What do you buy in bulk?

My wife runs a bakery so I get the joy of 5 gallon food grade buckets which I use for just about everything :rockin:

Until now I never though about buying grain in bulk. I am always interested in saving a dollar so spend a little to save a lot in the long run, so why not.

I am going to start with just 2 row for now, and if it goes well, I will move onto wheat, and . I only plan on getting my base grains, the specificity grains will come from the shop on an as needed basis.

Just curious as to what others buy in bulk?

two row domestic, marris otter, continental pils. I try to keep to the base grains like you said. Make sure your LHBS has no problems with milling your base grains. Mine doesn't have a prob if iam buying specialty grains. Eventually I found it easier to just to buy a mill. Also find a local bulk grain buy. Check with you r brew club or the tab here on HBT Some group buys support a split bag. Nice to have half or a third share of Munich, wheat, etc. I eventually replaced all the pryoff bucket lids to gamma lids.

2-row and hops.

2-row ...everything else I get as I need.

Hammy71 said:

2-row and hops.

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Same, 2 Row and Hops.

Nothing! I really need to start. Mostly with hops, $3 an ounce is just not right.

Base malts and hops.

Nothing at the moment but I'm planning on buying hops in bulk shortly. I'm an extract brewer so will probably end up buying the grains I'll use for steeping in bulk at some point too.

Base malt--mostly Maris, and some pilsner. Would like to save $$ on hops, but I just don't use enough of any one kind.

2 -Row, Pils and hops

continental pils, 2 row, marris otter and wheat. Will be adding munich to that list on the next buy, seem to use it alot as well. Also going to start getting hops in bulk.

Pale malt, Munich and Wheat malt in 55 lb bags. I buy 55 lb bags of caramel 20L and 60L and split them with a couple others. I'll also keep a few lbs of other specialty malts around.

Malt and hops.

I'm fortunate to live in a city with an active home brewing club that organizes group buys periodically. This lets us order large quantities of specialty malts, without having to commit to a full sack. For example, the last group buy, I bought a 1/4 sack of roasted barley. As long as enough of us want it, it works. I buy several sacks of 2-row, a single sack of Munich and Bo Pils, and partial sacks of some other staples (roasted barley, Carafoam, Caraamber, Caraaroma, rice hulls, etc.). I currently have 17 buckets of grain in my basement, all with GammaSeal lids. The last malt group buy, the total order was a little over $11,000.

Our last hop bulk buy was in the spring, and we ordered hops by the pound. I got 11 lbs of hops for a little over $100. The total order was over 900 lbs. I love my home brew club.

I don't do this but really should. At least with 2 row and hops.

I just bought a 55 sack of Rhar 2 row and got da hook up on a 15 gallon container to ferment in. Killer boots man.

-=Jason=-

Well the benefits of being in a brew club is the bulk order option on yeast, grain and hops. So I always order everything in bulk, plus having a yeast technician is very nice as well.

Mainly base malts, 2-row, maris otter, pilsner, although next time I think I"m getting some wheat and rye.

I usually wash yeast so I have that on hand or grow it from a bottle or two from a previous batch. I really should start getting hops in bulk but haven't yet.

A pale ale malt, Maris Otter and hops. I buy my specialty grains about twice what I need for a recipe, then I have stuff on hand so I can whip up a recipe at any time. I also freeze yeast and now have 10 strains in my bank. I also have 2 types of dry yeast ,and 2 more coming, for spur of the moment brews.

In addition I have corn sugar for bottle priming and DME for making starters.

4 types of base Pilsen, 2 row, MO, and a bag of 6 row for adjuncts.
16 types of hops for this years brewing

beaksnbeer said:

4 types of base Pilsen, 2 row, MO, and a bag of 6 row for adjuncts.
16 types of hops for this years brewing

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What thats it?? Being facetious of course. Wow thats a boat load o grain n hops.

2-Row, MO, Belgian Pils, Munich and about 20ish varieties of hops. If you have the freezer space and a vacuum sealer, the bulk hop buying is not only cheaper it gets you through frequent shortages of various types of hops.

I buy bulk in everything except for yeast. I'm sitting on 850 lbs. of malt and 12 lbs. of various hops.
I agree... A food saver and a freezer are a brewers best friend.

We have a small bakery as well that we only run a couple days a week in the off season.

You can get dextrose by the 50 lb sack from your bakery supplier for around 50¢ a pound. Generally use some in most batches to get a bit better attenuation than I'd normally get from extract brews. I also give or swap some out with others. Another thing you can get in bulk from bakery suppliers is malto-dextrose.

I buy LME in bulk and plan to get a 50 lb sack of DME. I generally buy hops by the pound. Now that I have shifted to partial mash, I also get 2 row by the 55 lb sack.

gwapogorilla said:

I buy bulk in everything except for yeast. I'm sitting on 850 lbs. of malt and 12 lbs. of various hops. I agree... A food saver and a freezer are a brewers best friend.

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This is my best friend