Buying grain locally

[tommos76]

I'm looking for advice as where I can purchase a 25kg sack of Maris otter close to the Swansea area. I've got quite a few hops in storage which I want to try out a few smash recipies to see which one I like the best. Any advice would be greatly appreciated

 

[MyQul]

Now, I dont live anywhere near Swansea (unless its moved south of the Thames without my knowledge) but what I might do when I need my next 25kg sack is go round my local micro brewery and ask them if they can sell me a sack. I know other forumites have done this successfully, and because they buy in bulk they can flog you one cheaply, cheaper, than an online HBS plus no shipping cost to make it even cheaper for you

 

[tommos76]

Thankyou Myqul, I believe there are a couple around my area but I thought it may be cheeky of me if I went and asked them lol.
Thanks
Martin

 

[MyQul]

Cheeky? Nah! Micro's are usually really friendly and helpful to us HBers (most of em WERE HBers before they went professional). I emailed my local micro a while back and asked them if I could have some of their cali-common yeast. They were more than happy for me to go round there and get some (provided I bring my own tub )

 

[tommos76]

That's Brilliant! Fingers crossed I will get some results this week. I'm a newbie as regards to brewing and I'm loving the hobbie also sharing with my dad so it's a good bonding session.

 

[MyQul]

They can only say no.

Newbie huh? We'll soon have your a garage full of shiny stainless steel kit!

 

[tommos76]

They can only say no.

Newbie huh? We'll soon have your a garage full of shiny stainless steel kit!

I went a bit mad when purchasing kit with my Dad and bought a grain father setup. I had to give up my business to look after the wife and kids due to an illness so spent some money on the brew equipment.

 

[MyQul]

The GF seems to be universally loved on the forum. A very decent bit of kit. Nothing wrong with diving straight in and getting one straight off the bat. You wont be the first and definately wont be the last. Now how about a few corny kegs to go with it? Oh, and you'll need a Brewtech SS FV to ferment in too.

 

[tommos76]

I did my first brew and bottled, started getting very interested and bought 4 corny kegs lol. We set up the kit temporary in my kitchen on 3 occasions and my dad offered to convert his shed to accommodate everything. We are still in the novice stage when it comes to paring grain and hops together but it's a lot of fun learning along the way. Wish I did this year's ago.

 

[MyQul]

Nice set up you've got going there! I'm glad you're enjoying yourself so much. HBing is and can be such a rewarding hobby. Extremely simple, just grain, hops, water and yeast but at the same time very complicated. Loads of knowledgeable forumites here on all aspects of brewing. So just ask away if you need to know anything

 

[tommos76]

That's much appreciated.
One question that springs to mind is about water pH levels for an ipa. Will getting this right make a big effect on the taste?

 

[MyQul]

It's mash PH that you need to concern yourself with not water PH. But basically yes. But it depends on what you water is like. If you've got soft water you most likely wont have to do much (unless you then want to do some advanced water tweeking with minerals). If you've got alkaline water like me, you'll probably need to strip out some of the alkalinity as hard water is much better for dark beers than for light

 

[tommos76]

Yes our water here is soft. We both like ipa's and I don't think we are going to brew a stout any time soon. One thing I'm going to attempt in the next couple of months is harvesting yeast. I've been looking into it but don't feel confident enough yet lol

 

[MyQul]

You should be fine to brew IPA's 'as is' with your water, but if you want a bit more indepth info, forumite strange-steve has written a couple of excellent (Beginners) guides to water treatment

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/beginners-guide-to-water-treatment.64822/

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/more-advanced-water-treatment.71451/

Yeast harvesting is pretty easy tbh. At it's most simplest, it's just a case of pouring the yeast from the bottom of the FV into a jar after you've racked the beer off of it. There's loads about harvesting yeast around on the forum

 

[Dozzer]

Warminster Maltings has floor malted barley, and they do tours. Not Wales I know but not far off the M4

 

[tommos76]

You should be fine to brew IPA's 'as is' with your water, but if you want a bit more indepth info, forumite strange-steve has written a couple of excellent (Beginners) guides to water treatment

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/beginners-guide-to-water-treatment.64822/

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/more-advanced-water-treatment.71451/

Yeast harvesting is pretty easy tbh. At it's most simplest, it's just a case of pouring the yeast from the bottom of the FV into a jar after you've racked the beer off of it. There's loads about harvesting yeast around on the forum

Thanks I will take a good look at the posts these next couple of days. The support on here is fantastic.

 

[tommos76]

Warminster Maltings has floor malted barley, and they do tours. Not Wales I know but not far off the M4

Thank you I will Google them to see how far away they are from me.

 

[prog99]

You could also ask where your local breweries get their grain from. I did at days graft at one of ours and was quite surprised to discover one of their suppliers will sell to individuals (the next paragraph explains why I don't have to).

Another option (and one I use). My local HBS lets you buy grain 25kg at a time in advance and then pop in to pick it up crushed on demand. The good bit is its a flat rate no matter what the malt type is.
I don't know if this is unique to my local shop though.

 

[tommos76]

Thanks. I've had a Google as regards to HBS and there's nothing local to me. I've had to order online for my last couple of brews which works out a lot when paying shipping costs. I think a trip to the local breweries should be my next stop

 

[Drunkula]

I found maris otter cheaper from Worcester Hop Shop with delivery than my local. Their website has recently gone to hell, though. It's a shambles and like a plan to make them go bust on purpose.