Grains to have on hand

When I move back to Mississippi (shhhh, I know I am not allowed to brew there! LOL), I will be two hours from my LHBS and like the idea of having grain on hand so I can brew without any planning ahead of time. So.....

What should I have on hand to do some basic recipes? I usually drink ambers, IPAs, and blondes but also might want to have ingredients for a stout on hand. Was thinking of buying some base grains in bulk and then several pounds of different specialty grains. Also what is the best way to store them? Can I freeze them??

What would be your grain supply if you couldnt get any supplies for a few months?

Vittles Vaults. Get some wheat, chocolate, crystal, carapils, amber, and TONS of base grains. Probably pilsner, pale, amber, and possibly Munich.

2-Row, for the most part I use it as my base for almost every beer I make...I don't mess with marris otter, Price is a little steep if your buying in bulk. All I do Is buy my pale malt in bulk and run to my LHBS whenever I need specialty grains/yeast...I have allot being stored right now but not having your own mill sucks when trying to store specialties.

I still mainly just have a two row base malt and Carapils or some other light dextrin base malt around.

I'll often just home roast an approximation of what I need for a recipe.

Two row base malt will yield a good approximation of non-caramel/crystal malts, and the dextrin malt covers those (I wet it first...).

A Google search will yield some people experiences on temp. and time to simulate roasts. And a book recommendation to this end is Radical Brewing. There's a nice section on home roasting, making homemade caramel (...then you'd just need a big bag of 2row), and even malting your own.

The exception of course is something very proprietary or specialized. Honey malt comes to mind (although I've been curious to try making my own from raw barley, it's malted in an oxygen deprived environment). There are others no doubt.

Also, this method doesn't work well for dark malts, unless you are friends with the fire chief. Maltsters often use processes to de-bitter dark malts as well.

So if you like dark beers, maybe having some of those around.

I'm not saying this will replace or even very closely approximate commercial malts. But you can formulate recipes around your own malts and adjust accordingly.

Freezing might be a nice idea. I don't think the water content of grain is high enough to cause an issue with denaturing the malt enzymes. I've heard others do this without problem and would myself if I had freezer space. I know a lot of people who freeze flour for baking and such to prevent spoilage.

One final thought. What about a bunch of LME/DME? I still often throw it in in place of some of my base malt.

i usually keep 50 pounds of 2 row on hand

and then a few pounds of different crystals, some wheat both flaked and white, some adjuncts like rice, corn, and oats, and then i keep some darker malts like roasted barley, black patent and chocolate malt.

Other than that if i need a different specialty malt i pick it up when i head to the lhbs

i'd have 2 bags of 2-row, a bag of wheat, some crystal 20 and 60, a couple pounds of chocolate, a couple pounds of roasted barley, and a pound of black patent. adjuncts like corn, you can get at the store (instant grits are the same thing, just ground instead of milled), flaked rice is the same as minute rice. grains freeze real nice, too

I bought a dozen or so 2 gallon plastic paint buckets from Lowes (with lids). I keep my specialty grains in them. They'll hold ten pounds of grain. I got even fewer 1 gallon plastic buckets for stuff like Black Patent that I use very little of. For base grains I use the vittles vaults as has been previously suggested.

Can you order grains mail order, or would that raise some eyebrows? If not (meaning no eye of Sauron on you), when I was getting ready to brew I would over purchase the grains I needed to "stock up".

I think it really depends on whether the grains are crushed or not.
Crushed grains do not last well, and should be used as quickly as possible (within a few weeks).
Uncrushed grains last a relatively long time. I buy my grains (uncrushed) about once every 6 months, and buy enough to last me for that time and keep them in pet food containers in the basement with a dehumidifier http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=53828&cat=1,43326 and crush them when I brew.

-a.