How often do we get sold the wrong Malt?

[Grannyknot]

So when buying specific malts by the pound in unmarked packaging, how often do you all think we actually get what we ordered?

I went to a fairly prominent online vendor the other day looking for Dingemans pils malt. Their website said they were out of stock. I shot them an email inquiring when they thought more would be in stock, so I could decide on waiting or procuring from another vendor. They replied back that they had just updated the quantities and to go ahead and order.

Interesting. It went from zero on hand to more or less as much as I needed. Then I got to thinking, they really could be shipping me any sort of pils malt and I probably would never know the difference. Sure the beer may have not tasted exactly as I'd hoped, but I'd probably just blame that on my water or process. Also, their price on this very specific malt is much much lower than any other vendor. Maybe I am just being paranoid, but how often does this happen in your opinion?

 

[Homercidal]

I'm sure it happens now and again. I have no idea how often.

Maybe buy a couple of pounds and buy a couple of pounds from a different vendor and compare?

 

[IslandLizard]

Yup, that sounds suspicious! It all boils down to who you trust.

 

[Qhrumphf]

I don't like ordering ingredients online for that reason. Nor do I like buying out of the self-serve bulk. I buy malt either in 1 lb, 10 lb, or 55 lb in labeled packaging so I know for sure what I'm getting (or at least as sure as I can practically expect).

 

[hunter_le five]

I know it happened to me at least once. Ordered ingredients to make an altbier, which was supposed to be light brown in color. I've made it a few times before. The resultant bier was pitch black. I double-checked my order to make sure I entered the grains/amounts correctly, and it matched my previous orders.

Accidents happen. I was disappointed, but not angry. Not sure what I brewed, but it tasted okay. They may have just given me too much carafa and darkened the hell out of the wort, or given me someone else's order entirely. Not sure.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Less often than you may assume, but more often than you may like.

 

[brewbama]

I know it happened to me at least once. Ordered ingredients to make an altbier, which was supposed to be light brown in color. I've made it a few times before. The resultant bier was pitch black. I double-checked my order to make sure I entered the grains/amounts correctly, and it matched my previous orders.

Accidents happen. I was disappointed, but not angry. Not sure what I brewed, but it tasted okay. They may have just given me too much carafa and darkened the hell out of the wort, or given me someone else's order entirely. Not sure.

Similarly, I ordered ingredients for a Brown Ale and ended up with a nice tasting Blonde.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Similarly, I ordered ingredients for a Brown Ale and ended up with a nice tasting Blonde.

I hope it was at least the girl running the register!

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

So when buying specific malts by the pound in unmarked packaging, how often do you all think we actually get what we ordered?

I went to a fairly prominent online vendor the other day looking for Dingemans pils malt. Their website said they were out of stock. I shot them an email inquiring when they thought more would be in stock, so I could decide on waiting or procuring from another vendor. They replied back that they had just updated the quantities and to go ahead and order.

Interesting. It went from zero on hand to more or less as much as I needed. Then I got to thinking, they really could be shipping me any sort of pils malt and I probably would never know the difference. Sure the beer may have not tasted exactly as I'd hoped, but I'd probably just blame that on my water or process. Also, their price on this very specific malt is much much lower than any other vendor. Maybe I am just being paranoid, but how often does this happen in your opinion?

At our company we have inventory in different areas of our system (not homebrew related). One for individual online purchases, and one for retail distribution, and so on and so on. It may just have been a matter of updating a few pounds from one section of another in their system. If they sold you different grains, and were doing it to many people, it would severely mess up their inventory at the end of the year, and greatly increase the risk un uncaught theft.

 

[cilestiok]

At our company we have inventory in different areas of our system (not homebrew related). One for individual online purchases, and one for retail distribution, and so on and so on. It may just have been a matter of updating a few pounds from one section of another in their system. If they sold you different grains, and were doing it to many people, it would severely mess up their inventory at the end of the year, and greatly increase the risk un uncaught theft.

This is what I thought of instantly when I read the OP. If the online vendor has a B&M then they probably made floor stock available to you in order to fulfill your order. Sounds like you got excellent customer service, not screwed. Although I could be completely wrong.

 

[Grannyknot]

This is what I thought of instantly when I read the OP. If the online vendor has a B&M then they probably made floor stock available to you in order to fulfill your order. Sounds like you got excellent customer service, not screwed. Although I could be completely wrong.

The example of moving the stock around wasn't really related to the question. Its just something that lead me to the question "is it possible we get sold the wrong malts?" (Either by mistake or on purpose).

This company typically has very good customer service, which is why I decided to keep them anonymous in a thread that could becomes slanderous.

 

[ScrewyBrewer]

You may very well have reached the point where you'll need to start ordering and milling your own grains.

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

The example of moving the stock around wasn't really related to the question. Its just something that lead me to the question "is it possible we get sold the wrong malts?" (Either by mistake or on purpose).

This company typically has very good customer service, which is why I decided to keep them anonymous in a thread that could becomes slanderous.

But it does, I took it as you were concerned they gave you the wrong Pilsner malt in order to make the sale to you instead of you going to another company. It's a possibility;

But it's more likely that if this company was one of the larger companies MoreBeer, Northern Brewer, Austin, Midwest, etc that they moved inventory in their system from a distribution or B&M location to online inventory.

To bluntly answer the question,
on purpose: Very very unlikely
by mistake: Mistakes happen

/rant

 

[bierhaus15]

Here is another thing to think about. A lot of the premium European malt varieties that home brewers love to drop $$ on are not what they think they are. Depending on the acreage and yield, many of the most expensive malts are actually blends of 3 or 4 other varieties, depending on the availability of the variety for that year.

Also, malt quality is independent of malt variety. For instance, everyone loves to say they use Maris Otter, but what they don't know is that even if they are actually buying MO - not 25% MO with 75% other - the MO crop has been pretty crap for the past few years and many breweries in the know have switched over to other varieties. Lastly, Optic, which has become the darling of VT IPA brewers of late, is in most instances, not Optic barley at all.

 

[cilestiok]

Here is another thing to think about. A lot of the premium European malt varieties that home brewers love to drop $$ on are not what they think they are. Depending on the acreage and yield, many of the most expensive malts are actually blends of 3 or 4 other varieties, depending on the availability of the variety for that year.

Also, malt quality is independent of malt variety. For instance, everyone loves to say they use Maris Otter, but what they don't know is that even if they are actually buying MO - not 25% MO with 75% other - the MO crop has been pretty crap for the past few years and many breweries in the know have switched over to other varieties. Lastly, Optic, which has become the darling of VT IPA brewers of late, is in most instances, not Optic barley at all.

I love this. The old "apple juice drink *10% juice" trick. I never thought of it happening with malt but it makes perfect sense. No sense letting a poor crop season get in the way of charging top dollar.

 

[Grannyknot]

Here is another thing to think about. A lot of the premium European malt varieties that home brewers love to drop $$ on are not what they think they are. Depending on the acreage and yield, many of the most expensive malts are actually blends of 3 or 4 other varieties, depending on the availability of the variety for that year.

Also, malt quality is independent of malt variety. For instance, everyone loves to say they use Maris Otter, but what they don't know is that even if they are actually buying MO - not 25% MO with 75% other - the MO crop has been pretty crap for the past few years and many breweries in the know have switched over to other varieties. Lastly, Optic, which has become the darling of VT IPA brewers of late, is in most instances, not Optic barley at all.

Very interesting. Good info. Thx.
The Dingemans website does mention that their pilsen malt is made from their selection of the finest European 2 row, so in essence, admitting it isn't from the same single crop every year.