The GTA Brews Fall 2016 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!
All questions should be emailed to grainbuy@gtabrews.ca
Key Dates
Sign Up Open: Monday Oct 17th, 2016
Sign Up Close: Saturday, Oct 29th, 2016 (11:59 pm)
Payment Deadline: Tuesday, Nov 1st, 2016 (11:59 pm)
Split Date: Friday, Nov 11th, 2016
Main Pick Up Date: Saturday Nov 12th, 2016 (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 contact Toronto Brewing with questions about the Grain Buy, all questions go to grainbuy@gtabrews.ca. They are busy people and are doing us a favour here, no need to give them more work than necessary.
In order to provide more value to our club’s Paid Members, and keeping in mind the amount of work involved in running this bulk buy, we have elected to make the bulk buy for Paid Members only. An option has been added to the spreadsheet to lump the $10 membership fee in with the grain purchase to make the joining process easy. For more details on GTA Brews Paid Membership please visit the membership page.
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. Prices are subject to change as the
deadline approaches and Toronto Brewing informs us of any last minute changes. Certain items may not be in stock, the sheet will be kept updated as out of stock items are removed closer to the deadline.
$10 is added to the cost of each grain bag, which will be returned in the form of a $10 gift card (ZackBucks) to Toronto Brewing for each sack of grain purchased. Similarly yeast packets have $1 added, yeast blocks have $10 added, and misc items 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. Please be patient when waiting for gift cards, and don’t start emailing immediately after the buy closes asking for your gift card. They will be sent out as soon as possible, we promise.
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 grainbuy@gtabrews.ca if someone is picking up for you.
Please do not message on or after the day Sign Up closes 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, we will begin accepting payments. Please send payments in the form of EMT or Paypal to gtabrews@gmail.com. Any orders left unpaid after the payment deadline will be deleted, then the order submitted.
Pick Up Day
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. Please be patient on pick up day, we are volunteers.
We always need more volunteers for pick up day, please let us know if you are available! We promise we will take turns with lifting, and you’ll be supplied with coffee.
Splits and Partials
Splits are to be done at Toronto Brewing on the Friday before the pick up date. 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. If you are a bag captain and don’t come help split, you risk forfeiting the $10 gift card to someone from that split who did come help.
Malts
Over the last few grain buys we have introduced a lot of new malsters. All of the malsters represented by Country Malt Group were added in Spring 2015. Simpsons, Crisp, and Château were added in Fall 2015 after G&P was acquired by BSG. Muntons is no longer carried by BSG, however there have been some OiO branded english malts added, which are probably the same thing.
We have bolded some items on the list that you should consider/check out. We 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.
Price Increase Note from Spring 2016
With the decline of our dollar it seems that grain suppliers have been forced to increase prices. When I was updating the price list it seemed that sack cost went up around $10+/bag for OiO, Briess, Simpsons, Crisp, Chateau, and Weyermann. OiO 2 row only went up $5/bag though. Some manufacturers didn’t go up as much or at all: Canada Malting, Best Malz, Great Western, Franco Belges, Bairds, Fawcett, and Gambrinus.
**Note carried over from Fall 2015**
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 [Château] 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 Malz 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!
Please send any questions to grainbuy@gtabrews.ca
P.S. The spreadsheet is always a work in progress, please let us know of any inconsistencies/errors you see.