Group Buy in Chicago #6

[heferly]

ghoti - i was never able to add any 5 gal wood honeycombs, but i see a couple of you guys were able to get the 15 gal...did i miss something? i'd like to add 1 each of the 5 gal combs if i can

 

[ghoti]

what type of wood in the honeycomb?

 

[heferly]

i think you entered these in about half way into the buy, but i could never get them to show up on my order...not sure if bill was going to manually enter them for my order, but wanted to make sure i didn't miss out! figure this is the time to try out the combs, and different woods. sorry if this is being handled already!

one of each of these (5 gal):

CHERRY - BS-CHER-5
HICKORY - BS-HICK-5
HARD MAPLE - BS-MAPL-5
SOFT MAPLE - BS-SMAP-5
RED OAK - BS-ROACK-5
WHITE ASH - BS-WASH-5
WHITE OAK - BS-WOAK-5
YELLOW BIRCH - BS-YBIR-T

 

[ghoti]

Bill would have to take care of adding it now, as the group buy is close and it can not be added through the website.

 

[Kieran]

Updated. I am just waiting on confirmation from Demon, Kieran, and Jgrove10 and both splits are all set.

Confirmed for Cascade...

 

[opteek]

Not currently showing anything under Completed or Active group buys right now. Not sure if that's how its supposed to be just pointing it out. I only had two items on the order, some wood chips and some Starsan. Everything else I'm getting is part of a split.

 

[bmason1623]

I received a call back from the rep at Country Malt. Hop contracts are NOT available to home brewers. Their rationale is that all of the home brewers would run up orders on hops which are already in tight supply. We can buy hops that are in stock but that's about it. Also, some prices, mainly for hops I was told, have gone up. Once we get the quote we will adjust if we need to.

 

[bmason1623]

I opend up the buy until midnight tonight. Please add/update your non grain items as needed.

 

[forstmeister]

Here's a dumb question: Any idea on the anticipated delivery date? Is it usually on the weekend or during the week? I am curious since my wife and kids seem to account for 99% of my free time these days...

 

[bmason1623]

Here's a dumb question: Any idea on the anticipated delivery date? Is it usually on the weekend or during the week? I am curious since my wife and kids seem to account for 99% of my free time these days...

that is still at least over a week away. it usually takes people a week to send in their payment after we get a quotation. these buys take a little bit of time due to the amount of participants.

 

[Neopol]

I received a call back from the rep at Country Malt. Hop contracts are NOT available to home brewers. Their rationale is that all of the home brewers would run up orders on hops which are already in tight supply. We can buy hops that are in stock but that's about it. Also, some prices, mainly for hops I was told, have gone up. Once we get the quote we will adjust if we need to.

Well it was worth a try anyway...thanks for pursuing this.

 

[bmason1623]

for those of us in hop splits (myself included) let's try to have a back up hop in mind in case our first choice is out of stock.

 

[starman]

I received a call back from the rep at Country Malt. Hop contracts are NOT available to home brewers. Their rationale is that all of the home brewers would run up orders on hops which are already in tight. We can buy hops that are in stock but that's about it. Also, some prices, mainly for hops I was told, have gone up. Once we get the quote we will adjust if we need to.

Thanks for looking into this. That said I don't see the logic of what they're saying. If we want a 2014 contract for 500 lbs of hops the only thing it potentially hurts is retail prices. MCM makes the same markup they'd make no mater who buys and supply side has ample time to react and plant more acres if they want.

This reeks of the same stench as Briess products. The price increase in hops he's talking about better be incremental ~5% and not gouging.

If MCM won't do it, some other broker will.

 

[bmason1623]

Thanks for looking into this. That said I don't see the logic of what they're saying. If we want a 2014 contract for 500 lbs of hops the only thing it potentially hurts is retail prices. MCM makes the same markup they'd make no mater who buys and supply side has ample time to react and plant more acres if they want.

This reeks of the same stench as Briess products. The price increase in hops he's talking about better be incremental ~5% and not gouging.

If MCM won't do it, some other broker will.

I agree. I wonder if hopunion would deal directly with us?

 

[bmason1623]

I will investigate a few places for hop contracts next week. Just out of curiosity, how many pounds do you guys think we could order?

 

[ylpaul2000]

I will investigate a few places for hop contracts next week. Just out of curiosity, how many pounds do you guys think we could order?

Well how many did we have for this buy? 55, 66 pounds maybe? Multiply by four or five times a year and I think that would be a conservative estimate.

 

[starman]

Well how many did we have for this buy? 55, 66 pounds maybe? Multiply by four or five times a year and I think that would be a conservative estimate.

Off the top of my head I think there are splits for at least 8 plus

2x nelson
1x jade
2x saaz
1x cascade
1x magnum
1x northern brewer

 

[ylpaul2000]

Off the top of my head I think there are splits for at least 8 plus

2x nelson
1x jade
2x saaz
1x cascade
1x magnum
1x northern brewer

So then, 88 times 4-5. I know on the last buy I bought 11 pounds of styrian goldings by myself in addition to other splits. I would think that others would probably want to get in on a larger hop buy as well, especially if they were hops that were a variety that is harder for home brewers to find on a regular basis. I think 400-500 pounds in a year could be done easily, seeing as we do that much already.

 

[ylpaul2000]

YIKES!!!!!!!!

As bill recommended I was checking the country malt catalogue for a "back up" hop in case the variety I wanted was sold out and there is was! A large SOLD OUT over the 2012 Nelson Sauvin hops. Well that sucks!!! Back to the drawing board I guess. The organic version is still available but at $24.00/LB. that is a bit rich for my blood.

 

[bmason1623]

The salesman told me that hops were moving fast.

 

[starman]

That is both sucky and suspicious... That said the organic is still 50% of northern brewers per oz cost of $3.30.

 

[ylpaul2000]

Sazz, magnum, and Northern brewer are also gone!!!!!!! That kills most of our hop splits.

I tell you what, at this rate I think I'm investing in the creation of a large hop farm/ processing facility west of the burbs! Anyone else in?

 

[ghoti]

I am thinking we need to put a time box on any not in stock item to get resubmitted within a day as to not delay the rest of the buy.

 

[bmason1623]

I am thinking we need to put a time box on any not in stock item to get resubmitted within a day as to not delay the rest of the buy.

Time box? Please elaborate.

 

[starman]

Sazz, magnum, and Northern brewer are also gone!!!!!!! That kills most of our hop splits.

I tell you what, at this rate I think I'm investing in the creation of a large hop farm/ processing facility west of the burbs! Anyone else in?

Hang on, the sky might not be falling, a lot of 2013 brew year crop is already shipping. My freshops (2013 brew year) Amarillo and Simcoe are on a UPS truck as we speak. Label Peelers has preorders with ship dates of end of October.

Looking at alternative sources, Label Peelers has Nelson in stock for $25.19/lb, if the (2) 11lb boxes fall through at MCM, maybe that place will cut us a break. They also have Saaz, Magnum, and Northern Brewer. Shipping is $65/88lbs or $30/44lbs so it's roughly $1.35-$1.45/lb extra cost. Certainly not as cheap as before, but maybe someone will work with us.

Finally, Bill, this new rep is full of sh*t. Third bullet point on page 12 is "Our total contract minimum is 88 pounds, mix or match varieties per contract year."

 

[TheOneBuz]

Hang on, the sky might not be falling, a lot of 2013 brew year crop is already shipping. My freshops (2013 brew year) Amarillo and Simcoe are on a UPS truck as we speak. Label Peelers has preorders with ship dates of end of October."

I just preordered 2lbs of Simcoe from label peelers the other day for $50 including shipping. Customer service was great too.

 

[bmason1623]

Hang on, the sky might not be falling, a lot of 2013 brew year crop is already shipping. My freshops (2013 brew year) Amarillo and Simcoe are on a UPS truck as we speak. Label Peelers has preorders with ship dates of end of October.

Looking at alternative sources, Label Peelers has Nelson in stock for $25.19/lb, if the (2) 11lb boxes fall through at MCM, maybe that place will cut us a break. They also have Saaz, Magnum, and Northern Brewer. Shipping is $65/88lbs or $30/44lbs so it's roughly $1.35-$1.45/lb extra cost. Certainly not as cheap as before, but maybe someone will work with us.

Finally, Bill, this new rep is full of sh*t. Third bullet point on page 12 is "Our total contract minimum is 88 pounds, mix or match varieties per contract year."

I will ask again in a couple of months. I could always plead my case to the Director of Sales...

 

[ylpaul2000]

Hang on, the sky might not be falling, a lot of 2013 brew year crop is already shipping. My freshops (2013 brew year) Amarillo and Simcoe are on a UPS truck as we speak. Label Peelers has preorders with ship dates of end of October.

Looking at alternative sources, Label Peelers has Nelson in stock for $25.19/lb, if the (2) 11lb boxes fall through at MCM, maybe that place will cut us a break. They also have Saaz, Magnum, and Northern Brewer. Shipping is $65/88lbs or $30/44lbs so it's roughly $1.35-$1.45/lb extra cost. Certainly not as cheap as before, but maybe someone will work with us.

Finally, Bill, this new rep is full of sh*t. Third bullet point on page 12 is "Our total contract minimum is 88 pounds, mix or match varieties per contract year."

Thanks for the great info starman! Hopefully this news will help us in the next week or two. If not there are certainly other alternatives out there, just not at quite a good price.

 

[nwestby]

What's the status of the group buy? Are still adding to it?

 

[TheBreweryUnderground]

Sazz, magnum, and Northern brewer are also gone!!!!!!! That kills most of our hop splits.

I tell you what, at this rate I think I'm investing in the creation of a large hop farm/ processing facility west of the burbs! Anyone else in?

I've got 8 Centennial plants at my friend's farm in Monee, provided they do even moderately well next year I'll have most of my hops from that. If only there was a way to steal some Simcoe rhizomes I'd be set. I bet hop growing would be a decent business to get into, tons of Chicago breweries need their hops around here and the closest growers are Michigan or Wisconsin.