Grains At Home

[jakester]

Hi all, just wanted to know how you guys go about getting your grains and keeping them stored at home. Each 40l brew we have done so far have been bought pre cracked at the LHBS but want to start bulk buying my own grains so i can just go to the garage and crack my own when needed. I have so far purchased two 50l drums from beerbarrell on here and a mini mill from craftbrewer. We mainly brew pale ale type beers with mainly pilsner and ale malts as the base.
So my question i guess is do i just buy the base malts in bulk and get the spec malts still from the LHBS or do you try to buy alot of different malts to have ready at home, but in smaller amounts?
And for all you Sydney brewers, who is the cheapest to buy from?

 

[Swinging Beef]

From time to time, the Sydney brewers do a bulk buy direct from Bintani.
(We Wollongongaloids often jump on the shirt tails of this, too)
This is by far the cheapest and best method, but you have to plan ahead, and you have to have some lumpy bits of cash available.
I reckon its about time they did another around now, actually.

And, yeah, get smaller specialty grain packs from one of the site sponsors.
I just put an order in then

 

[MattC]

I store my spec grains in an air tight decor 3L tall rectangle containers (K-mart or Big W) with a freezer bag lining to ensure extra freshness. Bulk grains I store in a 52L square plastic container with snap locks on the ends (K-mart or Big W) with a large plastic bag inside for extra freshness. Both keep OK for up to 12 months kept in a dry cool area out of direct sunlight.

+ 1 for bulk buying if a possibility to you.

Cheers

 

[Wolfy]

Here the specialty grains get stored in PET soft-drink bottles (the idea came from a thread on here), but if I have more than a couple of kg they are stored in larger plastic tubs from some el-cheapo store that SWMBO shops at (reject shop or sams warehouse or some such).
Base malt I just keep in the 25kg bags that they come in, since I keep them inside the house (and we have a cat) I've not had any problems.

 

[jakester]

yeah i had a look at the bulk buys that happen and the low prices you get them for is why im keen on the idea. The last Sydney bulk buy was happening close to where i live but i missed that one.
So how much do you buy at a time in the spec malts? We brew 40l batches using about 9-10 kilos of grain so it would have to last a while i guess.
Yep, a Sydney bulk buy would be great timing alright!