Curious about cost saving and what got you started

So I've been lurking here for a couple months and have read a few recent and archived posts about folks getting into brewing to save money. Now mind you, that wasn't at all my reason. I'm somewhat of science a geek and just thought it would be fun to try to replicate some beer I've had at local breweries.

Anyway, tonight I was at the local liquor store looking at the craft brews. I did a little math for a coffee porter I had at a dinner party this weekend that I'd like to replicate. It costs $4.49/22oz and I realized that maybe you can save some money depending upon what you're trying to brew. For instance, I can buy a kit (extract w/speciality grains) for about $30-40 to make 5gal. The cost to buy the equivalent in that coffee porter is about $130.

128oz/gal x 5gal = 640oz
640oz/22oz = 29.09
29.09 x $4.49 = $130.62

So I'm curious why some folks say they don't save money by brewing at home. Is it because you find that you end up spending more money on equipment. Personally, I've been doing it on the cheap and picking up what little equipment I have from freecycle and craigslist and filling in the gaps (funnel, sanitizer, etc) with my local shop.

Are folks replicating brew that don't cost as much as the stuff I'm trying to make? I've only been drinking beer for maybe 6 months so maybe I just have expensive taste in craft/micro brews? I've literally never even had Bud.

Anyway, just curious what folks' thoughts are and what brought them to the hobby. Not trying to argue against those that say you don't save money.

You can definitely save money by making your own. The problem most people have, myself included, is the equipment costs. There is always something I want to buy to assist me in brewing . So far I have purchased: Two pots (5.5 gal and 15 gallon), propane tanks and burner, Grain Mill, Cooler for MLT, copper and fittings for IC, a second fermentor, thermometers (3 now) and tons of various other supplies! Now, I WANT to buy: Pump, fittings/ball valves for pot, another cooler to hold hot liquor, kegs/more bottles, better thermometer etc

I have easily spent $700 on brewing equipment since I started in January... If you have patience and find deals on classifieds then you can keep it cheap, but its my hobby and I want to expand my collection of tools and equipment. Another factor is Time...it is worth different amounts to different people.

Three things:

1. Stickin' it to the man - no tax on brewing ingredients in British Columbia. 12% tax on store-bought booze.

2. Making what I want to drink - I'm a session beer drinker. Can't buy 'em here (except for Coors Light), so I make 'em.

3. I love beer, especially beer that has been crafted by someone who understands beer and cares. Sob.

Brewing is cheap, as long as you're time isn't worth money. Brewing equipment is death by a thousand cuts. But, man, it's so worth it.

Ah yes. Sticking it to the man. I definitely concur. I love the idea of being self-reliant. It's like "magic", but not rocket science.

I also hear you on the thousand cuts. So far I've resisted the urge to spend, spend, spend. But I have spent way too much time browsing the equipment on the supply sites (and reading what the heck some of it does).

I got started to save money. Somehow along the way I learned to enjoy making and drinking beer. I still haven't saved any money, although if I don't buy any more equipment for the next 4 years I just might get ahead. Who knows, but then again, who cares?

Of course if you really want to get ahead, you could try to learn to enjoy water. Then again, what does a bottle of Fiji cost?

Yeah, the man is sticking it to the consumer when it comes to bottled water.

I assume you've gone all-grain and/or kegging and that's where you're spending the $? Not sure my wallet or liver is up for that yet...

I love doing things myself. Given the choice to pick up a plate of BBQ for $15 or buy a brisket and the equipment to smoke my own for 16 hours I'll do my own for the enjoyment/experience.

I so don't save money on beer though because now I buy a lot more craft brews to try styles I've never had or want to find an example to replicate. Some weeks I stop at BevMo (really the only place for craft brew around here) for a bomber of something every night.

Such a great hobby though. I find the long brew days quite enjoyable.

You can save money brewing your own beer. 90% (more or less) of a grain bill is 2 row. Bought in bulk I pay $28.00 for 50 lbs. If you wash your yeast you can get 5 batches (5 gallon size) from a $7.00 liquid yeast. Specialty grains are $2- $3 lb. Bulk hops are $ 1.00 or so an ounce. Water.... it's cheap. So, 10 lbs of 2 row $5.60, 1 lb of special grain $2.50, reused yeast $1.50, 2 oz hops $2.00. So about $12 for a 5 gallon batch.Ignore the cost for equipment, brew kettles, heat source, buckets, bottles (kegs) hydrometers....and the list goes on.... Where it starts to cost money is when you start striving for consistency. A home beer kit is an excellent way to start.... welcome to the madness

I usually buy $12 six packs after tax maybe once every other week. My latest brewing bill was about $30 for a batch and you can cut costs more by buying in bulk. But its not about saving money which is nice, its about the process of making it and seeing what you can brew.

I really enjoy ipa's and nothing beats it when its fresh, the huge hop flavor and aroma is amazing. I haven't bought any commercial ipa's in over 6 months.

It's just a lot of fun to brew but bottling blows.

@brettwasbtd So you already went to kegging? Did you start bottling and say forget the hassle? $700 sounds like a lot, but I suppose I've spent that on other hobbies. So far (excluding my first ingredients) I'm under $100. But after my first night of brewing the one thing I'm definitely going to invest in for my next batch is a bigger pot to do a full 5 gal boil.

I agree that there is something extremely satisfying about doing it yourself. Even though I'm only on my first batch I'm actually enjoying the waiting. I can already see and have enjoyed the difference in taste tests when taking hydrometer readings.

@iaefebs where did you buy 50# for $28? That sounds like a great price.

I think the money saving argument is pretty much a fallacy. Sure, when you only look at it from a "product" cost perspective, you seem to be way ahead (ie. this beer is 4$ a pint on tap and it would cost me 40$ to brew 5 gallons of it). But the crux of the matter is: people get bored of brewing/drinking the same thing, so they give some, stash some and go on the next brew. You save by bulking crafting, but do you really need or want 5 gallons of double-chocolate brown porter ? Or would you invite all your friends and kill a keg of it in a sitting if you were buying it from your own pocket ? Not so sure.

I know a guy who makes wine. It's kit wine. 43$ for 20 bottles. He's been going at it for a year. He now, after drinking a lot and giving alot away, has a cellar of upwards of 100 bottles. This is more than he has drunk in the last ten years to himself I'm pretty sure since I have never seen him drink the stuff before.

Then you have the equipment. I'm not even finished with my first brew that I want a second fermenter, a bottling bucket with a spigot and a bigger kettle. This is a lot of BMC, or even Unibroue, right there.

I'm sure that if you keep plugging at it, with the bare minimum of equipment, bulk buy everything (no assortment of 10 different crystal malts ) and only brew what you can drink without upping your consumption, you can come out ahead fairly easily. But if you indulge in it as a hobby, and not stricly as a utilitarian goal of saving money, I don't see how you can save much money, if you can save money at all.

But you'll sure be drinking good craft beer along the way !

iaefebs said:

Bought in bulk I pay $28.00 for 50 lbs.

Click to expand...

Wow, that's an amazing price. My LHBS sells 50 lbs for $50, which is less than I could get anything online shipped.

BulldogBrewer said:

Wow, that's an amazing price. My LHBS sells 50 lbs for $50, which is less than I could get anything online shipped.

Click to expand...

It is a good price. I buy from my local brew pub for his cost. I am a mug member. But I can get it from other small breweries for no more than $32. No shipping... just stop at your local pub and ask.

Thats a good idea, hadn't thought of that. Might have to hit up the pub ;-). Good tip.

I think the caveat is the cost of buying beer to replicate. Sure, it looks cheaper at the get go, but factor in the increase in desire to try new things, and researching other brews to do that, on top of equipment, and time, and the occasional infected batch or accident, brewing books, brewing software, trips to breweries (tours), and trips to the lhbs, (not to mention the costs of premium membership on your favorite forum to show everyone pictures of your latest creations). All of those add up. Sure, you may buy a lot less of the craft brew you usually reach for, but you start grabbing the Samuel Smiths for a good example of a northern english brown ale, or the 20 different ipas to try the different hops, or any other craft brew to see if that would be fun to brew. I really think you don't save all that much, especially if you were a BMC drinker before. But hey, it's cheaper and far more rewarding (in producing a tangible result) than golf or skydiving.

I did not get into wine and now beer making for money savings or because of the tax benefit. I sometimes question the money savings considering how much I have spent on equipment, and how much I am planning on spending to get those shiny brew pots with all the fancy gadgets on the .

I brew my own alcohol, make my own bread, cook my own food, etc., because I really enjoy the process. As for beer, wine, and bread making, there is just something quite enjoyable about taking grain or fruit or sugar, adding yeast, and coming out with either something nice to eat or fun to drink. I can play with ingredients and make what I, not some other person, wants, so I get the food or drink that I want.

on the economics, I don't brew to save money- I brew for the fun of making beer, and for making unique beer that I love and can share with other beer enthusiasts. That being said, the equipment cost levels out after a few brews. One time cost for dozens of brews.

For what got me into it; I love good beer, I know what I like ,and I enjoy having a hobby to exploit that with not only myself but my wife, my father-in-law, and all the ones I share with.

I love this hobby, and look forward to many more years!

Yeah, I probably am making 5 gal batches of IIPA for $30 or so, and that's awesome from a price perspective.

But even more awesome is that I've been able to make stuff that I simply could not purchase where I live. I grow my own hops, so I get to make ales where the hops go from the vine to the boil in minutes. There are only a handful of breweries that make something close to that.

I think if you break down how much your time is otherwise worth (compare it to how precious a weekend or day off from work is), it doesn't necessarily "save money." You brew because it's fun, you get to make stuff you simply can't buy, and because you get a great feeling when someone drinks your beer and they tell you how great it is BEFORE you tell them you made it.

I definitely agree that if you factor time in you can't possibly be ahead of the game. Fortunately, after my initial freak out on brew day of "dang I'm sure I'm ruining this batch" I relaxed and really enjoyed the process. It's not like I couldn't make another batch if I hosed my first one.

You all are totally right about the whole sharing aspect too. I have so many friends and family (some literally more excited than I am) asking how it's coming along and when it will be ready. I even have a couple of friends who had considered trying brewing before and might actually take the plunge once they see how mine comes out. So the social aspect has been really really fun. Looking forward to actually enjoying the fruits of my labor with them.

I got started through a desire to do it better. All the BMC and craft brews I have had over the years seemed to be missing a little something. One of the things they are missing is high quality ingredients, another is the patience to do it right (the companies 'bottom line'). That works because so many people don't care what it tastes like, 'just gimme a lite beer'.

I have to admit that my first attempts weren't even as good as BMC. But persistence pays off, and now, I like my beer better than any of the commercial varieties I have tried. A testament to that is that my wife now prefers my brews over anything at the store.

Im baking my own bread, so producing it in fermented liquid "beer" form is just natural advancement towards perfection!

on a serious note, I think Jim Butcher's Dresden files was a final push into trying to brew ale at home.

Strangebird said:

Are folks replicating brew that don't cost as much as the stuff I'm trying to make?

Click to expand...

The beer selection is limited where I am. I could be replicating something, but it isn't intentional.

I got into this because:

1. I like dark beer and the selection of dark beer is severely limited here. I can get Beck's Dark and Heineken Dark, and some of the Guiness brands consistently. That's about it.

2. I deluded myself into thinking I would save money. I might over time, but I probably won't given replacement costs for things I break and cost of equipment upgrades.

3. My wife suggested I try it. I'm still not sure how she came to the conclusion that homebrewing would be good for me but she was right. :rockin:

I definitely haven't saved money on brewing. I usually spend at least $30 in between batches on equipment. You can save money, but for me its more about having fun brewing

I got into brewing because

1) I love beer
2) I liked the idea of creating my own, and most importantly
3) I can make whats good to _me_

I spent:

$8 for a NIB Beer making kit at a yardsale

$50 probably for more stuff at the LHBS, hoses, another fermenter, another lid, autosyphon etc.

$40 at the hardware stores and Lowes for the makings of my trashcan kegerator

$250 for 8 ball lock corny kegs

$80 on Ebay for regulators, hoses, diffuser, gas disconnects (5)

$35 for 3 vintage tap handles

$40 on ebay for a 7lb Co2 tank

$15 to fill tank

Still need to spend roughly $100 for 3 taps & shanks and some more hoses and liquid disconnects to finish my trash can kegerator.

Need a couple more fermenters $30

In all I suspect I will have right around $800 invested in equipment.

It's about $35 for me to make 5 gallons of beer, $15 for 5 gals of Apfelwein.

Two cases of great beer here where I live which is about what 5 gals is = to is probably $40 or so.

I probably don't save money because of the outlay for the equipment. I mean sure I will make my money back over time. But for me the fact that I make better beer than I can buy is worth it.

And when I pull into events or parties with my friends and have 3 beers on tap in the rolling trashcan kegerator it will be priceless

I love to cook.

Brewing was just the next step!

I just don't drink enough. It will take several decades for me to break even and I don't have all that much equipment. If guzzleboy was still alive, that would be a few years. He drank 80% of what we made.

I brew mainly to have beers around that are hard to find: browns, low-ABV hoppy beers, Milds, real ESBs, etc.

Brewing is relaxing to me. It is my time away from all the other crap going on around me. I don't do it to save money, but I do track my costs because I am a dork like that.

Equipment $262.13
Shipping $85.40
Ingredients $163.28
Recurring non-ingredient costs
(cleaners, bottle caps, distilled water, etc.) $74.69
Total cost
$2.46/beer
$14.76/6-pak

Non-equipment cost
$1.36/beer
$8.15/6-pak

It costs about $8-9 per 6-pak for a decent beer around here so I will have to keep brewing to break even. Maybe sometime next year. That is provided I can stop buying $20 worth of little things ever time I order a new kit. One thing about homebrewing is there is always some little trinket you can buy to make things easier.

I love beer. I kicked around the idea of making my own but never really went for it until earlier this year. I thought I would try a batch and see what happened. I instantly became addicted to the process and chem/bio science behind it. Since then I have spent roughly 350 on more equipment and don't plan on stoping.
At this point I have already made two recipes on my own, an IPA that everyone loved and something even SWMBO likes, which is unheard of. With those confidence boosters, the support I get from friends and fam, the understanding of grains, hops and the process now I am planning a nanobrewery in 3 years. If it fails I'll try again in 3 more years. I am an artist and musician and have kinda put those both on the back burner as far as career plan.

In other words.
I am all in.


... now if I could just think of a damn brewery name.

^^^

Why not get a job at a microbrewery or shop and gain experience ? Jumping from homebrewing to pro isn't unheard of in the least. I have a friend who started homebrewing when he was 18 (yeah, right...) and went on to pursue a graduate degree in "food ingeneering" of whatever it is called. Lost touch with the guy when he moved to Montreal, but I'm pretty sure he now works in the biz in some sort of function as a "food ingeneer".

Got into it as a hobby/curiosity... something I had wanted to do forever and now that I lived in my own home I had the room to give it a go. From there it was "oh new toy/gadget", "oh kegging", "oh keezer", "oh fermentation chamber"... you get the idea.

There is nothing cost effective about it for me and I'm not even a big drinker... I just like doing it. Going to have to find some new friends though if I keep this up or I'll have more than I can possibly drink, lol.

I found out about brewing while bored at work browsing the internet. I thought a kit would be a great original gift to give my fiance for his birthday. He hasn't brewed one batch. I guess the best gift of all is a future wife that brews all his beer for him.

I haven't even read the rest of the replies, because it's depressing.

We looked at the budget last night. I have spent over $1200 on brewing in the past year and have three batches to show for it.

Mostly, it's been equipment (about $600 in my all grain setup) and thing I find that are cool like corny kegs. Even though I didn't have the money, I bought two 10 gallon antique kegs from someone on here. That put me well in the hole.

I sold my 36qt kettle with weldless fittings to someone so I could finance the fittings to get a keggle welded. But I'm so far in the red, I don't think I'll be able to do that or any other brewing for about a year.

So let's see. $1200 divided by 19 gallons of beer, that's almost six dollars a beer so far.

So, no. It's not about the cost savings.

I still love this hobby and I will find a way to come back. Oh yes. I will.

$600 for your all grain setup? What did you get?

BulldogBrewer said:

$600 for your all grain setup? What did you get?

Click to expand...

Probably not the best deals.

I was rounding. I honestly lost track when I was pricing it out.

~$100 for the cooler (I KNOW!)
~$150 for the pump
$170 total for kettle and fittings
$80 for hoses and quick disconnects
~$50ish for bottling and other plasticware stuffs

Then come the kegs, and the other kegs, and that big keg.

Anyone want to buy some kegs?

I started brewing because I like beer. I didn't even think of the cost factor, until I started spending money on equipment. Sure, if you count just the ingredients to make a batch of beer, you can save quite a bit over the same style of store bought beer. But, if you're like me (and apparently a lot of others on this site), equipment costs can be astronomical.

I have no idea what I spent on equipment since I don't keep track of it, but for a typical 10 gal batch of beer, I spend anywhere from $40 to $50. I haven't done the math, but $50 for 10 gallons is pretty cheap, compared to the same quantity of store bought beer.

JetSmooth said:

So let's see. $1200 divided by 19 gallons of beer, that's almost six dollars a beer so far.

Click to expand...

Well if you think about how much it would cost if you were going out to buy those beer at a brewpub, 6 bucks a beer isnt totally crazy. This is how I always justify beer buys and brewing equipment, then my wife yells at me because I never take her out on dates anymore!

Anubis said:

In other words.
I am all in.


... now if I could just think of a damn brewery name.

Click to expand...

I think it's obvious.

All In Brewworks.

I got started just a few months ago.

I have spent just over $150 on equipment ( 3 buckets, 1 with spigot , lids, airlocks, auto siphon, scale, etc.)

I have never bought any bottles - since I was drinking micros anyway, I started saving them when I got the first inking of an idea I'd like to try brewing.

I have so far brewed 30 gals. A quick estimation puts my cost at about $30 a batch ( Extract ).

I personally drink about 4 beers a night, and between 12 - 18 a weekend. So yeah, my homebrew costs beats the hell out of buying a truck load of SNPA or Duck Rabbit.

Savings? Maybe.
Fun? Definitely.
Stress relieving good times I can share with my oldest son and a few friends? Without a doubt.

I have thought of going AG to save on the costs of recipe supplies, but will not do so until I get my supplies together - and those will be done on the cheap. Mainly because I like to recycle and love the challenge of keeping any hobby I do as hands on as possible, so some DYI is the way to go for me. Gonna make a Keggle - I have all the fittings laying around anyway, so no cost - just need a Keg shell - and around here they are avail on craigslist for about $40.

Cooler Tun - I have ready access to all the 10 gal Igloo water coolers I could ever want. Getting a new one is a simple ride to the supply office.

SO maybe in the long run it is an economic advantage to me - but it's not my primary motivation for doing it.