Building Up Inventory

[mlager]

Been brewing for about 5 years, up until this point I plan a brew day, head down to the brew shop 45 minutes away, grab my ingredients and brew, I've recently taken on the task of harvesting my yeast and am thinking I'd like to start buying more grain in bulk, as well as hops. I like the idea of being able to brew on a whim and have some great grains, hops, and yeast to choose from... I think it will prove to be a cost savings too.

I live in Arizona, so it's pretty dry, and I'm thinking its best to store I crushed grain, so ill need a mill... Does it make sense to grab a 55 pound sack of 2 row, and then grab something like 5 pounds each of some of my favorite specialty grains? Stock up on a variety of hops? I'd assume that I crushed grain stays for quite a while, especially if sealed in buckets or something, any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Thundercougarfalconbird]

I brew about three times a month (5 gallon batches), I have a monster mill (which I love), and carry a 50lb sack of two row and a rotating 55lb sack of maris otter/Pilsner I plan to actually start carrying a 55lb sack of MO, Pils, Vienna, and Munich.
There is no reason why you can't stock up on whatever specialty grain either. It goes bad more quickly if you crush it. Better to buy uncrushed in bulk and crush it yourself on brew day if you plan to hold onto it for a while. Uncrushed grain will keep for a year or more. I keep mine in big tupperware containers.
I keep my hops vacuum sealed in the freezer. I use a pumpnseal and love it. The goal is to create a vaccuum and store as cold as possible. They will keep for a year or two but degrade over time. I use a hop age calculator on beersmith to see how potent my hops are on brew day. I use farmhousebrewing.com for my hops because the 4oz size is perfect and their hops are the best I can find. But some other sites will sell by the pound if you want to buy in bulk even more economically.

Honestly yeast is the only thing I find myself running to the store for. But that is because I am terrified of mutating yeast and bacteria and don't think my yeast handling skills are up to par. When I can do my own stains, and have access to a centrifuge I'll start storing my yeast long-term.

 

[MrOH]

I tend to plan out 4-6 brews ahead of time, this will normally use up a sack of base malt. Then I buy the specialty malts that I will need for those beers. Buy base malt according to what you tend to brew. I brew mostly British or Belgian inspired ales, with some hoppy american and some Bavarian wheats thrown in, so I buy golden promise for base (pricey, but sweet and clean, not toasty). I also buy 5# or so of weyermann munich II and dark wheat. If I plan on doing some wheats, I'll buy extra wheat. If I have a lot of bits and pieces that won't get rotated into the next big buy, I'll make a garbage can american amber or brown.

I buy pounds of hops in the late fall once the current years harvest is available as pellets. Think long an hard about what kinds of beers you like to BREW, not just what you like to DRINK. I'm forcing myself to use up the pound of citra I bought last year, but trying to figure out how to stretch my Willamette until the new harvest is available.

Personally, I've found that the hardest thing about keeping an inventory has been yeast. I brew a bit of everything, and don't want to keep all of the different yeasts that I like on hand, it would just be too much. I'll wash and reuse if I have plans for a strain, but as of right now, I'll just spend the extra $7 or so.

 

[Xpertskir]

Long story short I have no convenient place to buy brew stuff, I buy mostly online. I recently switched to AG and just bought a mill to go bulk in all aspects. I used to plan 5-6 batches and buy from morebeer or a place with reasonable shipping.

I spoke with my LHBSI(90 minutes away) and they will sell me sacks at 20% off if I order 5 or more. So I am getting 5 sacks of 2 row and am going to get a variety of 5-10 lbs of specialty grains based on the styles I brew. 10 lbs crystal 10, 40, 60, 120, 10 lbs carafoam, 10 lbs rye, 10 lbs golden promise(I like surly but my LHBS doesn't sell sacks of GP), 10 lbs melanoidin ect..

I have hops that I have been accumulating when I see good deals

I recently started propagating yeast as well(I dont use secondaries or care to wash. I also dry hop the majority of my beers, so it just makes sense for me to grow it clean)

I cannot wait for the autonomy and flexibility....to me its more important than the cost savings, although I'll take those too.

 

[60sd]

I'm kinda in the same boat. The closest HBS is about 20 min away, but after 3 or four consecutive bad experiences, I've scratched them off the list. Then theres one about 35 minutes away, but when I called yesterday to place an order for pick up later in the afternoon, for a brew day today, they said they were out of 2 row. Out of 2 row!!

That got me thinking that perhaps I should buy a mill and keep grain in stock, which lead me to this thread.

My questions relate to storing the grain: I dont have a ton of room, but I could probably manage to find a place to stack up some rubbermaid totes. How important is temprature and moisture control when storing grain? How big of a tote, or other container does it take to fit a 50-55 lb sack of base malt? Finally, should I expect lower efficiency if I use malt that has been stored for 9-12 months?

 

[wagz]

I'd recommend you search for a grain group buy in your respective areas. Cost savings is huge, and you can also typically do splits sacks with a few folks of the various specialty grains.

 

[Misplaced_Canuck]

You need a SEALED container to store it in. Bugs are very creative to get into grains! I've had very good luck with using a number of Home Depot buckets.

MC

 

[Xpertskir]

I'm kinda in the same boat. The closest HBS is about 20 min away, but after 3 or four consecutive bad experiences, I've scratched them off the list. Then theres one about 35 minutes away, but when I called yesterday to place an order for pick up later in the afternoon, for a brew day today, they said they were out of 2 row. Out of 2 row!!

That got me thinking that perhaps I should buy a mill and keep grain in stock, which lead me to this thread.

My questions relate to storing the grain: I dont have a ton of room, but I could probably manage to find a place to stack up some rubbermaid totes. How important is temprature and moisture control when storing grain? How big of a tote, or other container does it take to fit a 50-55 lb sack of base malt? Finally, should I expect lower efficiency if I use malt that has been stored for 9-12 months?

Homer buckets are very popular on here for grain storage, and that's what I do. They are cheap and stackable. I personally opted out of the popular gamma lids for the regular ones, after having some issues getting the gamma lids to work. The regular ones are easy enough to get on and off IMO. Its critical to keep moisture levels low and the lower you keep the temperature the better off you are.


There was a guy on here recently that mashed 6 yr old grain and got 80% efficiency. Uncrushed grain will last a long time as long as you dont treat it that badly.