What did you spend on brewing in the last year?

I'm a real estate agent and to do my taxes I needed to do expenses. I downloaded my credit card statement from the previous year to tabulate. Anyways I kept seeing charges to LHBS, Austinhomebrew, Hopsdirect and BMWarehouse and I was curious to see how much I spent on home brewing in 2009.

It was over $2000!!!! Egads. That's like 7% of my take home pay.

This year I'm trying to keep it under $1000.

i try not to think about it

It's really gross for me in the last year: 20 lb CO2 tank and three corneys with all the associated tubing, disconnects, etc.; dual gauge double regulator from kegconnection.com; digital temp control; 12.5 cf chest freezer for fermentation/ lagering; double cooler AG system from NB; Blichmann 10g kettle and burner; not to mention a couple of oak barrels for aging wine. Oh and the 15 wine kits and 25 batches of beer. Jebus.

I dare not type it, my wife might be reading...

And if you count "craft beer research" into that total, I probably spent almost as much on beer as I did my kids...

There was another thread similar to this. I think I came up with about $1500 for the past year alone. Some expenses were purchased primarily for beer, but have also been put to other uses, so I guess you could deduct some of that out of there.

But going homebrew and going AG makes it cost less.

really.

:fro:

This year I am trying to keep it to $200-$300 (that is 4 taps with a pipeline. 10 to 15 gallons a month). Last year was big, as I stepped into bulk buying, and kegging. I want to build an electric fired system in the next few years, with pumps and all, but I am holding off for now.

I think I am going to build a patio and cooking area first, then come back and re work the brew system.

Sadly - my first year of home brewing cost me MORE then all the beer I had consumed in the first 50 years of my life!

BTW - I HATE beer - 49 years of my life was Bud and Miller and I get a gag reflex on macro swill - thus I never drank it. Yuck!

Now - I brew 200 gallons a year LOL

Yeah homebrewing to "save money"...not so much. It will take me a lot of batches to recoup my capital costs. But I really don't care...I love to brew.

Same story with wine for me. For what I've spent on equipment and kits I could have had a nice $50 bottle every couple of weeks forever.

This year was expensive. I went from brewing about four times a year to every weekend. Started all grain, got all the gear for that. Got into kegging, so had to get cornys and all gear, 14 cuft freezer to convert, etc. Also stepped up to bulk grain and hop purchases, built a temperature controlled fermentation chamber... I'd gotta think that the tally is pushing $3k or more. I try to break it down into small chunks so it doesnt sting so much.

I gotta say though...it was reading all the great ideas on this board that got me to build the keezer rig, the fermentation chamber, and to invest in alot of the accessories that I didnt have before! Now I want a Brutus!! Thats on the agenda for NEXT year.

I just brewed batch #3

A quick run up of my costs:

Kit #1: friend bought it!
Craigslist fridge: $100
Temp Controller: $130
Initial "starter kit" with AIPA, bottles, full boil kettle, wort chiller, yeast starter gear: $380
Upgraded temperature monitoring stuff, 2nd carboy and beer kit #2: $80
2 more batches from AHS to put in the pipeline: $90

So $780! And I haven't gone AG yet! But I'm hoping to get out of that for under $100 building a cooler system. Probably going to buy a $20 foodsaver so I can bulk buy hops, too.

If I do go AG, at least my per-batch cost will be lower!

munche said:

Probably going to buy a $20 foodsaver so I can bulk buy hops, too.

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You can... but you can also just put them in a zip lock in the freezer. pellets do not degrade badly, and promash has a hop aging utility that lets you pick no barrier/temp storage/age of hops.

I gladly take the savings to adjust 1.3 AA% at 18 months age for vacuum versus ziplock.

I am adding this in after finding this calculator and PMing it to munche : hop age calc

chefmike said:

You can... but you can also just put them in a zip lock in the freezer. pellets do not degrade badly, and promash has a hop aging utility that lets you pick no barrier/temp storage/age of hops.

I gladly take the savings to adjust 1.3 AA% at 18 months age for vacuum versus ziplock.

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I don't use Promash, would you know where I could find a calculator or a formula to guesstimate this?

I brew small batches, so my yeast expenses are high/batch, but I also "ranch" my yeast, so once I buy a strain I have it until I contaminate it. Grain is no more expensive than doing 5 gal, so that's same-same. And hops go a long way when you're using 15-20 GRAMS per gallon. I brewed 9 gallons last year, which was low for me because I was away for work a lot. I'm usually around 20-25 gallons/yr or once/week when I am home... I keep my equipment costs down by scrounging/making all my equipment.
Total cost for brewing gadgets, ingredients (still have lots of leftover hops), and other goodies: $368.89 or about 40 bucks a gallon! Yikes! That's ~$4 a beer! The good news is, with all the goodies I bought this past year, I couldn't POSSIBLY need any new equipment...

HIbrew

A rough guesstimate would be about $1000.

Great thread. I dove right into this hobby and bought a starter kit for around $100, then I found someone on Craigslist who was getting out of homebrewing - they sold me their dual faucet Sanyo kegerator with 3 cornys, 20# CO2 and a BUNCH of other homebrew equipment (2x 6.5 gallon carboys, 7g turkey fry pot, wort chiller) all for $425!

So, $525 in equipment, a $35 Co2 refill (I had a leak at first...), 5 batches of extract kits at $35 a pop and 3 batches of Apfelwein at $17 each = $786.

Wow...but hey, cheaper than other hobbies! Hopefully will make a switch to AG soon, and also reap benefits of great prices on kits @Midwest Supplies. My next (and last?) project will be a fermentation chamber...

Now I need is for Boston's Boil Order to stop and I can brew my Fat Tire clone kit...

I always figure that I will drink at least a beer a day and they cost three bucks. Then a bottle of wine every other night at $10. Then a bottle of quality booze once a month and a bottle of crap booze in that same month, combined to about $50-$75. Then with all of this I figure I am going to eat some kind of food that isn't top ramen, maybe try to take a "vacation" or go to a baseball game every now and then. Toss a couple of dinners out for the girlfriend, rent and all that stuff.

Basically I might have a dollar at the end of the year

And then there are the hobbies like homebrewing so I think I might be in the red in the end. Such is life.

petep1980 said:

I'm a real estate agent and to do my taxes I needed to do expenses. I downloaded my credit card statement from the previous year to tabulate. Anyways I kept seeing charges to LHBS, Austinhomebrew, Hopsdirect and BMWarehouse and I was curious to see how much I spent on home brewing in 2009.

It was over $2000!!!! Egads. That's like 7% of my take home pay.

This year I'm trying to keep it under $1000.

Click to expand...

Do you have any other hobbies? Do you buy beer at the store or does you hobby keep you supplied? I bet I spent $2000 buying beer at the store and bar alone last year. Actually pretty cheap for a entire year of being able to go out and have fun.

HIbrew said:

I couldn't POSSIBLY need any new equipment...

HIbrew

Click to expand...

Famous last words.





Just started brewing in the past year. I am going to total everything I have spent so far.

Equipment kit: 2 buckets, hydrometer, racking cane, tubing, bottle brush....~$65

Kit 1 $35 + bottled water $6
Turkey baster ~$2
Two 5 gallon carboys $10
Kit 2 $42 + bottled water $6
9 gallon pot and Bayou classic burner CHRISTMAS GIFT
Kit 3 $30 no more bottled water use brita.

I traded a six pack of brew for a starter kit including a 5 gallon pot, 2 carboys, 2 buckets and various other pieces including a carboy brush I was in desperate need of. :rockin:
Switch to All grain
MLT ~$35
Batch 4 $25
Batch 5 $37
Batch 6 $28
Batch 7, 8, 9 = $70

Add to that various cleaning and sanitizing solutions ~$35

There may be a few odds and ends I have left out but off the top of my head this is it.


Maybe the thriftily thing is the bottle collection I have. 250+ bottles including 75 Grolsch swing top of which I didn't pay a dime for any of the bottles. I am going to get my Grolsch collection up to 100 and say done. I don't buy the Grolsch my boss does and then gives them up free. I could have more than double that but me and another guy at work split them.


TOTAL = ~$426 for 30 gallons of beer made batch 7-9 have been purchased but not brewed yet once they are done my total cost per bottle will be around 20 cents. Pretty awesome, cheap too.

Just truly getting set up end of last year and to last weekend so I dont even want to think about it. I will say since I made almost all of it myself i didnt spend nearly that much. Im not talking about actual brews just brewing gear.

Well let's see. About $600 in the first 3 months of 2010, and I would say that's a good average, so somewhere around $2400?

By the by, I brewed 200 Gallons last year and have averaged $12 a gallon minimum (some $4 and some $25) and that isn't including equipment upgrades or winemaking expenses.

Hey MrFocus, did you follow FCBM prior to the UEFA Champ League? I only ask because they have a fantastic team that features a bunch of the '06 German team, but I am thinking they don't have a chance. They played some good teams to get to the final and are a strong club and yet didn't really play the super clubs as much as Inter. Good luck to them though!

I have yet to brew a batch... so zero $$$. That said I bet I spent $3k purchasing beer already brewed

so I started gathering stuff last summer...

all the bottles i needed (pop tops saved by my family) $free
this january, starter kit (ie equipment) from my brother: $a bunch of labour working on his cottage

first partial mash kit: $25
bottle capper, caps, bottle brush: $40
second partial kit: $35
big boil pot: 30
bucket of sanitizing powder: 8$
before i bottle this second batch: bottle washy thing $25

all told: ~$165 for 10 gallons, 16$ per gallon, 8$ per growler

so my local microbrew charges 8$ on Wednesday's (cheapest way to get beer hereabouts) so I am coming in right at cost!



...however, I plan to get some more equipment (maybe do all grain), and I definitely drink more beer now than when I started, so maybe it is not as economical as it looks. who cares, it's fun!

I have spent over $1600 in equipment in the past year on setting up a 3 tier all grain system. When you add in the actual supplies my total is closer to $2500. As long as SWMBO does not realize the total cost I'm golden.

I started homebrewing last year so I had a lot of start up costs (equipment, ingredients, research, additional equipment, etc.). but what I do know is that trying to calculate it would be a bit of a buzz-kill. It's a hobby, and a fun one at that, where you can enjoy the fruits of your labor and share it with friends and family.

axr

axr said:

I started homebrewing last year so I had a lot of start up costs (equipment, ingredients, research, additional equipment, etc.). but what I do know is that trying to calculate it would be a bit of a buzz-kill. It's a hobby, and a fun one at that, where you can enjoy the fruits of your labor and share it with friends and family.

axr

Click to expand...

The research can really set you back at about $5 a pint.

Absolutely no clue. Not a fooking inkling. No idea. I'm totally in the dark on this one. "TOO MUCH" screams the missus. "F#ck you", says I.

In short, a LOT less than i would have spent if I had to actually BUY all that beer I drank last year!

I only did 10 brews last year so total amount spent was around $300. The year before that, I built my keezer and bought a lot of equipment so I would guess it was right about $2000. I'm planning on buying more equipment this year (march pump, PID, SSR, etc.) and planning on building a bar around my keezer so I'm thinking I'm gonna be spending about $1500.

I have myself convinced that now that I have all the equipment, from here on in it will cost next to nothing to brew, just the odd ingredient.

Thats what I keep telling myself, until I get to the LHBS, which always has the latest thing, then I say, well after this purchase, then I'll have all the equipment I need, then it will cost next to nothing.

I can't believe how much stuff you can buy for this hobby!

I'm 6 months in and have spent a little, but it's not that bad.

Spent ~$300 to start up all grain. Bottled up until this last batch. Found 3 coke kegs for $50. $200 for CO2, regulator, fittings and CO2.

I'm at about $15-$22 a batch, so at batch 14 I've put in around $300.

Total probably $1200 so far, which comes out to $2 a beer. My needs in terms of equipment is satisfied for now. Once the homegrown hops are available and I continue the recent washing of yeast, my cost per batch will fall a bit. However, like someone else mentioned, it has turned into a hobby, so that alone is worth something.