The GTA Brews Fall 2015 Grain Buy is now open!
Thanks again to Toronto Brewing for hosting, please make sure to give them your love and make some purchases on pick up day!
Key Dates
Sign Up Open: Tuesday, Oct 13th, 2015
Sign Up Close: Tuesday, Oct 27th, 2015 (11:59 pm)
Payment Deadline: Tuesday Nov 3rd, 2015 (11:59 pm)
Split Date: Friday Nov 13th, 2015
Main Pick Up Date: Saturday Nov 14th, 2015 (10:30 am - 1:30 pm)
Click here to go to the spreadsheet
Please read through the text below before adding your order to the sheet.
How It Works
DO NOT email Toronto Brewing with questions about the Grain Buy, all questions go to me. They are busy people and are doing us a favour here, no need to give them more work than necessary.
This buy will be for full bags only. If you want to organize splits, then please do so on the partial page. Do not put fractions of bags on the main page, whole numbers only. I have done my best to update to current prices, but as always things are subject to change as the
deadline approaches and Toronto Brewing lets me know of any last minute changes. Certain items may not be in stock, I will keep the sheet updated as I remove out of stock items closer to the deadline.
$5 is added to the cost of each grain bag, which will be returned in the form of a $5 gift card to Toronto Brewing for each sack of grain purchased. Similarly yeast packets have $1 added, and yeast blocks have $10 added. Name 1 on the partials will be the person getting the gift card, since that person is the split captain for that bag. The gift cards will be emailed out after the bulk buy is complete, the codes are not able to be used on the pick up day.
All bags must be picked up by the end of the pick up window. No orders will be stored at Toronto Brewing if you can't make it. Arrange to have someone pick up for you, or remove your order before the sign up closes. Make sure to inform me if someone is picking up for you.
Please do not message me on or after Oct 28th asking to be added to the order, once the sheet is locked it is too late. Also be sure to double check your order to make sure you didn't mistakenly order the wrong thing. If you accidentally order a wrong bag of something, you are responsible for paying for it. There is no buffer for mistakes in the budget of this bulk buy.
Payments
Once Sign Up is closed, and the sheet is locked, I will begin accepting payments. Please send payments in the form of EMT or Paypal to eric.cousineau18@gmail.com. Any orders left unpaid after the payment deadline will be deleted, then the order submitted.
Pick Up Day
Pick up day is going to be slightly different than in the past. Instead of everyone grabbing their own bags, participants will form a line outside the loading dock and our volunteers will pick your bags for you. Things will probably move a bit slower than usual, but less chaos is the goal here. This will hopefully eliminate the Pilsner Problem, once and for all.
We need volunteers for pick up day, please let me know if you are available! I promise we will take turns with lifting, and I'll keep you supplied with coffee.
Splits and Partials
Splits are to be done at Toronto Brewing on Friday Nov 13th. If you are involved with the splits, please make an effort to come out and help. Do not start grabbing your bags during splitting. You will still be able to take your full order with you on split night, but only after everything is split and we are set up for pick ups the next day.
If you are in the Name 1 column on the split sheet, please make a special effort to come out. As the bag captain you are responsible for making sure your bag is split. You are also responsible for adding the bag to your order on the main page, and adding a corresponding note.
Malt Updates
In addition to the new malsters introduced in the Spring Grain Buy, we have three new malsters supplied by BSG Canada. With these new additions the number of English malsters is very high, so I have elected to remove Muntons. You can get better quality MO for only $1 more than Muntons by going with Crisp.
New Malts!
Simpsons Malt
Crisp Malting
Castle Malting
I have bolded a few items on the grain list that you should consider/check out. I have also updated the links the in the top part of the sheet with info about the new malts. Simpsons is world famous for their specialty malts. I've met pro-brewers that swear by their product for superior flavour, they have some interesting looking base malts too. Crisp is known for their flavourful base malts, especially for their floor-malted Maris Otter called Gleneagles Maris Otter. Castle Malting is the second Belgian malster to be added to the buy, and now we have two Belgian Pilsen malts available (including Franco-Belges). I'm still excited about Thomas Fawcett and Best Malz, two incredible maltsters. The Maris Otter from Fawcett, and the Pilsner from Best Malz were popular in the last Grain Buy. Best Mals Pilsner is regarded by many as the best tasting Pilsner malt. Plus Fawcett Pearl is the base malt for Heady Topper, might be worth a try!
I encourage you all to consider branching out and trying a new brand of 2 row/pale malt, Maris Otter, a new brand of pilsner, etc... Trying new ingredients and learning from them is part of the fun of our hobby. In general the Country Malt bags cost a bit more $, but it's still worth it to try something new and maybe find a new favourite.
Please send any questions to gtabrews@gmail.com.
Cheers!
Eric
P.S. The spreadsheet is still a work in progress, please let me know of any inconsistencies you see.