Save some money on grain prices

[Mr Achura]

hi,
just spotted this and thought it might be worth the effort
http://4u2brew.co.uk/ (Lowest Price Guarantee : Applies to like for like purchases including delivery charges within 14 days of a purchase. We will refund 110% of the difference and then update our online price. The guarantee does not apply to Auction sites or items past their ‘Best Before’ or ‘Sell By’ dates. We check all our competitors regularly to ensure you get the best possible deal.)
well if you buy 25 kg crushed pale malt at there price of Price: £59.99 Ref No: CPM25, Post free over £48
http://www.4u2brew.co.uk/category_Ingre ... ains_1.htm

Then once you got it phone up and complain about the price as

http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk
is selling 25kg Crushed pale for £32.79 free delivery over £65.00
http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/aca ... rains.html
Is £27.20 differance with the 110% GUARANTEE of the differance you get a refund off £29.92, this makes the grain price £30.07

Sounds too good to be true,

[steve_flack]

Personally I couldn't be arsed. Besides I'm not frequenting a store that wants to try and charge SIXTY F**KING QUID for a sack of pale malt regardless of some 'price guarantee'. I hope they go bust.

[Stonechat]

Personally I couldn't be arsed. Besides I'm not frequenting a store that wants to try and charge SIXTY F**KING QUID for a sack of pale malt regardless of some 'price guarantee'. I hope they go bust.

Sadly there are probably enough born every minute to keep shops like this in business, but with these prices they do deserve to go bust.

I wonder if this place like others are tied into getting supplies from Youngs and/or Brupaks, whose wholesale pricing of 25kg bags of grain is extortionate?
If they are getting stuff direct from the maltsters and then still charging those sorts of prices they fully deserve to go bust and get the fleas of a 1,000 camels up their bottoms for eternity

[mysterio]

Sixty quid for a sack of malt, what a joke.

I hope they go bust

+1

I'm naturally wary of any business that uses text-speak in their name too

[pompeypaul25]

This is the website for my local home brew shop, I am only 12 miles away and must say something in their defence. I admit that the grain (and hop) prices are OTT I don’t know if he is tied into some sort of deal as stonechat suggests? I personally buy 25kg sacks of grain and hops from Hop and Grape and will be using barleybottom when Paul gets some hops!.
The price of kits and equipment at 4u2brew are competitive and the free delivery threshold of £48 must be the lowest I have seen. The price of £32.79 for grain from the home-brewshop does not include £6.36 postage.
The owner is a one-man-band and the shop is supposedly the third largest independent home brew shops in the UK. He is a very knowledgeable and helpful chap. His old website was homemade and non-transactional and he told me he had paid a lot for the new site (which only came out about two months ago). I don’t think we should be wishing any independent home brew shop ‘go bust’ especially in these difficult economic times. His shop provides a presence on the high street and may encourage people into the hobby, and the help and advice is there for people that don’t know what they are doing.
A new AG brewer can go into the shop and buy just enough for one brew as it is fully stocked.
I for one appreciate the fact that I can nip down the road for a replacement S30 cylinder, a 25p rubber valve spare, or a £2 budget keg cap because one is split and my beer is spoiling, without waiting a week and paying £5 postage. We should support our local brew shops …like the ASDA slogan, when it’s gone it’s gone !

[adm]

Nonetheless.....anything much over £1 a kilo for pale malt is too much.

[Kristoff]

Nonetheless.....anything much over £1 a kilo for pale malt is too much.

Where's that from then?

Hop & Grape who seem to be about the cheapest online - charge £1.38 per KG
Thats £34.50 for a 25kg bag + £4.70 delivery, thats £39.20 - which is £1.56 per KG
Unless you have a cheap local source for grain, that's the cheapest i've found.

Although I am getting my grain from my local microbrewery, I can only get 5kg a time and I pay £1 per kg.
To be honest he's doing me a favour and I don't like to hassle him too much.

So, if there's anywhere else that you can get pale malt for £1 a kilo, i'd like to know, save me bothering my local micro

[MikeG]

I'm naturally wary of any business that uses text-speak in their name too

Me too²

[adm]

Nonetheless.....anything much over £1 a kilo for pale malt is too much.

Where's that from then?

Hop & Grape who seem to be about the cheapest online - charge £1.38 per KG
Thats £34.50 for a 25kg bag + £4.70 delivery, thats £39.20 - which is £1.56 per KG
Unless you have a cheap local source for grain, that's the cheapest i've found.

Although I am getting my grain from my local microbrewery, I can only get 5kg a time and I pay £1 per kg.
To be honest he's doing me a favour and I don't like to hassle him too much.

So, if there's anywhere else that you can get pale malt for £1 a kilo, i'd like to know, save me bothering my local micro

I normally get mine in 25Kg sacks from my local brewery, but the best online price I know of is from Paul at Barley Bottom

His is £29.50 for a 25Kg sack - or £1.18 a kilo. Only problem is, I think he's just put his postage prices up.

You should ask your local micro guy if he'll sell you a sack at a time - it's got to be easier for him than weighing out and packaging 5Kg for you...

[Mr Achura]

hi,

reason why most maltsters and microbrewers are cheaper is that they dont seem to charge VAT
A HBS does have to charge VAT
I still get mine from The Home Brew Shop - Farnborough
I get 2 sacks at a time as this is POST FREE
and its not muntons malt but nice warminster floor malted

[steve_flack]

Do you think that VAT makes up all the difference between the £13-15 a maltster charges a brewery (even small ones) and the price homebrew shops charge?

[Aleman]

Or haow about the 16.50 a maltster charges a micro and the 26 quid they charge a home brewer . . . .even if you are collecting from the maltsters.

[steve_flack]

I always thought that was an interesting one...Warminster does that (and bungs an obscene postage charge on top - funny how Tuckers seem to be able to charge a tenner less for postage).

[Andy]

A cynic might thing that some kind of collusion was going on, not that I would think that of course.

[adm]

Does anyone know what the smallest buy would be from any of the maltsters to qualify for the £13-16 range pricing?

Presumably it's a pallet load? Or less?

It would be good to do a JBK group buy, but we all live in different places.