Charlotte Area (Rock Hill, SC - Carolina Brew Supply) Grain Buy #1

[Wreck99]

New to the area, looking to buy a couple sacks of grain on the cheap. Are there any groups in the area? I participated in a couple of Philly ones before and they were great! The LHBS prices here for grains are high.

 

[Wreck99]

Anyone? Or at least NE section of SC?

 

[Wreck99]

BUMP

 

[Wreck99]

bump

 

[Manufacturedevolution]

Hey dude. I'd be interested in this. I live down the road from you I believe. If you find someone to organize a buy I'd be in! I've been doing better ordering online from morebeer with free shipping than from our LHBS for sure. Still a lot more than I want to pay for a sack!

 

[Wreck99]

I'm getting ready to put together an order from morebeer with the free shipping too. Alternative Beverage (ebrew.com) is great for a quick thing but I tend to agree with you here. Still, I'd love to buy a couple sacks if there was more interest.

But down the road eh? Send me a message. Maybe we can get together for a beer swap or brew day or something. I've not found too many homebrewers in my neck of the woods yet. Been down here for a little over a year now.

 

[bigal011]

I'm new to all grain brewing and definitely interested as well.

 

[theilff]

If this takes off I’d definitely be interested.

Have you looked into the bulk buying they offer at our LHBS where they store it and charge a grinding fee? I don’t know much about the details. But was curious the last time I was there.

 

[Manufacturedevolution]

A sack is about $50. You get 10% off with aha membership. I don't know how much more storage or grinding costs. I usually pay the 54.35 (5 x 10lbs) at morebeer for convenience of having it delivered.

 

[Wreck99]

I did ask our LHBS and the response I got was that they would entertain the idea with certain assurances. I assume payment up front and I'm sure there's no problem with that since that's expected with these. So if they might do this, I have no idea what the price would look like. The last time I was in there for grains they were hard on the price, and as Manufacturedevolution pointed out, it's just more convenient to have MoreBeer ship it to you at nearly the same cost. Maybe someone with a little more pull in the area can convince our LHBS this is a good idea. It would be great advertisement for them and folks coming to pick up their bulk grains or hops will shop the store and pick up more stuff. Win-win for them.

 

[theilff]

That would be great if we could do it thru them. I read some older threads where distributors would no longer sell to new group buys so that might be the only way anyway. Hopefully if the order was big enough it could come down a good bit.

I’m a little confused about the morebeer prices. I did a check on the 10lb increments and our LHBS was beating them by something like $15-20 at 50-55lbs, unless my math was horribly off. I could see it being useful if you wanted an in between amount of a malt though.

 

[BrewInspector]

If I recall correctly the Monroe store of alternative beverages (now closed) offered a grain buyers club where you bought a bag of grain (the value of one) and when you came in they would deduct the purchased weight from your bag equivalent.

They did not actually store your bag. You simply funded a purchase and they gave that amount of weight back to you as you used it ultimately costing you a little less than their retail price.

I have not inquired about it in Charlotte.
They do offer a membership to the store.
I think it was $25 -30 a year for a 10% discount on all purchases.

 

[chrilr]

Membership in Carolina Brewmasters also = a 10% discount at alt bev

 

[specialkayme]

ABS in Raleigh offers full bags of 2 row for $39.50. I went in last weekend and they had German Pilsner malt for $39.50 too. Amazing offer compared to most online places that offer it for $55-85. I mentioned to the clerk that the price was dirt cheap, and he responded with a puzzled look and said "Well, that's the goal." It's tough for me to track down a group buy when ABS offers it for so cheap.

I'm halfway between Charlotte and Raleigh, so it isn't that bad of a drive for me. But it might be worthwhile to get a few orders together and someone make the drive to Raleigh. Still saving a good chunk of change.

 

[bracconiere]

Any 'friendly' brew pubs in the area? for a while my local brew pub would let me piggy back an order on theirs...that was 10 years ago, but i was getting 50lb sacks of briess through them for $27...

 

[Wreck99]

ABS in Raleigh offers full bags of 2 row for $39.50. I went in last weekend and they had German Pilsner malt for $39.50 too. Amazing offer compared to most online places that offer it for $55-85. I mentioned to the clerk that the price was dirt cheap, and he responded with a puzzled look and said "Well, that's the goal." It's tough for me to track down a group buy when ABS offers it for so cheap.

I'm halfway between Charlotte and Raleigh, so it isn't that bad of a drive for me. But it might be worthwhile to get a few orders together and someone make the drive to Raleigh. Still saving a good chunk of change.

ABS in Raleigh is a 3 hour drive for me

I like the idea of piggy-backing on a local brew pub order if that were possible...

 

[LuckyDuckAT]

ABS in Raleigh offers full bags of 2 row for $39.50. I went in last weekend and they had German Pilsner malt for $39.50 too. Amazing offer compared to most online places that offer it for $55-85. I mentioned to the clerk that the price was dirt cheap, and he responded with a puzzled look and said "Well, that's the goal." It's tough for me to track down a group buy when ABS offers it for so cheap.

I'm halfway between Charlotte and Raleigh, so it isn't that bad of a drive for me. But it might be worthwhile to get a few orders together and someone make the drive to Raleigh. Still saving a good chunk of change.

Was just there two weeks ago, it's great that you can grab a pint from the Raleigh Brewing bar, and walk five feet over to shop for HB supplies!

 

[Carolina_Matt]

It's a shame that ebrew.com (Alternative Beverage) isn't priced nearly as well as Atlantic Brew Supply. Not just for grain, but for everything. I was brewing extract kits last year, and just converted to BIAB. Their 'sale' kits would be about $40 with yeast, whereas I stopped by ABS when I was in Raleigh last May and they had kits on sale for about $20.

There's a place in Greensboro called Dan's Brew Shed with really good reviews. I emailed him over the weekend to ask about grain prices, and I'm waiting to hear back. Unfortunately there's no pricing on the website. It's still far - a little over an hour for me - but if I can find something in the area to take my kids to, it would be justifiable a couple times a year.

As for local breweries, that would be a great option but I'm not sure of any that would let consumers get in on their grain orders.

 

[BrewInspector]

Don't know if it will make enough difference for you but...
Alternative beverages does have a Brewers Club. 10% off purchases with membership. I can't remember the annual fee but I save the amount of the fee just buying per batch grain. Buying extract kits would recoup it faster.

They also offer a Grain Bank. Buy a bag(s) of grain (with the 10% membership if you have it) and draw on that for your recipes. (Not transferable between stores) Makes it a little cheaper than buying by the pound.

 

[Carolina_Matt]

Yeah, I did see that they have the 10% off deal with membership. I think it's $15/year, so it would only take $150 in spending to get my money back. But even with a 10% off, it's still cheaper to order online with a coupon code (especially since there's no tax with most online vendors). And I've heard that the Cornelius location is giving up their lease within a year, which stinks because that's the location closest to me.

I'm jealous of people that can get a sack of 2-row for $35 right down the block from their house!

 

[Carolina_Matt]

It looks like a new shop is opening up in Concord, inside of Commoners Brewery. It's called Brewers Depot. It sounds like it might have potential. A sack of local grain (Carolina Malt House) is $50. At Alternative Beverage, it's $67. I'll check it out in a couple weeks and see how it is.

 

[theilff]

Definitely keep us posted. I’m very interested as I go that way occasionally.

 

[CWood]

I paid 47 bucks for my last sack of Rahr from AB and its 55 lb. Jess (the owner) will try to price match other places as well. My favorite homebrew shop for sure. Been buying stuff from AB since 1990s. One of the orginals and still going strong.

 

[Wreck99]

I paid 47 bucks for my last sack of Rahr from AB and its 55 lb. Jess (the owner) will try to price match other places as well. My favorite homebrew shop for sure. Been buying stuff from AB since 1990s. One of the orginals and still going strong.

That's not too bad. Still, would be nice to have a group buy option in this area. When I lived up north, I would just pay $30-$35 a sack via the group buy.

 

[Stand]

It looks like a new shop is opening up in Concord, inside of Commoners Brewery. It's called Brewers Depot. It sounds like it might have potential. A sack of local grain (Carolina Malt House) is $50. At Alternative Beverage, it's $67. I'll check it out in a couple weeks and see how it is.

Any update on this? It would be great to be able to at least get close to the price I get on morebeer locally.

Sign me up if anyone figures out a bulk grain buy.

 

[Wreck99]

Any update on this? It would be great to be able to at least get close to the price I get on morebeer locally.

Sign me up if anyone figures out a bulk grain buy.

Same

 

[Carolina_Matt]

I stopped by last week. The prices were a little lower than Alternative Beverage, but it's a smaller shop that's just getting up and running. They did have Carolina Gold at $50/sack, but I bought 10 pounds to give it a try (1.25/lb). They didn't have the other base malts (Briess, rahr, etc).

 

[Wreck99]

Revisiting this topic, I have good news! I spoke to the owner of a new LHBS near us in Rock Hill, SC (just opened earlier this year) and he is open to setting up a group buy for our area. I need to work out any details but I wanted to see if anyone here was still interested. I'd like to work with him on getting something going if there's enough interest. It will be great advertising for his shop so benefits there, and hopefully we can get cheaper grain and hops for folks if enough sign up to bring down the cost. Cheers!

 

[Stand]

I'm interested. What's the name of the shop?

 

[Wreck99]

I'm interested. What's the name of the shop?

Carolina Brew Supply. I'm headed over there right now to grab some supplies.