Buying Grain on Amazon

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Chuckbergman

Chuckbergman

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Just checking to see if anyone has bought grain on Amazon, specifically 50lb base grain bags or 10lb bags of specialty grains?

In searching on Amazon, I'm finding very little choice and the only 50lb 2-row I found was like $75/bag.

I normally purchase thru LHBS and once a year my homebrew club does a bulk grain buy with a local brewery.

But, I have some Amazon gift card $$$ just sitting there and I'd like to use it for some homebrew supplies. ANY THOUGHTS?
 
I've gotten some killer deals on sacks from Amazon in the past....

Nothing anymore. the LHBS had good prices til they closed up sop. Supposedly the local brewery will sell to homebrewers at a good price...but I'm still sitting on a few hundred pounds for now.
 
The problem with getting that stuff through Amazon is not being sure of freshness. LHBS will likely be fresh, and bulk with the brewery is guaranteed to be so.
|I'd be looking more at hard goods than grains, personally.
(though I did have to rush order a couple packs of dried yeast last fall when I wasn't getting any action on my starter the day before brew day. put in the order, the yeast got here next day, out of the shipping envelope and into the fermenter... not ideal, but you do what you have to sometimes.)
 
Chuckbergman said:
Just checking to see if anyone has bought grain on Amazon, specifically 50lb base grain bags or 10lb bags of specialty grains?

In searching on Amazon, I'm finding very little choice and the only 50lb 2-row I found was like $75/bag.

I normally purchase thru LHBS and once a year my homebrew club does a bulk grain buy with a local brewery.

But, I have some Amazon gift card $$$ just sitting there and I'd like to use it for some homebrew supplies. ANY THOUGHTS?
Click to expand...
Please buy from your LHBS. Use the gift card for something else.

Our local guys are slowly fading away and need all the support we can give them.
 
What I find with Amazon when looking for homebrew stuff on Amazon is that usually the prices aren't as good as any of the online HBS, my local isn't really local and is very small as well. (@Bobby_M one of these days when I am in Jersey I will stop at your store as I have a good friend who lives nearby.) Particularly about Amazon is that for inexpensively priced items <$15 maybe ordinarily, that the prices are inflated somewhat as they need to bake in the shipping and also the seller may not be able to spread that out because you aren't necessarily buying a bigger order from that seller exclusively. Maybe look for a single item that you would really like but don't have.
 
IslandLizard said:
That's the bigger problem: Gift cards!
I just wish that habit disappeared, erased from humanity.

There are much better options for giving a gift...
Click to expand...
Gift cards are cash with strings attached. If you want to give cash, send a check if you need to mail it. There is an industry around gift cards that assumes they will not all get used or that people will end up spending more than is on the card. Don't give gift cards unless you have an agenda behind why you gave that specific card.

@Chuckbergman I agree with the idea of using the cards you have to buy equipment you want/need.
 
The only time I looked on Amazon is when I realized I didn’t have something and needed it quick and the prices were ridiculous like 10 bucks for a 1lb of Vienna. I really like northern brewer for bulk orders my closest home brew shop is 45 minutes away so I go there occasionally. Also for hops I’ve found the Yakima valley website to have really good prices you have to pay for shipping but it’s worth it.
 
IslandLizard said:
That's the bigger problem: Gift cards!
I just wish that habit disappeared, erased from humanity.

There are much better options for giving a gift...
Click to expand...

Yeah, sometimes gift cards are just a pain, but it is nice having extra income when using Amazon. They used to allow you to buy prepaid VISA cards on Amazon using your gift card balance, but no longer. And I've checked, there is no easy way to convert the balance to be used at other sites.

Thanks for all the input guys! Unfortunately looks like very limited, and expensive, grain options on Amazon.
 
Rob2010SS said:
I don't know... I love gift cards. I ask for Amazon and SSBT gift cards EVERY year when people ask me what I want, LOL.
Click to expand...
But you couldn't buy your Que Bueno there, and enjoy free overnight shipping. ;)

I'd take cold hard cash in whatever form, even a Folgers can of coin, or a deposit in my PayPal account (Friends & Family) over any gift cards, as they are restrictive and limited.

Last time, quite a few years ago, we finally used up our Outback gift card, locally. The steaks were good, the Blue Moon my wife had was totally deplorable, I had water. Service was comparable to the Blue Moon.
We knew there would be a (small) balance left on the card that would go to waste unless we spent $40-50 on another dinner. So we treated the 2 ladies in the booth across from us with dessert. Last time at the Outback for us...

... Irony strikes, the following Christmas we get another Outback meal ticket. But at least it's valid in a handful of other places too. We still have it, in the glove compartment, just in case...
 
I'd rather gift cards than some trinket that ends up in a junk drawer or whatever. I'm appreciative of gifts but rarely does anyone ever give me anything I actually want, my BIL being the exception as he is an alcoholic cigar smoker like me.

And while cash would be better, I'd likely use it for bills or gas or something like that. A gift card at least forces me to use it on something that feels like a gift. At least that's how my family explains it to me.

I'm a PITA at holidays.....
 
IslandLizard said:
But you couldn't buy your Que Bueno there, and enjoy free overnight shipping. ;)

I'd take cold hard cash in whatever form, even a Folgers can of coin, or a deposit in my PayPal account (Friends & Family) over any gift cards, as they are restrictive and limited.

Last time, quite a few years ago, we finally used up our Outback gift card, locally. The steaks were good, the Blue Moon my wife had was totally deplorable, I had water. Service was comparable to the Blue Moon.
We knew there would be a (small) balance left on the card that would go to waste unless we spent $40-50 on another dinner. So we treated the 2 ladies in the booth across from us with dessert. Last time at the Outback for us...

... Irony strikes, the following Christmas we get another Outback meal ticket. But at least it's valid in a handful of other places too. We still have it, in the glove compartment, just in case...
Click to expand...
Haha, sounds like us. We have about 20-30 gift cards to various restaurants in our glove compartment, just in case we go out.
 
The restaurant gift cards can be a real PITA to use even when traveling but I can spend an Amazon gift card in a hot minute. I keep a couple lists, the biggest one is DIY on Amazon. Lowes or HD, no problem there either.
 
Deadalus said:
the biggest one is DIY on Amazon. Lowes or HD, no problem there either.
Click to expand...
Yeah, but you can't use an Amazon gift card at Lowe's or HD, now, can you? Or the reverse? That's the deception of gift cards.

Who issues those gift cards, anyway?
Think about it! It isn't HD, Lowe's, Outback, Michaels, etc. or even Amazon, is it?
 
Even worse, IMO, the debit card rebate. Instead of a check in the mail or just lowering the price of something, I now seem to get a debit card rebate. How I absolutely detest these things, so much so that if something has a "rebate" instead of just lowering the price, I will not purchase.
 
Tobor_8thMan said:
Instead of a check in the mail or just lowering the price of something, I now seem to get a debit card rebate.
Click to expand...
That's so much the point!
You need to buy something else. You can't pay your electric bill or even taxes with it.

Tobor_8thMan said:
if something has a "rebate" instead of just lowering the price, I will not purchase.
Click to expand...
After having been burned more than one time too often, I too am subscribing to that.
 
IslandLizard said:
I just wish that habit disappeared, erased from humanity.
Click to expand...

1618026166470.png



but apparently amazon sells master card and visa gift cards, for about a $5 dollar fee....
 
IslandLizard said:
Yeah, but you can't use an Amazon gift card at Lowe's or HD, now, can you? Or the reverse? That's the deception of gift cards.

Who issues those gift cards, anyway?
Think about it! It isn't HD, Lowe's, Outback, Michaels, etc. or even Amazon, is it?
Click to expand...
I understand your point but if I receive an Amazon, Lowes, or HD card it will get spent almost immediately. At Christmas, I typically receive at least 1-3 Amazon cards and those are always spent by New Year's Eve and typically sooner. The hardware stores will just be waiting for my next home repair, with no end to the possibilities given we bought a fixer-upper. So while I do understand the OP's dilemma regarding homebrew supplies with the card, it's nigh unfathomable to me to have an Amazon card sit around for too long. No disrespect to non-USA readers, but as Americans, we all know how to spend don't we. It's a GIFT card, get out there and spend it. Let your guilty pleasures fly! Don't let that money sit in somebody else's account. Retailers would love for you to forget to spend that card, that's better than selling you another snuggie. Make them earn their money by producing a product you maybe would've bought if you were given a gift card instead of a scrap of plastic.
 
Back to the original inquiry whether Amazon is a good source or not for grain, I'd have to say no. And I have purchased from Amazon out of curiousity and have gotten some decent deals and also a few very poor purchases (like 4 year old grain). Do you really need to take a chance given the investment in time we make to brew our own? Find a good regional online supplier close to you and get your grain from them. It will almost certainly be a fresher product provided by someone who actually cares and knows about beer making supplies. Get your cheap, nonessential Chinese products from Amazon, that is what they are there for, to once and for all destroy the local main street retailer that is hanging on by a thread (having survived the Wal-Mart onslaught) by providing near instant gratification for stuff that you really don't need. Ingredients for my brew, I have found, are too important to leave to Amazon.
 
I'd be skeptical of grain on Amazon. Freshness is key, and no telling how long that stock has been sitting around.

I don't have a nearby LHBS, but I know that ordering online from places like Midwest, William's, etc., that there's enough product turnover that the grain will be fresh.
 
MaxStout said:
I'd be skeptical of grain on Amazon. Freshness is key, and no telling how long that stock has been sitting around.

I don't have a nearby LHBS, but I know that ordering online from places like Midwest, William's, etc., that there's enough product turnover that the grain will be fresh.
Click to expand...

Ideally that is what I was hoping for - a national mail-order homebrew supplier that also sold thru Amazon. Unfortunately it does not seem to be the case. I'll use the gift card money for other supplies or possibly a new golf driver! Thank you everyone for the input.
 

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