how much grain and what types do most have on hand

just thought i would start a thread to find out how much and of what varieties of grains, hops and what not that most keep on hand. i want to start up an inventory of sorts to meet my needs. just getting into all grain and i'm hooked. i want to be able to go to my stock and get what i need and brew. not having to wait to go buy it or have it shipped.

I have about 5 pounds each of crystal 10, 20l, 40l, 60l, 80l and 120l.

I always have maris otter, Vienna malt, and US 2-row in a big quantity, with smaller amounts (10 pounds or so) of Munich malt and pilsner malt.

I have a small quantity of victory malt, special roast, pale chocolate, roasted barley, flaked wheat, flaked corn and aromatic malt on hand all the time.

For hops, I have about 10 pounds in the freezer, mostly US hops because I make more IPAs and APAs and ambers than anything else.

I can brew on the spur of the moment, and I love that! It's also much cheaper to buy in bulk. I just paid $39 for a 50 pound sack of two-row, $8 for a pound of willamette hops, and $16 for a pound of cascade hops. Often, they are $2-$3 an ounce.

cool! that's what i need to do

Got one sack each of Maris Otter, Golden Promise, and UK 2 Row (plus 20# left from another sack of 2 Row)... I have 4# of Crystal Maris Otter, about 4# of honey malt, and about two pounds each of 45L, 65L, 85L and 120L ratings of British Crystal malt... Plus a bit of Victory left (about 6oz). I also picked up two pounds of chocolate malt, a pound of roasted barley and a pound of flaked barley to have on hand. The honey, BCM, and victory malt are crushed (from before I got my BC), everything else is whole grain. As I go through the grain, I plan to replace it with whole grain of the same type... I'm sure I'll get some other grains too, to have on hand.

For hops, I have Target, Northdown, EKG and Fuggles pellets in the freezer (just over a pound left total, I think, need to check)... I also have two ounces of whole hops of EKG and Fuggles for dry hopping. I like the UK based hops for what I'm brewing, hence the selection I have on hand.

I hope that there's another group grain buy in my area before I run out of base malt... Next time, I'll be living where I won't have an issue keeping enough grain on hand to make anything I want between group buys...

wow, i'm envious. keep em comin. i like reading all of this

I do my best to get my hops via online vendors these days... The LHBS sells pellet hops for $3/oz... Way too much when you compare with other suppliers. When I'm ready for more hops, I know of at least one other person that wants to know before I place an order. That way we can group our orders together and save on shipping...

It's good to have local brew-buddies.

donjr721 said:

cool! that's what i need to do

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A good way to shop is to consider the 5-10 beers you plan on making, or the beer styles make most often. If you make a lot of British style ales like milds and ESBs, you'll want more English hops, malts and yeast strains. If you make more German lagers, you'll want the pilsner malt, Munich malt, and noble hops.

If you look at the recipes of the beers you plan to do in the next 8-9 months, you'll find out which ingredients you should be in bulk and which you should buy as you need them!

I always have several yeast strains on hand- for dry yeast, s04, S05, and nottingham. For liquids, Denny's Favorite (Wyeast 1450), and usually one or two others that I've washed and saved.

I keep at least 25lbs each of pilsner, maris otter and Vienna mats plus various specialty malts (I need to find a better way to organize my specialty grains). I have several pounds of hops, Willamette, cascade, amarillo, us goldings, crystal, magnum, citra. I also keep yeast stocked, I have 8 yeasts in the house right now. I harvest it so i save a few bucks.

excellent! gotta build my inventory!

I also harvest yeast, so that I have some on hand for batches I'm planning... It's another way to save costs, if you're comfortable with the process. It makes more sense when you're using liquid yeast than dry yeast.

I'm basically doing as Yooper suggests... Since I'm focusing on styles from the British Isles, my ingredients on hand reflect it. Plus, it's never a bad idea to have some of the basics, or standard ingredients, on hand. Just review what you plan on brewing and get some on hand. If you're buying pre-crushed, I'd go with smaller quantities at a time (maybe a 2 month supply at a go). If you have a grain mill/crusher, then it doesn't matter nearly so much. I just would get what you expect to use up within about a year.

I think many of us find a few yeast strains that become our 'standards' that we use. I like Wyeast 1728, 1084 mostly (so far)... I do have a cream ale that's been sitting on 1335 for almost a month (slated for bottles very soon, maybe this weekend)... I'll probably harvest that and use it again (a few times)...

It's not too difficult to get a moderate OG brew (5 gallon batch) cost to below $15 if you do a few things. Bulk grain buys, harvest yeast, and buying your hops from good sources all come into play... Even when I buy yeast, I can usually keep my batch costs to under $20 these days...

1 sack each of Marris Otter, Pilsen, 2-Row, with Pale on the way. 11 pounds each of Vienna, Caramel Munich 60, 11 pounds TF Crystal 65, 11 Pounds Pale Chocolate. I have 10 pounds of Crystal 20, 40, 120 on the way. I also have 11 pounds of Aeromatic, Honey malt, and Wheat. I also have 27.5 pounds of 6-row on its way. I have a pound each of Hallertau, US Saaz, Fuggles, Columbus, and Perle. I have 2 pounds of 0.0 AA ages lambic hops and 3/4 of a pound of crystal whole leaf hops.

2 Group buys in the span of 3 weeks will stock you up.

Just recently ventured into AG brewing, so I am currently stocked with multiple types of 2 row to get a taste for their differences.

55# Canadian 2row
20# western 2row
10# rahr 2row

And maybe 4# of US hops on hand

I have 3 sacks of organic 2 row
30 # vienna
20 lbs C10 and C40
1-3lbs of a LOT of others (at least 6 types from Spec B to chocolate to cara pils)

Just got a corona mill so I wanted to stock up on some grains. Without knowing exactly what I want to brew I decided to get small amounts of a few different specialty malts.

I got:
50 lb sack of US 2 Row
3 lb Wheat malt
2 lb Black Patent
2 lb Cara-Pils
2 lbs Crystal 20L
2 lb Crystal 60L
2 lbs Munich
2 lb Vienna
8 lbs Light DME

I also have a lb each of Cascade, Centennial, Hallertauer, Magnum and Nugget Hops

For yeast I have a washed pilsner lager sample, and a couple packets each of S-04, S-05, and Notty.

Haha, I have none! I haven't been able to figure out how to keep the mice out of it yet. Anyone have any suggestions? I had dog food in one of those air-tight vita-vault containers and the mice (in the garage) chewed through it. Anyone using any kind of natural repellents?

MBasile said:

Haha, I have none! I haven't been able to figure out how to keep the mice out of it yet. Anyone have any suggestions? I had dog food in one of those air-tight vita-vault containers and the mice (in the garage) chewed through it. Anyone using any kind of natural repellents?

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Damn, you sure those mice weren't transplanted from NYC?? I've been thinking about vacuum packing the contents of my sacks of wonderful grain... Just haven't gotten around to getting more bags, and such... I do need to at least bag up what's left in the open sack... I do have it closed off with a zip-tie, so it's tight (as close to the grain as I could get it too)...

Just love having sacks of grain on hand, as well as enough ingredients to brew just about anything I want at the drop of a hat... Just need to get a second propane tank so that I don't run out partially through a brew-day. :rockin:

Where do you guys buy your bulk hops? LHBS? Online? If so, where?

I bought my current hops from Farmhouse Brewing Supply (a vendor listed in the section off the main page)... I'm looking at a few of the other sites many others use... It all comes down to who has the hops in stock when I'm ready to order, and what my cost will be per ounce. Of course, shipping time with the same methods also plays a part for me. If I can get them in 2-3 days via ground from one source, but it's over a week from the other, I would tend to go for the closer source.

I have two vittle vaults, one is always stocked with a sack of Weyermann pilsen and one is always stocked with American 2-row. I then have two 5 gallon buckets which one contains all my unroasted malts (wheat, crystal 10, 60, 80, 120, victory, vienna, munich, aromatic and a few more) and one for roasted malts (dehusked carafe, chocolate, roast barley, black patent). I have a really good LHBS on the way home from work so its pretty easy to pick up anything I need though or else I would buy things like Vienna and Munich in bulk.

For hops, I buy from a farm Hops Direct for much of my supply. They rule, always give you more than what you pay for and really friendly if you have to call. Anyway, I have probably around 2 lb's left of my homegrown cascade and centennial on hand and around 10-12 lb's of various hops ranging from saaz and hallertau to CTZ. I also have some low AA hops sitting in my garage getting all old for future lambic brews I have been dreaming of.

to keep mice out, i would buy the metal trash cans with lids, use bungee cords to strap them down, or clean 55 or 20 gallon drums with lids. thats what we used to do with chicken feed and horse grain.