DC Area Group Buy #22

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stonebrewer

Invented the IPL
HBT Supporter
Joined
Mar 8, 2012
Messages
2,118
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Location
rockville
Note: - As of Buy #19, we have changed how we do things, so read (re-read!) this to make sure you understand the process!

This group buy is open to HBT members who are local to the DC metro area, including MD and VA as well as the district.

This buy happens about 4-6 times per year. A new thread is posted each time we start a new purchasing round.

Some "info" and "rules" to go over:

* If you want the price list, PM me your email address...I will setup an account on our ordering web site and it will email you a password. If you decide you will not be buying, PLEASE let me know so I can trim your account. Inactive accounts will likely be deleted after some period of time less than a year.
* PAYMENT is via PayPal only! Pay me at the personal email address I send to you via email when the buy is over. Do not use the email address the server uses! Use the pay friend/family option and DO NOT pay via PayPal check! PLEASE put your HBT moniker in the note section so I know who you are. Collating email addresses is a pain! Yes I know some of you well, but there are over 100 people that participate and I am notoriously bad with names, so help me out by using your HBT handle in all communications. If you are not familiar with PayPal make sure you do so before the end of the buy as it does take some time to setup.
* You can pay in advance but I don't encourage this unless you are someone who doesn't check the buy thread ~daily or travel a lot. Remember we can refund you up to 60 days from PayPal and we can always just "pay" you if it goes beyond 60 days.
* We allow splitting of sacks (not most base malts) cuz who keeps 50 pounds of Carafa III in their local storage?
* The pickup location is at 3 Stars brewery in DC; always on a Saturday from 11AM-noon. I need helpers to arrive at 10AM sharp.
* The pickup will occur the Sat. 3 weeks after the buy closes, so buy closes Friday night, order goes in Sat. AM, pick up the third Sat. AM at 3 Stars. We will allow LIMITED orders two weeks before. The reason for doing this is it gives 3 Stars 2-3 chances to order and should greatly reduce us not getting something we order.
* If you cannot pick up your grain, you MUST arrange with someone else to do so and let Stonebrewer know who is picking up your grain. PLEASE help me out by making arrangements with someone else on the buy, a friend, or family member. SWMBO is patient enough to let me run this thing, but when I fill the garage with sacks of malt, she is less than happy. Help me keep her happy, because happy wife = happy life!!
* In the past we have had issues with some sacks not showing up or the wrong sacks showing up; be forewarned that this can happen, though we believe the three week rule will eliminate or minimize this. Last buy, we got sacks of Vienna that were crushed. Nothing we can do about these type of issues, so be forewarned!
* The price list is on the ordering website and is not to be shared outside this group. Do not post prices in the forum.
* You no longer have to post full sacks or splits on the forum, but I encourage you to post splits to keep the interest up.
* All full sacks and splits are ordered BY YOU on the new web site. This forum is used to communicate mainly the details of the buy AND what splits are currently available. I cannot modify your order, but YOU can.
* The brewery has growler hours at 1PM; they cannot sell you a growler before that by law. Don't ask. They can however sell cans...please patronize them as they help us out a lot!!!
* The brewery has a small homebrew store; PLEASE snag some hops, yeast, etc. to show your appreciation.

* We always need help with the buy. Please collect plastic grocery bags and donate them to the cause each time you participate. We need 3-4 sets of scales and we need about 6-8 people to come early and help split sacks (10AM). We label every sack, so make sure your name is on it before taking something, and always check in or out with me.
 
Note to all who participate: over the last few years, I have learned a lot of lessons. I need YOUR help to make this run smoothly as there can be 30 people running around and 5 people talking to me while I am trying to sort things out and work with the brewery. Please do me a favor and do the following:

1) Have a list with what you ordered, and double check that you a) got everything and b) got the right things. ASK if you are unsure. A lot of the sacks look alike, have similar names, and people get confused. I want you to get what you ordered and everyone else to get what they did, so please check and double check and make sure you know before you arrive what you ordered. I get confused too, especially when there is a lot going on, so back me up. I bring a list sorted by brewer, so if you forget, check my list...

2) NEVER take a full sack without seeing me check it off my list. This last buy there was some confusion and we had to scramble to locate someone's grain. Please know the manufacturer and type of grain you ordered. This is a common problem and I want to make sure it doesn't happen in the future. We may end up labeling the full sacks to prevent this...more work, but might be needed.

3) Figure out who on the buy lives near you. You can help each other out when something comes up and you cannot make it. I can try to do something to facilitate this if people want me to, but I need you guys to help me when people cannot show up. This buy I had well over 500 pounds of grain to lug home. Normally I don't mind, but it was raining so it went inside the truck and I had trouble seeing out the back and side windows...

4) Participate. I understand people are busy, but when you can please bring a bottle of homebrew, pitch in, bring some bags, or just hang out after we split and talk beer. This is as much about socializing and talking beer as anything else. I have gotten some great recipes doing this and made some life long friends, so do yourself a favor, slow down, and have a homebrew with us.

5) Show 3 Stars some love. Buy their beer, visit their LHBS. They are a great bunch of people and they are very kind to support this group. Pay it back and it will come back around. Cheers all!!!
 
Found out the hard way... if the description has "Premium" it's pre-milled.

Pretty sure this is not correct. Talking to 3 Stars, they say this occasionally happens. They speculated that the milled and unmilled sacks sit next to each other in the warehouse and the knuckle dragger that loaded the truck selected the wrong sacks. They charge more for the milled sacks so they are losing money when they make this mistake...this is the only time this has happened in 21 buys, though again 3 Stars has seen it before on their shipment. Shrug!
 
Gonna make it to the next one - just to hang out and drink beer if nothing else. Couldn't make this one since we had prior plans on the morning of the 10th.

Now I need to do an inventory to figure out what grain I need to buy :)
 
I tried to send a PM for a price list but I guess I'm too new because it won't let me. Please pm me if you can for my email.
 
Does anyone know where I can get a co2 bottle inspection and refill in the Rockville area? Recently moved here. Used to go to F&M but it’s a bit out of my way now....
 
It's not an inspection, it's a pressure test. My place, Laurel Bottled Gas, sends them out for testing. Takes about a week. Roberts is a bigger outfit, though.
 
It's not an inspection, it's a pressure test. My place, Laurel Bottled Gas, sends them out for testing. Takes about a week. Roberts is a bigger outfit, though.

F&M does it on the spot while you wait... I guess I might end up going there one more time. I’ve been to the Laurel gas place. They are open on Saturday which is a lot more convenient than trying to squeeze it during the week...
 
I went to Laurel Gas a couple weeks ago to fill up 2 tanks. One was out of date. I asked the guy where to get it checked and he told me to bring it to a fire supply store.

A couple years ago I bought a 20lb tank off craigslist and didn't even think about whether it was out of testing. When I brought it to Laurel Gas they told me it was out of testing, then just gave me a different tank. That was great.

Laruel is way cheaper than Roberts, though I know Roberts gives a discount to BURP members.
 
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So Roberts just does a trade in. I don't get the same tank back each time, I get a different one and they handle the tank inspections and whatnot. At first I didn't like this, but after a while of doing it I have no issues with it. Right now I have two very new tanks with years on their inspection. One is steel and the other is aluminum, which I like a lot better as it is not as heavy (20# tanks). They also will trade up, so I started with a small tank and traded it up to a 10# and then later a 20#. The difference between a 5# refill and a 20# was about a buck or two, so it made a lot of sense to trade up my tanks. I have a pair of tanks and they last for very long time, even with purging every serving tank...

I also have a 10# O2 tank that I bought used on HBT and traded in...for a brand new tank. Cheers!
 
So Roberts just does a trade in. I don't get the same tank back each time, I get a different one and they handle the tank inspections and whatnot. At first I didn't like this, but after a while of doing it I have no issues with it. Right now I have two very new tanks with years on their inspection. One is steel and the other is aluminum, which I like a lot better as it is not as heavy (20# tanks). They also will trade up, so I started with a small tank and traded it up to a 10# and then later a 20#. The difference between a 5# refill and a 20# was about a buck or two, so it made a lot of sense to trade up my tanks. I have a pair of tanks and they last for very long time, even with purging every serving tank...

I also have a 10# O2 tank that I bought used on HBT and traded in...for a brand new tank. Cheers!

My experience was the same. I lived in rockville when I started kegging and brought my shiny new 5# co2 tank to roberts only to have them immediately swap it out with an older one. It annoyed me at first, but I quickly got over it.

The difference in price between a 5# and a 20# makes moving up a no-brainer if you have the space.

I also find it useful to have a second tank so I can do pressure transfers, burst carbing, or travel etc., without disconnecting or moving the big guy. I had a 5# for that purpose but ended up with a 2.5# when the airgas in MA was out of 5# tanks and I needed to serve my kegs.
 
This rule is not being followed. The ordering site has quite a few splits of base malts like pale ale, pils...

That is correct. There is nothing that prevents from splitting base malt on the website.

The question is, since it is automated and it doesn’t burden someone with splits tracking, like it used to be, is there a point of having that rule?

I can add a restriction to that, if you guys decide it is needed. I have it half way implemented but not active. It’s busy on my end currently and it might take me another buy or two until I get to modify it, but it can be done.
 
I always thought the rule was to keep down the number of basically unnecessary splits since there is manual labor involved. That's Tony's call. I just hadn't seen it happen before.
 
I added a bunch of new accounts and I don't know if they are all on HBT...which is definitely different. It is a VA homebrew group...

I need to email them all the rulez...I don't mind if people split base grains on their own, but I don't want to add burden to the split crew.
 
So which sacks should not be allowed to be split?

If someone wants to go through the list and post the product codes here, I will get to it when I have the time....
 
Here's all the pales, pils, and the like:

1850C BRI1002 MUN1001
1852C BRI1003 RAH1001
1883C BRI1004 RAH1002
1890C CAS1001 RAH1004
1915C CAS1002 RAH1005
1927C CRI1001 SIM1002
1928C CRI1002 WEY1002
1930C CRI1003 WEY1003
1950C CRI9003 WEY1004
1951C GLO1008 WEY1010
1954C MCI1002
1956C MCI1071
1974C MCI1072
1976C
 
FYI whoever ordered that Schill Cologne isn't going to get it. Supposedly the maltster went under.
 
Looking to get in on this group buy. Tried starting a conversation with stonebrewer. I guess that's the PM system on this site? But all I get is this error.

Your content can not be submitted. This is likely because your content is spam-like or contains inappropriate elements. Please change your content or try again later. If you still have problems, please contact an administrator.


Tried swapping out the @ sign and dot to no avail. Not sure if it's just because my acct is new or what. Would like some help getting in on this buy. Thanks guys.
 
Sorry I have not kept up with this thread...rl is a pain sometimes, and it has been a real pain recently.

Ed - no idea...we are at about 32 sacks. Guessing less than a month, know that isn't precise.
Cheesy - no idea what is going on...just send me a PM with your email address and see what happens?
 
Tony, don't let the bastards get you down. Relax. Don't worry. And have a homebrew.
 
Hiya folks. Sorry I have not been around as much, as I said before work is eating me alive, lol. Anyhow, I think we are close to closing this one and making an order. Please try to close some of the remaining (MANY) open splits. There are a couple of people trying to get on the buy, so I will let it go through next weekend or so and then close it down. Look for emails in the coming week.

Cheers!
 
Available Malt
---------------------------------------------------------------
35lb Weyermann CARAHELL 55 lb
45lb Avangard Malz Premium Caramel 55 Lb 30L (like C30)
35lb Briess Chocolate Malt 50 Lb
50lb Avangard Malz Premium Vienna 55 Lb
40lb Dingemans Debittered Black Malt 55 Lb
25lb Muntons Maris Otter Extra Pale 55 Lb
20lb Briess Pale Ale 50 lb
20lb Flaked Oats 50 lb
50lb Briess DME Golden Light 50 lb
30lb Dingemans Biscuit (Mr 50) 55 Lb
50lb Rahr Unmalted Wheat 50 lb
40lb Simpsons Golden Naked Oats 55 lb
30lb Flaked White Wheat 50 lb
50lb Rahr Standard 6-Row 50 lb
35lb Avangard Malz Premium Wheat 55 Lb
20lb Schill Cologne (Kolsch) 55 lb
30lb PBW 50 lb
35lb Weyermann Munich Type 1 55 lb
 
Bigs: I will try to get some time to start processing the order this week. No promises as I am swamped, but will try! Cheers...

Just took a look and yeah it needs to close. I will email buyer tonight and keep you posted.
 
Hey guys - any takers to close out splits 14 (flaked oats) and 19 (flaked white wheat)? Only 5 lb left of each.
 
I emailed the buyer...no word back yet, will check daily and post every day or two until we get a date. Probably not going to close this until next week to give people time to finish splits and hear from 3 Stars. We will let them do a THREE week vice TWO week cycle as they asked for this last time. So if we close on 30 JUN we will pick up on 21 JUL. I have a couple of west coast trips to work around as well, so hopefully we can get this order rolling...stay tuned for email!
 
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