BeerBorg

Today I was going to replenish my 2 Row and my Munich malts. But when I opened the all grain specialist site I saw he had his Marris Otter on sale. SOoooo $186 later I was coming home with 3 sacks of malted grain, a couple ounces of fuggles and a couple packs of S 04. The upfront money does save me in the long run though. I paid $1.35 a pound for imported Marris Otter, $1.14 a pound for Munich Malt, and $1.01 a pound for my 2 Row. Which is cheaper than buying it as needed. I do hate the job of transferring from bags to buckets though.

This weekend I am going to brew a wee heavy, I am going to transfer my red ale to keg while my wort is chilling, then just dump the wee heavy on top of the yeast cake from the red ale.

I could use a couple customers like you!

I don't buy often Jim. But when I do I buy a lot. After that I will be just picking up nickel and dime stuff for the next several months. Though about once a year I do replenish my specialty grains. That will probably come out to $40 or so. I like deciding to brew and having everything on hand to do pretty much whatever beer I want. That is a big part of why I like dry yeast. It keeps a long time. I buy packages of that by the dozen so I always have some handy.

Those are some great grain prices! I had been buying everything at my LHBS, which is also one of the popular internet sites, Adventures in Homebrewing. Over time I realized that their prices were either creeping up (i.e. bottle caps) or were just a bit too high on some things. I bought the 2,000 bottle caps on Ebay along with others on the forum back in March 2014, and am almost 1/2 way through them. While the per cap cost difference wasn't huge, it's more than twice the cost per cap. Over 2,000 caps I save $32+, which is a recipe plus... Was $29.95 back then, now up to $33.95. Seems their "we're selling the inventory of our closed store" has been going on for over 15 years... For those considering it, there were just under 2,000 caps (they weigh them), so the deal is quite good.

Most recently I bought hops and yeast from Farmhouse, with hops costing from $.90 - $1.41 per oz (including shipping allocated over them) vs. $1.99 - $2.99 per oz I was paying, and yeast for $3.34 - $3.68 ($5.32 for W34 which is $5.50 at AIH) per packet (dry) vs. $3.99 at AIH. Now the challenge is brewing beer that uses these supplies, I'm doing ok with the yeast and some of the hops, but haven't dented the Challenger, Liberty, or EKG yet. My next move to save money will be buying some yeast on Ebay for the $2.74 per pack cost for S-05 which is my go-to yeast.

Since I buy my bulk LME for $2.50 per pound at AIH, going to DME doesn't make sense for me unless I start allocating gas cost into the mix, but then I'd need the specialty grains and a mill also. I don't consistently use enough of any one grain to buy them in bulk, so the $1.50 - $2.09 per pound at AIH for the 1 - 3 pounds I use per batch is there for now anyway. Most of those prices seem competitive for grains by the pound as compared to others.

I love Farmhouse. But I have found that by the time I pay shipping I might as well just pay the $2 to $3 an ounce for the hops at Walt's store.

I get folks in who "think" I'm going to try to match the price they find on the Internet. In most cases it's at or below OUR cost and therefore impossible to match and none of them seem consider the S&H.

That was my challenge too - but they had a bunch on sale for $1 per oz or less ($.80 per oz for Cascade), plus the cheaper price on yeast, so I did the math and even with the shipping saved quite a bit. I spent $91.42 on 11 packets of yeast (have 3 left) and 40 oz of hops (30 1/2 left). That same order would have been $130.51, so I saved $39.09. I should have bought more S-05, but with the Ebay options that I hadn't explored it's good I didn't.

Now the tough part is saying - ok, what am I going to brew to use up the ___ hops? And of course use the yeast before it gets too old.

I just saw your post while I was typing Jim, and totally understand (do you charge more for your charming personality? ). AIH will match price INCLUDING S&H, so it's not worth the effort. I did it on my first equipment order. They also give a $10 certificate per $200 purchase (a 5% discount), so I only buy things elsewhere where the difference is sizeable. A while back I wanted StarSan - they and others were around $23.99 for a quart, and a local place that we pass on a semi-frequent trip was $16.95 (now $23.58). He wouldn't budge on price, so I bought it at the other place - but they are a janitorial supply that dedicated a room to some beer stuff, and I didn't buy anything else. When I need more Star San (2035), I'll have to look elsewhere.

I do value the help I get from the owner and some staff at AIH, so that's why I only buy things that they are way off on price (Star San, bottle caps), or in this last case a big order of hops. I don't expect to move my LME or grain purchases, but I guess never say never. I used to get annoyed when I'd use their 144 pack of bottle caps and always come up with 139 or 140, never 144 or more. Buying 2,000 solved that dilemma, but for fun(?) I counted the 2,000 and there were only 1,967... But that's a 1.65% variance, and locally it was 3.5% plus twice the cost. Wasn't the variance as much as the expecting to have 144 caps and then going "oh crap, I'm short a cap" as I was bottling.

jimjohson wrote:I get folks in who "think" I'm going to try to match the price they find on the Internet. In most cases it's at or below OUR cost and therefore impossible to match and none of them seem consider the S&H.

A lot of people don't understand the discount businesses get when they buy large volumes. If the price difference is going to be really outlandish I will order online. Most of the time Walt is in the ball park. But I don't mind paying a little more to support the store in my area. Besides, I really like Walt the store owner. He is a retired guy who started his business out as a hobby which grew. He has a professional quality 6 tap kegorator and always gives samples of what he has on tap.

RickBeer wrote:That was my challenge too - but they have a bunch on sale for $1 per oz or less ($.80 per oz for Cascade), plus the cheaper price on yeast, so I did the math and even with the shipping saved quite a bit. I spent $91.42 on 11 packets of yeast (have 3 left) and 40 oz of hops (30 1/2 left). That same order would have been $130.51, so I saved $39.09. I should have bought more S-05, but with the Ebay options that I hadn't explored it's good I didn't.

Now the tough part is saying - ok, what am I going to brew to use up the ___ hops? And of course use the yeast before it gets too old.

I just saw your post while I was typing Jim, and totally understand (do you charge more for your charming personality? ). AIH will match price INCLUDING S&H, so it's not worth the effort. I did it on my first equipment order. They also give a $10 certificate per $200 purchase (a 5% discount), so I only buy things elsewhere where the difference is sizeable. A while back I wanted StarSan - they and others were around $23.99 for a quart, and a local place that we pass on a semi-frequent trip was $16.95 (now $23.58). He wouldn't budge on price, so I bought it at the other place - but they are a janitorial supply that dedicated a room to some beer stuff, and I didn't buy anything else. When I need more Star San (2035), I'll have to look elsewhere.

I do value the help I get from the owner and some staff at AIH, so that's why I only buy things that they are way off on price (Star San, bottle caps), or in this last case a big order of hops. I don't expect to move my LME or grain purchases, but I guess never say never.

I thought I was really saving big time ordering my hops in bulk. But now I have a freezer full of hops and they are never the ones I want to use. There is quite a bit of money in there going to waste. If I order just what I need at the time I need it the shipping eats any savings. So I have decided to buy those things in town too. Only downside to Walt's store is it is quite a drive from my house. If it was just time involved I would be OK with it but it is the traffic I have to drive through to get there. Once I retire I won't mind traveling there. It is kind of a social outing for me as well. Between talking to Walt and talking to whatever customer is in there at the time, I never get out of that store in less than an hour.

In the near future I expect to brew a beer called "Crap, Have To Use the Hops" followed by "Hop All In" and perhaps "Hopapalooza".

I have Northern, Willamette, Cascade, Fuggle, Liberty, Challenger, and EKG. Challenger I was iffy on because only my Stout uses it and only an ounce, but the breakeven given it's $2.99/oz locally was so low I got it.

I have a pound and a half of columbus. As a rule I don't like more than 2 or 3 ounces of that in an IPA. I may do some APAs just to get rid of them. I have nearly a pound of Williamette which I discovered I just plain don't like. I have a lot of sterling which is fine, I find sterling to be a good neutral bittering hop. I use it in my stouts, ambers, and pretty much anything else that is malt forward.
Hops that I would actually use if I had them would be
Fuggles
Cascade
Simcoe
Amarillo
Centinial
Goldings
I love a red ale and to me red ales taste their very best with Fuggles. I love Scottish Ales and Goldings are the only way to go with those. My favorite IPAs are ones featuring Simcoe and Amarillo, costarring cascades and or Centinials.
It doesn't do me much good to buy my IPA hops in bulk because I love to experiment.

All in all for me it is best to buy my grains in bulk. Then buy my hops as needed. But keep some old faithfuls in the freezer for spontaneous brewing sessions.

As far as grains go if I have 2 Row, Munich, and Marris Otter on hand. With a supply of Caramel 40 or 60, honey malt, chocolate malt, roasted barley, roasted malt, and white wheat, I can make pretty much anything.

@RickBeer:

Any recipe you normally might use Fuggles or EKG or Willamette in you can also use Challenger. You can sub it anywhere for either of them, from bittering to flavor to aroma. It will make good beer.

I just subbed an ounce of Fuggle instead of Saaz for aroma on my Fat Tire clone, and I used Hallertau instead of Saaz when I made my Blue Moon clone, but I profess little expertise in subbing hops. Here's a chart of what I make and the hops they use.