buying ingredients?

[Gman20]

just buy stuff for one batch at a time..........but wouldnt be cool to have a lil bit of everything from the lhbs so you could just make up recipes on the fly of what you had on hand

[bpgreen]

I buy in bulk.

I buy some things online, and some things from my LHBS. My LHBS is about a 20 minute drive. It's not that far, but I really don't go that direction all that often, so it's not convenient.

My LHBS has bulk LME for $2.50/lb, but the price drops to $2/lb for more than 36 lbs, so I generally bring a bunch of half gallon containers (6 lb each) and get them filled. I then freeze the ones I won't be using soon. The LHBS has a fast turnaround (apparently, a lot of the LME is sold to bakeries) so it's always really fresh. They only carry Pilsen LME (on the theory that you can always make it darker, but you can't make it lighter).

They also let me buy base malts in full bags and just pick up what I need on each visit, so I buy by the bag and keep about 10-20 lbs at home at a time. I buy specialty grains in smaller quantities, but usually buy enough for a few months at a time. I crush all grains myself the night before brew day.

I buy hops by the pound and also grow my own. My homegrown production is reaching the point where I don't think I'll need to buy any for a long time. I keep them vacuum sealed and frozen.

I also tend to buy dry yeast in bulk and keep most of it in the freezer. I've still got some Nottingham from a deal a while back where 100 packets cost less than 50. I think it was a pricing mistake, because it wasn't just that they cost less per packet, but it cost less to buy 100 than to buy 50. If I remember correctly, 100 packets didn't cost much more than 25.

For a brew day, I come up with a general idea for a brew and then start plugging ingreients, boil times, etc into BeerSmith until it looks right.

I generally do a partial mash (mini mash?) with a stovetop boil and a late LME addition.

[Pudge]

I'm not into wasting money, but it isn't about pinching pennies to me. Go for quality ingredients at a decent price from whatever location is convenient. Fresher is better so I buy ingredients two batches at a time.

Do some price checks though. Prices can widely vary.

[Whamolagan]

I buy buy the full sacks on the base malts, I get a huge discount from my LBHS. $.90/lb for Marris and pilsner. $.80 for 2 row. All specialty I buy 15-20 lbs at a time. Hops by the lb.

[berryman]

I usually buy ahead enough for 3-4 five gal. batches. I try to plan it out to use most everything up within a few weeks period. I use 1 primary and secondary most everything so I can brew once a week or so until everything is full, then start over. I do keep extra yeast and hops on hand all the time though.
Edit I binge brew, brew hard for a while then let everything condition out and then do it all over again.....