Upgrading my malt store, what specialty grains would give me the most variations available?

[cmac62]

I have 50 lb of 2 row and white wheat, and 50 lb of pilsner on the way. I have several containers that could hold maybe 10 lb for specialty malts. I was thinking some crystal 60, some midnight wheat or black patent, some Munich, some aromatic or buiscut. I have 5 bins now, could get more, but that would be a good start. I'd like to be able to head into the garage and mix up a batch with a little more character that base malt without having to go the the LHBS. Let me know what you think. Thanks and

 

[bracconiere]

I'm a big fan of special b.....

 

[brewster2012]

I recently made a rather large purchase of specialty grains (SG) to get me through the "bad times". I took my list of go-to recipes and made a list of all the SG's those recipes use. That drove which grains I bought and in what quantities. I bought SG's used in several recipes in larger quantity. My LHBS bagged them up for me, and I keep those bags in 5 gallon buckets. Hope this helps.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

This article from Jan 2016 may be helpful: Brew Bunker: Lessons from Survivalists About Building Your Own Brewing Ingredient Stockpile.

I was thinking some crystal 60, some midnight wheat or black patent, some Munich, some aromatic or buiscut.

FWIW: I find that English crystal and American crystal, in roughly the same L range, have different flavors. Review the specific brands of munich and aromatic you are considering to avoid "overlap". With some of the brands I use, munich and aromatic are more similar than different.

edit: cleaned up formatting.

 

[MrPowers]

I think the more important question is what styles do you typically brew? That will really influence the recommendation.

 

[specialkayme]

For base malts, I usually buy full bags of a local 2row and Pilsner malts. I usually keep a 5 gallon bucket full of Munich, Vienna, and Maris Otter.

Beyond that, I usually just buy based on the next 3-5 recipes I plan on brewing. I usually get 5 lbs at a time of most specialty grains, even if the recipe calls for a pound or a half a pound. Some more specific ones I'll only get a pound at a time (if the recipe calls for like 0.1 or 0.25 lbs). It ends up giving me a good variety which, over time, makes it so I can brew almost anything at any time.

Yeast becomes my largest inhibitor. I have about 8 yeast strains in my fridge from overbuilt starters. Because I have plenty of hops and grains, I'm too lazy to make it to a LHBS just to pick up a yeast (which they usually don't have anyway if it isn't WLP001 or something like that).

This article from Jan 2016 may be helpful: Brew Bunker: Lessons from Survivalists About Building Your Own Brewing Ingredient Stockpile.

I just get "internal server error"

 

[Dr_Jeff]

Make a list of what beers you would like to drink/have on tap for, say the next year.
Then look at or devise a recipe for each.
Now look at what you are going to need to have on hand to accomplish that goal and use that for guidance in your purchases.
BTW- a little bit of black patent malt goes a long way, and properly stored (vacuum sealed or tightly in ziplocks) will keep almost indefinitely.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I just get "internal server error"

The link was working for me when I posted #4 above. As I write this reply, the link is working (again? still?).

A recent (as of 4/9/20) copy of the article can also be found via the "Way Back Machine". The "Way Back Machine" has a FireFox plug-in that makes it easy to check the "Internet Archives" when pages go 404, 501, ...

 

[AzOr]

Vienna, Munich, white wheat,biscuit and on c-malt would do me for a long time.
Obviously I don’t brew many dark beers.

 

[MrPowers]

For me, it would be Barke Munich, carahell, caramunich II, flaked corn, and maybe flaked/malted oats. But I brew a lot of German and American lagers and NEIPA’s.

 

[cmac62]

This article from Jan 2016 may be helpful: Brew Bunker: Lessons from Survivalists About Building Your Own Brewing Ingredient Stockpile.

Thanks for the link, I like this guys idea.

• Base Malts: one sack each of Maris Otter, Pils, and Vienna (or Munich). Storage: 6G buckets with gamma lids.
• "Everyday" malts (the ones I used most often outside of a base malt): 5-10 pounds each of Munich (or Vienna), Victory (a nice light/toasty character malt), Chocolate, British Medium Crystal, and Caramunich. Storage: 1.5G gasketed glass jars (Barbara wanted them to be pretty!).
• "Specialty" malts (things I use for specific recipes, or might want to): 1 pound each of Carapils, Melanoidin, Black Barley, Carafa II, Aromatic, Crystal 120, Crystal 80, Crystal 60, Crystal 20, Biscuit, Pale Chocolate, and Black Patent. Storage: conveniently, 1-quart Ball Mason Jars come in a 12-pack and neatly hold about a pound each!
• Hops: Nugget (for bittering/flavor), Crystal (a good all-purpose herbal/floral/seems-European flavor/aroma hop), and Fuggle (because there's nothing else that smells quite like English dirt).

I also busted out my copy of Home Brew Beyond the Basics By Mike Karnowski and read up on the different malts. I want to check out some British crystal malts and some Aromatic, also thinking about toasting some 2 row at 300 f for maybe 20-25 minutes. This all sounds like fun.

Thanks for all the feedback folks, I love HBT

 

[specialkayme]

The link was working for me when I posted #4 above. As I write this reply, the link is working (again? still?).

Works now. Weird. But thanks.

 

[cmac62]

I think the more important question is what styles do you typically brew? That will really influence the recommendation.

Really I'm a mutt, now I have a Mole IRS, a lightish Saison and a session IPA on tap, I have a dill pickle gose and two wheat beers in fermenters. One I plan to sour with Lactic Acid and the other add either peach or blueberry extract.

 

[cmac62]

Yeast becomes my largest inhibitor. I have about 8 yeast strains in my fridge from overbuilt starters. Because I have plenty of hops and grains, I'm too lazy to make it to a LHBS just to pick up a yeast (which they usually don't have anyway if it isn't WLP001 or something like that).

That is one of the reasons I buy whatever different dry yeast packets whenever I'm in the LHBS. I used Belle's Saison for the first time and I really like it, but next time I may put a heat wrap on it and do the full ferment at say 85f.

 

[cmac62]

I would say generally I prefer a lot of malt flavor rather than hops. That is why Aromatic and Victory sound interesting to check out. Also, next time I buy a base I think it will be vienna. I love the richness it adds.

 

[madscientist451]

Pale chocolate, carapils, munich, victory, biscuit, oat malt, rye malt, crystal wheat and rye, all grades of crystal from 10 to 120, acidulated (these are in no particular order) Get 5-10 lbs of each and you should be able to make about anything depending on what base malts you have.