What ingredients do you always have on hand?

I keep 2-row, malted wheat, and hops on hand at all times (hallertau, cascade, challenger). I find it easy to make a saison or a pils at whim that way. With the addition of some caramel malt or darker malts I can make almost anything pretty easy.

 

Im in a small apartment so not too many bulk purchases but I do always have a lot of good hops on hand. Centennial by the pound is a must.

 

I like to keep on hand a sack or two each of 2-row and Pilsner. Maybe five lbs each of Crystal 60, Malted Wheat, Flaked Maize, Roasted Barley, and a couple lbs each of Special B, Rye, and Chocolate. There are usually a few 1/2 lb bags of leftovers sitting around that I incorporate into most of my recipes for a bit of subtle complexity. A half dozen or so packets of US-05, Danstar Munich, and maybe a pseudo-Belgian strain of dry yeast. Liquid yeast I buy as needed. I've got about ten lbs of hops in the freezer - staples like Cascade, Amarillo, Simcoe and Chinook, for example. Also some Saaz, Willamette, Hallertau, and smaller packets of a few others to round out the selection. Natural gas is always on hand, so fuel is never a consideration.

This covers, maybe, 75% of my recipes. I can brew pretty much whenever the mood hits and the weather is cooperative.

 

I keep about 300 lbs of base malts of several varieties. I guess German pils, Belgian pale, MO, light Munich, Kolsch malt, GW NW Pale Ale are the vast majority of it. Plus the specialty malts that I find myself using most often. English chocolate, biscuit, Belgian caramunich, melanoidin malt, honey malt, and a few others.

 

Maris Otter

 

Always on hand? DME (for yeast starters), and Yeast Nutrient.

 

Water

 

Starters and Yeast Nutrients serve different puposes. Starters are (mainly) for increasing cell counts. Nutrients contain some minerals that yeast need for their various metabolic activities, whether they are propagating in a starter, propagating in beer wort, or making beer. So I would say Starters and Nutrients are complementary. The main reason I use Yeast Nutrient is for the Zinc. It's one trace element that probably doesn't otherwise get picked up in adequate quantities along the way in the brewing process.

 

I used to keep lots of ingredients on hand. I could almost brew any style I wanted (that was normally in my favorite style range). But I eventually found that I missed out on little pick up conversations at the brew shops I went to. Those interactions made the hobby more fulfilling. So I stopped keeping it all on hand. Granted I loved the idea of my own little brew shop existing out there in my garage just waiting for me.

 

I always have plenty of hops on hand, frozen. I buy them bulk online because they're WAY cheeper that way.

Grains I just get at the LHBS, along with yeast and most anything perishable. I do keep a little dry yeast handy tho, just in case. Oh and I usually have a pound or so of DME for making starters.

Obviously some of the non-perishables I keep around, campden, Irish moss, priming sugar etc. But in general, if it needs to be fresh, I go pick it up. My LHBS is quite close.

 

So far as the stuff that does need any thought: DME (I like wheat DME, as it doesn't contain any carapils), whirlfloc tablets, yeast nutrient, and various salts for water adjustment.

Hop-wise: Figure out what styles you like to brew. I tend to brew a mix of hoppy american ales, british-style ales, and belgian-style ales, so I tend to keep a greater variety of hops in the freezer than I probably need. Currently there are amarillo, belma, centennial, citra, crystal, phoenix, simcoe, sovereign, styrian bobek, and willamette. I haven't bought any hops since last harvest, brew almost every other week, and will probably have a decent amount of hops left once next harvest rolls around.

Malts: Pick a base malt that covers most of your bases. I like Golden Promise, as its clean enough to use in American ales, but interesting enough to use for something British. I also use it in the belgians, and it tends to give them a sweet impression, even when they ferment dry (>1.010) which I like. Some form of pilsner malt would probably be my second choice. Other than that, I try to keep some weyermann munich II, weyerman dark wheat malt, british crystal malts at around 40, 80, and 150, and honey malt on hand. Roasted malts are another story. Figure out what you need them for and how often you'll actually need them before buying. A pound of black patent lasts a long time around here, but chocolate or pale chocolate will tend to get used in two session. I will say that the majority of my trips to the LHBS are to pick up specialty malts and liquid yeast, which brings us to

Yeast: I always have US-05 or BRY-97 in the fridge. I will be bottling my first trial with the newish Belle Saison yeast over the weekend, have another go with it in primary which will probably get bottled the following week. Depending on how they turn out, I may keep it around as well. So far as something for a simple belgain pale ale or any of the trappist styles, I go to liquid, which I buy as needed. I've decided that I'm just gonna use 1028/wlp013 or 1084/wlp004 for my british ales, as my numerous attempts with s-04, windsor, and nottingham have not produced results that I'm happy with.

 

I always have at least one variety of hops on hand and yeast. There is always at least one or two strains of yeast in my fridge. Right now I am propagating two brett strains and I have a couple sacc strains in the fridge.

 

Water.

 

I pretty much just keep hops around... I have several pounds of stuff I use alot. I mainly do alot of IPAs and DIPA's, Pales and Porters/Stouts. Been getting into doing more saisons and such, but have been doing them hopped with american/new zealand.

I don't have a mill, since I normally just go to my LHBS that has a monster mill M3, and keeps super fresh grain on hand with a great turn over. So I mill up and make my recipes in batches of 2.. Can brew both in the weekend, or split it up down the road.

I keep some random packets of US 04, 05, BRY 97 on hand for emergencies, and past that and some nutrient... nothing else.

 

Do report back on the Belle Saison yeast. I've seen it at the LHBS, but I've never gotten it, as I'm pretty happy with what I get when I under pitch with some 3711 in most of my saisons and stress it out a bit.

 

I have hundreds of pounds of malt, a freezer full, of hops and plenty of yeast. I have to go buy RO water. Just saying.

 

If I had a house ingredient, it'd be munich malt. It's good for everything!