What ingredients would you keep in stock?

If you were to have a few types of grains or other ingredients (hops, yeast, spices, etc...)on hand at all times what would you keep for the types of beer you like. I'm wondering if there are some good, fairly universal ingredients that would be good to have if you had to order more than you needed for one session. I'll admit that at this point I probably enjoy ales / porters the most and am not really a hop head, but I'd like to hear what you would do or are doing.

Easily_Distracted said:

If you were to have a few types of grains or other ingredients (hops, yeast, spices, etc...)on hand at all times what would you keep for the types of beer you like. I'm wondering if there are some good, fairly universal ingredients that would be good to have if you had to order more than you needed for one session. I'll admit that at this point I probably enjoy ales / porters the most and am not really a hop head, but I'd like to hear what you would do or are doing.

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Here’s a short list of what I keep in stock almost always. I like to have the option to be able to brew at least four 10 gallons batches at a time without making a run to the LHBS or online order if I don’t want to:

-Roughly 100 lbs of Base grains (2 Row, Pilsner, Vienna, Munich, Maris Otter). Two 5 gallon food grade buckets per sack. Stack the buckets in my cool basement.

-Specialty grains – Various crystal malt (20L, 40L, 60L, 120L), Chocolate malt, Carapils, Flaked Wheat, Black Patent, Roasted Barley, etc. Specialty grain is stored in 1 lb ziplock bags and categorized by type in Rubbermaid shoe-boxes stacked on shelf above base grain buckets.

-I usually have a couple different yeast types in currently fermenting batches that I can harvest if needed, but I keep 2-4 packets of dry yeast in the fridge nearly all times (US-04, 05, Nottingham) just in case.

-Multiple pounds of hops that I frequently use are stored in the freezer. I buy all hops by the lb since they are much cheaper. Currently Magnum, Cascade, Centennial, Crystal, Columbus, Willamette, Amarillo, Citra, Nugget, Sterling, Belma, Goldings, Tettnang, Hallertau, and couple of others I cant think of right now.

Keeping ingredients on hand really depends on your tastes, but the following are probably staples. I think keeping base malt on hand is pretty obvious and I would recommend keeping enough on hand to last about 4-6 months. This amount will vary based on how often and how much you brew also how much storage space you have. Then a good clean high alpha bittering hop (magnum, warrior) which can be purchased by the pound and stored in the freezer. I would also keep a few packets of your favorite dry yeast.

That will probably keep everyone happy, then what else you keep is based on your preferences. I usually have a few ounces of fuggles or ekg and then couple different american hop varieties. I keep a few pounds of munich and carapils on hand. I try to plan out my brews in advance and go to the HBS every 2-3 months to pick up the necessary specialty grains, yeasts and hops based on what I have scheduled to brew. I will add that I rarely brew the same thing twice in a year, and if I do it is a pale ale.

Also don't forget to keep a steady supply of whirfloc, pbw (or other cleaner), and sanitizer around. I keg now, but i still need to remember to keep caps around for when i bottle off the keg.

Most of my brews are lagers but I will brew stouts, ales and wheat beers as well. I have a sack of Munich, Vienna, Pilsen, Wheat and Pale as my base malts. Specialties are Chocolate, Black Prinz, Crystal 10, 20, 60 and 90, Caramunich, Carared and Caravienna.

MO and 2-row and some wheat malt
Crystal 20, 60 and 120
Munich and Biscuit and Brown and Pale Chocolate and Roasted

EKG and Fuggles and Northern Brewer
Cascade and Willamette

WLP004 and WLP007 and (usually) WLP380
S-04 and US-05 and Notty and Windsor and Lalvin champagne yeast for cider

That's about it. I (obviously) do a lot more British ales than anything else, so MO, a couple of crystals and some brown, biscuit, chocolate and roasted fill out my grain bill for probably 80% of the beers I make. Same thing for EKG and Fuggles for hops. The rest are for when I feel like making American style beers or wheat beers, which is pretty much the rest of the time.

Brettwasbtd- yeah I noticed that fuggles and kent goldings have come up more than once during my limited amount of brew sessions. It looks like cascade is popular depending on what you are brewing.

Begin2brew- I see vienna and munich mentioned a lot too.

Kpr121- Awesome. I'm going to your place when the zombie apocalypse comes.

Minimalistic view:

2-row
US-05
Beet sugar
Cascades/Centennials/Chinooks

Easily_Distracted said:

Kpr121- Awesome. I'm going to your place when the zombie apocalypse comes.

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A fellow homebrewer will always be welcome at my brewery when the zombies come! Just leave your scarlett and gray at home!

kpr121 said:

A fellow homebrewer will always be welcome at my brewery when the zombies come! Just leave your scarlett and gray at home!

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I'm a transplant so I can still be bribed with beer. If I lived here since birth I would probably be telling you the deal is off. They are HARDCORE here.


There are a lot of Steelers fans, though.