Inventory/Dry Goods

[Steve R]

This is a question primarily for you micro-brewers at the 7 to 30 bbl level. How much dry good inventory do you carry? Specifically malts and hops. Do you have say, inventory for the months brewing or do you have supplies coming in on a weekly basis?

Thanks for the info!

Steve

[sbradt]

By and large, I'd say we keep about 45 days worth of malt and hops on hand, ordering monthly for both. The freight economies of ordering more malt less frequently are pretty significant. The exceptions would be bulk malt, which we order on a roughly quarterly basis. Also, during the summer months we tend to carry a higher stock of hops to avoid shipping during the hot months. Also, some of our hop contracts require us to receive the balance of our contract by June or July, so during the latter part of the year, we may be carrying a much longer supply on hops.