Pittsburgh/Western Group Buy #6

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Group buy #6 is CLOSED.

ANNOUNCEMENT
Doing this buy by request - the summer has been crazy and I know a lot of you are running low on grain.

1. Please see notes about the operating costs (new for buy 6)
2. Target for closing this buy is July 30th, and delivery is targeted for the 10th.
3. Sheet probably won't come out until 7/20, but I'll email once it's available.
4. Everything else is the same as the last buy (please read the whole email anyway)

IMPORTANT - PLEASE READ AND UNDERSTAND THE FOLLOWING:
Please send an email to [email protected] with *ALL* of the following information...

~First & Last Name
~HBT Username
~Contact Number
~Address
~payment method - check/money order or Paypal
- Confirm Paypal® address is the same as email using or give your Paypal® Address.
If I do not receive this information you will not gain access to the spreadsheet. If you have participated in the last buy you will already have access.
(All of the above information will be kept private. I will only contact you by phone if something may be out of stock and I need to get a hold of you quickly. I will also use your city info to post to a list so everyone can see where people are located. This can be used to carpool or have someone close to you pick up your grain. You will have to make arrangements with that person. Again I will not share info accept the city. Let me know if you do not want that to be shared.)

Here's the deal:

1. We need to fill at least one pallet which is about 42 sacks. If we go over we need to get as close to 84 sacks to make the shipping reasonable throughout the second pallet.
2. Buyers will have to come pick up their bags at the drop off location (Pittsburgh, PA 15203). I will include the exact address when I send invoices. If you can't make the group buy day we can work out an alternative date.
3. Payments will be accepted through PayPal® or bank/cashiers check/money order (PayPal preferred) only because it is the easiest way to collect money from this many people. PayPal fee is approx. 4% extra.
4. To cover operating costs* and speed up the time from close->delivery, 10c/lb will be added to grain, and equivalent (10-15%) on hops, chemicals, etc. Surplus will be refunded at the next buy. These will be clearly called out on the price list and managed as a separate line item. See the bottom of this post for specifics.

When I get your info I'll send the price list and grain list

If there is anything in the catalog that is not in the full bag or split bag that you would like please add it in the column on the first sheet using ID number and Malt Name. Please keep it uniform. I will go back in and add the estimated pricing as often as I can. Plan on $5-7 per sack shipping cost. This is already estimated into your total on the spreadsheet.
DO NOT EDIT ANYTHING BUT WHITE CELLS ON THE FIRST TAB. THANK YOU.

We will use the same order sheet as the previous buy - I've rolled over open splits and sacks that didn't make it on the pallet.

After you have added your items to the sheet, feel free to post it to the thread to help stimulate the buy!

PAYMENTS:
Payments will be collected once we have secured 42 or 84 sacks dependent on interest. If you have issues with paying via PayPal® contact me. If you do not make payment within 1 week from the time invoices are sent with actual pricing, you risk forfeiting your right to buy your grain on this buy. If you can't make your payment within 1 week, please contact me. Do this out of courtesy for the group.

PROCESS
1. Buy will be officially open on 7/20, but feel free to send emails earlier
2. I will submit order for finalized pricing
3. Invoices will be sent
4. After all payments are received order will be placed
5. Will give everyone an ETA.
6. Pick up your grains and we all say cheers! (literally - there's lots of good homebrews at pickup)

~Pickup address will be provided on invoices
~You, as the buyer, are responsible for picking up your grain or for making arrangements for someone else to pick it up for you.

Bring your invoice to the pick up location to help ease the process

FOR SPLIT SACKS:
Work out the details with your partners. Bring something to put your share in, weigh it out on site, and take your portion. Or, one of you picks up the whole sack and deal with the splitting on your own time. That’s your decision to make with you splitting partners.

~For reference a 5 gallon bucket, depending on the type of grain should hold about a half a sack of grain.

DONATIONS:The people who work these grain buys do a lot of back end work to make these buys go as smoothly as possible. If you would like to show your appreciation please feel free to leave a donation for them. The amount you donate will apply towards that persons grain tab.

EXPLANATION OF OPERATING COSTS: There are a number of costs that have delayed the last 3 group buys. This includes price list changes, shipping cost changes (fuel surcharge), new fees, and (my personal favorite) the occasional "oops, i didn't really want that split/sack." In buys 3-5, closing was held up while invoices were redone, new prices were confirmed, and I found people to take the extra splits or sacks. In addition, folks have been footing the bill for items like mylar bags and buckets and there's a monthly fee associated with having the loading dock access and grain storage (significantly reduces shipping fees vs. no dock).

After talking to people from the last few buys, the best way is to handle this is a small fee per item ($0.10/# for grain, and 10-15% for hops and chemicals). Any surplus will get refunded during the subsequent buy (either a cash/PayPal refund or deduction from your next order - up to you).

By adding this in up front we should be able to shave 2-3 weeks off the processing time.

FINAL THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND:
- Some people have issues with google docs if they don't have a google account. If that's the case you may need to create one
- Only update the first tab in the spreadsheet. If you put your order on the other tabs, it will be lost.
- Grain is heavy. If you're planning on picking up grain for people, check the cargo capacity of your vehicle. Most passenger cars are <700#, including the passengers.
- Please double check the brand of grain you bought before coming to the group buy, and before you leave. We typically have 3 types of two row and 2 types of Marris Otter. It sucks when someone gets stuck with the wrong brand.
- Feel free to email, PM, or post to the board with questions.
 
I'm in again too. Maybe this time SWMBO will let me stick around for some socializing. ;)
 
Full sacks of DME are not a problem - they're much more fun to deal with than DME splits. Send me your info.
Cool. Just sent an e-mail. Let me know if you need anything else. Thanks also for putting this together, looks like it's been pretty successful in the past.
 
BTW - Apparently i tried to make this too complicated by joining the small items (hops, smaller pre-packaged grains, etc.) in with the full bags and splits. Google has a 40,000 formula limit. Grrrrrrr.

So there will be 2 sheets - 1 for the full/split sacks and bulk chemicals (ready now), and one for the smaller items (that will probably come out friday night). There are some good full sacks available on the "small" buy, but that only makes sense if we can do a half-pallet or more.

In short - have at it.
 
So far we have 16 sacks and 11 open splits.

Would love to close the Fawcett CRY65 and the Acidulated malt. The crystal is an authentic British crystal for authentic British bitters(!), and the acidulated malt is supposedly great for making a sour mash. Use it to lower your PH to lactic acid friendly 4.3 PH, then inoculate with a pure lactic culture to get great sour results!

Enough "selling" on my part - here are the open splits as of 5:30

Split 1 BZ-ACID Acidulated Malt 0.50
Split 2 TF-CRY65 Crystal Malt II 0.25
Split 3 BM-5317 Wheat Malt, White 0.25
Split 4 CM-MUNH Munich Malt 0.50
Split 5 GW-VIEN Vienna Malt 0.75
Split 7 BM-5386 Caramel Malt 120L 0.25
Split 8 GB-PILS Pilsen 0.50
Split 9 GB-PALE Pale Ale Malt 0.50
Split 10 GB-ESB ESB Pale 0.50
Chem 1 5S-STAR4 0.25
Chem 2 5S-PBW50 0.25
 
Got 2 sacks of MO, some of the Munich, and opened a CM Pilsen split because it's cheaper and that's what I've been using so far.
 
I closed out the Munich and Vienna splits. Grabbed a small sack of flaked barley too.
 
Added flaked wheat to the splits. Anyone want to join in?

I too am encouraging interest in the British crystal 65. :)
 
FYI - flaked wheat is a great ingredient to put in homemade granola. Just saying... Juuuusssst saying.
 
Three quick updates -
1) it looks like pricing works on the main buy
2) I need some guinea pigs to test the small buy sheet. It's completely flaking the eff out in the chrome browser, but it seems to work in firefox fine. Email me and I'll add you. If it works for the volunteers i'll add everyone else.

3) on a related note, if chrome or IE isn't workign well with the group buy sheet, try firefox. Apparently that browser is much more reliable.
 
Did anyone see rice hulls in the price list? I'm not sure if they are not listed or I am just missing it repeatedly.
 
Grabbed .25 of the Rice Hulls split. Getting ready for Pumpkin Ales!

Gateway Grill sent out a txt today saying their first Pumpkin Ale came in today - Penn Pumpkin Roll. Pumpkin Ales are coming out earlier every year.
 
fredtheseal said:
Grabbed .25 of the Rice Hulls split. Getting ready for Pumpkin Ales!

Gateway Grill sent out a txt today saying their first Pumpkin Ale came in today - Penn Pumpkin Roll. Pumpkin Ales are coming out earlier every year.

Hopefully pros take the time to come out with good pumpkin beers this year, unlike the great pumpkin failure of 2012. Our friends bought 10 different (new to us) singles at D's six packs - all were bad (best was 2/5 stars).

Seem's like group buy 7 should be a save the pumpkin beer tasting!

On topic, I should have the small buy sheet out sometime today. That will have all the hops, water additives, some obscure specialty grains, etc.
 
I live in the north hills and unfortunately will be driving back from vaca on the 10th. Id really like to participate but would be unable to pick up that day. Would anyone be willing to pickup and store my grain for a day. Ill throw in a six pack of whatever ya like for the inconvenience.

Thanks
 
Actually I'm confused...the email for the buy states the 10th as the pickup date, this thread says 17th/18th. If its the latter, ignore my last post.
 
swackattack said:
I live in the north hills and unfortunately will be driving back from vaca on the 10th. Id really like to participate but would be unable to pick up that day. Would anyone be willing to pickup and store my grain for a day. Ill throw in a six pack of whatever ya like for the inconvenience.

Thanks

I can always hold on to it for you and work out an alternate time. It was the 17th, but I found out it was the SWMBO's high school reunion AND our friend's son's 2nd bday, so I had to do the 10th - I'll edit the main post.
 
BZ-ACID Acidulated Malt 0.75
TF-CRY65 Crystal Malt II 0.50
GW-VIEN Vienna Malt 0.75
BM-5386 Caramel Malt 120L 0.25
GB-PILS Pilsen 0.50
GB-PALE Pale Ale Malt 0.50
GB-ESB ESB Pale 0.50
GP-FLWHT Flaked Wheat 0.50
GW-C15 2-Row Crystal 15 0.25
BZ-MUNH Light Munich 0.25
GP-RICE Rice Hulls 0.75
 
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