Basic ingredients to buy in bulk

I have now brewed 4 Mr. Beers and 4 5-gallon batches. I think I have my process down so I don't feel like a total klutz while brewing. And, the beers have all turned out pretty good. My big batches have all been extract kits assembled by my LHBS. I think I am ready to start experimenting with recipes, which means I will need to buy my own ingredients. I like to brew on the darker side, brown ales, porters and stouts. Maybe the occasional IPA to spice it up.

So, are there certain ingredients that I will likely be going through a lot of, and should therefore buy in bulk? It sounds like pale malt DME would be a safe bet. Any suggestions for grains, hops or yeast?

And, of course, any tips on where to buy this stuff in bulk from would be helpful as well.

Thanks all,
JJ

I buy my hops bulk. It's way cheaper to buy hops a pound at a time from places like hopsdirect than to get it at the LHBS.

Yeast I don't buy bulk, but I do reuse the liquid yeast strains.

Well you got the DME part.

For other ingredients, BYO has the major hops that are used in certain styles.

Brew Your Own: The How-To Homebrew Beer Magazine - Comparing and Selecting Hops

Pic your Brown ale, porter and stout from the drop down and may stock up on some hops that will go well with all types.

You can also start washing your yeast to re-use on future batches. If you are using liquid this is great, not so much if you are using dry.

Check this thread out:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/yeast-washing-illustrated-41768/

I suggest you buy any brewing software that you like, so you can check color, bitterness, and gravities, without relying on 'someone's' recipe.

I know a guy who found a recipe on a brew forum, and neglected to notice that the bittering addition was set to 20 mins before flameout, just as the BK was coming to a boil. Had he any type of software, he could have quickly verified that the addition should have been at the 60 minute mark, and that the corresponding IBU's were correct, and calculates water temps, without having to wing it.

It also lets you catalog and archive your brews, and gives you an inventory section to help you stay in supply of your needed ingredients.

Hey, whats $25 compared to not having a clue what exactly you are attempting to do?

If you stay extract, then stocking up on specialty grains, and your favorite hops bought by the pound, will save you bigtime.

It all depends on what styles you are brewing and what your actual tastes are.

weirdboy said:

I buy my hops bulk. It's way cheaper to buy hops a pound at a time from places like hopsdirect than to get it at the LHBS.

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I'm thinking about placing an order for some hops from Hops Direct, but I don't know if I should get leaf or pellets. I've always used leaf, but I've heard that pellets store better. And they're significantly cheaper.

Thoughts? Thanks!

MurderMittenBrewing said:

I'm thinking about placing an order for some hops from Hops Direct, but I don't know if I should get leaf or pellets. I've always used leaf, but I've heard that pellets store better. And they're significantly cheaper.

Thoughts? Thanks!

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The one advantage to pellets where storage is concerned, is that 2 - 3 pounds of leaf hops in your freezer will leave you maybe enough room for a frozen pizza, they take up some space, even vacuum packed!

***edited to add: Hops direct has willamette hops pellets for $10.50 and leaf for $13 a pound right now. They would be a good choice for the styles you mentioned above.

I suggest you buy any brewing software that you like, so you can check color, bitterness, and gravities, without relying on 'someone's' recipe.

I know a guy who found a recipe on a brew forum, and neglected to notice that the bittering addition was set to 20 mins before flameout, just as the BK was coming to a boil. Had he any type of software, he could have quickly verified that the addition should have been at the 60 minute mark, and that the corresponding IBU's were correct, and calculates water temps, without having to wing it.

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While I won't disagree with the general sentiment of doing the calculations yourself, it is certainly not necessary to buy brewing software to get accurate estimations of these numbers, especially if you're trying to save money. My recommendation would be to buy/find/steal a copy of Designing Great Beers and use the various forumations therein to estimate all your numbers. It is a trivial exercise to take the equations and put them into a spreadsheet that you can then use on brew day to figure your IBUs, efficiency (although probably not as necessary for extract brewing), etc. The reason I'd recommend the book over any software is the same reason I think kids should learn the math before they start depending on calculators. Having a solid understanding of the way hop utilization works, for example, means a lot more than plugging a few numbers into BrewSmith and looking at the answer.

While I own a copy of BrewSmith and use it for all my brews, I also find that there's a lot of situations that seem to come up where I end up digging out my copy of Designing Great Brews and plugging numbers into a spreadsheet anyway.

As far as buying hops, if you could only buy 2 types of hops to have in bulk (one for bittering and one for aroma), what would you buy?

Eric

EricCSU said:

As far as buying hops, if you could only buy 2 types of hops to have in bulk (one for bittering and one for aroma), what would you buy?

Eric

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Magnum for bittering and Cascade for flavor and aroma

Summit for bittering and late additions. Its high AA allow less used per brew for bittering requirements and can double as a late addition hop. And Willamette has some very nice qualities as a late addition hop. 3 hops for the price of 2 and the ability to use less of a bittering hop means even more savings.

EricCSU said:

As far as buying hops, if you could only buy 2 types of hops to have in bulk (one for bittering and one for aroma), what would you buy?

Eric

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I brew a lot of American Ales and IPA, and I have a pound each of Columbus, Centennial, and Simcoe. The other suggestions above are good for your styles.

JacobInIndy said:

Magnum for bittering and Cascade for flavor and aroma

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I was thinking that exact same thing.

Eric

Okay, as a tangential question.
How do I go about buying and storing steeping grains?
If I buy a kit I'll get 1/2 pound of this and 1/4 pound of that. If I buy for a recipe, I buy in whole pounds/

As a noob, I usually buy them crushed, can I store them so?
Is it time to buy/make a mill?

Hey, thanks all. Brewsmith moved from 4th or 5th on my list to #2, right behind Designing Great Beers.

I was thinking of going through How to Brew and doing each of Palmer's sample beers once, just to try some things I might not otherwise. Then I can add up the ingredients for all those beers and should be able to see pretty clearly what's worth buying in bulk.

Good idea? Stupid?

Thanks again...

beersydoesit said:

Okay, as a tangential question.
How do I go about buying and storing steeping grains?
If I buy a kit I'll get 1/2 pound of this and 1/4 pound of that. If I buy for a recipe, I buy in whole pounds/

As a noob, I usually buy them crushed, can I store them so?
Is it time to buy/make a mill?

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I had this question as well.

Found the answer using the handy search feature.

Eric

Has anyone ever tried vacuum sealing crushed grains? I bet you would have no problem storing them then. I'm not sure it's worth the cost to actually buy one, but if you already own one then vacuum sealing would be a cheaper alternative to buying a barley crusher and doing it yourself.

You could even mix up you recipes before vacuum sealing, and save yourself some time on brew day.