acquiring small amounts of ingredients

[roandyo]

I'm putting together a kit to do small batch (1.5-2 gallons) all grain BIAB. I've started to look at grain bills for recipes I would like to try, but the recipes include amounts that are only small fractions of the smallest amounts I can purchase online. I'm trying to find a local homebrew club that I might be able to share/trade with, but I'm curious what others might do.

 

[jmcnamara]

Is there a particular reason you're doing small batches? It's not much extra work yo do twice that much.

You could make a few recipes that call for some of the same ingredients so you could hit those minimum purchase amounts.
I assume you don't crush your own grain, but unmilled malt lasts for a bit if it's sealed and kept cool

 

[KC]

Some homebrew supply storefronts sell loose grain by weight. They may be able to assemble and mill your whole grain bill for you, even if it includes 0.1oz smoked malt, etc.

It depends on where you are and what is close to you

 

[ChicoBrewer]

Most home brew shops sell loose malt. I brew a lot of pale ale and ipa so I keep a bulk sack of two row base malt around but I commonly buy specialty malt by the pound from my lhb. Two row base malt is cheap by the sack and goes in almost all my ales. Pilsner is another option if that's what you primarily brew.

 

[J A]

Why don't you post a typical recipe or two and give an example of the type of ingredients that you're wanting to use.
Chances are you can find enough similar recipes and ingredients to be able to buy a pound of several different specialty malts and have them on hand. When you need just a couple of ounces, you can crush it with a rolling pin or get a small hand grinder or even use a blender. I suspect that you're getting your grain pre-milled and that's where the problem comes in - you don't want a bunch of milled malt sitting around getting stale. If you buy 5 lbs of milled base malt for a recipe or two you can keep your unmilled specialty malts on hand to complete the recipe.
Eventually you can get a mill and buy bulk unmilled malt. For small batches you can get something like this:
https://www.tmart.com/Corn-Wheat-Gr...MIqNG-gYXm3QIVk47ICh3W1Q8rEAkYESABEgKc6PD_BwE
And when you're doing bigger batches and brewing more often you'll want this:
https://www.homebrewing.org/Cereal-...MIqNG-gYXm3QIVk47ICh3W1Q8rEAkYASABEgJGPPD_BwE

 

[roandyo]

I've only brewed a couple of times and it was years ago. I'm setting up a small batch setup because I think it will fit me best...smaller kettle, quicker to heat and cool, beer output better fits my wants, etc.

There is a supply store not too terribly far from where I live. I'll check it out soon and see what they have. I think I would like to crush my own eventually, but not to start. Because of that I didn't even consider getting unmilled specialty malts...that's a good idea.

I'll do some more homework and check back. Thank you for all of the responses.

 

[J A]

When

I think I would like to crush my own eventually, but not to start. Because of that I didn't even consider getting unmilled specialty malts...that's a good idea.

When you're doing BIAB you can crush pretty fine. A blender or coffee grinder will go a little further than you want for a regular mash tun set up but they work fine for BIAB. You probably don't want to do several pounds of base malt in a blender because it'd be slow, but for small enough batches, it might not be a bad way to go.

 

[Hawkbox]

I mash in a bag and my crush is basically flour and I never have any issues. I use a Corona Mill which are around $40 online in the US with a drill attached to it, I can do 10kg of grain in about 5 minutes with it. Might be worth the purchase.

 

[Mark Farrall]

I brew pretty much the same size. My LHBS allows me to order the grains in pretty small amounts. Order on a Thursday, drop in and pick up the bag of milled grains on a Saturday morning then brew sometime on the weekend.

Obviously costs me more, but I don't have room to store the grains.