Cheapest Extract Recipes (not from kit)

Hey guys - can anyone suggest a super-cheap Extract recipe that still tastes great? Other than Ed Wort's Apfelwein, what are my options? I'd like to stay away from kits and just pick up the ingredients at my local homebrew supplier.

Or - if anyone has any cheap suggestions along the lines of Apfelwein (but maybe some other crazy variation, like, a different type of juice, or something really cool that I may not know about), i'd really appreciate it.

Thanks - I look forward to hearing how the rest of you cut costs without affecting quality too much. I brewed a batch of Apfelwein last week and am truly amazed at how simple and cheap it is. What else is out there?

Edwort's Haus Pale Ale. There's a mini-mash/extract version about halfway through the first post.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/bee-cave-brewery-haus-pale-ale-31793/

What's your price range? Picking up some DME or LME, the cheapest hops you can get for your style preference, and dry yeast should run you $25-$30.

Sounds like a good experiment for you. I have been trying to understand the ingredient list for some time.

Try making a small batch of beer, ~3gals with just extract and a small amount of grains from your LHBS.

This will all depend on what styles you like. Pale -->Brown--->Dark Ale.

Try adding and subtracting ingredients from whatever software you prefer. Adjust the amount of Crystal X, carapils, or whatever grains are on hand with your LHBS.

Simple ale: malt extract to your prefered ABV, Crystal 40, yeast, hops.

Consider adjuncts such as cinnamon, ginger, fruit, .... etc. Things you can find in your local produce section.

just my 0.02+tax from a noobrewer.

here's the way to save money:

make a lighter beer (less extract = less money)
use dry yeast (liquid yeast is about $8/vial)
do a maltier beer (hops cost money)

go for a mild, cheap, light and tasty.

Partial mash to save on some extract cuz malt is cheaper than LME or DME.

Someone was working on a BM cream of 3 crops conversion to Extract. I's very light and VERY cheap....Some guys have the All Grain version down to $15 a batch....tha'ts only 29cents a bottle.

Edwort's haus pale ale is not that cheap to make using extract or PM. It still costs me about $35 if you expect cheap hops. Not exactly cheap, but not too terribly expensive, and it's tasty!

Buy in bulk, not per recipe. Buying by the pound (or 10s of pounds) will save you a ton of money in the long run. The trick is to know which ingredients you use most.

nickhead said:

Hey guys - can anyone suggest a super-cheap Extract recipe that still tastes great? Other than Ed Wort's Apfelwein, what are my options? I'd like to stay away from kits and just pick up the ingredients at my local homebrew supplier.

Or - if anyone has any cheap suggestions along the lines of Apfelwein (but maybe some other crazy variation, like, a different type of juice, or something really cool that I may not know about), i'd really appreciate it.

Thanks - I look forward to hearing how the rest of you cut costs without affecting quality too much. I brewed a batch of Apfelwein last week and am truly amazed at how simple and cheap it is. What else is out there?

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Unless you have a local store that charges reasonable prices, you may want to at least look at online prices (for non-kits) including shipping before shopping. I recently visited the not terribly local store that is somewhat local to me and was royally overcharged (.vs. shipped online prices) for some caps and dry yeast, so I guess I won't be shopping there again. I don't need my hand held, and I don't much like places that charge an arm and a leg because they think that being around to hold people's hands is worth a huge markup.

Going cheap needs money up front, because unless you are going to diverge into nastiness (cane sugar, corn sugar for other than priming, and other sins against beer) the secret to cheap beer is 50 lb or 25 kilo bags of dry malt. Load it into gallon or two gallon zip-locs, and store those in a metal container with a tight-fitting lid, to keep critters out of it. If you have local brewing friends, you could arrange a group buy and split the large bags yourselves.

Dry yeast works perfectly well for ales. Also, you can pitch on the lees at least once without a problem, if you haven't left the last batch in primary for too long. If you're willing to put in a bit more work you can clean up the leftovers and get more yeast and less crud, but I've pitched wort in after siphoning the last batch out and it's worked well - I just would not do that twice in a row without taking the time to rinse it out and settle the crud from the yeast, turkey-basting the good yeast (some of which is dead, but dead yeast is yeast nutrient) out from the grot.

Price goes down if you move to all-grain - which I've only read about, not done. I assume that 50lb or 25-kilo bags are still the way to save yet more money there. It certainly is with specialty grains (I've got lots of chocolate malt on hand).

Price goes down even more if you malt & kiln your own barley - which I've only read about, not done. Finally, you can grow the barley and the hops (I've not grown barley, but I do grow hops, and the picking/drying/packing of hops makes buying them look really, not so bad, if your time is worth anything)

Finally, if you are really about the bottom line price, look for canned beer on sale - it's often cheaper than an extract ale that does not delve into corn or cane sugar for a large part of it's fermentables. I'm more concerned with making decent beer, and while that often costs more than the equivalent gallonage of 12-packs of bud on sale, it's cheaper than comparable commercial beer, still.

Branching out from beer, any fruit you can go out and pick for free or for low cost, you can ferment. I'd not suggest getting into bees to save money on honey, though - particularly not with the bee troubles of the past decade or so.

I've done hard cider using no added sugar and ale yeast (dry) which came out very well.

If you want to make some cheap wine, you could make a quick Welch's grape juice recipe. You just need frozen 100% grape juice (no high fructose corn syrup stuff or "cocktail" stuff), red (concord) or white (niagara). It's not fine wine, but it's tasty and cheap. We drink it occasionally as a dinner wine!

wow - awesome. Thanks for the valuable info. I'll definitely look into buying bulk from the internet.

Ecnerwal - you bring up a good point w/ just buying cheap beer. I'd rather be penniless than consume Bud regularly, but I imagine many people do brew just to save $$$.

Like you, my local home brew supplier is a bit pricey. After reading this post, I went to pick up what I believed to be a simple recipe w/ 6.5 lbs LME, 2 oz hops, a pack of dry yeast, and a cup or so of priming sugar. It was about 37 bucks... no specialty grains or anything.

Isn't that a little much for such a simple recipe?

Well, I don't know about LME, but DME is running me around $5/pound. So 6.5lbs is already over $30. The dry yeast and sugar probably didn't add much to your total cost but depending on the hop variety you chose the hops could easily be $5-$6 themselves. I'd say $35-$40 is about as cheap as you're gonna get these days.

Nickhead - I refer to the stuff as Clydesdale pee, and am about as inclined to drink it as that would imply, but when you start talking cheap, it has to be raised.

I think 3 lbs of Northern Brewer's cheapest (non-bulk) DME (I don't use LME, DWYL) was $10.50 last I looked (oddly enough, the "organic" was cheapest). One of the other suppliers was running a free shipping deal, I don't recall which one. Free, flat, or otherwise, just look at total delivered cost.

Take what you bought, get as close as you can to the same stuff at norther brewer, austin hombrew, morebeer, others, and see how they stack up - then you know what the premium of having a local shop is coming to, if your shop is actually local (none of mine really are "local", and with the price of gas, mail order looks better and better).

I repeat, Bulk will save you money in the long run.

LME is cheaper than DME, but you need to use a little more of it. I think it's like 1lb of DME = 1.2 lb of LME. Something like that. I'm pretty sure that LME still ends up being cheaper in the end. No idea why though.

Anyone have a preferred supplier of bulk malt or hops? Is it a bad idea to buy bulk dry yeast?

oh - i missed your post - thanks for the bulk ingredient supplier suggestions.

DME stores better, and is easier to measure out - both important if you are buying 50 lbs of the stuff. With storage time, LME goes bad, sometimes grows mold (or at least darkens, though that does not bug me much) - DME is almost immortal if kept dry. Of course, if you brew every week, age is not a problem.

Elsewhere on this forum the following was posted:

1 lb grain = .75 lb LME = .6 lb DME

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Which implies 1.25lb LME = 1 lb DME. The price is often very close when including the difference. Going again to Northern Brewer, LME costs more than DME.

$9.50 for 3.15 lbs LME .vs. $10.50 for 3 lbs DME (cheapest LME/DME listed)

$3.02 .vs. $2.80 lb, allowing for the water in LME which makes the DME equivalent to 3.75 lbs of LME.

YooperBrew said:

If you want to make some cheap wine, you could make a quick Welch's grape juice recipe. You just need frozen 100% grape juice (no high fructose corn syrup stuff or "cocktail" stuff), red (concord) or white (niagara). It's not fine wine, but it's tasty and cheap. We drink it occasionally as a dinner wine!

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I think I may try this... what kind of yeast would you suggest?

Yooper - I might have made this the other day... and with my head in my a$$, I might have used some pretty shady juice concentrate w/ all sorts of nasty preservatives, high fructose corn sugar, etc. I did it in gallon batches just to experiment really.

Why, other than it being unnatural, is high-fructose / preservatives in the juice a bad idea?

"Also, you can pitch on the lees at least once without a problem, if you haven't left the last batch in primary for too long. If you're willing to put in a bit more work you can clean up the leftovers and get more yeast and less crud, but I've pitched wort in after siphoning the last batch out and it's worked well - I just would not do that twice in a row without taking the time to rinse it out and settle the crud from the yeast, turkey-basting the good yeast (some of which is dead, but dead yeast is yeast nutrient) out from the grot."


A) So let me get this straight, as I am new and stoooopid. After draining out the fermenter to the bottling bucket, I can then throw another boiled up batch onto the Gick Cake O' Sludge at the bottom of the fermenter, and if I make sure it's stirred up a bit for oxygen, the yeasties will work me up another batch?


B) If a sampling from the Gick Cake O' Sludge will work up another batch but I'm not going to fire up another batch right away, what's the best way to save it out? Putting a healthy scoop or two in a plastic bottle and sticking it in the fridge? How long will it keep before it poops out for use purposes?

nickhead said:

Yooper - I might have made this the other day... and with my head in my a$$, I might have used some pretty shady juice concentrate w/ all sorts of nasty preservatives, high fructose corn sugar, etc. I did it in gallon batches just to experiment really.

Why, other than it being unnatural, is high-fructose / preservatives in the juice a bad idea?

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Preservatives, particularly sorbate, will inhibit fermentation. High fructose corn syrup probably will ferment, but I've never tried it. I would guess that it would just be thinner and drier, but I don't know that for a fact.

cbg96 said:

A) So let me get this straight, as I am new and stoooopid. After draining out the fermenter to the bottling bucket, I can then throw another boiled up batch onto the Gick Cake O' Sludge at the bottom of the fermenter, and if I make sure it's stirred up a bit for oxygen, the yeasties will work me up another batch?
B) If a sampling from the Gick Cake O' Sludge will work up another batch but I'm not going to fire up another batch right away, what's the best way to save it out? Putting a healthy scoop or two in a plastic bottle and sticking it in the fridge? How long will it keep before it poops out for use purposes?

Click to expand...

yes, it works to pitch right on the yeast cake. If not using it right away, I recommend "yeast washing". There is a thread called "yeast washing illustrated" that will give you all the necessary information.

ok good to know - It fermented like crazy, but smelled awful - worse than apfelwein. Thanks for the advice

If you are just buying one batch at a time it is often cheaper to go ahead and buy a kit. Northern Brewer has some inexpensive ones. http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/patersbier-extract-kit-1.html that is a good inexpensive beer. You can buy an extra pound of extract if you want to boost the alcohol content. Yikes I just realized this thread is nearly three years old. I suppose you've figured out what you like by now. lol