Bulk malt suppliers in MT (or online)

Do any of you know of a malt supplier in MT?

I've been looking online... and of course, shipping is outrageous for a 50# sack of 2 row malt.
I've tried two of the local micro breweries near me and they have the standard, "We don't sell our malt" line. A third, however, is willing to sell, so I'll likely go with them. They have a 2 row pale malt from Great Western Malting.

The sad part is, I grew up on a small grain farm in MT - when we grew barley (two row mostly) I remember truck upon truckload of that stuff I hauled away and harvested. (You don't even want to know how much we got a bushel for barley that sold for malting.)

Anyhow, I wanted to get into all grain brewing for a variety of reasons..
A little connection with my past and economy were among them.
Paying UPS $30 to ship a 50# sack seems ridiculous in light of the bulk grain movement I KNOW exists in our state.

Where do you like to get your malt?
Any Montanan's here that have any hot tips?

I got a five gallon bucket of malt from the plant in Great Falls. Next time you are home go to Big Sky Homebrew. John will hook you up.

Big Sky Homebrew Supply - Great Falls, Montana

Back in the day your old man probably only got $2.50 for a bushel of barley. We sold last years for $7, but it has dropped though the floor again. Will likely be in the $4.00 range next year.

We order from North Country Malt, but Mid Country Malt is in Chicago and is a lot closer to you. Same grains, etc and same pricing. Flat freight for 2310 lb of grain, hops, chemicals, etc on a pallet. Running at $180 freight cost, and thats about 42 bags. Works out to $31-45 a bag depending on what kind of grain.

The Country Malt Group

Check out our current order to get ideas on pricing, this is the second time we've done this.

http://www.inhbc.org/grainbuy2.html

fifelee said:

I got a five gallon bucket of malt from the plant in Great Falls. Next time you are home go to Big Sky Homebrew. John will hook you up.

Big Sky Homebrew Supply - Great Falls, Montana

Back in the day your old man probably only got $2.50 for a bushel of barley. We sold last years for $7, but it has dropped though the floor again. Will likely be in the $4.00 range next year.

Click to expand...

What, go back across the divide? I will visit Big Sky Homebrew Supply next time I'm up there, thanks!

Oh, yeah, that's what I wanted to convey.. $2.50 PER BUSHEL... I think it would amaze most homebrewers to know what a farmer gets for a bushel of the grain that gets sold to be malted (By amaze, I mean the very small piece of the pie they receive for their grain)
I guess the same thing for goes for a loaf of bread etc - the farmer takes a very very small piece of that pie for their efforts.. but I'm losing focus here!

We were always lucky to sell our barley for malting, the majority of our grain usually went for feed barley (I can't remember what feed barley sold for then, if I'm not mistaken, it wasn't that bad back then). But, that's the price you do pay for dryland farming - planting barley without irrigation is usually a gamble.