Rep said:
Tired of having to order grain all the time. And now you want to order it in bulk.
You just moved your hobby to another plane. IE, when some people move to full boil batches they notice a difference, when some decide to be more precise with their fermentation temperature control it moves them to a different level.
It's an easy obvious step for me.
I live fairly rural and it's 1 1/2 hours to 2 1/2 hours to a brew store for me.
They NEVER have squat in stock, despite the fact that one of them wants to be a big time online dealer.
In late spring I wanted to brew a Hefe. I went to three brew stores, all hours from my house and all different days after work, I got one that tried to sell me some sort of rice extract as a substitute for rice hulls. I told them that I they don't know how to brew, don't try to pull one over on customers by selling them some random thing that isn't what they need.
I got another that said they were out of wheat because it's popular this time of year. I suggested that since it has a heck of a shelf life, maybe they should order more since it seems to be in demand.
Fast forward and Friday evening I called to a store three hours away to make sure they have the specific mead yeast I want. They assure me that they have it and I can get it the next day.
I show up and no white labs but they have other stuff to they can sell me. I explain that I didn't come three hours to get whatever they had on hand.
I'm simply done with these stores.
That plus it's nice to have whatever I want on hand and make it when I want.
I will still have to order yeast but I simply need to keep supplies of everything that stores well on hand.
As for the bags for storage, my only issue with that is how nice the totes stack and store.
I'm a single dad so without a wife around I'm able to use a room in my house for the bar, fermenting room, brewing equipment storage, and since it has a nice glass door going out onto the concrete patio it is a great place to brew!
I want to be able to store the grain near the action but more neatly than a bunch of bags on the floor.
I've got a seal-a-meal for hops and for especially aromatic malts such as peated malt. For things like peated malt I figure I can make a bunch of 4 oz bags. Hops may even get broke down to the exact amount of the additions for specific beers.
A little more work at the front side but one less thing to worry about on brew day. ( although I'm sure I'll check the weight on brew day)