Buying Brewing Ingredients for Building Beers

Ok team.. I did some searching for this but couldn't find anything. (not a big fan of the search utility here either btw)

I have some ingredients questions that might be worth an FAQ link.. but I guess we'll see.

I have ingredients for a kit that I'll probably brew within the week but I'm curious as to how to go about buying ingredients for building recipies.

I'd like to be a frugal as I can and buy commonly used items.

I've read some threads about folks buying 55lb bags of DME and grains so i figure they are either brewing a TON of beer or they are storing it very well.

I'm interested in how long DME, LME, Pellet Hops and various specialty grains will last if stored well.

TIA!
Will

Well I heard of a guy who bought a 55lb bag of 2-row, but it turns out his teeth wore out and he died from a bloated stomach before he found mill for it...

It' my understanding that un-milled grain will last up to and past a year if properly stored, ie. cool and dry. I have mine in a big Calgary Flames Rubbermaid bin (they were on sale, probably get a better deal if they get knocked out of the playoffs too.)

And really 55lbs is about 8 batches or so, so the price break is well within 'good deal' territory.

This is my understanding:

DME will store indefinitely if kept air tight and dry, LME will not last as long, and also should be kept sealed.

Pellet hops will store for a few months in the freezer with minimum loss in bitterness/ aroma.

Grains should also last a few months if stored airtight and dry. I have heard that crushed grains need to be used within a week or so.

- magno

Even though I purchase DME by the 55# box (I have 6 of them in various stages of emptiness BTW), I still have 3# bags of DME that are about 9 years old that look new. They've been stored in primaries with the lids on. Do you remember when 3# cost $8.00? Most I've seen are now $12.50.



Chairman Cheyco: Well I heard of a guy who bought a 55lb bag of 2-row, but it turns out his teeth wore out and he died from a bloated stomach before he found a mill for it...

Now, that's funny! ROFLMAO!! Thanks.

I just went through this process a month or two ago.

I split a 55# sack of extra light DME with a fellow GRABBASShole. I chose xtra light, because it gives me the greatest flexibility. It's only about 4 SRM, so you can make a very light colored beer with it. Throw in some roasted grain, dark crystal, and/or black patent, and you can make some dark beers with it easily. My IPA is very light colored, and my porter is black. Same DME.

I've got this stored in HUGE ziplocks (big enough to put carboys in). BOSTON has an airtight petfood container (and I want to get one... the ziplocks were supposed to be a temporary solution.)

I also split a huge bulk order of hops with more of the crew. I am in the process of perfecting a few recipes, so figuring out what hops I wanted was pretty easy. And oddball ounces here and there I'll buy piecemeal, but I've got huge amounts of my core hops; chinook, fuggles, goldings, cascade, northern brewer. These are vacuum sealed (thanks Baron) and kept in the freezer. I have SOME at room temp, because I had too damn many to put in the freezer.

Specialty grains and yeast are bought as needed, but I do stretch my liquid yeasts out for a a few batches to make the $6 price tag easier to swallow.

-walker

Will (waskelton4),

I'm new here and at this point haven't much of a clue as far as brewing goes (but hope to be a brew master soon), so I don't have anything constructive to say concerning your question.
BUT

I have browsed these forums for about a week and have come across posts by you quite often. In all those times coming across your avatar I never really noticed it thinking you may be a drummer and posted an animation of yourself.
This morning, half asleep it hit me!!!

More cowbell dude!

Tommy

I can find some good deals on DME, 55 lbs, but shipping is a killer. What kind of pricing has been found out there?

Slappy5555 said:

I can find some good deals on DME, 55 lbs, but shipping is a killer. What kind of pricing has been found out there?

Click to expand...

IIRC, Austin Homebrew has free shipping for orders over a certain $ amount, and buying 55#'s of DME should qualify you for that free shipping.

I get mine locally. The LHBS has a couple varieties, priced around $150 (+/- $5) for the 55# lots.

-walker

magno said:

I have heard that crushed grains need to be used within a week or so.

Click to expand...

This one is controversial--many claim that crush grains last a very long time of kept free from moisture. The crushed grains that come with pre-packaged kits have obviously been crushed for longer--way longer, probably--than a week.

Because I don't have a mill yet, I try to buy grains 2-3 batches at a time so they don't have to be stored very long.