Syracuse, ny - round 7 group grain buy

I'm game but am in the same boat with a busy summer.

On a side note, I'm so glad my blonde ale is ready for this sunny warm Friday. I cut work early and am enjoying one on my deck with a burger. Feels like summer and tastes fantastic! Here's to some great summer brews this season! ::

 

I am right there with ya!

grabbed a nice tall roggenbier nitro (poured through a regular tap) nice cascading and middle of the road carb. Burgers and chicken on the grill it was great.

Hope the rest of you guys did the same

 

Hops are going nuts this year, some plants are already 2 ft high. My new trellis system is crazy this year =)

 

very nice! Mine are going nuts too but the trellis poles leave something to be desired I was planning on doing a maypole designfor each hop type but didn't get ot it.. there is always next year.

 

My hops are just breaking through the dirt but I live up on the lake where it stays colder longer. Thinking of doing some mods on my trellis. I better get on it! Seems I'm behind on everything this year.

 

I wish i could get involved with all this.. my hops are poping up at home.. and all that good stuff.. while i miss the good BBQ... sadly i think im moving further away to memphis :/...

 

Cidah, see this?

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f174/all-us-group-buys-payment-options-322781/

Sounds like only $0.25 per payment. That might speed up our payment process alot.

 

Need access to the order sheet.

 

Please read post 2 which contains new rules including what to do to gain access to the sheet. PM me the following information:

4) Users must provide JeffB418 with: (a) email address (b) Full contact information (Full name, phone address), to access/edit the buyer sheet

 

haven't seen this but is worth looking into. My thing is that it is yet another internet pay service I have to juggle. Right now I am up to 3 variations, not including checks, money orders. As another poster mentioned, how long until they up the fee from .25? Not to sound jaded of course

I have been seriously considering switching to money orders or checks only. Balancing all the payment types is an administrative nightmare.

 

Just a heads up guys - I know we are only about halfway to closing the deal but wanted to let people know I just posted some new info to post 1 and 2.

Do to the overall PITA of collecting cash from different sources this time around I plan on collecting from a money order/ certified check or personal check only.

There are a couple reasons for doing this, one is simplicity.
1. It was hard to track last time when i was bouncing between 3-4 forms of payment.
2. I don't like the fact that amazon and other sites have started asking for SSN's and don't need the implication that I am making money via an internet business.

Thanks for being patient with all the changes, it sure has gotten complicated on the buy lately

Feel free to PM me with any concerns.

 

I know this has been asked before but is there still anything going on with the keg interest?

 

+1


Also just got some new info about the conical, MT, BK, HLT buy I mentioned a while ago. Here is a link to the pricing, I am working on getting more details for pick up, etc.

These appear to be very similar, if not the same manufacturer for stoutkettls and tanks. crazyirishman34 is heading up the buy. Can't be coordinated on HBT, since it is an equipment buy. Feel free to ping him with questions.

Enough participation in the cuse could allow us to have our share shipped to Syracuse.

 

I'm in Korea on business and I always make it a point to try local beers or other beer like beverages. So, I just had some makgeolli (thick rice beer)-- pretty funky stuff but not bad and would be something I'd drink again under the right circumstances. Anyways, just thought I'd share since I've got nothing other than work to do in my hotel room right now

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makgeolli

 

yum, funky rice brew

 

Spreadsheet: Added 1 sack BZ-MUNH (Munich), used some today and I am running low. Also removed 1 CM-PILS and added 1 CM-2ROW.

Spreadsheet now at 63 sacks.

Anyone want 1/2 sack of BZ-CHIT (or I will go for Carapils in place of the BZ-CHIT if desired)?

 

Anyone else want to sign up for a 1/2 split that hasn't already? Want to make sure everyone has a chance before opening it up to 2 splits per person in a week or so.

 

I would say personally I am good for now with splits and would let someone take over mine if they are looking to get in on more.

Copyright - normally I would be all over the carapilz, but I have about 30lbs in stock! but I use it a lot. I have been tearing through munich lately too. Also am finding myself using a lot of pils just because of hefes, roggens, belgians that I ahve on my radar.

 

added a bag of bz-pils

if people aren't jumping in on splits I would be interested in going in on 1/2 bag of c40 as I just noticed I seem to be using that up - PM me if anyone is interested.


I also added some hops, looks like we are getting close to closing several of these:

HU-90CLM Columbus 7
HU-90MTH Mt Hood 9
HU-90FGL Fuggle 5
HU-90TNG Tettnang 6
HU-90NBR Northern Brewer 6
HU-90GPR Perle 7
HU-90SMT Summit 7


I noticed that we have a warrior and magnum hop interest going. If we don't end up closing either, it will probably make sense to combine interest on these hops to get one or the other. If I remember right they are pretty much the same thing (right now that would be 6 shares of interest for mag and warrior).

 

HOPS:

OK all who are participating in the hop buy please read on.

So I am a knucklehead and I either:
a. have a poor memory
b. didn't listen closely
c. a little bit from choice a and b

I just called NCM to confirm hop buy capability and packaging. It looks like while they can package in 1lb bags, it will cost the same price as if we bought them 1 at a time. The only way to get the deep discounted price is to order them in one giant 11lb sealed back. i.e. we will have to split them up in bags.

Based on this information some people may wish to not participate, however I am still whole heartedly interested, and will handle the splits personally as needed.

If you wish to step out of the hop splits please let me know and we can update the sheet accordingly.

If you continue with the hop portion of the buy it will likely mean adding maybe $1 or less to your hop total (dependent on packaging). i.e. if you bought 1 lb of cascade it will then will be $7.39 for a lb vs. $6.39

I have a food saver vacuum sealer and if I recall the foodsaver bags are about ~<$1 per foot on the roll unless they have come down in price (each split would be charged actual price). Anyway that would be the most $ way for us to package them. We could go with ziplocks as well. I have mylar bags as well, but I can't vac seal them - only heat seal them.

I have used hops that were over 1 year old that were stored in a mason jar, opened several times with free air as I used them. They still made great beer. Personally I am switching all over the mason jars for all my hop storage after that experiment. For reference, a 1 qt mason jar holds about 1 lb of hops.

Please let me know if you are changing interest. Sorry for not flushing the details out on the hop packaging before this. I still think it is a great deal and hope people remain on the bulk buy. But if you change you mind that is ok too (PMs sent to all).

Thanks all!

 

I am still in.

I don't mind a little extra cost considering I paid over $10 for 3oz of hops for my last batch.

 

ouch!

 

Yeah, and I really want to make an Imperial IPA, but the bank won't give me a loan.

 

I'm still in. Kind of thought they would come in 11 lb packaging. Even at $1.00 more a lb these prices cannot be beat. Just paid $37.50 for a lb of Amarillo.

 

Cidah,
I am ok with whatever you decide, however I do have some suggestions:

1. I would prefer to seal the hops myself, as I would seal them in smaller increments than a pound. When I buy 1#, I typically seal them in 4 ounce increments. When I buy 2#, 8 ounce increments.

2.I've used these bags for sealing hops:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001BADTKQ/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i03. It's a bit tight, but I've sealed 10# or so this way.

3.I've also used these: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001GP81OK/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i04, which would provide more space.

Both #2 and #3 would bring the cost/# down considerably under your $1/# estimate.

I have Amazon prime, if you wanted I could order these and have them shipped to you (or whoever) for the group buy.

If you prefer rolls, I've bought these from NewEgg, which has the best $/foot price I've found (unless you want a LARGE amount of feet, in which case some of the sealer specific internet sites are better):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16896180031 and http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16896180032.

I've done a LOT of sealing in the last 9 months, both for hops and various specialty grains (and some of the base grains from my first participation in the group buys), plus some other basic food items that I've bought in large size bags (rice, sugar, etc.)

Finally, I also like the Mason Jar idea. Although it makes transport home a bit harder (glass), I use Mason jars for washed yeast, so can always make use of them!

 

Yeah I think we can get the cost per lb under $1. There is a place I buy bags from that is pretty cheap, I'll have to dig up the vendor later today. Bags would be the easiest to distribute, jars are nice but may be an issue for pickup/transport. I think we can figure out a system.

 

Still fine with the hops here, although Im still waiting on the second split of Cascade to hit 11 before I am truly in. If someone drops out of the first Cascade split let me know and Ill move to that one.

 

overall great info and thanks!

So for the two bags on amazon, you are saying the 6x10 will hold a 1lb but might be tight? If it will be a little tight, I might want to opt to the next size up just because I will likely be packing quite a few of these and will not be interesting in fussing over each bag

Very cool that you have used these before with the foodsaver. One of the reasons I do not often use the foodsaver is the cost of the bags - would love to have a more viable option.

What does amazon prime get you? Looks like these are free super saver shipping. As long as there is no tax I am guessing ~$0.26 added to each hop lb. Not bad at all.

Yeah I love the mason jars for the freezer, but truthfully it would be a bad idea to do them like that onsite because... they are glass! haha

I am also happy to consider using ziplocks for the hops if people are planning to repackage the hops anyway

 

I'm still in for the hops - in fact they will likely be the bulk of my buy provided some of these splits fill up.

Plain old ziplock bags work fine for me - they'll be getting split up further and tossed in the freezer so no need to put in a ton of extra effort.

And if someone from the now full East Kent Golding split does drop out - I can fill that one instead of the second split I opened up.

-Weston

 

Yeah ziplocks might be a quick and easy way to do the splits. We're gonna have to measure out and split up to 220 1# bags (if all of the splits close), altho I think in the end we will be closer to ~100 (still alot!). Also if you dont already own a sealer, if you are buying hops in bulk, its a good idea to invest in one anyways.

On a side note, has anyone used these in their hops to reduce O2?
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0028AG8RO/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

In addition, I say we order a cheap ziplock like this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/100-Ziplock...957?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a69c3218d

Will only add ~12 cents to each lb of hops ordered.

 

I have used those, not sure they worked, assume they did. Thye are only really practical when you package a lot of stuff at once. Because once you open the bag, they all take on some air.


now let's close out some more hops!


Maybe ziplocks are the way to go since it sounds like most people will be splitting them up anyhow. Also, I was reminded of how my foodsaver overheats if i seal 3 bags in a row... then i have to wait a few minutes for it to cool, haha might take me all night.

 

This alone is enough reason for me to try those summit hops out for my new amarillo IPA replacement. That is just painful.

Wish I could get ahold o an amarillo rhizome (yeah I know they are patented!)

 

Is there a list of the hop varieties available to us? I'm sure I could get a bunch of interest if the prices are really as low as $7-8 a lb.

Round two...

 

They are all listed in the catalog. But I think we have enough open splits right now. We've got 20 going right now, so thats 220 splits we have to do if they all fill. But if u want whole 11 lb bags for yourself we could add something for ya.

 

Nah, that's ok. Just didn't know if there were a lot of hop spots ya needed to be filled.

 

I'm cool with just using ziplocks and sealing them myself.

 

Im still in on the hops and will pay whatever extra cost for bags.

 

you see the sheet right? there are plenty of 1 hop shares for you to jump in on. Click on the order sheet and check it out.

here are the types that are available oon the sheet right now

HU-90CLM Columbus 7
HU-90MTH Mt Hood 9
HU-90GSZ Saaz 4
HU-90GMG Magnum 4
HU-90EKG East Kent Golding 11
HU-90CAS Cascade 11
HU-90CTP Centennial 11
HU-90FGL Fuggle 5
HU-90WLT Willamette 3
HU-90TNG Tettnang 6
HU-90NPT Newport 2
HU-90NBR Northern Brewer 6
HU-90EKG East Kent Golding 1
HU-90GPR Perle 7
HU-90WAR Warrior 2
HU-90MTF Mittlefruh 1
HU-90HBR Hersbrucker 1
HU-90CAS Cascade 2
HU-90SMT Summit 7
HU‐90NZPJ - Pacific Jade 1

the ones with 11 are filled, but you ca restart any type to try to get 11 more participants.

 

Guess I've been slacking, I didn't sign up yet. Thanks for posting. I'll definitely get some hops for myself.