Written By: Peter Evans
Date: December 6, 2009 Long time brewmasters have long time connections and preferences for buying their beer ingredients. This article is not out to change that. Home kit brewers don’t have to worry about all of this as much, but should they decide to move up to the next level, or are just curious as to what it would take to find the ingredients they will need a clear understanding of how to get what they need.

We will break it down into Malt, Hops, and Yeast

Malt is made from barley and barley is easy enough to find. You can order germinated and dried barley online or purchase it at a local brew store. Oddly enough, some hardcore brewers will actually go out and find a farmer who has grown their own barley and go through the germination and drying process themselves. This is a very hands on approach and the money you will save in tracking down a good barley source will most likely be spent on gas. There aren’t really any advantages of doing this either, other than a sense of being a true beer pioneer.

Hops are important as well. Considering that the hop is a plant that flowers annually and hops flowers are what you need to add some bitterness, aroma, flavor and preservative qualities to your beer, it’s pretty important and hard to just go out and pick. Kits will have hops refill orders and you can actually order online directly from the growers. The advantage of this is that there are many different kinds of hops out there that each will vary in taste and smell properties. Once you have found your hops source, you will be right where you need to be. Just remember to be consistent. Don’t expect your favorite recipe to turn out the same if you are using different hops for each batch. In fact the same rule goes for barley, yeast and water as well. There are also pellets hops available for ordering as well. It’s a preference issue as to what you would prefer to order.

Yeast is the social butterfly of your brew. Yeast adds the alcohol content and keeps the bubbles moving. Understanding that yeast is alive helps to understand why beer can have character that most other food and drink does not. However, like the beautiful people who keep the party going, there’s a lot going on below the surface. Picking and finding the right yeast for your beer isn’t as easy as just going to the baker’s aisle in your local grocery store. There are several websites and books available that will help you choose the right yeast for the type of beer you are brewing. The best advice: use them. You can use some yeast with different types of beer that will produce a few different results. (Yes I know that’s vague, but we’re talking about thousands of combinations!) The advantage to ordering online is that you’ll have some recommendations to use as guidelines.
 Your local brew shop will also have lots of suggestions for you and will no doubt be happy to special order anything you might ask them to. They are generally a good resource for knowing what’s best for your area and help you keep everything “fresh and local.”

The important thing is to keep an open mind. You are a brew master who wants to do things their own way and thus a master of your own beer destiny; changing one dogma for another defeats the purpose.