No love for AG brewers

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midwestsupplies said:
Thought I would shed a little light here. One of the big reasons we do not run a lot of All-Grain sales is that the absolutely bury the grain room.

In general our grain room has to work at 95% to stay ahead of regular orders (12lbs of this 2lb of that 1lb of these three things). You have to remember all of the grains have to be weighed and bagged by hand. This is the real reason why we do not offer a lot of AG deals. If we run an All-Grain kit deal we end up 3-4 days behind in orders, and then we disappoint customers.

With that said, we are always trying to increases our grain room efficiency, and hopefully we will be able to bring you guys an all grain special soon.
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And the real answer turns out to be "none of the above", as is typical when people argue to no effect other than creating utterly uninformed wind.

Thanks for calming the tempest in the brew kettle.
 
midwestsupplies said:
Thought I would shed a little light here. One of the big reasons we do not run a lot of All-Grain sales is that the absolutely bury the grain room.

In general our grain room has to work at 95% to stay ahead of regular orders (12lbs of this 2lb of that 1lb of these three things). You have to remember all of the grains have to be weighed and bagged by hand. This is the real reason why we do not offer a lot of AG deals. If we run an All-Grain kit deal we end up 3-4 days behind in orders, and then we disappoint customers.

With that said, we are always trying to increases our grain room efficiency, and hopefully we will be able to bring you guys an all grain special soon.
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This is a good point that I never thought of. I can't imagine how much work you'd have to do if you offered BOGO on an AG kit. My LHBS will offer 50% off but I have to drive my butt there, weigh and mill the grain and drive home.
Flipadelphia said:
Fascinating. Learn something new every day
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Is it fascinating or are you being flippant. There should never be shame in buying a "kit" recipe. These are proven recipes that I believe are great for any homebrewer. There is still a lot of room for error but if done right, you know you'll have a good beer.
 
I use AG kits, extract kits, recipes, and what not... Now if I could get some BULK grain for BULK grain prices I would experiment more.
 
Teromous said:
I brew all grain kits. What's wrong with that?
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Nothing wrong with it. It's just not the norm. You're spending a lot more money than you need to when buying kits.

EDIT: I should add that I am extremely lucky because of where I live. I have 3 LHBS's within 20minutes of my house and another 2 within an hour. I have LOTS of choices. They all run specials and one runs a bulk buy. The prices aren't like they were 2 years ago (sack of base malt for $30), but still reasonable (Sacks are now $45-55). The main LHBS I use sells base malt at $1/lb and specialty grains from $2-$2.50/lb. This along with buying hops in bulk is a HUGE help. I just always assume others have the same opportunities for buying options, bulk buys, specials, etc.

PS: I also reuse yeast. Most batches only cost me $10-15. Some bigger beers may run upwards of $20, but that's rare.
 
poptarts said:
Northern brewer will ship a sack of 2 row to your door for 60
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depends where you live i guess. for me, a $35 sack of 2-row turns into a $70 sack of 2-row with the cheapest shipping option.
 
dobe12 said:
Nothing wrong with it. It's just not the norm. You're spending a lot more money than you need to when buying kits.

EDIT: I should add that I am extremely lucky because of where I live. I have 3 LHBS's within 20minutes of my house and another 2 within an hour. I have LOTS of choices. They all run specials and one runs a bulk buy. The prices aren't like they were 2 years ago (sack of base malt for $30), but still reasonable (Sacks are now $45-55). The main LHBS I use sells base malt at $1/lb and specialty grains from $2-$2.50/lb. This along with buying hops in bulk is a HUGE help. I just always assume others have the same opportunities for buying options, bulk buys, specials, etc.

PS: I also reuse yeast. Most batches only cost me $10-15. Some bigger beers may run upwards of $20, but that's rare.
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I raise grain to sell. The price I'm paid isn't the same as it was 2 year ago either. That change in price is reflected in the price of your malted grain.
 
Hello said:
Is it fascinating or are you being flippant. There should never be shame in buying a "kit" recipe. These are proven recipes that I believe are great for any homebrewer. There is still a lot of room for error but if done right, you know you'll have a good beer.
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I don't know what flippant means. I buy in bulk, which I thought is what most AG brewers do. I also never implied the word shame in any way, not sure how you inferred that.
 
Teromous said:
Yeah, I do it for a number of reasons. There are some really great recipes out there that have been made into kits. Good beer is good beer, whether I create the recipe or not. I'm not willing to discount great recipes out of pride.

By brewing the kits that I buy from various suppliers, I get to try out their recipe exactly the way they created it. When I use a recipe from a book, I don't know the exact grain supplier that was used. I can use Briess, Rahr, Great Western, Weyermann, Muntons, Gambrinus, or Dingemans. It's fun to experiment and change recipes, but sometimes it's fun just to leave things the way they are.

I don't currently buy bulk grains. I would like to, but I don't right now. Buying kits means that I don't have to store anything. Even when I build my own recipes I buy the exact grain bill, or as close to it as I can given the minimum purchasable specialty grain weight.

Sometimes kits come in cool looking boxes, and it's just fun to open them :p
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This is me at times.. plus I brew small 2 gallon batches... and I don't want to store grain. I use brewmasterswarehouse and order the exact amounts of grains I need.... if I'm not getting a kit.
 
I find it is hard to beat MoreBeer's free shipping. While there is seldom sales to take advantage I use them almost exclusively. I have two LHBSs within 5 miles for emergency needs. Locally a 50lb bag of 2-row is 60 bucks. Which is just about what it costs from MoreBeer in a 10lb bag. I usually order enough for 2 - 5 gallon batches and that usually takes me close enough to the free shipping threshold. It's basically making my own kits.

So I don't mind the sale issues at all. I'm not a big Kit fan anyway because you usually have to add on another cost for yeast and that adds a 1/4 the price of the kit.
 

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