I brewed my last kit

[colbreeze]

Where can I find quality bulk grains?

 

[firerat]

At just about any of the vendors here who sell grains.

 

[Homercidal]

Most decent shops will sell bulk. Might be good idea to drive to a shop since freight will cost $$.

Best would be to check a nearby homebrew club and see if they are setting up a bulk buy anytime soon. You can save a lot of $$ by having a club purchase a pallet and buying a bag or two off of that order.

 

[ong]

If you're buying full sacks of grain, you're almost always going to be better off buying from a local homebrew store, rather than paying shipping.

 

[DurtyChemist]

My local store has a grain of the month club. 25 lbs of any grains for $31. They rollover unused for one month. It's been enough to brew two batches a month.

 

[Billy-Klubb]

don't be so quick to dismiss kits. sometimes you just don't have the grains/hops you want to brew a batch of "......." there are a bunch of great AG, PM, extract kits out there.

 

[Ridire]

don't be so quick to dismiss kits. sometimes you just don't have the grains/hops you want to brew a batch of "......." there are a bunch of great AG, PM, extract kits out there.

And Northernbrewer publishes what's in their kits. I've gone to the LHBS and bought the exact ingredients of one of their kits. A proven recipe is a proven recipe, kit or not.

 

[Zuljin]

You're going to need a tractor and a plow...

 

[Ike]

I see myself eventually moving to building my own recipes (and trying to make even a SMALL dent in the long list of recipes I want to try from this site) but will still snag a kit from time to time.

I did the math and was surprised to see that my LHBS either breaks even or even LOSES a buck or so on their kits. I thought they'd be making a few bucks for the effort of putting the kits together. When I talked to them they mentioned that they did their kits basically as a service to their customers; between the lines I read: get 'em in with the kits and they'll buy the rest of their gear at the store.


...dammit, they're right...

To get it back on topic: Your LHBS should be your first stop. BUY LOCAL!

 

[estricklin]

And Northernbrewer publishes what's in their kits. I've gone to the LHBS and bought the exact ingredients of one of their kits. A proven recipe is a proven recipe, kit or not.

Agreed. A lot of times I will do my recipe search or get ideas for something by looking at the ingredients of the kits on NB. They are in fact, PROVEN recipes. I just got myself a gold medal with one last week matter of fact.

I've also found that driving to the LHBS is cheaper than ordering online, the shipping on a few hundred pounds of grain is pretty high.

 

[paperairplane]

Search out a deal and or find a group buy - a 50# sack of 2 row is worth about $35.

I found a guy on CL selling MO - got 165# for $120.

Also be ready to pounce on a deal - even if it's not exactly what you need at the time.