I know people are conflicted about shopping at Northern Brewer, but I noticed they’ve recently starting selling Mecca Grade malts by the pound (for anyone, like me, who has been interested in trying them but didn’t want to commit to a full 50 lb. sack).
I was conflicted also. Then I looked at FH Steinbart in Portland. https://fhsteinbart.com/craft-malt/ Got a total of 12 pounds of Mecca Grade malt at a cost of $7.99 shipping to Florida. It was less than $2 more than the same amount of Mecca Grade from Northern Brewer.
Not free shipping but worth it to me. And I supported a smaller, independent home-brew shop.
I’ve had beers made with Mecca and regularly buy from a local maltster here in Colorado (Root Shoot) which also makes excellent products. For my brewing needs I think these malts are leaps and bounds superior to Weyermann and most other malts regularly available on the homebrew market. I believe both of these small maltsters are using different varieties of barley from what is grown more industrially so it may not be an apples to apples comparison.
That said, Weyermann makes excellent products and if it is my goal to replicate large scale German brewing I would probably opt for Weyermann or another continental maltster.
Did it say when that new pricing will take effect? I just checked MG’s website, it’s still at the same pricing it has always been. I’m in NorCal, ground shipping charge for one bag of MG is ~$35. That puts the cost of a bag of one of their base malts at close to $100, about double what I’d pay for a bag/shipping from Morebeer (admittedly I live pretty close to Morebeer so shipping isn’t much).
I wasn’t thrilled with the Saaz I was getting, which is why I bought this lb. of Sterling from Hop Heaven. I’ve been using it in my Belgian style ales, but I haven’t done a single hop beer with it yet.