Experience with Vendors Substituting Grains?

[Pilgarlic]

Until now I've been buying my grain bills crushed and bagged. Recently, I've had occasion to observe that my LHBS is substituting grains that they think are "interchangeable", and not bothering to tell me, because, in their opinion, the substitutions were "interchangeable". The most recent was CaraMunich for Munich Type II. If I hadn't happened upon the information I'd have brewed this recipe thinking I'd used the Munich malt when in fact it was CaraMunich. Would it have been good beer? Sure... but I'd have had a pretty distorted perception of this recipe, which I was trying for the first time.

So, my question is this. To what extent do you think this sort of thing is going on when we order our grain bills crushed and bagged? It frankly hadn't occurred to me until this last experience, but I'm beginning to think the risk is great enough to push me into buying and stocking my grains to mix and crush my own.

Any experiences with this problem?

 

[djsethall]

I had a bad experience about 6 months ago. My LHBS has buckets of grain. I went to scoop out 2 lbs of xstal 80 and it was lighter than the xstal 20. It looked like dextra pils or vienna. Someone effed up when they filled that bucket. I made note of it t the employee and it was like that for 5 months. Finally they dumped the bucket. Never trust the lhbs when it comes to a grain bill. I try to get it out of the bag it came in to avoid confusion. Luckily I have sold equipment at this lhbs and they trust me enough to use their mill all by myself. No more erors. If you want something done right.........

 

[Golddiggie]

The LHBS I visit actually told me that they didn't have one grain I was looking for when I was getting it for a recipe. They mentioned what they did have that I could substitute (a different SRM level of caramel malt)... Being told that they don't have something and being asked if you would mind them substituting for what they DO have is important. I take it as a sign that they actually give a crap about what the customers are wanting.

Of course, since I have my own grain mill now, I'm getting whole grain. If I'm going to get anything from them, I'll make sure it's what I actually want for the recipe. Or I'll just order it from one of the other vendors I've already done business with, and have had good results with.

If you can't trust the LHBS, either shift to another, or shop online.

 

[Pilgarlic]

Thanks, guys. My guess is that this is happening quite a bit, and that it's often treated as "what they don't know won't hurt them". I guess sometimes that may be true, but I want to be the one to make the decision! Time for some storage bins. I have the mill.