calman

Recipes 

Twice I printed out recipes, which had 6-7 different ingredients, from the web (hefe and porter) and brought them to my LHBS and they didn't carry some of the ingredients. They chopped down the recipe and what I got was DME+one bag of hop+one bag of grain+yeast, instead of two, three different kind of hops, different kind of grains according to the recipes. Even online, I can't seem to order like 0.5 oz of some hops or grains! How do you manage this? Do you buy and stock most of the ingredients and it just a matter of getting them out and measure the amount as a recipe says?
I am still an extracted HB.

Janx

Recipes 

I keep a lot of stuff on hand. I generally order nice fresh hops several pounds at a time and grain a couple hundred pounds at a time.

If you're going to keep brewing regularly, there's no reason not to have a lot of your favorite hops around. Remember, you don't have to follow recipes to the letter. You can always substitute different flavor/aroma hops for example.

If you're an extract brewer, having a lot of DME (lightest you can find) is a good thing, because it's the only kind of extract you need.

Cheers

__________________
Oh don't give me none more of that Old Janx Spirit
No, don't you give me none more of that Old Janx Spirit
For my head will fly, my tongue will lie, my eyes will fry and I may die
Won't you pour me one more of that sinful Old Janx Spirit

Lou

Recipes 

this is a funny statement.

is it an issue of them not having the ingredients, not having the ingredients in the size you need, or do they just like to f around with other people's recipes?

if the situation is the 1st one i mentioned, what are you looking for that they don't stock? may be time to find a new HBS....

if it's the 2nd, most people just buy more than they need and use it for the next batch or something...

if it's the 3rd, kick 'em in the balls and find a new HBS.

cweston

Recipes 

DME keeps a long time, esp in the freezer. Just make sure you keep it dry.

Pellet hops keep very well in the freezer, especially if you have a food saver or a vac-u-vin container to minimize oxidation.

Whole hops are a little more perishable but still keep pretty well in the freezer if protected from light.

Whole grain keeps forever. Crushed grain not as well, but it'll still keep months if well stored.

If you really don't want to buy any extra ingredients, Austin Homebrew is good about selling fractions of pounds of crushed grains.

Sounds like your LHBS may have a fairly limited selection on hand.

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Primary: none
Secondary:
Bottle conditioning: Robust Porter
Drinking: Saison Dupont clone, tripel
Coming soon: Columbus APA, Rich Red ale

God Emporer BillyBrew

Recipes 

Are you sure that the one bag didn't contain several different kinds of grain? That's how they do it at my LHBS.

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Desert Planet Brewing Co.

Primary :Bloody Nose Porter
Primary 2: Bloody Nose Porter
Secondary: Blackberry Melomel
Secondary 2:air
Bottled : 14 Pound Hammer Cider, Punkin Ale, know ale, Domino wheat
Keg 1: **** Inside Her
Keg 2: IPA
Keg 3: one on a weeknight, two on a weekend IIPA
Future : Ginger Cream Ale,

Brewpastor

Recipes 

If I have a recipe I follow it and if a LHBS doesn't have what I need I go cyber shopping. To me it is like any other recipe, each ingredient is important and if a change is to be made it should be done so with forethought, and not simply because Joe Proprietor has some stock to move. The other approach is to go and see what stock is available at the LHBS and build from there. But I don't like people changing my recipes unless I ask for it.

__________________
Before I learned to brew I was poor, sober and lonely. Now I am just poor.

brewhead

Recipes 

I'm a distracted HB and i guess we're extremely lucky to have a lbhs. i create a recipe and send it to them via email. they will usually turn it around within a matter of hours since our lbhs here is also a microbrewery/contract brewer so they are usually busy - but usually not too busy not to critique my recipe and give me helpful pointers. which is reassuring from guys who are former home brewers turned pro. usually they crush all the grains into one bag for me. and they adjust the hops weight based on this year's aa for any individual hop.

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david_42

Recipes 

The freezer part of my kegger is full on partial bags of LME, grain, hops, ginger root, etc. Gets sticky some times.

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Remember one unassailable statistic, as explained by the late, great George Carlin: "Just think of how stupid the average person is, and then realize half of them are even stupider!"