Bulk Grain Purchase for AG

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Turkeyfoot Jr.

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In preparation for making the jump to AG I’m going to pick up some bulk grains from my LHBS and containers to hold them. What I’m shooting for are the base ingredients to make a basic pale ale, amber ale and stout.

I’ll start with the containers. I’m going to get these:

http://www.petsmart.com/product/ind...gkw=gamma&kw=gamma&parentPage=search&keepsr=1

My LHBS uses essentially the same thing and they love them and they say they keep the grains really fresh. I’m going to pick up two of the 50lb. for my base grains and then several of the 15lb. size for my specialty grains. These weights are based on dog food and according to the labeling they will actually hold greater quantities if you’re storing things such as bird seed or in my case grains. From what the folks at PetSmart tell me the 50lb. will actually hold 60 or so pounds of seed and the 15 will hold roughly 17 pounds.

With the containers bought it’s time to contemplate the grains. I have 21 batches of extract/PM under my belt and I’ve tried all kinds of odd stuff so I’m ready to settle down and brew some nice, plain, normal beers. To that end I’m thinking of picking up the following in the corresponding quantities.

2-row – 50lb.
Munich – 50lb.
Carapils – 15lb.
Crystal 20L – 15lb.
Crystal 90L – 15lb.
Chocolate – 15lb.
Roasted Barley – 15lb.

I have recipes I’m just starting to put together for a pale ale, amber ale and stout using various combinations of the above and nothing else. Well, besides hops and yeast of course.

So, what am I missing? Any glaring flaws in this logic? Any recommendations for other grains?
 
If I had to pick only two Crystal grains to use, I'd go with 60 and 120.

Also, some wheat malt or flaked wheat might be nice, and a bit of black patent in addition to the chocolate and roasted barley might round out your dark grain selection a bit better.
 
These are nice for grain and they are about $22.00 delivered.
The guys info is Doug Bradford [email protected]

55 lbs fills it about 3/4 full

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They make great fermenters for 10 gallon batchs too if you add a gromet for the airlock and a spigot or a gas disconect for getting the beer out.
 
Like the gas disconnect from a corny keg, Midwest sells an adapter or you can use a valve stem or a rubber stopper with a valve stem etc.

Adapter
corny-adapter.jpg


Posts
keg-posts.jpg


Dean Palmer has some examples here
 
Not sure how I missed black patent, thanks for catching that. I would have been ticked first time I went to make my stout. I decided to drop the lower crystal all together but unfortunately my LHBS doesn't carry 120L crystal and I want to use them for the purchase.

I'm gonna stick with the Vittle Vaults for a couple reasons. They come in various sizes and I need various amounts of grain depending on the type. I have a limited amount of space to store my grain so another +1 for being able to get smaller containers. Finally, there are several guys I know from the LHBS that use them and love them so while they're going to cost a bit more I feel very certain that they'll be a good investment. I'm not trying to dissuade anyone from buying the other containers mentioned in the thread, I'm sure they work great, I'm just going with what I'm comfortable with.
 
Kevin Dean said:
I've e-mailed him, but is there a website that shows these, prices and perhaps other sizes?

Nope, there is a site where some guy shows how he made his into a fermenter but thats it. This is the only size Doug has.
I am putting another 10G batch into mine tomorrow :)

The vittle vaults are nice too, I keep my dog food in them, just not what I wanted for a inexpensive 10g fermenter
 
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