Save some money on grain prices

[Aleman]

If you are not a 'registered' micro then you get charged the home brewer rate even if you order the minimum 1 tonne (40 sacks)

[adm]

I presume there's no point registering as you'd then attract the attention of HMRC and al the paperwork that entails. Plus duty on whatever you produce.

Bah humbug.

[haz66]

I`d have to 2nd that Barley Bottom is where i get my grain from, but only being 25mins away i`m able to collect it.
Otherwise it would be £39 delivered, or its £37.99 delivered from Leyland Homebrew or £29.99 if you collect, but i`m guessing that the postage increase as not been added to their Delivered price, i could be wrong though.
So the cheapest is Barley Bottom for me if i collect, working out at £1.18 Kg which is way cheaper than the £2.40 Kg that they are charging, its scandalous.

[RabMaxwell]

Look what this guy is charging for Pale Malt http://fexr.com/noom

[steve_flack]

Free postage though....

[Kristoff]

Look what this guy is charging for Pale Malt http://fexr.com/noom

When I was after a fermenter tap, I asked him why he was charging £6.99 for one , he said it was to cover p&p and ebay fees, - daylight robbery
Can't believe anybody would be daft enough to buy from him

[pdc]

Just rang Fawcetts

Didn't bother to ask for a price as the minimum order for collection is 10 bags of 25kg!!!

[adm]

I think we should speak to the maltsters on behalf of JBK and see if we can negotiate a group discount.

After all - there's over 1000 of us now - and that's got to represent some serious buying power!

[yashicamat]

I think we should speak to the maltsters on behalf of JBK and see if we can negotiate a group discount.

After all - there's over 1000 of us now - and that's got to represent some serious buying power!

I can see easily 30 takers I expect for sacks of grain on here, based on rough averages from group buys I've organised on other (non-brewing) forums in the past.

The biggest problem with something like grain is somebody has to take delivery of all of it, then it has to be distributed. 30 sacks of grain is a lot of space (easily fill an empty garage I would have thought) plus you'll need a transit to get it there. Then the biggest obstacle is posting the stuff out - online suppliers have accounts with couriers so can negotiate relatively cheap rates. We'd be paying through the roof, so even taking into account cheaper grain, I think we'd probably not see any saving even if the maltsters did allow a private purchase like that.

I think hops would be a more feasibile bulk purchase, but again it requires somebody to divide it up, repackage and post out. Sure I heard of some bloke in Yorkshire called Paul who does something like that?

[adm]

Some of the Maltsters will already ship out individual 25kg sacks anyway - but the postage isn't good.

The key would be a bulk, group buy arrangement with the maltster and one of the delivery firms like TNT or CityLink where the group shipment volume was taken into account so we all got the discount.

All the maltster needs to do is stick a label on each sack and the courier company comes and get it.

Kind of like a "JBK rate" in the same way as hotels offer "Corporate rates" to bulk buyers.

[pdc]

I live in sniffing distance from Fawcett's (they fill the air with a beautiful smell) it just pees me off that I can't just pick up a bag on my way home.

Postage would be very expensive without an account with a carrier (i've asked someone in the business) - so no benefit in me buying 10+ sacks and posting them out to you.

[softlad]

It may be worth getting a price on 10 sacks. If theres enough of a saving I'd be more than happy to take a couple of sacks and collect from Castelford. I could bring a number of sacks (an estate cars-worth) slightly further south (Jcn 31 of M1) for others to collect if this would make the plan more viable.

[pdc]

The problem comes with smaller quantities of malts - coloureds etc... it would take ages to use 25kg of roasted barley...

Are people looking for a collection only/limited delivery service for their malts in the Castleford area?
What sort of frequency do people want supplies? and in what quantities?
Does this process become a burden on time? Therefore should it be a small enterprise?
Therefore, is there a charge for that time? and for all the costs associated with it?


What could start out to be a simple money saving exercise for a few board members could snowball into a different animal...

[Andy]

The problem comes with smaller quantities of malts - coloureds etc... it would take ages to use 25kg of roasted barley...

I'd only think about a bulk buy on Pale as that's the main ingredient.

[pdc]

I'll see what the consenus is before I think about taking this on.