I will be opening a Craft & Homebrew supply shop in a matter of months. You can count them on one hand. Kinda exciting… kinda scary. I need to order malt. I have a vendor that supplies grains from eleven different suppliers. Each supplier, supplies a number of different regional grains. In an effort not to overstock, under stock and not break the bank. I looking for a comprehensive opinion of what I will need to stock a lot and a little of. I realize this question itself may be more regional than I want. What do I need to keep 500 pounds of and what do I need to keep just a 10 pound bag of?
Craft meaning craft brewery supply? 500 pounds wouldn’t be enough of almost anything. That’s one 10 bbl batch of average-gravity beer.
11 suppliers is also a lot. I would consolidate to no more than 4-6 suppliers’ products to have in inventory. You’ll save a lot on shipping, especially when it comes to making up mixed pallets of specialties.
The biggies would be, in no particular order:
Domestic 2-row pale
Domestic 2-row pale ale
UK pale ale (Maris Otter, probably)
Domestic 6-row pale
Domestic pilsner
Continental pilsner
Domestic Munich 1 and 2
Continental Munich 1 and 2
Full range of US crystals (10,20,40,60,80,120)
Several UK crystals (20,55,90,150)
Several continental crystals (CaraVienna, CaraMunich 1 and 2, Special B)
Dextrin malt
White wheat malt
…Wow, this is going to be a long list. Maybe someone else can take over.
standard 2-row is the obvious one. going into the summer we sell a lot of pilsner and malted wheat. a variety of crystal malts and lots of carapils. roasted barley and chocolate malts go a long way so you won’t need as much of those. out of curiosity, which supplier are you going to be using? we use a few different ones.
you can simplify the munich malts and pilsner malts. just starting up it’s a large investment to carry both domestic and continental pilsners and most customers will only by the continental. same goes for munich malts
BSG Handcraft for now. They have a local warehouse. They will be supplying 80% of what I need for the initial opening. If they are good, I might keep them around.
Once you get the business going, consider adding Golden Promise malt to compliment the Maris Otter. I buy about the same between those 2 UK malt types.
Check out Brewcraft (North Country malt) and LD Carlson. In spite of what you carry homebrewers will want something different. You can never have too many suppliers.
I work at a HBS. IF i where you, id start with one maltster for general use malts, and then slowly bring in new brands and malt types as people ask for them on special order + some for the shop. BSG sells things in 1lbs, 10lbs and sacks IIRC, dont be afraid to spend a little more up front on those specialty malts to not sit on an extra 40 lbs of the stuff.
For example, id probably carry the following in small quantities(10lb) till you discover trends
Specialties
Briess 10lb
Carapils
caramal 10,20,40,60,80,120
White wheat
Chocolate
Roasted
Black
Flaked Maize
Flaked rye
Flaked Barley
Flaked Oats
Munich Light
Sacks
Rahr 2 row
Rahr 6 row
Weyerman Pils
Crisp Maris Otter
Crisp Pale
ID leave it at that i think minus 3-4 small malts i probably didnt mention but may be important. I wouldnt carry flaked Rice, probably just Rice Syrup Solids. Also, invest in a kickass scale, cause your going ot be doing a LOT of packaging.
First! Congrats! We launched our store last year. Enjoy the ride. Check our site to see what we offer for hops, grain, Yeats, equipment etc… To compare what we have to what to offer in your shop.
We keep 5 major base malts and 20-25 speciality malts. We get most everything from BSG too. They are very good here on the West Coast. I always keep 2 or 3 bags of each base on hand for back up. They have 1lb and 10 lb bags of most malts we tend to grab the small qty on lesser used items like rye, acid malt etc…