Recipie Grain Amounts

[joecast]

after looking at quite a few recipies lately, and seeing amounts like 350g, or 1.7Kg, and 40g for hops, how many people here buy in bulk? i want to brew an ag soon but am worried about buying a 25Kg bag and not knowing if i would be able to use it all! and having that much of one type of grain is a concern too since there are so many types of specialty and base grains available now.

when looking at recipies now i just round them up to the next highest half Kg and wonder if that would alter the intended flavor much? anyway, just a thought.
joe

 

[Hoops]

Joe

I am almost setup to do AG brewing so have bought a 25kg bag of grain (Should be here in a week). This will be the base grain/malt for my beers so it will probably only do 4-5 brew( I think). I won't however buy large quantities of specialty malts unless I find a recipe I really like, I'll just buy them when needed from the local HB store. (Maybe 1kg crystal malt).

Again if I find a recipe I really like I will try to get some hops in bulk (1kg) as it should work out alot cheaper, and it will give me consistency.

As for rounding small amount of grain up to the nearest 500g, try putting it into Promash and see the difference in colour for crystal, or roasted barley. I think the flavour would be changed more than the colour though.

Hoops

 

[Justin]

Joecast, I think you have the email addresses of all the lads down here, I know your on the list but if you don't have it I can send you them. Pass an email around and see what comes up. Chances are that someone is in the market to go halves in a bag of something (and 12.5 kg you can burn up real quick, just do a coulpe of pale ales ) and if your after something in particular I'm sure someone is bound to have it and sell/give you some.

My recomendations for a bulk bag would probably be Joe White Export Pils or the pale/trad malt. Nice forgiving grain (apparently :huh: ) if you miss your temps etc and just a good all round base malt. Good enzyme power etc.

I'm looking at purchasing a bag soon (still have 5kg of pale lelt + various others) so if you wanted to wait a little while for a bulk purchase then after christmas I'd probably split one with you if you want (1/2, 1/3, whatever).

Anyway, guess I'll give you a pm instead of discussing this in front of the world.


Cheerio, JD

 

[JasonY]

Joe, I did not start buying bulk until after the first two all grain brews so I could check out the pale ale malt (in my case IMC) before I bought a heap of it. My HBS charges about $8.50 for 2.5kg of pale so the brews get expensive ... after a couple (knowing I was happy with the results) I jumped in and got a 25kg sack for $55 which works out a fair bit cheaper. I think after a couple of brews you will probably start thinking it is a good idea.

As for specialty grains I still get those in 2.5kg bags for now ... if I find I am using tonnes of one I may buy bulk in that, or if I find someone else who wants to go in on half a sack then it makes the amount more managable.

You can round the amounts but it will effect the color and flavour, still the beer would most likely still be perfectly ok (be careful with the really dark malts). Early on I invested in a reasonable set of digital scales ($50) so I could try and make stuff more consistent.

 

[joecast]

thanks for the comments. now that i think about it, 25Kg of a base malt isnt going to last as long as i thought.

i am hoping for some kitchen scales for christmas, se we'll see how much santa likes homebrew.
joe

 

[JasonY]

I'm more than happy for Santa to use the scales to make cakes and other such kitchen activities