What grains are in your pantry?

Hi - I'm planning on making a run to a malt warehouse before winter sets in. I'm looking to pick up grain for the next 4-5 months. Problem is, I haven't picked recipes - but tend to follow seasonal norms. Any recommendations on how best to generically stock a pantry with grain for about 15 5gal brew sessions? I can fill in gaps from the LHBS and bulk pricing is good enough that I don't mind some spoilage.

I know - impossible question to answer without knowing my tastes, but I'm just looking for some insight into what you have stockpiled as guidance.

I could easily do away with the 2-Row and just go MO and Pilsner for those beers.

Pilsner
2-Row pale
Maris Otter
Wheat
Munich
Vienna
20L
40L
60L
120L
Chocolate
Roasted
Carapils
Flaked Maize
CaraVienne
Honey Malt
Special B
Biscuit
Aromatic

Based on beer that I brew commonly, I could get away with MO, roasted and some wheat.

Aromatic
Black Malt
Black Barley
Cara-Pils
C10L
C20L
C40L
C60L
C90L
C120L
Chocolate Malt
Munich 10L
Maris Otter -2 row
Pale Chocolate
Pilsner
Roasted Barley
Special B
Special Roast
Victory
White Wheat Malt

Based on what I normally brew and what other people want.
Maris Otter
C 55L
Special Roast
(That's all I need)
For the others
Bohemian Pilsner
Cara-Pils
Roasted Barley
Flaked Barley

-a.

You just need pale ale malt.

With it you can make anything from pale ale to old ale, which should get you through the dark days of winter until your taste buds once again spring forth.

The real question is what kind of hops do you need to stock?

Hrmmm... You just need fuggles.

Yes, pale malt and fuggles. There is your answer. Pale malt, fuggles, and an ale yeast.

Hey, just think of all the people who go through the winter happily drinking just their one brand of beer. I'll bet Cindy Lou Who's father was happy just drinking their village Who beer.

The Pol said:

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You answered another question - whether it's worth it to vacuum seal or not. I was thinking only for specialty grains, but looks like you've got some big tubes of base grain there. Guess that makes sense since you can keep on resealing as you draw down.

I have 55# bags of wheat, pilsner and munich malt. My recent batches have included a cream ale, belgian witbier, sweet stout, cherry stout and an american wheat ale. On deck are another cream ale and a belgian pale ale.

Cheers!

pdbreen said:

You answered another question - whether it's worth it to vacuum seal or not. I was thinking only for specialty grains, but looks like you've got some big tubes of base grain there. Guess that makes sense since you can keep on resealing as you draw down.

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Yeah, it was an easy way to store it... necessary, no. But it keeps everything out, humidity, everything.

The Pol said:

Yeah, it was an easy way to store it... necessary, no. But it keeps everything out, humidity, everything.

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Where do you buy your specialty grains? I have about the same. Wish we had a good LHBS that carried specialty of any quantity. Going to a new shop in Louisville tomorrow. 15 gallons of cider is up tomorrow. Its cider until brew rig is finished.

I wish my stock of grain would fit in a pantry....

Wait... No I don't...

Depending on what styles you brew, you could do well with a sack of 2 row or maris otter, a sack of wheat, 5 or 6 lbs of crystal 60, 5lbs of carapils, 3 lbs of roast barley, 3lbs of chocolate malt, 2 lbs of flaked oats, and 3lbs of assorted hops.

Just grab a bunch of base grains, a few pounds of specialty malts, and brew with what ya got!

Dog House Brew said:

Where do you buy your specialty grains? I have about the same. Wish we had a good LHBS that carried specialty of any quantity. Going to a new shop in Louisville tomorrow. 15 gallons of cider is up tomorrow. Its cider until brew rig is finished.

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I buy the vast majority of malt at Midcountry Malt.

55# of imported 2-Row was $27
55# of imported pilsner was $35
55# of Munich was like $36
55# of Vienna was like #36
55# of Maris Otter was $40

etc....

No shipping, just pick it up

I'm paying $45 for Breiss 2 row. I guess it would be worth a trip to Chicago if I were buying a years supply, enen though it would be 10 hrs round trip. They want $60 for a sack of MO. That's why I've never used MO. Sad when prices dictate what you make. I know people need to make a living, but come on.

Is MO really that significantly different from standard issue 2-row? I ask because I'm gearing up with a friend and am wondering which we should get for our main base malt. Is MO something that could be added in smaller amounts, say 10%, and still have the same effect?

~Mike~

ftlstrings said:

Is MO really that significantly different from standard issue 2-row? I ask because I'm gearing up with a friend and am wondering which we should get for our main base malt. Is MO something that could be added in smaller amounts, say 10%, and still have the same effect?

~Mike~

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Not really. If that's the way you wanted to go, something like 5% Munich added plain 2row might get close to Maris Otter.

Maris Otter is a cultivar that is usually malted to British Pale Ale standard. I use MO exclusively because I think it adds "something" to my beers that is/was missing with just US 2-row. I brew mostly english and malty american beer, however.

Dog House Brew said:

I'm paying $45 for Breiss 2 row. I guess it would be worth a trip to Chicago if I were buying a years supply, enen though it would be 10 hrs round trip. They want $60 for a sack of MO. That's why I've never used MO. Sad when prices dictate what you make. I know people need to make a living, but come on.

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Worth the trip... yes. $45 for Briess when you can buy all imported malts of higher quality (with a malt analysis) for $27-$36 for 55# sacks seems silly.

My LHBS has bad pricing on grain, so I get bulk from MidCountry, I dont like being raped... much.

The Pol said:

Worth the trip... yes. $45 for Briess when you can buy all imported malts of higher quality (with a malt analysis) for $27-$36 for 55# sacks seems silly.

My LHBS has bad pricing on grain, so I get bulk from MidCountry, I dont like being raped... much.

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Went to the new LHBS in Louisville and the price for bag was $45 for Breiss. Why is it that eveyone here only sells Breiss? Malt analysis? Oh I get an analysis, "Yup that is a bag of Breiss alright" Must have the best margin I guess. I will be making a trip and working on how to store a bunch of bulk malt. My wife lived in Indy for several years. May have to look up some friends and split the trip. Thanks for the info. I take it they are easy to deal with?

Very easy, call them up, place an order, and pick it up.

Thanks for the guidance/suggestions! Just put my order in at North Country Malt for 375lbs of grain, spread across the following:

Thomas Fawcett
T101 Maris Otter 155lbs
T701 Amber 10lbs
T601 Pale Crystal 10lbs
T602 Crystal Malt I 10lbs
T602A Crystal Malt II 10lbs
T603A Dark Crystal Malt II 10lbs
T802 Chocolate Malt 5lbs
T901 Black Malt 5lbs
T1001 Roasted Barley 5lbs
T1002 Flaked Barley 5lbs

Best Malz
B101 Pilsen 55lbs
B601 Pale Wheat 55lbs
B301 Vienna 10lbs
B201 Light Munich 10lbs
B502 Caramel Malt Light 10lbs

I figure I should be able to come up with 20-25 batches and look forward to the challenge of coming up with recipies that will draw down the specialty grains and base grains at the same pace.

All I gotta say is that bulk grain buys are awesome and dangerous. Here is my list of just the base malts: Thank god for Homer Buckets. As for specialty malts. I got quite a bit too...gotta ramp up production

Marris Otter: #90
Vienna: 55
Wheat:90
Pale: 120
Brown Malt: 65
Munich: 14
Pilsner:55

I bought:

2 sacks of Pilsen malt
1 sack of Munich
1 sack of Torrefied wheat
1 "sack" of rice hulls
10 lbs Wheat malt
5 lbs Chocolate Malt
5 lbs Roasted Barley
5 lbs Caramel 80

I store the sack volumes in http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/pr...splastic&category_name=29164&product_id=31400 and they're downright awesome. I still need to get some smaller sized containers. When US Plastics sends you a catalog to flip through, it starts getting dangerous!

This was my summer/fall supply, I need to head back to North Country Malt and stock up for winter. I'll probably pick up Vienna to complement the remaining Munich, more crystals of different grades, some aromatic and a few more of the darker grains.

pdbreen said:

Thanks for the guidance/suggestions! Just put my order in at North Country Malt for 375lbs of grain, spread across the following:

Thomas Fawcett
T101 Maris Otter 155lbs
T701 Amber 10lbs
T601 Pale Crystal 10lbs
T602 Crystal Malt I 10lbs
T602A Crystal Malt II 10lbs
T603A Dark Crystal Malt II 10lbs
T802 Chocolate Malt 5lbs
T901 Black Malt 5lbs
T1001 Roasted Barley 5lbs
T1002 Flaked Barley 5lbs

Best Malz
B101 Pilsen 55lbs
B601 Pale Wheat 55lbs
B301 Vienna 10lbs
B201 Light Munich 10lbs
B502 Caramel Malt Light 10lbs

I figure I should be able to come up with 20-25 batches and look forward to the challenge of coming up with recipies that will draw down the specialty grains and base grains at the same pace.

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Now that is what I call a bulk buy :rockin:

Bases: 2-row, 6-row, Munich
Higher L than bases but not converted: Victory, Melanoidin, and Honey Malt.
Crystals: 15L, 40L, 60L, 80L, 120L
Roasted: Pale Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate Wheat, Carafa II special, Roasted barley, black patent.
Adjunct grains: Corn, Wheat, Barley.

Dog House Brew said:

Now that is what I call a bulk buy :rockin:

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Gotta make it through winter and mud season (mid to late April)! UPS/FedEx deliveries get very unpredictable in the winter and the LHBS is about an hour away.

Dog House Brew said:

Went to the new LHBS in Louisville and the price for bag was $45 for Breiss. Why is it that eveyone here only sells Breiss? Malt analysis? Oh I get an analysis, "Yup that is a bag of Breiss alright" Must have the best margin I guess. I will be making a trip and working on how to store a bunch of bulk malt. My wife lived in Indy for several years. May have to look up some friends and split the trip. Thanks for the info. I take it they are easy to deal with?

Click to expand...

I live in French Lick, If you are close I would be interested in going in with you on a bulk buy if you are interested. The pres. of the suds club knows a guy from the brewery in evansville and gets good prices but they just "re-upped" so it's gonna be a some time before they get some new. I havn't been to the place in Louisville. The place in corydon is not theat cheap and the place in bloomington in 1.40/lb for MO in bulk. lemme know

I need more 2 row.

pdbreen said:

Gotta make it through winter and mud season (mid to late April)! UPS/FedEx deliveries get very unpredictable in the winter and the LHBS is about an hour away.

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Which is closer, Winooski or Plainfield? Local Potion opened in Plainfield a while back. I'm up by Burlington, so Winooski is only like 10 minutes each way, plus the Beverage Warehouse is right there.

Hotspur said:

Which is closer, Winooski or Plainfield? Local Potion opened in Plainfield a while back. I'm up by Burlington, so Winooski is only like 10 minutes each way, plus the Beverage Warehouse is right there.

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I keep meaning to visit Local Potion - it should be closer. But, I usually end up at Vermont Homebrew with the excuse that I can stop in Burlington or the big box stores.

And, thanks for the pointer to Beverage Warehouse. I had only heard of/been to Richmond Beverage (outside of the co-ops) - which is good - but definitely not "every beer available in VT". Guess I'll just have to make a stop there on the way back from North Country Malt tomorrow.

Dang - just looked at the map. Beverage Warehouse is in the same parking lot as Vermont Homebrew! How could I have missed it so many times??

Probably pretty typical. I don't usually have a bunch of different crystal malts on-hand. Just the four I listed are able to cover most anything imo. Home-toasted malts instead of Victory/Biscuit/etc.

Base malts
Pilsner
Maris Otter
Wheat
Munich
Special Aromatic

Specialty malts
Honey malt
Aromatic
home-toasted malts

Crystal malts
Carafoam (2L)
Crisp Caramalt (17L)
Simpsons Medium Crystal (55L)
Special B (150L)

Roasted malts/grains
Chocolate
Roasted Barley
Carafa Special II

Adjuncts
Flaked Oats
Flaked Barley

pdbreen said:

Dang - just looked at the map. Beverage Warehouse is in the same parking lot as Vermont Homebrew! How could I have missed it so many times??

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Priceless!

You're probably going to spend as much at Beverage Warehouse as the Homebrew Supply. They have a good selection, and are aggressively adding more.

Made my first trip out to North Country Malt today - which is essentially a warehouse with a few loading docks and a small office with a couple people handling the order flow (which seemed to be steady - even heard the name of a VT brewery placing an order).

I learned that their prices are good to great for sacks of grain, but if you get less than a sack, prices are ~$1.50+/lb (for UK/German grains). But the grain comes in either 1/5/10lb sealed bags which is kind of nice. In the future, I think I'll stick with them for full sacks or grains I can't find anywhere else, but use the LHBS for the odd pounds here or there.

And, I did make a stop a Beverage Warehouse in Winooski which did indeed have the best selection I've seen in VT (possibly even better than Downtown Wine & Spirits in Somerville, MA where I used to live). They had many beers I've been wanting to try (Brooklyn Chocolate Stout, Flying Dog Imperial Porter, Sierra Nevada Celebration) and probably others (I couldn't really figure out how things were organized and they were short handed, so no staff to field questions).

All in all, a good day! Now, I just need to figure out what to do with 50lbs of rice hulls...

Use them in 200 brews

pdbreen said:

Now, I just need to figure out what to do with 50lbs of rice hulls...

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Haha, I'm not the only one who bought a full block of those!

Also, I think the shop in Winooski charges $1.89/lb for grain, so NCM is still a bit of a discount for 5 and 10 lb bags. I've been to NCM twice now, and they've been helpful and friendly both times, I just need to brew more so I have an excuse to go back! The drive there is very relaxing. Also, you can get specific malt analysis for the sacks if you ask, they have them for every batch. I got them the last time, but I don't do enough fiddling to need that information. I can see some of the really technical guys here doing SOMETHING with it.

The real question is - Did you spend more at NCM or the Beverage Warehouse?