50 Pound Sack

brewsumore · January 6, 2012, 2:53am

Just made my first purchase from them, taking advantage of the current $10 off $100 orders / $25 off $200 orders offer they have going. For $179 after discount, I got one sack each of Simpson’s Golden Promise Malt, Rahr Premium Pilsner Malt, and Rahr Red Wheat Malt, including free shipping and no sales tax. First time for each of these malts. I would have gotten Best Pils but they were out. Going to make 11 gallons of Oud Bruin using Golden Promise. Great deal considering my local options!

I wonder if they will have a different promotion for their upcoming Grand Opening.

central_wa_brewing · January 6, 2012, 5:41am

Yeah, my local option is an Ace Hardware store in Yakima(not joking, hardware store. Really good selection especially for bulk grains)

brewsumore · January 6, 2012, 6:16am

I actually have good availability for a variety of malts here in Spokane, but it’s nice to see the competitive online pricing with 50 Pound Sack!

tom_sawyer · January 6, 2012, 1:09pm

My LHBS is about 100miles away. The L stands for Long drive. Thats why I buy a lot of stuff from NB.

dobe12 · January 6, 2012, 3:01pm

You gentlemen need to find or start a group bulk grain buy. A bunch of guys in my brew club and some non-members have a continuous group buy going. Meaning someone starts a buy and everyone lists what they want (type of grain and number of sacks). Once we fill an order, which I believe is somewhere around 40sacks, the buy is closed, ordered and delivered. Everyone meets at the drop off and picks up their grain. Once the pickup is done another buy is started up. We use homebrewtalk.com to organize the whole thing.

Buying this way can get your per pound cost down to somewhere between 50¢-60¢. So a 55lb sack of grain costs somewhere between $30 give or take a few dollars. People even split sacks in 1/2 or 1/3’s or 1/4’s.

Since I started buying grain and hops in bulk and reusing yeast, I got my 5 gallon batches of beer down to $10-$20.

fightdman · January 6, 2012, 3:42pm

+1 on the group buy.

Another option may be a friendly pro brewer nearby. I buy my base grains from the local brewpub for ~$35 a sack. Brewer is super nice guy who supports the local homebrew scene.

rebuiltcellars · January 6, 2012, 5:55pm

Also, check out if there is a maltster nearby. I’ve got one located about 1.5 hour drive from me, and they sell 40 kg sacks for about 17 Eur. That comes out to about $0.25 per pound. Just wish I had a group nearby so I could split sacks. 40 kg is way to much for me to get anything except pils or pale malt, and even then a single sack of each will last me a year or more.

tom_sawyer · January 6, 2012, 6:36pm

I actually get really good prices on sacks at a place in St Louis, its worth the 100-mile drive. Its like a group buy every other month, with rotating suppliers, and I don’t have to arrange or coordinate anything.

conroe · January 6, 2012, 10:09pm

Up in the NW you might want to try brewbrothers.biz. Prices are reasonable and the shipping should not be too much. With shipping to here in southern Utah they are still very competitive (about 50¢/lb to UPS.) The selection is really good too.

brewsumore · January 7, 2012, 4:22am

Thanks! I’ll check into brewbrothers for my next bulk purchase. I looked at their website and that is a nice selection! 8)

Unfortunately, even though I live in a metro area, there just aren’t any homebrew clubs I’ve been able to find, except +30 miles away, and that is at a LHBS so I don’t think they do group buys. I have done some research to locate a local maltster with no success yet. And I tried the three local brewpubs in hopes of adding some sacks to their regular order, but no luck there. However, a couple more breweries have opened recently so there’s room for more research.

brewsumore · January 8, 2012, 3:55am

Thanks Lennie. +1 on using our host whenever possible! Still, FWIW, my malt arrived today in excellent shape.

alanzo · January 8, 2012, 5:15am

[quote=“brewsumore”]

I wonder if they will have a different promotion for their upcoming Grand Opening.[/quote]

Spoiler: they haven’t updated the site (aside for inventory) for over a year. It’s said “Official GRAND OPENING in the coming weeks” since at least this time last year. Glad the discount still applies, though.

gruneun · January 9, 2012, 2:48am

[quote=“alanzo”][quote=“brewsumore”]

I wonder if they will have a different promotion for their upcoming Grand Opening.[/quote]

Spoiler: they haven’t updated the site (aside for inventory) for over a year. It’s said “Official GRAND OPENING in the coming weeks” since at least this time last year. Glad the discount still applies, though.[/quote]

Honestly, this is precisely why I hadn’t ordered from them, yet. I’m glad this thread came up, because I was wondering if they were actually still operating.

alanzo · January 9, 2012, 6:35am

[quote=“Gruneun”][quote=“alanzo”][quote=“brewsumore”]

I wonder if they will have a different promotion for their upcoming Grand Opening.[/quote]

Spoiler: they haven’t updated the site (aside for inventory) for over a year. It’s said “Official GRAND OPENING in the coming weeks” since at least this time last year. Glad the discount still applies, though.[/quote]

Honestly, this is precisely why I hadn’t ordered from them, yet. I’m glad this thread came up, because I was wondering if they were actually still operating.[/quote]

I ordered from them a year ago… four sacks, came to over $200. Got them all within a week. The OP’s experience tells me that I should order again soon (when I need more malt). Buy now before they become less lazy and actually “open” – thus removing the discounts.

Fifty Pound Sack is a side project of Rebel Brewer, BTW. Out of Tennessee. A very trusted homebrew supply store down there.

brewsumore · January 10, 2012, 6:34am

On Sunday I used 21 lbs of the Golden Promise (+ other malt) to mash/sparge 13 gallons of wort I am quick souring pre-boil in three carboys at 90F with lactobacillus, to boil/hop/chill/ferment on wednesday for a Nieuwe Bruin, and got average or better brewhouse efficiency for my system (~71% for a 1.053 pre-boil wort), using their nice and FRESH malt,which I received about five days after placing my order.

Today was the first time I ever gave away a full cornie of some pretty darn good beer I made (stout), because I want to make a different style for my nitro tap. I have just about drained the other keg of it. Thinking of going with the Golden Promise again to make MashWeasel’s Leetle Kilter (Scottish 70 shilling). The lucky guy whom will get the beer helped me with an IT issue today on my personal laptop.

Now I just need to research how to use the red wheat malt. And kinda wishing I had gone with a continental pilsner malt - in case I try a German or Czech pilsner with that. :oops:

edit: just read (again - since I obviously forgot) on their website that the Rahr Premium Pils also works well for European Pils recipes. 8)

alanzo · January 10, 2012, 11:41pm

[quote=“brewsumore”]
edit: just read (again - since I obviously forgot) on their website that the Rahr Premium Pils also works well for European Pils recipes. 8) [/quote]

It will work, yes, especially if you use the right yeast. But it will be missing a bit of flavor depth. Pils is such a light style to begin with, though. If you use the right yeast and the right hops, you can definitely get away with it. Maybe just throw in a bit of melanoiden malt.

rookie_l_a · January 11, 2012, 12:30am

[/quote]Yeah, my local option is an Ace Hardware store in Yakima(not joking, hardware store. Really good selection especially for bulk grains)[/quote]

How about this?
I spent about 18 months in a small town in NV that had a liquor/gun store on the edge of town.
Get liquored up and buy a Mossberg at the same stop, now THAT’S entertainment. :cheers:

brewsumore · January 11, 2012, 12:54am

[quote=“alanzo”][quote=“brewsumore”]
edit: just read (again - since I obviously forgot) on their website that the Rahr Premium Pils also works well for European Pils recipes. 8) [/quote]

It will work, yes, especially if you use the right yeast. But it will be missing a bit of flavor depth. Pils is such a light style to begin with, though. If you use the right yeast and the right hops, you can definitely get away with it. Maybe just throw in a bit of melanoiden malt.[/quote]

Thanks Alanzo. Speaking of the notion to brew a Czech Pils… I still remember the first time I bought a Pilsner Urquell. It was 1984 on an afternoon outing at a little bottle bar at Pike Street Market in Seattle, with a hot waitress I was dating. MMMM… that was good… I mean the beer!