What Grains do you keep on hand all the time

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htims05

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I'm considering getting my own mill and a few buckets to store grains in the basement (would this attract mice?)...versus driving 20min to my LHBS to buy grains per batch and use their crusher.

But for someone that prefers IPA's, Hefe's, Marzen/Ofest's - what should I keep on hand in bulk.

I am currently only doing 5g batches - BIAB.
 
I brew mostly ales, porters, stouts, a few German styles, and the occasional English ale. Lagers a few times a year. I keep on hand 2-row, Pilsner, Maris Otter or Golden Promise, Munich 10l, Vienna, Caramel 40 and 60, and some specialty grains like chocolate malt, some roasted malt and flaked grains. The base grains I buy in 50 lb quantities (usually 5 10lb bags from Morebeer, to get free shipping) and the others in 5 or 10 lb quantities; the flaked grains just a couple pounds of each.

Any plastic container with a tight fitting lid is fine; mice can’t get into those. Moisture is the enemy of stored grain (I’m a grain farmer). Kept dry, cool, and free of varmints and bugs, unmilled grain will keep indefinitely.
 
grampamark said:
I brew mostly ales, porters, stouts, a few German styles, and the occasional English ale. Lagers a few times a year. I keep on hand 2-row, Pilsner, Maris Otter or Golden Promise, Munich 10l, Vienna, Caramel 40 and 60, and some specialty grains like chocolate malt, some roasted malt and flaked grains. The base grains I buy in 50 lb quantities (usually 5 10lb bags from Morebeer, to get free shipping) and the others in 5 or 10 lb quantities; the flaked grains just a couple pounds of each.

Any plastic container with a tight fitting lid is fine; mice can’t get into those. Moisture is the enemy of stored grain (I’m a grain farmer). Kept dry, cool, and free of varmints and bugs, unmilled grain will keep indefinitely.
Click to expand...

What kind of container will hold 50lbs airtight?

My basement is humidity controlled at 45-55% so that’s good right? Temps no higher than 72-74f during the summer
 
Gamma lids are airtight and designed for dry food storage. You can get their Vittles Vaults which can hold 50# and you can also get the lids and adapters to fit regular 5 gallon buckets, which hold >20#. The lids for buckets are available at Lowe's.
 
htims05 said:
What kind of container will hold 50lbs airtight?

My basement is humidity controlled at 45-55% so that’s good right? Temps no higher than 72-74f during the summer
Click to expand...

Two 5 gallon buckets with snap-on or Gamma Seal lids. I like the black lids without gaskets; they are airtight enough. But you can also get plain cheap lids with a rubber gasket if you actually airtight instead of virtually AT. (the ones at Home Depot are orange. They are a pain to get loose)

BTW, mice can get in a VittlesVault. My daughter was using one for dogfood and mice chewed a hole in it. I assume they can also chew through a bucket but I've never had that problem.
 
Belgian pils, Belgian pale, Maris Otter, Munich - 55 lbs each
Belgian Special B, Belgian aromatic, Belgian Cara 8, wheat malt, rye malt, flaked barley, flaked oats - 5-10 lbs each.
For any darker stuff, I'll pick up what's needed at the LHBS.

I also use 5 gallon buckets and the cheap lids from Home Depot, but the black ones. Keep them in the pantry at room temp. I live in Arizona, so humidity is basically unheard of.
 
Humm. I’ve had a mouse problem in my basement a few years ago when I first moved into this house. I think I finally sealed it up as I haven’t seen evidence or caught any in over a year or two...but I’m concerned about putting a food source for them down there...I don’t have space other places for this size containers.
 
Interesting.
I buy 55 lb. bulk of Salzgitter pilsner, rye, and of course, 2 row and store in the larger bins at home depot.
Never found the need for "air tight", but these bins are definitely "mouse proof".
 
I just got a grain mill recently and am ready to purchase grain in bulk from More Beer. I live in the area, so I plan to drive up late next week. I’ll likely get a 55 lbs. bag, although I haven’t decided of what yet. (Which is why I’m in this thread.) I know that a full bag provides a savings, however does buying only 10 lbs. of a specialty grain come with any kind of bulk discount? I imagine the markups are highest on the kits.

At a different LHBS, I paid about $40 bucks for an all-grain kit and swore never again.
 
The "kits" are very expensive.
The "per pound" cost of grain is a close second.
Buying your "go to" grain in bulk is the way to go, then adding your smaller grain amounts by the recipe is the most economical.
 
SEndorf said:
Interesting.
I buy 55 lb. bulk of Salzgitter pilsner, rye, and of course, 2 row and store in the larger bins at home depot.
Never found the need for "air tight", but these bins are definitely "mouse proof".
Click to expand...

Which bins are you using? Got a pic?
 
Home Depot buckets with 2 row, pils, maris otter. I buy specialty grains as I need them; LHBS is 10 min away.
 
For the styles you listed; Rahr Standard 2-Row, Weyermann Barke Pils (or any of their other pils malts if Barke isn’t available), Weyermann Barke Munich (or Munich II if Barke isn’t available), and Weyermann Pale Wheat Malt. Coincidently, those are actually the grains that I usually keep in stock (55lb bags) for my own brewing. I also usually keep some British malt (usually Simpson’s Golden Promise or Fawcett Optic/Pearl). Then I keep an assortment of specialty malts. Weyermann Carahell and Caramunich II being the most common as well as some flaked/malted oats, chocolate/black malts and some flaked corn. With that assortment, you can really cover pretty much any beer style that your heart desires.
 
I try to keep Weyermann pilsner, Golden Promise, and some standard US two-row (typically Great Western, Breiss or Rahr, in that order based on availability), on hand. I had 320 pounds of those base malts delivered a month ago and have been pounding that stash ever since. I also try to keep white wheat in stock in much lesser amounts...

Cheers!
 
2-row or Pilsner, Pale Ale, Munich 10L are malts I keep in decent quantities. Honey malt, biscuit, saurmalz, and wheat are malts I keep in smaller quantities.

I mostly brew Pils, Lagers varying from light to Vienna, Marzen, and an occasional Pale Ale, Bock, or Hefe.

I used to purchase 55 lb bags until someone mentioned MoreBeer. They offer free shipping on a $39 or more purchase and have a good discount on 10# bags of grain that are included in the free shipping program. They don't offer free shipping with 55 lb bags.
 
I think the answer is what grains you use to brew the styles you like; those are what you should keep on hand.

I keep Maris Otter, 2-Row, Munich, and some smaller amounts of specialty malts like Chocolate Malt, Chocolate Wheat, a few different Crystal malts, and so on.

I keep my bulk grain in 5-gallon buckets with Gamma Seal lids. The lids can be pricey but it depends where and when you buy them. At Menards--a midwestern home store like Lowes or Home Depot--they are $6.97 apiece. Get 'em when they have their 11-percent off sale and they're only $6.20 apiece.

I also have about 5 of the 4-gallon square pails. I sometimes get 10 or 15 pounds of specialty grain in a plastic bag; I'll store that in the square pail buckets using a twist-tie to seal up the bag inside the bucket.

The smaller amounts of grain I keep in Tupperware-type containers or in 5-quart ice cream pails. Here's a pic showing how I organize some of it. I built a rolling shelf thing I can push up against other shelves and pull out when needed to access the shelving behind.

buckets.jpg
 
I was curious how the bulk discount for grain at MoreBeer scaled with purchase size. For Viking 2-row I found the following:
  • 1 lbs @ $1.19 → 1.19 $/lbs (0% discount)
  • 5 lbs @ $4.89 → 0.98 $/lbs (18% discount)
  • 10 lbs @ $8.68 → 0.87 $/lbs (27% discount)
  • 55 lbs @ $39.99 → 0.73 $/lbs (39% discount)
Looking at a $29.99 average pilsner kit (without yeast and subtracting the cost of hops), I found the following:
  • 12 lbs @ $24.75 → $2.06 $/lbs (73% increase)
Wow! The grain in a kit versus a 55 lbs bag is three times more expensive per pound.
 
I try to keep enough US 2-row or pale ale malt on hand that I can always brew something, and maybe a pilsner malt. I'm about out of Belgian pilsner, and I got a good deal recently on Rahr pils but I haven't tried it yet. I also have a couple pounds of crystal malt and a little Black Patent for brewing porters.
 
Positronic_Matrix said:
I was curious how the bulk discount for grain at MoreBeer scaled with purchase size. For Viking 2-row I found the following:
  • 1 lbs @ $1.19 → 1.19 $/lbs (0% discount)
  • 5 lbs @ $4.89 → 0.98 $/lbs (18% discount)
  • 10 lbs @ $8.68 → 0.87 $/lbs (27% discount)
  • 55 lbs @ $39.99 → 0.73 $/lbs (39% discount)
Looking at a $29.99 average pilsner kit (without yeast and subtracting the cost of hops), I found the following:
  • 12 lbs @ $24.75 → $2.06 $/lbs (73% increase)
Wow! The grain in a kit versus a 55 lbs bag is three times more expensive per pound.
Click to expand...

Might want to check the shipping charge on that 55lb bag at least, which bring it back to +/- a dollar a pound.

As a guy who likes IPAs and Hefe/wheat beer, I keep 2 row and white wheat malt in bulk. Everything else I buy in quantities planned out for a batch or two of something, and buy usually in 1lb bags from NB in quantity enough to get free shipping. This delivers specialty grain to my door for ~1.70/lb, way cheaper than LHBS here. Sure it would be a little cheaper in bulk, but we are talking at MOST a couple bucks per batch and I'm willing to pay that to not store large quantities of specialty grain that would take years and years for me to go through.

In terms of storage, I use the white food-safe five gallon buckets and screw-top lids from the paint section at Home Depot. They hold exactly 25lb each. The lid is a two piece design with a bottom piece that snaps on hard to the bucket and a top piece that threads in and has a rubber gasket. I want it mouse and bug-proof. I keep them indoors in the corner of a spare bedroom. If the wife will let you get away with that, they stack nicely and you can probably get 125lb of grain in a single column of buckets without taking up much floor space at all. I live in SC and the heat/humidity especially in the summer would make me leery of keeping them in a non climate controlled garage, etc.
 
I've struggled with grain storage for quite awhile. Cost / efficiency of space etc. I, too settled on 5 gal plastic buckets with gamma screw on lids. If you can get 6 gal buckets even better, you only need 2 to store 55lbs of grain. I normally purchase 4 or 5 55# bags when my supplier has his grain sale, in varying amounts of 2 row, Pilsner, Vienna or Marris Otter varieties. 4 varieties, sometimes with 70 or 80 lbs of one or two kinds of grain, that's alot of buckets. They dont take up any less room when empty either... Advantages are, they do seal well, mouse proof, easy to handle. I'm going to use most of one bucket of base grain in a 10 gal batch usually...
Cheers!
 
My LHBS has a deal where you can buy a “virtual” bag 50# for 38$. And it is kept “on account” so to speak. On brew day I can get base malts against that (2-row/pale, w wheat, Vienna and a delicious others. And actually pay only for the more special ones I need that day.
Works our pretty well
 
I use air-tight 7-gallon buckets that I bought from a local food processor for 50 cents each. Most of them previously held some form of cheese product. They are the same buckets I use to ferment in.

I keep the buckets in an unused shower, partly to keep out the critters. No way are they going to chew through tile...

I keep 2-row and malted wheat on hand all the time, although I usually have quite a few more.
 
Last edited:
i use large zip lock bags and store them in my old cooler/mastun.
i keep 2-row, carapils and whatever crystal malt is left over.
just brewed with the Viking pale malt that i got for 39$
 
Viking pale ale, goldpils Vienna, acidulated, carapils and Crystal 20 & 40. Oh and flaked maize so I can whip up batches of cream ale.
If worried about possible nice out down a few of those sticky traps as a precaution.
I have 4 of these storage bins purchased only when on sale so cheap.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004L5UIRU/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_gGBbEb9N4G90C
 
htims05 said:
I'm considering getting my own mill and a few buckets to store grains in the basement (would this attract mice?)...versus driving 20min to my LHBS to buy grains per batch and use their crusher.

But for someone that prefers IPA's, Hefe's, Marzen/Ofest's - what should I keep on hand in bulk.

I am currently only doing 5g batches - BIAB.
Click to expand...
I like to keep 10 lbs of Pale/Pilsner, I have a bag of locally sourced/grown Wheat, a few lbs of Munich and Vienna , a pound or two of honey malt,chocolate malt ,a small bag of melanoidin and a bag of something just for head retention, or color adjustments. Read a few recipes of beers you like to drink on the regular. Id bet 80% of those have a similar grains just in varied amounts with a little "character malt" tossed in .I also like to keep a few packets of yeast . Youd be surprised at what a simple yeast substitute can do to a recipe.
and last but not least , hops. I like hallertauer hops so I keep a few on hand. I also started last year growing my own .
while youre considering buying a mill(good idea) buy a heat sealer too so you can seal bags back up to save oxidation and flavors from going off .
 
Positronic_Matrix said:
I was curious how the bulk discount for grain at MoreBeer scaled with purchase size. For Viking 2-row I found the following:
  • 1 lbs @ $1.19 → 1.19 $/lbs (0% discount)
  • 5 lbs @ $4.89 → 0.98 $/lbs (18% discount)
  • 10 lbs @ $8.68 → 0.87 $/lbs (27% discount)
  • 55 lbs @ $39.99 → 0.73 $/lbs (39% discount)
Looking at a $29.99 average pilsner kit (without yeast and subtracting the cost of hops), I found the following:
  • 12 lbs @ $24.75 → $2.06 $/lbs (73% increase)
Wow! The grain in a kit versus a 55 lbs bag is three times more expensive per pound.
Click to expand...
you pay extra per pound for the kit form because someone has to take the time to measure out , assemble and pack...not to mention theyre building the recipe for you...in short, its a labor cost.
 
I used to have a shelf full of crystal malt and other specialty grains but found many of them sitting and getting old before I ever had a reason to use them up. So I stopped that practice and now the only grain I buy in bulk are the base malts that I use all the time. I buy a sack of Briess Brewers Malt because it is inexpensive and maybe one sack of Maris Otter or Golden Promise.
 
I only keep grain for next two batches or so. This is because I don't brew so much and I prefer fresh ingredients. The selection of specialty malts could last a bit longer. I keep some Crisp Best Ale malt that I find reliable and cost-effective British style base malt + Simpsons crystal malts + small amounts of chocolate malt & roasted barley. I also have Weyermann wheat malt for head retention and wheat beers.
 
i just buy bags of whole barley....50lb sack gets me 40lb's of malt for 12.99, that's enough to brew 20 gallons, right now i have some roast barley and black patent. because trying to make it myself smokes the house up...
 
kevin58 said:
I used to have a shelf full of crystal malt and other specialty grains but found many of them sitting and getting old before I ever had a reason to use them up. So I stopped that practice and now the only grain I buy in bulk are the base malts that I use all the time. I buy a sack of Briess Brewers Malt because it is inexpensive and maybe one sack of Maris Otter or Golden Promise.
Click to expand...

I feel like I might be shifting back to this strategy. Only this year have I tried stocking grains other than having a sack of American Pale Malt around with random leftovers of specialty grain. I like the theory of having a set of "core" grains on hand to be able to brew my "core" recipes...but I am finding that, while I don't feel that I brew a huge style of beers (mostly Pale Ales, IPAs, Porter, Stouts, getting into Belgians), it has quickly grown to the point where I think I need 20-30 specialty grains in stock!

I am trying to diversify my base malt usage, so right now I have 5 storage buckets and recently picked up a bag of Crisp Maris Otter and a bag of Weyermann Bohemian Pilsner.
 
htims05 said:
I'm considering getting my own mill and a few buckets to store grains in the basement (would this attract mice?)...versus driving 20min to my LHBS to buy grains per batch and use their crusher.

But for someone that prefers IPA's, Hefe's, Marzen/Ofest's - what should I keep on hand in bulk.

I am currently only doing 5g batches - BIAB.
Click to expand...

I don't have tons of storage, so I buy 5-10 lbs each of base malts, Maris, Briess 2 row, Pilsner, and vacuum seal them and store in a large plastic totem. Specialty grains I buy in 2-3lbs and vacuum seal as well.

I brew BIAB 3-4.5 gal batches and my supplier ships for free and I get a 10% discount by being a AHA member. Might not be the most cost efficient, but I only brew once sometimes twice a month, so it's a good fit.
 
+1000 on the virtual grain bag. I only keep about 20lbs if pilz/2 row on hand plus a pound or three of the following;

Flaked corn
Vienna
C-40
Biscuit malt- (like Franks hot sauce- I put that sh** on everything)

These grains will just about cover most of the beers I brew.

Every so often I’ll brew a COTR (clean out the refrigerator) beer.
 
bracconiere said:
i just buy bags of whole barley....50lb sack gets me 40lb's of malt for 12.99, that's enough to brew 20 gallons, right now i have some roast barley and black patent. because trying to make it myself smokes the house up...
Click to expand...

What brand/ where do you get food grade barley for sprouting/malting?
 
I keep on hand #50 Maris otter, #50 GWM 2 Row,#50 Viking pale 2 Row. Various crystal, chocolate and malted wheats. I store the base malts in #50 Vittle Vaults. Working fine so far.
 
bracconiere said:
i don't, i use whole barley from the feed store....sprouts fine, tastes fine. that's what i drink.
Click to expand...

I could only find animal feed also, but got nervous about mold contamination after the “nothing can hurt you” thread. I know Alberta grain crops were destroyed by rain this season... perfect conditions for mold. Do you know where your feed is sourced?
 

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