Hops in bulk

I would like to start ordering some ingredients in bulk. My LHBS has fair prices but bulk would be more economical. I want to get a couple of hops in bulk. I really like spicey not so much extra bitter. I was thinking Hallertau and one other? I like Pale Ales, Amber Ales, American Wheat, C. Commons and Scottish Ales. I want to start dry hopping a few beers, love the aroma. The more I read hop profiles the less decisive I get.

Bulk is the way to go save money in the long run...and its awesome to just have ingredients on hand and brew whenever the hell you feel like it....

Hallertau is good noble hop to have on hand....can't ever go wrong with having lots of cascade on hand IMO...look into Northern Brewer is also a good all around hop that will good with the styles you mentioned....

Find a local group and organize a bulk hop buy.....you will save big time on shipping...our group just did another buy from grain to glass and shipping was free...for a $100 order...Hopsdirect.com will charge a lot for shipping for one pound..but goes down significantly with multiple pounds...

looks at recipes you are interested in and make your decisions based on that...when I first bought hops I just picked hops that were crazy cheap but didn't really go with the styles I was making..

Keep in mind you will need to keep hops in a freezer and you will want to invest in a food saver to split up your bulk order or reseal your big bag

I recommend http://www.hopsdirect.com/ as well. I have now ordered 12 total pounds over two orders with a grand total of $152. Coming in at less than a $13 dollar average much better than my LHBS (pounds around 21-26 dollars depending). All of my pounds have weighed in over also. My Cascade weighed 1.25!

Here is another sight. http://www.northwesthops.com/ with good prices although I have never bought from them.

I bought 6 assorted lbs for around $75 (including shipping) from www.yakimavalleyhops.com last year. I think they were cleaning out their supplies to make room for the fall harvest, so those prices are lower than they are now. Buy something high-alpha (Magnum, Columbus, etc...) that you can use to bitter anything. When you have a pound, you don't have to bitter in 1oz increments. Everything else, buy what goes well with the styles you'll make most often. If you're not sure what you want, the 4oz packs at www.farmhousebrewingsupply.com are pretty awesome.

Perle goes very well with hallertauer. I did two brews alternating bittering with one and aroma with the other. Both came out very well indeed.

Saaz, Goldings US, East Kent Goldings, Santiam, Willamette, Fuggles
Cascade, Centennial
Warrior, Magnum

This is my opinion and I don't REALLY know what you like. A total of 5 hops varieties would give lots of flexibility. I would pick at least two complimentary hops from the top six. I would pick both middle hops. I would pick one of the bottom.

For example, from hopsdirect, you could get:
CASCADE $11.85
CENTENNIAL $15.65 (leaf)
MAGNUM US $11.30
SANTIAM $14.25 (leaf)
GOLDING US $12.70
WILLAMETTE $9.90
...and with shipping it would come to around $90 total. The math (6x16 = 96 ounces of hops; $90/96 = 0.94/oz), so each ounce would cost less than 94 cents per ounce. That's great pricing as far as I'm concerned and less than half of what most LHBS charge. However, what's not stated is that hopsdirect give an additional 1-4 ounces per bag (usually around 2) which means your total ounces actually goes up (96+12 = 108) and your cost per ounce goes down (~0.83/oz). So now you're looking at about 83 cents per ounce (on average with shipping), and a lot of LHBS shops are charging a minimum of $2/oz and the average is closer to $2.25/oz - therefore your paying closer to 1/3 of what they're charging.

Flipping it around. If I buy $90 of hops from my lhbs I would get maybe 41 ounces of standard-demand hops vs about 108 ounces by buying in bulk (which is about 2.5x the amount from lhbs).

It's a no-brainer for me. Well, that AND washing yeast . Between the two it's a savings of over $10 per 5 gallon batch (assuming 3 ounces for a savings of ~4.50, and reused yeast for a savings of ~6).

badlee said:

Perle goes very well with hallertauer. I did two brews alternating bittering with one and aroma with the other. Both came out very well indeed.

Click to expand...

I was thinking Perle, I am glad they pair well with each other. As we come out of this winter fog, I am hoping to drink some of my own Cali-common lagers. I have experience with wine tasting and evaluating but not beer. I am interested in Amber Lagers with IBU's around 30. I am struggling with cloning an Amber Lager that I like. One day I will be able to discern more aroma's and flavors, but until then I guess it is trial and error.

Mine were amber/brown ales and I would do them again for sure.
Both of these hops are also great for dry hopping.

I would def recommend hopsdirect as well. Make sure you order at least 4 lbs to make the shipping worth it. Typically the lbs I get from them weigh anywhere from 18 - 24 oz, you can't beat that

Brewtah said:

I like Pale Ales, Amber Ales, American Wheat, C. Commons and Scottish Ales. I want to start dry hopping a few beers, love the aroma.

Click to expand...

While EKG might be ideal for the Scottish ale, you can probably get away with almost anything, since you'll probably only need bittering hops. (Of course, its not true that bittering hops add no distinct characteristics to beers).