What grains do you stock regularly?

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boist

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My local brew shop (A.K.A. "My dealer", as the SWMBO calls it) is closing up, and getting grains is going to turn from a short trip after work to a whole-day thing. To minimize the hassle I've decided to get a grain mill and buy grain in bulk so that I can just buy it one or twice a year.

The question is, what grain will I need to buy? I obviously will need to buy a sack at a time of 2-row/pale/marris/pilsner type malt. As the same time, I doubt if I'll work my way through a whole sack of roast barley. So I'm trying to get a list of about half a dozen grains to stock regularly that I can supplement as necessary by small shipments. I make primarily pale ales (APA, IPA, EIPA) with the occasional Oktoberfest, and brown beer (Northern Brown, Brown Porter, Stout) For purposes of this discussion lets assume I can get amounts of 1 sack or 5Kilos (11lbs) at a time.

I think I would need this:
1. Marris Otter - sack
2. Light Munich - sack
3. Light crystal (15L) - 5kg
4. Medium crystal (50L) - 5kg
5. Wheat - 5kg
6. Biscuit/Victory 5Kg

The question is, is there anything you would add/change on this list? What grains do you regularly stock yourself?
Thanks
 
First of all, take a deep breath and relax. Consider a few things.

Would your local LHB shop that is closing offer you some of their local contacts so you can do a group purchase?

Consider what you like to drink. Purchase your base malt based on that and build from there.

Always keep in mind the formation of a local purchasing club.
 
I always maintain a sack of pilsner malt, half sack of Munich, wheat, and Vienna malt because of my beer styles I brew. Then I also have crystal 60 and 40 around in 5lb increments. Then roasted barley and chocolate in 1 lb increments.

Its all in what you brew. Don't stock up on grains that you won't use. Plan out your next few beers and go from there. :)
 
First of all, take a deep breath and relax. Consider a few things.

Would your local LHB shop that is closing offer you some of their local contacts so you can do a group purchase?

Consider what you like to drink. Purchase your base malt based on that and build from there.

Always keep in mind the formation of a local purchasing club.

Maybe I should rephrase a bit: I've been wanting to buy a mill and mill my own grain for a while, and now that the LHBS is closing I have a good excuse to. :D

As far as "local contacts", they've already done that. Unfortunately, we have a total of two or three malt importers in the entire country, so "local" still means a half-day's drive. Hence the question. I figured I tend to make a fairly limited number of styles (at least for the next year I'll be focusing primarily on pale ales) so it's easier just to stock up.
 
boist said:
My local brew shop (A.K.A. "My dealer", as the SWMBO calls it) is closing up, and getting grains is going to turn from a short trip after work to a whole-day thing. To minimize the hassle I've decided to get a grain mill and buy grain in bulk so that I can just buy it one or twice a year.

The question is, what grain will I need to buy? I obviously will need to buy a sack at a time of 2-row/pale/marris/pilsner type malt. As the same time, I doubt if I'll work my way through a whole sack of roast barley. So I'm trying to get a list of about half a dozen grains to stock regularly that I can supplement as necessary by small shipments. I make primarily pale ales (APA, IPA, EIPA) with the occasional Oktoberfest, and brown beer (Northern Brown, Brown Porter, Stout) For purposes of this discussion lets assume I can get amounts of 1 sack or 5Kilos (11lbs) at a time.

I think I would need this:
1. Marris Otter - sack
2. Light Munich - sack
3. Light crystal (15L) - 5kg
4. Medium crystal (50L) - 5kg
5. Wheat - 5kg
6. Biscuit/Victory 5Kg

The question is, is there anything you would add/change on this list? What grains do you regularly stock yourself?
Thanks

Sack of two row
5 kg or sack of pilsner
5 kg Vienna
5 kg chocolate
5 kg roasted barley
Maybe the odd lb or two of caramunich, carapils, caravienne.
Light DME
Rice hulls if you use em

Just some ideas based on my inventory. I make somewhat similar beers.

Oh and get yourself some food grade plastic buckets from lowes/HD/grocer (I have since transferred these sacks to buckets):

IMG_20120401_150603.jpg
 
I buy base grain in bulk. I make toasted grains from 10-175 Lovibond in my oven. So chocolate, black patent and roasted barley require a trip to the LHBS. I almost never use Crystal, but I could make it if I really wanted to.

KPR121's list looks a lot like what I would do. If I were you, I'd buy whatever base grains and dark roasts you use regularly, plus the cheapest 2-row you could find to make specialty grains out of. I'd also stock up on high-alpha hops to bitter with and on bottle caps.
 
Sack of two row
5 kg or sack of pilsner
5 kg Vienna
5 kg chocolate
5 kg roasted barley
Maybe the odd lb or two of caramunich, carapils, caravienne.
Light DME
Rice hulls if you use em

Just some ideas based on my inventory. I make somewhat similar beers.

Oh and get yourself some food grade plastic buckets from lowes/HD/grocer (I have since transferred these sacks to buckets):

IMG_20120401_150603.jpg

A case of Hop Stoopid!!! That is one rockin beer.
 
BigfootCounty said:
I keep 2 row and munich on hand by the bag

In bulk (pet food containers) I keep:

Maris Otter
American 2 row
Munich
Belgian pils

I buy the rest of the grains in one pound increments as I need them, but I probably have 25 kinds in some quantity.

I also store vacuum sealed in a chest freezer about a dozen hop varieties I buy in one pound bags from Puterbaugh farms

For yeast, I normally stock US05, S04, and Nottingham

Everything is tracked on index cards to make shopping easy
 
boist said:
My local brew shop (A.K.A. "My dealer", as the SWMBO calls it) is closing up, and getting grains is going to turn from a short trip after work to a whole-day thing. To minimize the hassle I've decided to get a grain mill and buy grain in bulk so that I can just buy it one or twice a year.

The question is, what grain will I need to buy? I obviously will need to buy a sack at a time of 2-row/pale/marris/pilsner type malt. As the same time, I doubt if I'll work my way through a whole sack of roast barley. So I'm trying to get a list of about half a dozen grains to stock regularly that I can supplement as necessary by small shipments. I make primarily pale ales (APA, IPA, EIPA) with the occasional Oktoberfest, and brown beer (Northern Brown, Brown Porter, Stout) For purposes of this discussion lets assume I can get amounts of 1 sack or 5Kilos (11lbs) at a time.

I think I would need this:
1. Marris Otter - sack
2. Light Munich - sack
3. Light crystal (15L) - 5kg
4. Medium crystal (50L) - 5kg
5. Wheat - 5kg
6. Biscuit/Victory 5Kg

The question is, is there anything you would add/change on this list? What grains do you regularly stock yourself?
Thanks

Have you considered taking over his business? Maybe it's something you could do only on weekends or by appointment.
 
There are no real homebrew shops within less than a 5 hour drive so I buy bulk from a brewpub a couple of times each year (it's 350 miles away) and I buy a lot at once.
I keep sacks of:
Maris Otter
Munich
Wheat
2 row pale
Weyermann Pilsner
In 5 pound lots I keep carapils, crystal 10 and 60, Special B, rye, chocolate, black patent, roasted barley. I keep smaller quantities of things like biscuit, aromatic, honey malt, and probably some other stuff I rarely use. I also have a freezer full of vacuum sealed hops. For me yeast is the biggest problem, I can't have it shipped here between March and October because of the heat so I tend to over buy when I do visit a store, and I use a lot more dry yeast than I did a couple of years ago.
 
Much of it has to do with what you brew regularly; what beers you favor and keep on hand regularly.

I've usually got a sack of 2-row American and Belgian on hand. That's the result of having a Porter and Lager on hand and doing a "project" Stout every Fall. For the Belgian I'm always tweaking around with Abbey Ale's and the like.

Every so often I do a batch of bitter so it's not worth it for me to keep grain for that on hand; takes up space.
 
What I do may work for you:

Keep my base grains on hand in bulk (50-100 lbs of each type, I do 5G batches regularly).

Order specialty grains from MoreBeer -
* Order 2 weeks in advance of when you need them
* Order $59 or more at a time to get free shipping, which takes ~2 weeks to receive
* This turns out to be cheaper than my LHBS anyway as their specialty grains are higher on average than MoreBeer!!

This way I know my specialty grains are pretty fresh and I have the flexibility to do an occasional beer that isn't my usual Pale Ale or Pilsner house beer.

For hops do the same with any of the larger hop suppliers.

For yeast, I keep a fridge shelf full of all the ones I typically use by just washing and reusing the yeast from my ales and pils. By doing this, I only need to buy yeast when I am doing something new or when I believe that the yeast needs to be replaced with the original strain (they morph over time, though I am not sure that is all bad...).

Best of luck!
 
We buy bulk, 4 months at a time. All these things should be stocked for a well rounded brew season


German Malt
Pilsner Malt
55 lbs
1193-A-3

Wheat Malt
55 lbs
1193-D-3

Munich malt
55 lbs
1193-C-3

Vienna
55 lbs
1193-B-3

Domestic Malt
GWM 2-row
50 lbs
1190-B-2

Crystal 60L
10 lbs
1190-B60-4

Crystal 120L
10 lbs
1190-B12-4

Crystal 80L
10 lbs
1190-B80-4

Chocolate
10 lbs
1190-J-4

British Malt
Maris Otter
55 lbs
1205-A-2

Belgian Malt
Belgian Pilsner
55lbs
1202-R-3

Caravienna
10 lbs
1202-G-4

Caramunich
10 lbs
1201-C-4

Aromatic Malt
10 lbs
1202-E-4

Hops
Hallertau
1 lb
1032-HAL-3

Columbus
1 lb
1032-COL-3

Chinook
1 lb
1032-CHI-3

Czech Saaz
1 lb
1040-CZS-3

U.S. Saaz
1 lb
1032-SAZ-3

Tettnanger
1 lb
1032-TET-3

Sterling
1lb
1032-STE-3

Centennial
1 lb
1032-CEN-3
 
I cant believe no-one has mentioned Honey Malt as something to stock up on! It's one of my favorites.
 
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