First bulk buy of grain suggestions.

Hey everyone. I love the forum. Almost every question i have had thus far, i am able to search previous threads and find the answer very quickly. This though is a but more open ended of a question.

I am just starting out brewing all-grain and wanted to ask suggestions on what grains to buy in bulk vs. what to just buy per recipe. I will be very diverse with my recipes from time to time but my house beers will be an IPA of some kind, a stout or porter, and a holiday beer of that time of year. Any suggestions on grains that i can reuse for these recipes? I understand that a lot of people buy 2-row as a base grain. Is there a difference between the different kinds of 2-row or can i just buy any old 2 row grain? What other base grains do people suggest to buy in bulk? Any specialty grains used often?

Thank you for helping out a newbie! This is quite an exciting step to brewing!

Regular US/Canadian 2-row is a good base malt, as you can add to it to mimic other malts.

I like to keep the following 3 base malts on hand: US 2-row, US/German pilsner, and an English Pale malt (Marris Otter, Optic, etc). It really depends how much you brew, and what you brew.

MC

Welcome!

I buy quite a bit of grain in bulk...mostly my base grains, though. for me, I brew a lot of Belgian style beers, so they use pilsner malt as the base, so I mostly buy that. Make sure you have a way to mill the grain before going bulk, or order it pre-milled. Some will argue about the lifespan of milled grain, but I have had milled grain stored (cool, dry, dark place in a sealed container) a LONG time without adverse effects.

As for specialty grains, unless you are brewing A LOT or are brewing recipes that use a lot of specialty grains per batch I would not get those in bulk. I typically either get specialty grains from my LHBS or order online.

The key is knowing what you like to brew, or what you plan on brewing for the next few batches then seeing what grains they require. 2-row (generic) is most common typically, but some like to use Marris Otter, Vienna, Munich, or Pilsner malts as the base for their beers. To complicate things further there is a difference between domestic (North America produced) and continential (European produced) malts. If you are just starting out brewing AG, I'd suggest just getting inexpensive domestic 2 row (Breiss, Canada Maltings, etc) and getting to know your equipment and process before branching out. Just my $0.02

My bulk list is:

2 row
Pilsner
Vienna
Munich
MO
wheat

(notice that all of these can be used as base malts)

I have 2-row and Maris Otter.

Pilsner would be my third choice.

I read through Brewing Classic Styles, and ear-marked every recipe I wanted to try. I then plugged all of those recipes into Excel and then looked at the total amount of base malt required to brew them - then just picked which base malt I wanted to start with.

tl;dr - plan out your recipes and then pick accordingly - really helps when you reference something like BCS

MedicMang said:

Hey everyone. I love the forum. Almost every question i have had thus far, i am able to search previous threads and find the answer very quickly. This though is a but more open ended of a question.

I am just starting out brewing all-grain and wanted to ask suggestions on what grains to buy in bulk vs. what to just buy per recipe. I will be very diverse with my recipes from time to time but my house beers will be an IPA of some kind, a stout or porter, and a holiday beer of that time of year. Any suggestions on grains that i can reuse for these recipes? I understand that a lot of people buy 2-row as a base grain. Is there a difference between the different kinds of 2-row or can i just buy any old 2 row grain? What other base grains do people suggest to buy in bulk? Any specialty grains used often?

Thank you for helping out a newbie! This is quite an exciting step to brewing!

Click to expand...

Thank you for posting this, I too am just starting my all-grain career. Much appreciated!

jholen said:

I read through Brewing Classic Styles, and ear-marked every recipe I wanted to try. I then plugged all of those recipes into Excel and then looked at the total amount of base malt required to brew them - then just picked which base malt I wanted to start with.

tl;dr - plan out your recipes and then pick accordingly - really helps when you reference something like BCS

Click to expand...

+1 to THIS

I just bought #50 of 2 row, and added up all the specialty grains I needed for my next 4 recipes. Made to whole, "what do I buy" question very easy to answer.

E-Mursed said:

+1 to THIS

I just bought #50 of 2 row, and added up all the specialty grains I needed for my next 4 recipes. Made to whole, "what do I buy" question very easy to answer.

Click to expand...

Yeah it was pretty awesome!

I found SIX recipes that require a total of 54.25 lbs of English Pale Malt (LHBS sells 55lbs backs), and all can use EKG hops - so bulk base malt and bulk hops. Win, win!

I admit I almost posted a, "What bulk grain to buy" thread, but had some time at work and sat down and plugged everything in. Worked out well.

I suppose if you didn't have Brewing Classic Styles you could compose a list of recipes from HBT.

jholen said:

Yeah it was pretty awesome!

I found SIX recipes that require a total of 54.25 lbs of English Pale Malt (LHBS sells 55lbs backs), and all can use EKG hops - so bulk base malt and bulk hops. Win, win!

Click to expand...

Heh, I looked at my two upcoming recipes at the end of last year and realized that combined they used nearly 30 lbs of Maris Otter. So, I just bought a sack...

I brew some of the same types of beers....lots of IPAs, some stouts, porters, browns, etc... I stock up on 2-row like most folks. I usually go with 55# bags of whatever my local shop stocks. If they have Maris Otter, I go with that because I like it best, otherwise a decent 2-row of some sort. The latest have been Great Western and Malt Europ. As for the others, I get 5-10# bags of Crystal 60, Vienna, Chocolate, Wheat and Rye. Others in smaller doses may be something like Carafa II or III for black IPAs, Amber, Aromatic, Roasted barley, Black patent, etc...

I'm in the same boat and plan to go with a 2 row pale malt. Figure its a solid choice to refine my process and get comfortable with my system.

2 row, crystal/caramels, chocolate , carapils, melanoidin, special b, carafa3 , roasted barley, rice hulls, flaked wheat/barley/corn/oats. My stocklist. Everything else I grab as needed.

Awesome everyone! I appreciate everyone that has posted. I am still curious if there are any differences between the different types of 2-row or is that pretty much just a brand name? This was massively helpful. Seems like i am not the only one finding this helpful. Keep posting to anyone that has something to add. Thanks!

MedicMang said:

Awesome everyone! I appreciate everyone that has posted. I am still curious if there are any differences between the different types of 2-row or is that pretty much just a brand name? This was massively helpful. Seems like i am not the only one finding this helpful. Keep posting to anyone that has something to add. Thanks!

Click to expand...

This is from another beginner, but yes there are differences to base malts. Take for instance my situation - the LHBS sells a number of base malts, however the ones I was interested in are:

Gambrinus Pale Malt (1.8L)
Gambrinus ESB Malt (4L)

The Pale Malt is essentially an equivalent of your standard domestic 2-row pale malt, and is more suited towards American Styles of Beer from Brewing Classic Styles. While the ESB Malt, which is malted to match English Pale Malt, is more suited towards English style beers from Brewing Classic Styles (you should really get this book if you're a beginner, it's awesome). So it really comes down to what style of beers you're interested in brewing. I'm leaning more towards some English styles, so I'm going to be getting a 55lbs sack of Gambrinus ESB Malt.

Another option for a base malt would be a Pilsner Malt - more suited towards Lagers (typically) - also each malt is going to have a bit different Lovibond from different Maltsers - ie. Gambrinus' pale malt is 1.8, while Briess' 2-row is 1.4

I don't plan out my beers that far in advance, so I usually buy 50# sacks of pale to keep on hand. As far as specialty grains, whenever I need anything I always buy a minimum of 5 pounds. This way I have leftovers for the next brew.

My experience with domestic 2row led me to believe they are basically interchangeable. That said, there IS a noticeable difference between U.S. 2row and English or Belgian. Then you've got pale malt which is kilned
slightly more than standard 2row malt.
I'm currently using canada malting 2 row I scored in a group buy for 27 a sack which is pretty good malt. Before that was rahr, also good. I've also used gambrinus malts which are great.

Just an update. I ended up just buying a sack of 2-row, and about 4-5 lbs of chocolate, crystal 120, crystal 40, carabrown, roasted barley, and munich. Im on my second sack now and am almost out of most of the specialty malts. I'm loving the switch to all-grain.