Placing 1st orders, any advice?

[JohnDenver]

I'm about to start placing orders for ingredients. We are brewing twice a week, 50 brew weeks a year on a 15bbl system. The cost sucks, but it seems like ordering enough materials for 2 months worth of brews will get us the best "bang for our buck". Wondering how other comparable sized places started the ordering process, enough for 1 month, 2 months, 2 weeks, etc.

Thank you.

[yap]

always buy pallet quantities if at all possible. You can mix and match the grain on that pallet but to minimize shipping costs fill out the entire pallet. Beyond that it doesn't really matter if you buy one pallet or two at a time (for shipping costs). If you are talking truckload quantities then that would be a different story...

[Junkyard]

agreed, the rate is usually per pallet. so you could order as little as 40 bags of grain and it would still make sense cost wise.

[OurMutualBrewer]

Agree with both dudes above me. I will order extra grain if what I need doesn't fill a pallet. Usually works out well to do a one off into the three barrel.

[JohnDenver]

Agree with both dudes above me. I will order extra grain if what I need doesn't fill a pallet. Usually works out well to do a one off into the three barrel.

Thanks all. Do you typically attempt to order all your year's hops via one order? Or for example, a pallet at a time? I can see the advantage to ordering all at once (less risk of a shortage, cheaper prices for larger quantities), but the price of ordering all at once can suck for a start up.

[YCH Hops]

Placing 1st Hops Order

JohnDenver,

If you still have questions regarding hop availability and/or contracting, we would be happy to send preliminary information your way. You can contact us any time at hops@hopunion.com or call 800.952.4873.

Cheers!
The Hopunion Team