SOB

Recipes 

So I have done a couple extract kits, and they are resonable priced at roughly $25. I found a nice recipe I wanted to try for my next batch so I could graduate from the basic extract kits. I priced out all the ingredients on AHBS and it was about $40-$50! I didn't thinkt he recipe was anything special, it was the Blue Moon clone I have seen floating around.

My question: is this a typical price to pay for ingredients for a batch? I was under the assumption once I started buying my own ingredients it would be cheaper. Does it only get cheaper when you start buying in bulk and weighing out enough malt (for example) for your batch?

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"So we were slammin' beers in the church parking lot..."

"I'm much too young to feel this damn old"

Brewpilot

Recipes 

If you are using extract, 40 bucks isnt out of the ordinary from what I have seen, but then again, I have never used it. I have found that all grain kits vs buying the malt separate, is the same, about 17-22 bucks for 5 gallons. Once you start using AG, your costs will be halved...


Brewpilot

Bottled: Fat Tire Clone
Primary: Oatmeal Choco Stout

Brewpilot

Recipes 

I made an Oatmeal Choco Stout this past week with 12lbs of grain, none of it BULK... and it cost me $18 with grain, hops, and yeast... again, that was not a bulk price either...


Brewpilot

Bottled: Fat Tire Clone
Primary: Oatmeal Choco Stout

Brewpilot

Recipes 

Okay I just looked at AHBS... they are all in the $20 range, but the heaviest beer I saw was 1.044 for an OG... that is pretty light for thier heaviest extract kit. Like I said, my impression was that extract was much more expensive than AG when brewing a comparable beer. My Oatmeal Choco Stout had an OG of 1.062 for 18 bucks with all the fixins....

Brewpilot

Bottled: Fat Tire Clone
Primary: Oatmeal Choco Stout

homebrewer_99

Recipes 

I buy DME and hops in bulk.

Let's say I paid $140. for 55# (not including shipping cost because there were lots more supplies ordered)...that's about 2.55/lb. Let's say I use 6 lbs...that's $15.30...and 9 batches from a box...

Hops are about $12.00/lb..or .75 an oz. I use about 1 oz per batch.

That's $16.30. I rewash most of my yeast. I get 4 batches from the 1st batch. (that's 5) and 4 more from each of the 4 that's 16 more and 4 more per/from the 3rd generation. So, to keep it simple let's say I only get 12 uses out of 1 vial costing $7.95 / 12 = $0.66

That's just under $16.00 a batch for about 37 0,5 liter bottles. At any beer store you can find Hefe Weizen (my favorite style and I brew a lot of it) ranging from 1.85 to 2.45...that's $68.45 to $90.65. If I got 4 minikegs that would be what? $18.00 per or $72.00, but all this is just rough guessing.

Since I get 9 batches from a box and 16 oz from a lb of hops all I have to do is make 2 batches and I am already past the break even point. If I upped the malt to 7 lbs I'm still getting 7 plus batches. The rest is just free beer!
Good deal? I think so.

__________________
HB Bill

Hercules Rockefeller

Recipes 

HB99 where do you get bulk DME like that, I've never seen it that cheap

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"let me be the first to welcome our new insectile overlords"

On deck: Breakfast stout
Primary: Empty
Secondary: American Pale Ale
Conditioning: None
Kegged: Imperial red ale, Breakfast stout, Chipotle Irish red ale, Biermuncher's C3C cream ale

CBBaron

Recipes 

I'm not sure of HB99's source but http://midwestsupplies.com and http://www.grapeandgranary.com both have Muntons for this price. Grape and Granary also has Briess for $115/50#.

On a related question I notice some HBS have Briess malt extract for considerably less than Munton's and others. Is there much difference in the quality of beer with using these extracts?

Craig

JohnnyK68

Recipes 

I am also thinking of buying bulk from Grape & Granery. That place is first class in my book. I have never got anything but top notch grains, crushed perfectly from them so far. I tried my LHBS for grains and thats how I realized the difference of good and garbage. I will never use my LHBS again for grains. I am going to buy a 50lb bag of light from them this week I think.

homebrewer_99

Recipes 

I get it from midwestsupplies...it's kind of a special request, but they've come through every time.

They just have to order it because not many people order that much....and I have to wait a week or so, so I order in advance.

I've ordered 3 boxes once (165#)...wife went wacky because she can't move them...so much for the hand truck in the garage...

Briess vs Muntons...Muntons is more fermentable.

__________________
HB Bill