buying in bulk cheaper than at the lhbs

[the lizard king]

I am looking for a place that sell bulk grains at a reletivly decent price, I have heard of places selling 50 lb sacks of base malt at 32$. I have done a basic google search and pretty much came up empty handed. Places like northern brewer, midwest supplies, and my local hb shop. All go for around 50 bucks or so. I have a decent supply of assoreted specility grains and need a good decent priced base to go with, anyone got any thoughts????

[Bugeater]

Where are you? Sometimes if you make friends with the brewer at a local brewpub or brewery you can get them to either sell you some base malt or tack on an extra bag for you on their next order.

Wayne

[Steelers&Beer]

+1 to Bug. My local pub will sell you malt by the sack at their price if you are an AHA member or just know the brewer. Super cool guys that really help out the hb community. So I buy my base malt from him and everything else from my LHBS, morebeer and NB...spreadin the love around!

[iceman]

I asked a local brewer about getting grain and he told me he can't because the brewery has to be accountable for all grain used. " The Man" wants to know how much grain they are using.

[codewritinfool]

Get a bunch of local brewers together and organize a bulk grain buy yourself. A local guy does it here and orders a pallet a month. 2-row is about $30 plus tax.

[ajdelange]

I buy perhaps 10 sacks of grain a year. If I got it at $30 a sack as opposed to $50 I'd save $200 a year. Not that big a deal to me (but I understand that there are brewers to whom that is a big deal) and as I have a strong interest in seeing to it that my LHBS doesn't go out of business (the way his 2 predecessors did) I'm more than willing to buy it from him.

[leaky_porch]

A bunch of local homebrewers here do bulk grain buys from North Country Malt. Once a year we'll get a three-pallet(42 bags/pallet) order together and then do a couple of one-pallet orders throughout the year.

HOWEVER.... I'd suggest you first go to your LHBS and propose getting a bulk buy club together first and at least give them the chance to get your business. They may be willing to give you a better deal if there's a guaranteed sale. We may be getting something like that going here, which will mean a much bigger selection since the store has access to more maltsters than we do going through North Country alone.

[DannyW]

A bunch of local homebrewers here do bulk grain buys from North Country Malt. Once a year we'll get a three-pallet(42 bags/pallet) order together and then do a couple of one-pallet orders throughout the year.

Not any more according to this thread.

Not sure where I'm going to go now that our club finally is getting big enough to justify another pallet.