Reasons for starting home brewing?

rocketsan said:

I'm laughing at anyone saying they do it to save money


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Sure, I can buy beer cheaper than I can brew the beers I brew, but I can't buy comparable beer cheaper than what it costs me to brew.

If you like Belgian style beers, homebrewing is a money saver.

Well,it goes back a couple generations. Grandma made the keg charred moon I cut teeth on,pop made wine & even brewed beer at one time. I started making wine at age 15 from a kit pop didn't use. did that till I was about 30 with a wife & a couple kids. Then job & family took center stage till Christmas 2010. My middle son asked me why I didn't start making wine again. We liked beer more at that time,so since we were on-line watching videos anyway,We began watching craigtube,steeljan,revolutionary brewer & others.
We settled on the Cooper's Microbrew kit & I brewed it up. the beer turned out pretty good,but definitely needed some flavor hops.I did a hop tea with what turned out to be a 2 year old kit with a small starter & an ounce of flavor hops. It turned out to be the color & close in flavor to a Salvator doppelbock. Gary at Home Brewer TV gave it the full 3 thumbs up against a commercial ale. I was gone after that. I've since worked my way up to pb/pm biab & the beers have gotten better. But several wild fires & a few drouts later,the prices have gone up & I'm retired. But I'm still going to keep brewing.
I've got enough equipment & gadgets to make it about as easy as can be had at this point....

A buddy of mine gave me a bottle of mead that he made, since it is difficult to find a decent commercial mead, and it was outstanding. I asked him to show me how. After a couple batches (that I never let age properly) I decided it couldn't be that difficult to make beer. As luck would have it, a local beer/liquor store was having a sale on their Mr. Beer kits. After that first taste, I was hooked. Eventually I decided it was time to do 5 gallon extract kits, and now, after brewing for a few years, I'm slowly putting together stuff for an all-grain setup. It's been a lot of fun learning and experimenting along the way, and I've managed to turn a lot of friends onto craft brews, and get a few interested in homebrewing as well.

Well, I conquered cooking and baking. It started when I ended up making dinner a lot more than my wife for a couple of months after she had surgery on her hand for carpal tunnel. She even admitted I cooked a better dinner than her after the first week. I learned to make a ton of stuff in a short time, and enjoyed the hell out of doing it. Then about 2 years ago, I saw a thing on TV about gifts for the holiday and they showed Mr. Beer and how easy it was, and I figured I could do it too. Plus I like beer. So after 2 batches of Mr. Beer that both turned out great, I bought my first full scale brewing kit. My first 5 gallon batch was Caribou Slobber, and it turned out amazing. I actually still have like 2 bottles in the back of my fridge. The hops have faded quite a bit, but it's still drinkable. I actually get giddy on brew day. I love it that much.

three reasons:
1. Control - I can make my beers to taste, and that by each style so they match my palette and can enjoy a variety more easily.
2. Pricing - When It costs me $12-$15 for quality craft brew by the six pack, but can make over two cases for $25-$35 on average, I'm in!!
.... I mean, really, buy twelve bottles or make five gallons (50-60 bottles) for the same price.
3. Craft of it - Knowing what it takes to make a quality beer, I can seriously appreciate every body elses beers for what they have done. Besides, its a great hobby.

rocketsan said:

I'm laughing at anyone saying they do it to save money

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Laugh at me.

Brewmie said:

2. Pricing - When It costs me $12-$15 for quality craft brew by the six pack, but can make over two cases for $25-$35 on average, I'm in!!
.... I mean, really, buy twelve bottles or make five gallons (50-60 bottles) for the same price.

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Nailed it. I wanted to refresh my memory on a hefeweizen to better judge and what to expect when I make mine. Looking at $2.35 for a 473ml can on average. Not cheap at all. Quick math: 5kg grain $8, $5 hop pack, $10 liquid yeast (assume no harvest, no starter split farming), let's even throw in $5 fuel for boil = $28. 10 cans or a 5 gal batch, not a difficult decision.

Now I'm going to assume rocketsan is talking less about the beer cost and more on the equipment cost. I got a handful of fermenters free, used bottling bucket free but still quickly racked up over $100 in tubing, siphons, airlocks, vinator, etc. That's well before buying a mill. The initial cost can be somewhat staggering. However looking at my quick example above the batch as compared to equal volume of store bought is (according to my tired buzzed math) $93 vs $28. That savings starts to negate equipment cost quickly. Problem that we all no doubt encounter is always wanting more and more equipment. I'd like one of those 12 gal SS conicals but just can't justify the cost at this point.

Lets see...
I enjoy making my own stuff and home brewing has been kicking around in my head for a while. Price.. Its $10 a 6 pack for decent beer here, LME kit still saves me half and gives me something fun to do. However cost savings is a joke when you factor in the money I have spent on stir plates, carboys, a freezer and temp control unit just to make a few lagers. (soon to house a few kegs).
We just justify cost savings because someday we will actually be saving money.

But this rate I wont. I want to start kegging and switch to all grain as well as build a single tier stand with pumps. (My welder is getting lonely without use in the garage)

I guess I continue to do it for the fun of it.

I make random recipes about once a week.
I randomly choose a cookbook, then page, then recipe on page if necessary. Sometimes they are easy, sometimes complicated. Sometimes the ingredient are expensive and difficult to find. Sometimes they are repeats. But I do them anyway.

This weekend I made a pretty good Shrimp Mornay from "Dieting for One" by Better Homes and Gardens. Hmm, I may make more cheese sauces.

In September 2009, the random recipe was Continental Light Lager in "The New Brewers Handbook" by Patrick Baker. I was hooked and have continued to brew. Not randomly, ... except that William Moore's Summer Beer came up the random method and snuck into my brewing queue.

OTOH, why I didn't start brewing in 1991 when I got the handbook is another story. The handbook was a gift from my father's friend who learned to brew in Saudi Arabia. I seemed to be the only one of his acquaintance who liked his homebrew. At the time I was usually a Guinness drinker. I had the equipment in my cart at the LHBS in Winston-Salem, looked around and saw a wonderful wall of commercial beer, put up the equipment and bought two cases of singles and one case of Anchor Merry Christmas & Happy New Year Ale. Those were three great cases. I was satisfied with the new availability of good beer. Woulda shoulda coulda.

I got a Mr. Beer for Christmas. "Brewed" one of the kits included, and got a feeling there was more out there. Wanting to learn beyond "add can to water, add yeast and wait," Google lead me here.

Found 2 LHBS's within 15 miles, spent a few bucks, and have a good looking recipe from the forum (Multiple Deception Stout) that'll be ready to bottle next week.

Now, what do I do with the can of "Mexican Cerveza" I still have?

MarathonMurse said:

Now, what do I do with the can of "Mexican Cerveza" I still have?

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Either whip it up when you're feeling lazy or want something light in inventory, or use it as a base for something creative. Steep some crystal, add some extra hops (I suggest whatever is leftover from last batch), use a hint of judgement and see what you end up with. I ended up with a decent little extra hopped "generic yellow beer" that has been a hit with all who've tried it.

I was actually thinking of something along those lines. Adding some leftover Crystal, some German Magnum, some DME, then maybe a little lime or orange zest and seeing what comes out.

The problem isn't making potential trash- that'd be a waste of a whole 40 cents at this point. The problem would be if I ended up making something I really like, and trying to replicate it without spending a fortune on overpriced Mr. Beer refills!

I'm the DYI type, and like a good beer- so a natural fit. Combine that, some 14/15yrs ago, with less income, single dad raising a daughter and thought I could brew good beer and cheaper too! I did. Then life got in the way, and somehow 13yrs slipped by without brewing any beer! :smack: Then, this past Christmas, my brother who jumped back in after a similar dry spell, bought me an IPA extract kit (DME)... nudge, nudge. So, here I am, back in it, first partial mash complete, and loving it! IPA turned out great, Oatmeal Stout is just coming into its own and tasting great (will do a Founder's Breakfast Stout for next winter) and just brewed a Lagunita's Sucks clone. Next is a Nugget Nectar clone!

Absolutely love brewing beer. How could 13yrs go by so quick (truly shocked when I saw my old brewing notes).

I started brewing beer because, well,... beer.

My ex-wife bought me a Mr. Beer kit, thus causing me to maintain two eternal sources of bitterness, one being her absolute craziness and the other being the hops I keep for brewing.

Ha! Seriously though, I started the whole homemade alcohol thing while I was in college with a mead. A very complicated, highly involved mead. I had never tasted mead, and I wanted to try it. I sure as heck couldn't buy it in my area. It was really a melomel or metheglin or whatever the hell it was. It took 4 years to finish (no lie), but it was very good.

The Mr. Beer got me into brewing beer when, at the time, I only liked BMC; I did three batches, kind of liked it, and decided to up my game. I did two extract batches, and went straight into All-Grain. Since my first extract brew, I have loved craft beer and I haven't had a Miller Lite since I had a really awful week several months ago and bought a case just because I wanted to get hammered and not waste good beer doing so.


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