The GTA Brews Spring 2017 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! Don’t forget, now they deliver your online order to breweries all over Toronto for FREE!
All questions should be emailed to grainbuy@gtabrews.ca
Key Dates
Sign Up Open: Saturday Apr 29th, 2017
Sign Up Close: Thursday, May 18th, 2017 (11:59 pm)
Payment Deadline: Tuesday, May 23rd, 2017 (11:59 pm)
Split Date: Friday, Jun 2nd, 2017
Main Pick Up Date: Saturday Jun 3rd, 2017 (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.
The grain 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 we are informed 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, or someone accidentally added something to your column. If you accidentally order a wrong bag of something, you are responsible for paying for it.
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. When sending via Paypal, make sure to “Send to Friends/Family” to ensure no fees are subtracted from your payment.
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
Not sure what to order?! 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.
*New malts for Spring 2017!*
BSG has added Rahr, Schill, and Patagonia to their portfolio for Spring 2017, check them out!
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.
Simpsons is world famous for their specialty malts. Many pro-brewers that swear by their product for superior flavour. Crisp is known for their flavourful base malts, especially for their floor-malted Maris Otter called Gleneagles Maris Otter. Castle Malting [Château] is our most popular Belgian malster, chekc out their Belgian Pilsen malt. We’re still excited about Thomas Fawcett and Best Malz, two incredible maltsters. The single varietal base malts 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!
Price Increase Note from Spring 2016
With the decline of our $CAD it seems that grain suppliers have been forced to increase prices. If it has been a while since you participated in a grain buy you may be surprised to see how difference the prices are. Don’t forget $10 from each bag will be returned as a TB gift card!
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.