Group Buy in Chicago #6

That is both sucky and suspicious... That said the organic is still 50% of northern brewers per oz cost of $3.30.

 

Sazz, magnum, and Northern brewer are also gone!!!!!!! That kills most of our hop splits.

I tell you what, at this rate I think I'm investing in the creation of a large hop farm/ processing facility west of the burbs! Anyone else in?

 

I am thinking we need to put a time box on any not in stock item to get resubmitted within a day as to not delay the rest of the buy.

 

Time box? Please elaborate.

 

Hang on, the sky might not be falling, a lot of 2013 brew year crop is already shipping. My freshops (2013 brew year) Amarillo and Simcoe are on a UPS truck as we speak. Label Peelers has preorders with ship dates of end of October.

Looking at alternative sources, Label Peelers has Nelson in stock for $25.19/lb, if the (2) 11lb boxes fall through at MCM, maybe that place will cut us a break. They also have Saaz, Magnum, and Northern Brewer. Shipping is $65/88lbs or $30/44lbs so it's roughly $1.35-$1.45/lb extra cost. Certainly not as cheap as before, but maybe someone will work with us.

Finally, Bill, this new rep is full of sh*t. Third bullet point on page 12 is "Our total contract minimum is 88 pounds, mix or match varieties per contract year."

 

I just preordered 2lbs of Simcoe from label peelers the other day for $50 including shipping. Customer service was great too.

 

I will ask again in a couple of months. I could always plead my case to the Director of Sales...

 

Thanks for the great info starman! Hopefully this news will help us in the next week or two. If not there are certainly other alternatives out there, just not at quite a good price.

 

What's the status of the group buy? Are still adding to it?

 

I've got 8 Centennial plants at my friend's farm in Monee, provided they do even moderately well next year I'll have most of my hops from that. If only there was a way to steal some Simcoe rhizomes I'd be set. I bet hop growing would be a decent business to get into, tons of Chicago breweries need their hops around here and the closest growers are Michigan or Wisconsin.

 

Hmmm... I was in the spreadsheet for a bage of Superior Pale and Maris Otter. I was using the dashboard to swap these same styles from different malter and now I'm not seeing anything in the dash board. No links for active or completed group buys. I didn't 'kick' myself out did I?

 

So are magnum, saaz, and northern brewer definitely out then?

 

According to the catalogue they are sold out.

 

The other question is .. if we hold the hop order when is the next shipping time?..as I recall the last time we tried to get NS , they were unavailable at time of ship and then mysteriously available again right after. Matt are you going to try to negotiate with Label Peelers? Or should I call them, I should have time later today.

 

The issue last time, was that the hops hadn't arrived at the ware house yet, and the producer doesn't drop ship. It made sense according to the proposed harvest and processing dates. It's just odd that in 2.5 months time the entire quantity is sold out. Can they modify the catalogue we see?

 

The buy is close however you should be able to see your previous buys that you participated in. I sent ghoti an email on this. Hopefully, it's a quick fix.

 

I just don't want to spend another 3-4 days of folks trying to get different hops going back finding out that it is not available again. I think after the quote is submitted and any product comes back as not available we can allow a day(?) to allow folks to either try to pull together a separate order or we would just have to pull it off the order.

 

All fixed

 

If You have time that would be great, I'm booked solid till 8pm tonight.

 

I will send the RFQ later on this morning.

 

There's enough bank-owned farmland out there from foreclosures that we could probably use for free for a few years before anyone knew we were there...

 

Fark! I just logged on to see I missed the group buy by a day or two, AGAIN! ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

So much for automation....

 

Inevitably, there will be one person who drops out so you may still be able to get in.

 

If there is any extra room, please PM me... I can always use more grain.

And if there is any room for any of the hop splits, I am interested.

 

IMPORTANT

From the distributor:

"Good morning Bill,

We have received your quote request and will get that to you as soon as it is processed. The New Zealand an Australian Hops, US Northern Brewer and US Saaz are not available for spot sale. We cannot sell Brewcraft items to homebrewers and that includes all fruit products and most spices as well as some chemicals. The Irish Moss is not available to homebrewers but the Supermoss is. It comes in a 3.5 lb ($40) or a 7.5 lb package ($83). Would you like to substitute? We do offer the Coriander, Sweet Orange Peel and Bitter Orange Peel from San Francisco Herb. Would you like to substitute?

Thanks and have a great day,
Mary"

I say we let the distributor make the substitution for us. What about the hops? Do we just drop them or substitute. Myself, I don't care to substitute so I'm leaning towards dropping them without substituting. Let's try to wrap this up by this afternoon, say 1 pm?

 

Does this mean the order for czech saaz is still good? Or were both orders for US saaz?

 

Bill, please take the liberty to drop anything in my order that you need to. I am still planning to contact a vendor or two, to see what we can get in terms of bulk hop pricing, if anyone has recommendations or contacts, please submit an RFQ or some info and I'll chase it.

Thank you.
Dave

 

Thanks for the leg work Dave! I know there are a couple of hop yards (gorst valley, Wisconsin hop exchange) in Wisconsin that don't require contracts, but their variety is limited and their prices aren't the greatest. Bill I'm not going to try to substitute my 11 Pounds of Nelson sauvin at this point. What they have left available is very lack luster and I can get those hops anywhere for a decently reasonable price. I apologize to those who so eagerly filled the first hop split of this group buy. Better luck in the future I guess. On a positive note, I purchased 11 pounds of the "styrian celia" at the last group and I like them quite a bit! If you brew Belgian or English I would recommend taking a look at them. They are cheap and available. Also they just made an appearance in the most recent northern brewer catalogue as a premier hop in one of their seasonal recipe kits.

 

here are the spice replacements and pricing:

Bitter Orange Peel $6.25
Sweet Orange Peel $5.55
Coriander $4.25

Let me know if I should let them make the substitutions.

 

Good by me on my order

 

Warrior anyone?

 

I'll take a pound. That is if they aren't SOLD OUT by the time we place the order!!!!

 

I'll take some of either orange peel orders if you're looking to split.

 

Same here.

 

thats only three pounds.... guess theres not enough interest.

 

Randar I had sweet orange and coriander, I'll happily split it with you, but at that price maybe bill can bump the qty if you ask him nicely.

 

How many of each should we add to the order? And who is getting it?

 

I can get coriander for less than that price at my local grocer in Chicago. I have never looked for orange peel there but it is pretty cheap at my LHBS. Just saying.

 

I love my mail lady ( giggle yes its an oxymoron), not only is she cute as hell, she just delivered 6 lbs of leaf Amarillo's and Simcoe...

 

Bill that's up to Randar. Forstmeister what grocery if you don't mind? I agree on it being cheap...its more a convenience thing for me.