Ordering grain online?

Been doing it for years.

 

All the time

 

Not yet

 

If you are buying small amounts such as specialty grains it's reasonable. But I find if you are buying in bulk (ie several bags of base malt) it gets pricey with shipping. Unless you are going to do a group buy and buy a pallet it's not worth it IMO. I'm lucky enough to have a decent LHBS shop that carries lots of grains and even a bag of Maris Otter is reasonable.

 

Sure. I like to buy sacks of two row and pils malt from a LHBS in order to avoid shipping costs on those big bags, but I order specialty grains online all the time. And some online retailers offer flat rate shipping on larger orders, so it is possible to get pretty low shipping rates even on the 50 lb sacks.

 

Yes, do it all the time. 50lb sacks of grain + shipping from Midwest is pretty much the same price as if I were to purchase it from LHBS. It all depends on what else I need and how fast I need it.

 

Shipping costs vary with each site. Austin charges $6 for shipping on orders over $100. 80lb of grain/extract to my door for $6? Yes please.

 

I don't know about Austin but many places don't include bulk grain bags (55lb) in their discounted flat rate shipping costs. I know Northern Brewer and Midwest don't for example. My original post was in reference to bulk grain bags not a couple pounds of grain. And looking quickly at Austin's bulk grain prices...I don't think they are that good. I can get Maris Otter from my LHBS for ~$65 for a 55 pound bag. At Austin it's $70 for a 40 pound bag.

 

I've been buying grain almost exclusively from my LHBS for the past few years. The prices are pretty close to online sites after you add shipping (obviously, YMMV). I also find them to be much more accommodating on an ongoing basis if I buy the big stuff there, so I don't mind paying marginally more there if necessarily, though any purchases where the difference is more than 'marginal' are done online (an LHBS is not a charity).

 

Austin sells weird sizes of grain (40 lb), how do they package them?

 

In my highrise appt I don't have anywhere to work a propane burner so I'm stuck with PM batches for a while. I have not purchased any bulk grain from Austin. I have purchased bulk DME, which comes in a sealed brown paper sack like 20lb dry dogfood.

 

Northernbrewer.com is the truth. Good, totally worth it for 15gal and smaller batches

 

Perhaps I'm misreading you, but a propane burner is not needed for all grain brewing. Indoor brewers can take advantage of buying bulk grains.

 

Be careful. I did once and two weeks later I woke up in mud pit with some girl named Helga.

 

only if you have the ability to do a full volume boil indoors. i know most people--myseif included--find it difficult if not impossible to boil a full batch on the stove, which is why a propane burner is 'necessary' for all grain brewing. this of course has nothing to do with buying grain in bulk, since partial mash brews still require some base malt. at that point i can't imagine you'd need more than a 10 lb bag for every 2-4 batches depending on how much grain you mash or what your recipes look like so idk if it's worth it...

 

I disagree. A propane burner is not 'necessary' for all grain brewing.
There are options:
- Do a full boil, but make only as large a batch as you can boil.
- Do a high gravity wort and top off. While most AG brewers probably do a full volume boil, this is not a requirement.
- use multiple burners/kettles on the stovetop and combine
- use a heatstick
.
.

 

actually doing a high gravity wort and topping off is a really good idea. i shouldve gotten into all grain like 10 batches earlier...

i guess my point is that traditionally, if you're going to do at least 5 gallons all grain, you're going to need to find a way to boil all that wort. condensing it is a good way to do that.

 

I order a huge bag every couple months. I have a grinder so I dont have to get it precrushed. Austin Homebrew is for sure my favorite place to get them because they are friendly and my father can pick it up whenever and bring it to me.

 

There's nothing etched in stone nor any law on the books requiring a minimum batch size of 5Gs.

If your stove can boil 3 1/2 to 3 3/4G...you can brew a 2.5G batch-size.