Any homebrewers here from the Madison, WI area??

I reside in Verona WI and I am looking to go in on some bulk grain in the near future. I am looking for anyone in my area that would be interested in going in on some grains and perhaps for a brew session.

Try the Sewage group, too.

I'm a new brewer this year and am on my 12th AG batch. I also joined Madison Homebrewers and Tasters Guild and RIGHT after I joined (just before the Great Taste), they we're taking delivery of their bulk grain buy for the club so I can only assume they'll be doing one again reasonably soon. Until then, I've just been buying with a grain card and in whole bags for the base grains at Wine and Hop Shop.

I'm looking forward to dropping the price of my grains even more, but it isn't too bad right now as it is.

$1 - $1.35 a pound for anything I brew with.

BSD

I kind of forgot about the MHTG. Please, explain this grain card.

$60 (maybe $65?) gets you 50lb of grain of your choosing (breaks down to ~$1.30/lb). You walk in, grab your grain, and they cross off the marks on your card (which they keep on hand). You can use the card for ANY grain, and of course you get more out of it by using it for the more expensive, specialty malts.

At a normal price of at least $1.80/lb, buying a grain card saves you $25 on 50lbs of grain you would otherwise purchase anyway.

I'm on the north side of town. Just started brewing this past summer and am working on my fourth batch. Learning from each one and started doing AG on my 2nd batch. It's fun and exciting to brew beer; I just wish I had more patience.

I am in the process of turning a 8' x 17' portion of my basement into a full time brew room complete with natural gas, vent hood, fermentation chamber, large SS wash tub, sound system, cable tv, etc. I am in the drywall stage and will post a new thread when its done.

I'm another Madisonian who would be very interested in bulk grain buys. I keep a grain card at the Wine and Hop shop, but at the frequency I brew (3-4 times per month) I burn through it pretty quickly.

I've kicked around a bulk buy, but haven't had anyone to go in on it with.


And the grain card now is $70 for 52# of grain, or $1.35/LB. Normal grain prices run ~$1.85/LB to $1.95/LB.

Waunabeer: I'm jealous of your free time/money you can spend on "the best hobby EVER!". I wish I could do the same but the SWMBO and the 3 kids keep me from it

I wish I could brew 3 or more times a month. I'm going to start making a habbit of brewing once a month.

This grain card seems to be the way to go unless they would go cheaper if we bought more as a group. The card seems like a good deal.

Man, they raised the card price again?!? At least they tacked on two pounds to it.

I also live near Madison (I work on Campus) and would be willing to go in on grains. Ive been getting my 2 row sacks from Northern brewer, then a grain card for the rest.

Ive been kicking around the idea of joining the MHTG, but feel like a tool going by myself.

bniesen said:

Waunabeer: I'm jealous of your free time/money you can spend on "the best hobby EVER!". I wish I could do the same but the SWMBO and the 3 kids keep me from it

I wish I could brew 3 or more times a month. I'm going to start making a habbit of brewing once a month.

This grain card seems to be the way to go unless they would go cheaper if we bought more as a group. The card seems like a good deal.

Click to expand...

I too am married with 3 kids; SWMBO is just very supportive and understanding of my hobbies. I moved to Madison a year ago to support her career, which has paid off in spades.


BrewNinja: I'm with you, but I guess that's how you meet other people. You're a stranger here but once. Maybe some of us who aren't already members should all plan on joining at the same time. I may wait to the first of the year. The club is $25 per year and if you were to join now it would still be $25 for the rest of this year.

Id be up on joining the beginning of next year....doesnt really pay to join now like you said.

Waunabeer: I'm even more jelouse now. lol. living the dream.

It may be that you pay yearly according to when you join, if you become a member in June maybe you don't have to pay in until next June? I really don't know but I could get the answer. I would be all for joining the beginning of next year.

I emailed the Guild a while back and they told me it was yearly starting in January so if I joined now I would have to pay the $25 for the rest of this year. It's not that big of a deal, but its the getting more bang for my buck. That and a little more experience and finishing my brew room come first.

Yeah, I can wait to join. Going to Wine and Hop today after work. I have to pick up a 6.5 gal glass carboy, my previous one started to "star" on the inside from an imperfection in the glass that wasn't seen by SWMBO when she bought it for me a couple of Christmases ago. I am also thinking about the Bottle Sulfiter (the sanitizer spray that attaches on the bottle trees) and perhaps a bottling bucket. I'm trying not to use a glass carboy and my auto siphon when I bottle.

Another Madison brewer here, I'm doing my first AG today. I also joined the grain card club at the Wine and Hop Shop, $70 for 50 lbs.

Welcome jcdouglas and good luck with your first AG brew! What part of Madison are you in? I reall like the way Wine and Hop has changed the way you can buy grain from them, it has really cut down on my left-over ingredients. When I tire of driving from Verona to the Wine and Hop Shop I will start to order my ingredients from Brewmasters Warehouse since the prices are good, shiping is decent, and a lot of people like their service and quality.
How long have you been brewing?

I live on the southwest side of Madison, near Verona and Fitchburg. I've been brewing extract on and off, but mostly off, for about four years. Today is my third batch this month and I plan on doing a fourth on Sunday. I am now officially addicted.