What would you like to see in a brew shop

[DU99]

"Not for horses",........could stock a few FWK'S.there about $45 which some cases are cheaper some of those Extract version's

 

[SBOB]

but I accept us recreationist weirdos are a very small demographic indeed

thats an understatement

 

[sp0rk]

There are some craft maltsters in Oz, eg. Voyager and I think there was a forum member in Tassie (dead pony?) that was starting out. it would be great to have a place that stocks them as I would be happy to buy!

Apparently there's a new one in the Upper Hunter/Tamworth region that's doing 25kg sacks for around $30 each (must be a farmer who owns the grain farm)
Struggling to find anything about them online, though

 

[Droopy Brew]

Decent array of hops well stored. Grain crushing service ( I could buy in bulk and crush myself but for convenience I just buy crushed to order and pay more for it). A few good books to encourage customers to get into all grain. Sponsorship of local brew club. Decent array of dry yeasts- liquid is great but as mentioned the holding time is short. Basic brew in a bag set up- the 30L plastic bucket with element and bag.

Good service and knowledgeable staff but are the #1.

 

[btrots87]

Wider variety of unhopped extract would be nice, (e.g. pilsner, munich) rather than just the standard light, dark and wheat.

 

[Spiesy]

Wide range of raw ingredients, all organised, with best before dates easily visible online for all perishable products (yeast and hops). Raw ingredients are the products that most customers come back to you week after week for. Personally I don't like the generic branded (and rebadged) stuff, like Coopers, Brew Cellar, Mash Tun etc. I would recommend going for brand names where you can. But it does depend on your target demographic, Brewers are generally split into two camps - those who want to save money, and those who want to make the best beer possible. Of course the lines do get blurred sometimes, but the majority of Homebrew shops in this country focus on the former.

 

[BJB]

Apparently there's a new one in the Upper Hunter/Tamworth region that's doing 25kg sacks for around $30 each (must be a farmer who owns the grain farm)
Struggling to find anything about them online, though

There are a few places selling Australian grain for around this price, and imported grain way cheaper as well. Unfortunately not near me.
HB shops do need to make a profit of course and grain is a big seller now days, even bulk buys are a rip off if you knew what the cost of a bag of grain was wholesale..
My apologizes to the OP, going way off topic here.

 

[SBOB]

There are a few places selling Australian grain for around this price, and imported grain way cheaper as well. Unfortunately not near me.

mind sharing a few places, so others can see if they are 'near them'?

 

[BJB]

mind sharing a few places, so others can see if they are 'near them'?

 

[Mr B]

Apart from products, I think that clear instructional material on brewing would be useful for you (owner), and potential customers.

Most people have nooooo idea about brewing, and all grain more so.

Clear photographic depictions of the process and ingredients would help the average punter understand the process from the bag of grain sitting on the shelf to actual beer.

Its quite simple really, but people dont know how to do it. I read this forum for about a year before I jumped into all grain, but I am a little ocd.

And of course, people would buy stuff to try it. Get someone started, and you might have a consistent customer for the future.

 

[Judanero]

BJB- So you don't know or....

Seemed like a pretty straight forward question from SBOB.

 

[BJB]

BJB- So you don't know or....

Seemed like a pretty straight forward question from SBOB.

No I don't know, I must have had a dream. Sorry to confuse any of you buying grain.
Best buys are from your LHBS.

Cheers

 

[Kay]

I have seen a few people suggesting grain, can anyone tell me what the best sorts to have on hand would be as I wouldn't want to get the wrong ones in

 

[Yob]

There are a few places selling Australian grain for around this price, and imported grain way cheaper as well. Unfortunately not near me.
HB shops do need to make a profit of course and grain is a big seller now days, even bulk buys are a rip off if you knew what the cost of a bag of grain was wholesale..
My apologizes to the OP, going way off topic here.

I do know those prices and the margins aren't as big as you think.

 

[4KingAle]

Reasons why I avoid my lhbs.
No gas refills(swap only which I now use)
Only small bags of expensive hops unrefrigerated and not vacuum sealed
Grain only sold in small (1kg etc) bags already milled and not vacuum sealed
Staff have a bit of a cocky know everything attitude and feel inflexible

There are better qualified to answer this but I would suggest as far as grain goes.
Jw or bb ale
Weyermann pilsner
Simpson Maris otter
Wheat malt
And then be prepared to split and bag some common speciality malts
Munich,Vienna caramalts etc

 

[SBOB]

I do know those prices and the margins aren't as big as you think.

thats what I thought, but it seems querying BJB about these magical lower price suppliers was too much for him to comprehend.

Let me try making stuff up also
There are a few places around selling Wyeast for 50c a smack pack, unfortunately not near me
There are a few places around selling this season hops for $1/kg, unfortunately not near me

 

[SBOB]

No I don't know, I must have had a dream. Sorry to confuse any of you buying grain.
Best buys are from your LHBS.

Cheers

Thats what I like about internet forums.... everyone is so helpful
Thanks for contributing

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

You would only need 1 bag of each specialty grains like Xrtal, choc, RB, vienna malt etc. They will last a long time as they are not generally sold by the bag full at your LHBS

Buy a cheap vac sealer for doing up 1Kg packs of crushed grains or smaller bags of hops

You might need a mill, but you could get one reasonably cheap, under $200-300 easly

Gas refills would be handy for some

I guess the trick is to not carry to much stock that wont sell quickly.

 

[HBHB]

Geez, if someone's selling malted grain at $30 a bag, let me know. I want about 48 metric tonne a year, but I want a free mill monkey with mine.

 

[klangers]

:icon_offtopic:
The current spot price for malting grade barley is about $250/t, ex silo/farm. $30/25kg equates to $1,200 per tonne.



Somewhere in between that is transport, malting, packaging, transport and the maltser's margin.

Now, considering we can get about 1 tonne of bags per pallet (this is very optimistic), the most pallets we'll get on a standard semi is about 22. 22 tonnes of grain per truck = $26,400 worth of malt (@$30/bag)

Let's assume the truck is driving 500km from the farm to the malthouse, and another 500km to the retailer that magically sells this malt for $30/packaged bag. A semi on-highway consumes about 1 L of fuel per km. So we're talking at least $1,600 of fuel. This is 6% of the finished product price. This is fuel ALONE, before the transport companies other costs (drivers, maintenance, tyres, tolls) and margin. You could easily sink 15% of the finished malt price in transport alone. Then you have the packaging materials (the bag, pallets, pallet wrapping) and all the labour involved to package the malt.

Anyone who thinks there is fat margins and big profits to be made in selling a commodity is thoroughly deluded.