Grains to have on hand

[Hman1962]

I have recently transitioned into all-grain brewing and am working to establish a solid inventory of base malts and specialty grains. While I intend to consistently keep American 2-row malt on hand, I would appreciate guidance on other base malts that are practical and versatile enough to stock in larger quantities (approximately 50–55 pounds per selection).
I understand that grain selection is largely influenced by brewing preferences, so to provide context, the primary beer styles I focus on include:

• Light, approachable styles such as Blonde Ales, Cream Ales, and pale lagers (e.g., Munich Helles)
• Occasional hops-forward beers like IPAs
• I am also interested in exploring Amber Ales

Additionally, I would like to expand my seasonal brewing, particularly for fall and winter. Styles I am considering include:

• Oktoberfest/Märzen
• Malt-forward, darker ales similar to the “Caribou Slobber” (Northern Brewer clone)

With these goals in mind, I am seeking recommendations on:

1. A shortlist of base malts worth purchasing in bulk that would support the majority of these styles
2. Specialty malts to keep on hand in smaller quantities to provide flexibility and variety
3. Suggestions for additional beer styles—especially seasonal fall and winter options—that would complement my current brewing lineup

My objective is to build a well-rounded grain inventory that enables efficient recipe formulation without requiring frequent small purchases.

 

[Minbari]

I usually keep 2 row, Maris otter, 450 chocolate, munich and a couple crystals in the 40-80 range on hand.

 

[Megary]

I have recently transitioned into all-grain brewing and am working to establish a solid inventory of base malts and specialty grains. While I intend to consistently keep American 2-row malt on hand, I would appreciate guidance on other base malts that are practical and versatile enough to stock in larger quantities (approximately 50–55 pounds per selection).
I understand that grain selection is largely influenced by brewing preferences, so to provide context, the primary beer styles I focus on include:

• Light, approachable styles such as Blonde Ales, Cream Ales, and pale lagers (e.g., Munich Helles)
• Occasional hops-forward beers like IPAs
• I am also interested in exploring Amber Ales

Additionally, I would like to expand my seasonal brewing, particularly for fall and winter. Styles I am considering include:

• Oktoberfest/Märzen
• Malt-forward, darker ales similar to the “Caribou Slobber” (Northern Brewer clone)

With these goals in mind, I am seeking recommendations on:

1. A shortlist of base malts worth purchasing in bulk that would support the majority of these styles
2. Specialty malts to keep on hand in smaller quantities to provide flexibility and variety
3. Suggestions for additional beer styles—especially seasonal fall and winter options—that would complement my current brewing lineup

My objective is to build a well-rounded grain inventory that enables efficient recipe formulation without requiring frequent small purchases.

For your beer styles, I would only *bulk* stock 2-Row, Pilsner and your favorite Munich malt. Can't see any other malt worth keeping in such large quantities.

 

[Brew Cat]

to add to @Megary list a little Vienna is nice to have around especially for the Marzen and Amber styles
Might as well get a bit British Pale malt
a lot of specialty malts
Ill usually have a bunch of recipes lined up and order the specialty malts for those and ad extra for the larder
how much do we have to spend?LOL

 

[J A]

bags:
Good 2-row
High-quality Pilsner
Pale Ale and/or Maris Otter

5-10 lbs:
Munich
Vienna

2-5 lbs:
CaraMunch (40-ish)
Victory
Flaked Barley
Flaked Oats
Special Roast B or C60
Pale Chocolate
Roasted Barley

 

[TerryDowning]

bags:
Good 2-row
High-quality Pilsner
Pale Ale and/or Maris Otter

5-10 lbs:
Munich
Vienna

2-5 lbs:
CaraMunch (40-ish)
Victory
Flaked Barley
Flaked Oats
Special Roast B or C60
Pale Chocolate
Roasted Barley

This is pretty much my typical inventory.

 

[Hman1962]

to add to @Megary list a little Vienna is nice to have around especially for the Marzen and Amber styles
Might as well get a bit British Pale malt
a lot of specialty malts
Ill usually have a bunch of recipes lined up and order the specialty malts for those and ad extra for the larder
how much do we have to spend?LOL

Not unlimited spending, but will want a pretty good list of Bulk, and big list or other malts that I will have 5-10 pound and other 2-5 pound list as well

 

[Limey]

I brew similar beers to you - mostly British style pale ales, milds reds and porters. The only grain I buy in bulk is Breiss Pale Ale Malt, but I typically stock several crystal malts (40, 60, 80), a chocolate malt, black malt, roasted barley and a red malt. For milds I use Ashburne Mild malt. I have recently tried Chevalier Heritage malt and it gave interesting results! Other than the bulk, the rest I typically buy 10lbs to start then refill with 5 lbs as I need them.

 

[Hman1962]

to add to @Megary list a little Vienna is nice to have around especially for the Marzen and Amber styles
Might as well get a bit British Pale malt
a lot of specialty malts
Ill usually have a bunch of recipes lined up and order the specialty malts for those and ad extra for the larder
how much do we have to spend?LOL

Damn, looking at prices are a little shocking. The price for a 55 lb bag isn't the issue... its the shipping! I have found some places with free shipping on orders over $99 which is just a few bags of grains.

 

[Limey]

Damn, looking at prices are a little shocking. The price for a 55 lb bag isn't the issue... its the shipping! I have found some places with free shipping on orders over $99 which is just a few bags of grains.

Yep - I agree! If you can find a "reasonably" local store, ask if they can get a bulk sack for you. I make a 2hr drive each way to get mine - still cheaper than shipping! Be aware that many of the "free shipping" places exclude the bulk sacks!

 

[Bigbre04]

Damn, looking at prices are a little shocking. The price for a 55 lb bag isn't the issue... its the shipping! I have found some places with free shipping on orders over $99 which is just a few bags of grains.

talk to your local brewery they can add a bag to a shipment for very little.

Vittles vaults are clutch for storing bags.

I use 7.5gal screw top buckets from Uline. 2 buckets holds a full 55lb bag. They are airtight and relatively cheap.

i would keep

Pils/2r
vienna
munich 1 or 2
maybe a bag of wheat if you do wheat beers.

otherwise you are only looking at a couple lbs at most of most other things.

 

[Brew Cat]

Damn, looking at prices are a little shocking. The price for a 55 lb bag isn't the issue... its the shipping! I have found some places with free shipping on orders over $99 which is just a few bags of grains.

Yeah my local places all closed
If you buy the bags in 10lbs you can usually bypass the shipping
That's how I do it wait for sales to pop up on my feed. I subscribe to a bunch of brew supply sites so get updates and specials
It's actually nice because I get a bunch of different grains instead of the larger sacks

https://www.webstaurantstore.com/353370/barley-malt-and-beer-grains.html

Try this site
They only have briess but good price a cheap shipping

 

[Danny Manny]

I bought a sack of pilsner malt last year. I based almost all the beers I brewed off pilsner as the main base. This year I got a sack of 6 row, I'm focusing on pre-prohibition and historical american beers. Depending on how much you want to brew or variety this could be a start.

 

[Minbari]

Damn, looking at prices are a little shocking. The price for a 55 lb bag isn't the issue... its the shipping! I have found some places with free shipping on orders over $99 which is just a few bags of grains.

I know! I usually buy for 3-4 brews at a time, get the bill above the free shipping

 

[Sandy Feet]

I'm lucky enough to have a local place 20 minutes up the road.
I think the buying in bulk is going to depend on how much you brew as well. For me, that doesn't make sense.
German beers, you definitely want a good Pilner, Munich and Vienna.
Your lighter beers and your IPAs, you might want a little of your favorite Crystal. Cream Ales you want flaked corn. Bigger IPAs, you might want some flaked oats.
Ambers either some darker (70-80 ish SRM) Crystal or a tiny bit of Chocolate.
I like to do German Beer and Oatmeal Porters in the fall. Something else that is a lager with an easy grain bill is a Vienna Lager, and I really like those.
In the summer, if you can get the yeast, I like Saisons. Pretty simple grain bill on those too.

 

[Donoroto]

What @J A posted is pretty close to ideal. I’d lean towards Maris otter over pale ale for Marzen, but it gets to splitting hairs.

 

[Dave Y]

I was enticed by Black Friday sales and the periodic ones I get by email. I got 55# bags of Pils, Vienna, Munich, rye and 2 row. Then there would be a spontaneous sale... Y'all know how it goes. Last inventory I took I had over 400# of various malts. That should be around 390-ish now and I'm out of 2 row.

Look, bags of malt are like potato chips. You can't have just one. I def. overbought Munich and rye but I do keep 9 taps and try to keep them all active and different, though right now I have a tap with mead on it.

I'm going to try and pare down to about 300# on hand to see if I can get a handle on my usage pattern a little more.

 

[Clibit]

I'm in the UK brewing mostly UK styles and always have a UK pale malt, torrified wheat, crystal malt and black malt. I can do most of my beers with those.

Once in a while I buy a little amber malt and/or pale chocolate, for porters. 500 grams. Small amounts of amber or pale choc may be included in winter pale and brown ales. I sometimes buy Carabohemian instead of dark crystal, I like it.

This is not really relevant to the OP sorry, except to say that you can brew many styles with a few malts. I've tried many malts but settled on a few. I brew English bitters regularly but also an occasional APA, brown ale, porter/stout, amber/red, saison, lager (using pale malt).