What to keep in stock ?

[mrchicken]

Still in the beginning stages so keep it simple please. (kits, extracts, DME, and some BIAB cracked grains.....NO all grain recipes as Im not set up for it and don't plan on expanding)

Got a hefe in the fermenter (love hefes)

Love chocolaty porters with low hops, malt forward with chocolate finish.


So with this in mind as my 2 "go to" beers What would be a good shopping list for things to keep in stock? No local HB shops around so that means ordering off the internet.

Consider me at the rookie level with enough bottles on hand to do (3 ) 5 gallon batches at a time. This is a hobby and I'm not looking to get into kegging or expand to micro brewery status. Figure I will be brewing one or two batches of home brew per month except for the hot summer months (unless I can shanghai the basement fridge and get a temp controller)

What malt should I have on hand and how much? How well does it store? How long is it good?

Can I buy cracked grains in larger quantities (3-4 recipes worth at a time) and use them over a couple months time? or will they go bad?

Most of the recipes I have come across for the beers I like recommend about 1 oz of hallertau hops. How long to hops or hop pellets keep?

OR Is it a bad idea to try and buy 2-3 months worth of supplies at a time?

Thanks!

 

[ncbrewer]

Opinions about ingredients storage vary. Here are some articles that can help you:
http://byo.com/stories/article/indices/19-brewing-tips/1551-top-10-steps-to-better-beer
http://byo.com/cleaning-sanitation/item/1660-yearly-brewery-checkup
http://byo.com/wheat-beer/item/1362-shelf-life-storing-your-ingredients
http://byo.com/stories/issue/item/1533-tune-up-your-equipment

I think a good strategy would be to have some light LME and supplement it with some light DME if you need small adjustments. That way you'd use mostly full cans/pouches of LME,which is cheaper. Then keep some specialty grains for the beer styles you want to brew. That way you have control over your recipe, and only one style of extract. And if you don't really need to add incremental amounts of DME, you can eliminate that and keep only LME. To make your specialty grains store better, you could buy them whole, and crush with a rolling pin for use. Maybe not ideal, but I've kept crushed specialty grains in zip locks in the fridge for a few months, too.

For hops, you have different choices. Simplest is to buy small quantities and not plan to keep them more than 2 -3 months in the freezer. My used hop bags, I squeeze the air out and roll up the end and secure with a rubber band. Then that goes in a zip lock freezer bag, squeeze the air out, and seal. Then all the zip lock bags go into a canning jar in the freezer. There are more exotic/expensive ways to store hops, but this is cheap and simple. It works if you don't need to store the open hop bags too long. I simplify my recipes when possible to keep just a few varieties.

I don't think you mentioned yeast, but again to simplify, I use dry yeast. It keeps many months in the fridge.

Keep in mind that there are lots of way to go about this - use what works for you. I hope this helps.

 

[Bosh]

Even if you don't use much hops, buying them by the pound can save you a lot of money (especially if you pick up good sales, I get a lot of on sale hops for $5/pound plus shipping by waiting for sales and buying a **** ton).

 

[ChelisHubby]

Keep some light Dme and some dry yeast for the moment. Do look into controling fermentation tempature as you can great increase the quality of your beer. a simple and cheap cooler to put the bucket or carboy will suffice if you can spare 5 minutes a day for the first 4 days of fermention.

 

[mrchicken]

Awesome !! Im hoping that I can stock a small pantry cabinet with supplies to save on shipping and have ingredients ready to go at a moments notice. My work schedule is nuts so brew days are few and far between and it seems that I never have everything on hand.

So does LME store better than DME ?

 

[mrchicken]

Great articles. That answered a lot of my questions. Cheers !
Thanks again for the help!!!!

 

[ericbw]

I think DME will stay fresh longer than LME. With most styles, light or Pilsen malt is good to build from, and wheat for hefe.

Definitely buy hops by the pound. For porters (and many other styles), Willamette is an American version of Fuggles, and they can be pretty cheap. A pound of domestic Hallertau won't be too much either. I think Mt. Hood is a similar American variety that might be cheaper.

Try the hop distributors or farms (hopsdirect.com) to find what you want cheaper. I like Niko Brew and Farmhouse, too.

If you keep your hops sealed up and in the freezer, they should last a year. If you have a vacuum sealer, you can divide it up into 1 oz packs when you first open it, then use them as you go. Some will disagree with that time frame.

Cracked grains don't keep as long as uncracked. Since you're only using small amounts of special grains (not 10 pounds of base malt at a time or something), a small hand crank mill might be a good investment. Sealed up, your grains should last a year. I would probably freeze them. Bugs grow in seeds. Grind what you need each time.

And learn to save/reuse yeast. You only need 2 kinds, and even if you replace once a year, you save a ton of money. If you brew 24 batches in a year, that's over $75 if you use dry yeast, or $150 if you use liquid. If you save and reuse, you might spend $15 a year. In the summer, I brew a blond, then use that yeast cake to make another blond or a pale, then whatever. I buy one pack of US-05 in the spring and get 2-3-4 batches. (The rest of the time, I use Irish ale or a Belgian yeast that I reuse.)

Just some ideas!

 

[Sadu]

Hops I figure get harvested once per year so I'm not sure it matters much whether they are stored in your freezer vs your HBS's freezer. Maybe try some NZ hops in about March/April when they will be fresher than northern hemisphere hops. +1 for saving yeast slurry. I keep about 8 strains going, you can get away with less if you don't have dedicated fridge space. Specialty malts generally keep well but roasted malts like chocolate are best fresh so I don't bulk buy these.