on Facebook, YouTube (www.youtube.com/user/gr8fermentations), Google +, Twitter and Instagram (@gr8fermentation). To contact GFI by phone, call (317)-257-9463 for the Indianapolis location, and (317)-268-6776 for the Avon location. Store hours for each are as follows: Monday through Friday, 11 a.m.-7p.m. (except for Tuesdays in Avon, 11 a.m. – 6p.m.); Saturdays, 10a.m. – 6p.m.; and, Sundays, 12:01 p.m. – 3:59 p.m.

So you have no more excuses not to try beer and wine-making at home. Great Fermentations is truly a one-stop shop, not only to get you started, but also to keep you going. GFI takes all of the worry out of home brewing, so as one of their T-shirts says: Keep Calm and Brew On!


4 Comments
  • Nathan T.
    Posted at 10:16h, 17 July Reply

    I had no idea that’s what they did. I live in Avon. Will check them out!

  • Matthew Hart
    Posted at 11:09h, 17 July Reply

    I buy my homebrew ingredients here. Great quality.

  • Zane
    Posted at 11:39h, 17 July Reply

    There’s one of these in Broad Ripple??????

    • Lebowski
      Posted at 11:49h, 17 July Reply

      Zane you been livin under a rock bruh?

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