Interest in an Albany, NY/Southern VT area bulk grain buy?

Hi all,

After seeing the NYC/NJ bulk grain buy, I'm jealous.

I'll just say up front that I don't have the logistics or location to set a bulk buy up for the Albany, NY/Southern VT area myself, but I'd definitely be interested for a few sacks if someone is willing to coordinate.

Also, I go back home to Vermont (Wallingford) every month or two, so I could bring some of the bags over to bennington/manchester/wallingford/rutland VT area for people who can't make the trip to Albany.

Anyhow, anyone interested in getting in on it this and, more importantly, anyone interested in running the logistics of the bulk buy?

There's a sheet with prices and stuff here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/ny-nj-area-bulk-buy-121423/
and RommelMagic was the one to get the NYC/NJ one going, so he'd probably have more info on what's involved.

I'm definitely interested. I suppose I could be the hub.

One thing that might be tricky is unloading the pallet, I think I read in the NY/NJ thread that they needed a forklift at the drop off point (though I'm not 100% sure on that).

If that's the case, then I guess I can't be the hub.

I can set a few things straight. The bill of lading the driver handed to me said "driver charge customer $75 if liftgate was required". It also said "charge $2xx for inside delivery". A liftgate is the thing on some trucks that can lower a full pallet to ground level in the case that you don't have a dock.

He backed up to my loading dock, opened the door, arranged some other pallets out of the way with a manual pallet jack and I helped him drag the NCM pallet off the truck. It took maybe 5 minutes max.

If you prepay $75 for liftgate, you can likely take delivery just about anywhere a full sized tractor trailer can get access to. Another trick would be to not tell NCM about it at all, arrange to have like 3-4 guys at the drop location, and just hand unload the pallet at the back of the truck and hope the driver doesn't complain. You should be able to break down a full pallet and throw the sacks to ground level in less than 5 minutes. Tip the driver $20 and call it a day.

To put it in perspective, I once had 2 double pallets of vinyl fence delivered to my house. The guy actually backed the full size trailer all the way up my driveway and helped me hand unload the fencing. He didn't charge me extra.

I'll talk to the guys in the warehouse. If I can get it delivered here, I can always rent a pickup from Home Depot. $19.99/hr. Then drive it to my house and unload it in the garage.
Or if someone in on the buy has a pickup... I don't, nor do I know someone that does that I'd feel comfortable asking.

I don't have a pickup, but I can lend the services of my Element to the cause. I can haul a metric ****ton in that thing with the back seats out.

I'm assuming my bags of grain in the basement are getting a little stale, I'd be up for a sack or two.

If life wasn't hectic as **** for the next few months, I might suggest a road trip to North County Malt and save on all the delivery.

I was thinking of doing that myself, but for a just a few sacks, the cost of gas would outweigh the savings over buying it from LHBS.

the_bird said:

I don't have a pickup, but I can lend the services of my Element to the cause. I can haul a metric ****ton in that thing with the back seats out...

Click to expand...

Ok, we have your Element and my Scion. However, warehouse is being a bit hesitant. I wonder if Madison's would let us drop there?