Going Bulk

My LHBS is about an hour away as well, but I still buy bulk grain from them because I have yet to find bulk grain shipped to me for a competitive price, even when I watch sales at the online retailers. It just takes some advanced planning is all, usually timed around when I am in the area anyway. All other items the shipping isn't a factor.

Saving yeast slurry is a big factor as well. Also learning how to freeze yeast will save even more if you are willing to stick to using minimum yeast strains.

 

There are a lot of mills available, I have a Barley Crusher. Grain storage -> 5 gallon buckets from Homedepot or Lowes, don't bother with the lids from the store, they break easily, just get gamma seal lids, Lowes has white "food safe" buckets for about the same price as an orange bucket from Homedepot.

Hops by the pound from hopsdirect.com A vacuum sealer helps but is not necessary if you don't open 6 different packages of hops at the same time.

I have purchased 50 pound sacks of grain from labelpeelers.com, fiftypoundsack.com, ritebrew.com and probably others. I also buy 2 row from my LHBS, but their prices are about the same as online (including shipping) for less common malts.

 

How many Home Depot lids have you broken? I have been using two Home Depot buckets and lids for the last 4+ years for bulk storage and I still have the original lids; they have never broken on me.

Cheers!

 

Probably broke at least 5 or 6. The edges of the lids always seem to crack/break, then they don't seal as well. They would still keep out mice, but definitely not a water/humidity seal. I don't know if it matters, but I keep them in the garage where temps go from the 30s in winter to 90s in summer.

 

I keep my buckets/lids in my basement; relatively constant temperature throughout the year.

It is my guess that the temperature extremes are the source of your lid woes.

Cheers!

 

I buy my hops in bulk on eBay from a great source, food saver to keep them fresh. Bulk grains I actually get through my club on a group buy through a local brewery. Store the grains in 5 gallon buckets with gamma lids. I have a Barley Crusher for my mill. I reuse yeast, and have my strains plated or slanted for long terms storage.

 

Get the food saver to preserve the hops, and it also works on . . . food!

 

Your first order of business is to figure out what styles you generally enjoy brewing, what fudges you're willing to make, and then get a schedule down. It won't matter much if you get a great deal on marris otter, special B, and simcoe if you like to make traditional lagers.

 

I just recently did this:

Bought a mill.. I bought one I was accustom to using at my LHBS, is about an hour away, but slowly became less stocked, less easy to get to, and less fresh items for what was in stock. Changed ownership, and it's going downhill.

Regardless of the issues.. I bought a Monster Mill MM3.. 3 rollers, the whole nine yards.. Works great when ran by my drill, gives me a great crush, consistently getting great numbers. It's a solid, and very heavy duty mill.

I bought sack of grain locally, so I picked some base malts that I knew Id use more often.. 2 row, and Pilsner base malts. Bought some half sacks of Vienna and Munich, and then got some one or two pound bags of the smaller stuff like crystal malts, acid malts, carapils, and such.

I bought some buckets with the gamma lids. 2 -5 gallon buckets will hold a sack of base malts. Had worked out well for me.

Bought some rubbermaid food grade buckets that are small, hold around 6-7 pounds of grain in them, they fit on my scale just right. I bought a cheapo food scale on amazon for a few bucks. Doesn't need a power outlet, and hangs out with the buckets and mill in the garage. It's pretty accurate, even up against my very expensive lab balance I use inside for hops, and water salt additions.

After the price, the drive and the time in the car.. I'll be buying it online from Midwest or MoreBeer honestly. It's about the same price for me after the headache, save for 5-7 bucks a sack.. I'm not hard up for $5 bucks, so online it'll be for me.

Hops I buy in bulk each year when released. I'll buy in bulk through the year if something piques my interest or is on sale. Foodsaver them, and freezer stored. Cost of it is offset by the saving in hops and I use it for food too.

Yeast is probably the biggest trouble, but I've had great luck with using dry yeast more for some styles that don't need much, and I've been getting vials from ECY and YeastBay will great luck through online/mail. Plan to make a starter, brew with it, and then use some of the cake for another beer will get you to extend the yeast mileage well enough.


Just a word or warning.. Buy your own mill. The crush from the guys like Midwest and MoreBeer is terrible.. You will suffer efficiency issues if you are used to anything else.

As a whole- I'm about to go pretty much all online.

 

I use mason jars for saving yeast slurry. I use large tupperware bins for sacks of grain. They usually hold 2 1/2 ea. I use a Barley Crusher that has barely paid for itself. I think the real advantage is that you can crush your grain when you want, instead of trying to hurry to get a brew day in because your grain was crushed for you.

 

Are there any retailers that sell grain in 25 or 30 lb quantities? Morebeer at 10lbs is the closest I've seen. Don't think I'm ready to commit to a whole 50lb sack yet.

 

A sack of continental pils will cover just about everything, if you believe...

 

Agree with @MrOH, pils can go in every beer without causing problems and a 50 pound sack is only ~4 - 5 batches. Go big or go home

 

Something to think about with buying a big sack of grain where you think you won't use it all quickly is that you can brew a batch of something substantial (e.g. barleywine, stout, scotch ale) and burn through 15-20 pounds of base grain. You can age those bottles for years.

 

For what it's worth... I haven't brewed much, but think about it.. base malts, for a single 5 gallon recipe will be like 8-14 pounds perhaps..

Thats like 4-6 batches roughly for a sack of base malt.. It's not very much, I've almost blown through a bag of pilsner malt.

 

This thread makes me appreciate how damn close my LHBS is to where I work! 5 min drive during lunch, and I'm at Listermann Brewing

 

I've been buying full sacks of base malt since I started brewing almost five years ago. I usually use 10# of base malt per batch, so this is only five brews. I started buying full sacks of malts I use a lot of. I usually end up swapping grain with the other guys I brew with, so it is used up a bit quicker than if it was only me using it. I bought a Barley Crusher mill and store my grain in large Rubbermaid storage containers in the original sacks. I can get three full sacks in my largest container. I haven't had a problem with critters getting into the grain, but I did have a problem once with moths in the smaller container I keep my specialty malts in. I haven't had any problems with the malt going bad before I use it, and I store it in the garage.

My closest home brew shop is about 30 miles from home and is only open Thursday-Saturday. He places bulk orders monthly for malt and yeast, rotating between vendors. Pickups are usually on Friday, but he also keeps stuff on hand if you need it for a brew. I have several location where I work at and try to be close to his shop on the Fridays I need to pick up an order. I haven't checked lately but I couldn't beat is prices anywhere else.

Another home brew shop I visited stores their grain in containers designed for dog food. They said it will hold a 50# bag, but the opening is at an angle in the corner and it will spill grain if you open it when full. I'm thinking about getting some of these as they have a screw top lid that provides a better seal.

I buy my hops by the pound from Hops Direct. I usually split them with another brewer, we end up with 8 oz. each. I store them in the freezer, and the leaf hops lose their aroma after a while, but the pellets don't have this problem. I have gotten away from the leaf hops for this reason and they take up a lot more space in the freezer.

 

Out of curiosity - appx how many 5 gal buckets does it take to hold a 50b bag?
I've been wanting to make this jump & it would help estimate how much space it would take up to keep several grains on hand.

 

2 five gallon buckets will hold 50-55# of grain. There might be a little extra, but I never open a sack until I am ready to brew with it.