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mangine77

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I was just thinking that with the economy in the crapper that I would start a thread for people to give their best money saving tips for brewing.

I'm not talking about skimpping on good ingredients but maybe just some bulk supply buying ideas, good websites for certain ingredients, or any money saving brewing tips.

I know I could stand to save a few bucks per brew day.

For example, I finally started buying my sanitizer in large quantities and I figure it is going to save me at least $50.00.

Who's got budget friendly tips?
 
Washing liquid yeast is my biggest $$$$ saver. I still have a door on my kegerator with stored yeast strains. I make at least 4-5 batches out of one vial of yeast. (See the thread on yeast washing).
 
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/how-would-you-go-cheap-54603/

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/buying-brewing-equipment-non-hb-store-55302/#post560350

Most everything we use in brewing, except ingredients and a few dedicated tools (hydrometers, etc.) can be found in at the hardware, discount and dollar stores, much cheaper...If its used to prepare the wort, then it can be found in the kitchen supply section for a lot less... My strainer was 4.95 at the grocery store as opposed to 15 bucks at my LHBS...My big spoons came from the dollar store, my big funnel was a 1.50 at the hardware store...

My 5 gallon stainless pot for extract or stovetop brewing I got a dollar general for 9.99
 
I'm splitting my brews into 4 one gallon fermenters
so that I can get 4x the experimentation out of my
money. I'm just getting started and I can already
tell that dropping $55 on every batch makes no
sense for me at this stage.

+1 to buying equipment from non LHBS sources.
 
Bulk buy with friends to save on shipping and still get the variety you want... And if you're not washing your yeast, you should start.
 
Washing liquid yeast is my biggest $$$$ saver. I still have a door on my kegerator with stored yeast strains. I make at least 4-5 batches out of one vial of yeast. (See the thread on yeast washing).

Hell, I even wash dry yeast! That saves $4 on ten gallons. I know it's not a lot, but it all counts IMO.

I am not a cheapskate, but I make frugality a part of the hobby. I find that keeping the cost to a minimum gives a little extra challenge to te whole experience. :)


Oh yes!! Cheap tricks! Get your buddies to buy their BMC in plastic "Ball park" bottles. They work perfectly well for HB, and you don't have the hassle and (minimal) cost of capping them.
 
I just picked up two 3.5gal buckets with lids(with rubber gasket seals) for FREE :rockin:at the local grocery store bakery. They are frosting buckets and easy to clean.

I figure why buy a 7 gal fermenter when I can ferment in two 3.5gal buckets. Plus as mentioned before, I can experiment on one batch and compare it to the other.

Next step is to make the hole in the lid, which I have done with a heated 1" diameter socket. Just put in on your electric stove element for several minutes, pick it up with a pair of pliers and press it on the lid until it burns through. Makes a clean hole with smooth edges for the stopper.


2nd point: From the many debates on HBT one can decide on what equipment is entirely necessary. Example: Hydrometers in extract brewing. You can buy one or wait. Patience is free. Wait 3-4 weeks in the primary. Most of the time is it should be done.
Then you can shift equipment $$ to ingredient dollars.
 
Toasting your own malts from base malt is a cheap way to save a few bucks if you buy your specialty malts in 1# bags at the LHBS for $1.80/lb+ (my LHBS is a ripoff unfortunately).
 
Buy hops by the pound, shop around.

Try growing your own hops.

Go AG, or at least MG. Grain is $1.15 to $1.60 a pound. DME is $4.00+ a pound.

As mentioned above, buy in bulk. If possible, get in on local group buys to REALLY buy in bulk.

For a lot of gear, you can build it yourself.
 
brew a little more than you actually plan to ferment and filter this and trub through a paper towel. This will get you wort for future starters. No need to buy DME at all.

Kai
 
I purchase most all of my equipment at estate/garage-yard sales for 10 cents on the dollar, more or less ($10 initial kit; $3 and $5 carboys, $2.50 igloo drink cooler, etc.) But then I am retired and love to go to sales, and you have to go to a lot of them to buy this type stuff. I also monitor Craigslist (but some of those people think their stuff got better and higher in value because they used it) and ebay for a specialized buy (got my bench capper for $5 from a local person). Friends collect bottles for me. I go to the recycling center and fish out 4L Carlo Rossi bottles for small batch cider and mead and for US cappable sparkling bottles. My most expensive retail buys have been the parts to convert the cooler to an MLT (figured highly unlikely to find those at a sale -- but after a $2.50 cooler buy, thought I could splurge for $30 worth of parts) and carboy handles from the LHBS. The next sale items I am looking for include a legal size filing cabinet for bottle storage, just like the picture of one Revvy has been posting, an old fridge for cold storage, ice for ice baths and space for storing yeast washes, more carboys, a turkey fryer with a large pot, a corker (cider and mead seems like it should be corked), an aquarium heater for temp control, and copper tubing (but people know it has high scrap value) for a wort chiller, more milk crates, and any other misc kitchen stuff that looks like it could be useful to brewing. And I am very confident I will find most of it on the cheap, but definitely remembering patience is a virture and that it will appear sooner or later and not just head off to the store. I consider it the ultimate in recycling.
 
Buy bulk hops for less than $2 an ounce. Dont pay more than that, it is simply not necessary.

Buy grain in bulk, even if you arent buying by the pallet, you are still saving substantial ammounts over buying by the pound.

Shop stores with flat rate shipping, place LARGE orders, I spent $6.99 to have all of my ingredients for 2009 shipped to me. (yes that includes all of my malts as well)

Save small ammounts of your wort as Kai said... you can then make starters with no need for DME. I have two gallons in my freezer.

Plan your brews so that you can pitch right on a yeast cake. Just as good as washing yeast, with none of the work/storage.
 
brew a little more than you actually plan to ferment and filter this and trub through a paper towel. This will get you wort for future starters. No need to buy DME at all.

Kai
Store the unfermented wort in the fridge until ready for the starter you mean?
 
brew a little more than you actually plan to ferment and filter this and trub through a paper towel. This will get you wort for future starters. No need to buy DME at all.

Kai

Store the unfermented wort in the fridge until ready for the starter you mean?

Freezer is better. It will spoil in the fridge if kept there for too long.

Kai

+ 1 to that. I store mine in ice cream buckets or gallon-sized ziplock bags. And if by chance you run out, just do an impromptu mini-mash on your stove. A couple pounds of 2-row in a half-gallon of water, with another half-gallon for a mini-sparge, is plenty for a couple of starters.
 
Keep future upgrades in mind. Buy once.

Brew 'families' of beers to stretch your ingredient dollar i.e. bitters or Scottish ales.\

Harvest your yeast.
 
Thanks guys!! I got a good tip there!! Now I gotta hook that gallon milk container outa the trash and sanitize it.

Don’t worry about sanitization here. That’s the beauty. Just clean is good enough. You’ll boil the wort later before you pitch the yeast. Of course you could keep the process sanitary. But if there would have been a requirement to make sure the wort is filtered and then stored under sanitary conditions I would have abandoned this procedure already.

Kai
 
Oh yes!! Cheap tricks! Get your buddies to buy their BMC in plastic "Ball park" bottles. They work perfectly well for HB, and you don't have the hassle and (minimal) cost of capping them.

I agree on the average brew that will be consumed in 1 to 3 months, but is O2 osmosis an issue longer term brews like belgians or barley wines?
 
Don’t worry about sanitization here. That’s the beauty. Just clean is good enough. You’ll boil the wort later before you pitch the yeast. Of course you could keep the process sanitary. But if there would have been a requirement to make sure the wort is filtered and then stored under sanitary conditions I would have abandoned this procedure already.

Kai

I tend to sanitize everything by habit. Even my dog tastes like starsan. :eek:
 
You guys totally rock!!!

I was just bottling some bitter. I had a ******* attack, and racked to the bottling bucket while it's spigot was still open!!

Crap!! I lost about 2 gallons of beer, some in the dishwasher door, some on the floor.....anyways, thanks to this thread, I mopped it all up and saved it in a cider jug so I can use it as a starter later.

Total stupid screw up, but ZERO waste!!! :D

Thanks Kaiser, you are a frugal man's life saver. :)
 
You are going to make a starter with beer? I don't think this would work b/c beer is fairly void of yeast nutrients.

Kai
 
The simplest one is so clear that it should have smacked me in the face! Session beers that are light in malt and light in hops are light on the wallet as well- ordinary bitter, mild, 60/- and 70/- come to mind. Satisfying to drink, they aren't budget busters to brew.
 
The simplest one is so clear that it should have smacked me in the face! Session beers that are light in malt and light in hops are light on the wallet as well- ordinary bitter, mild, 60/- and 70/- come to mind. Satisfying to drink, they aren't budget busters to brew.

Personally, I kinda took that as read. That beer I recently spilled all over the floor was a bitter.....Bloody good it was too! I loves me the session beers. :)

Good point though. You can make a good session beer for half the price of a big beer
 
I buy bricks of dry yeast. Saves a hell of a lot of money. And grow my own hos

I prefer to rent my hos. I don't think I could tolerate growing them from scratch. It sounds awfully expensive and time consuming! But at least, I guess you know where they've been....

:cross:

In all seriousness though, I think partigyle brewing is a great way to stretch your brewing dollar. Add a little extra malt to your recipe and you can brew three beers rather than one. Get a nice 7-8% beer, a 5% beer, and a 3% beer for roughly the price of a 10% beer. Doing it this way, 90%+ efficiency is really easy...

And don't be afraid to add a little extra malt for the second or third runnings. There's no need to make the beers taste the same. I made a 2.9%ABV Stout that tasted incredible by adding some dark malts to an amber grist after I'd done the second runnings. The cost for that extra third batch was about a half pound of grain, an ounce of hops, and a couple bucks worth of propane. I think I even recycled the yeast... So that third batch cost me about $7.
 
1. Dry yeast is a huge saver for me: $1.65 for Notty vs. $7 for Wyeast 1056 or WLP001.

2. Split a barley crusher with 2 other guys in my town, and buy bulk grain. Seriously, who needs to pay $160 to have a crusher sitting around for 2 weeks so you can use it for 5 minutes??? I paid a bit over $50, and now I can buy bulk 2-row for around $0.55/lb. 11 gallons of my house ale costs me just $18.93 for ingredients, and figure another $3-4 for propane.

3. Lighter beers, FWH'ing. Instead of high gravity beers and huge hop additions, stick to beers around 5.5% and FWH for additional hop aroma instead of dry hopping.

Even though I've spent a ton on equipment for 10 gallons, I could have easily stuck with my old 5 gallon system and simply added a corona-style mill for $30-40. Bulk grain is the way to go for super-cheap brewing. And if you don't go overboard on equipment purchases, you can achieve your "savings" over extract in just a couple months.
 
I'd recommend getting to know any professional brewers in your area. We have a friend that brews at a local resaurant. We help her on her brew days, stop in the restaurant to eat and drink every now and then and she provides us with yeast, occasional leftover grain, spent grain (for our compost piles), and let's us order bulk grain at commercial prices, letting the restaurant eat most of the shipping cost.

She has also been very useful in helping us improve our efficencies and beer quality.
 
Didn't read through all the posts, but here is my trick.

Re-use hops.

If being used for dry hopping, remove them and then use the same hops for the 60min addition in the boil of your next brew. They should keep the majority (~80-90%) of their bittering ability.

I'v done this on several occasions and it has been very successful.

Cheers!
 
Didn't read through all the posts, but here is my trick.

Re-use hops.

If being used for dry hopping, remove them and then use the same hops for the 60min addition in the boil of your next brew. They should keep the majority (~80-90%) of their bittering ability.

I'v done this on several occasions and it has been very successful.

Cheers!

Really?? Very interesting. Has anyone else tried this?
 
Bricks of dry yeast? Please explain. Thanks

Ditto! I also would like to know about Gordon's Grain Prices. I called a nearby GFS store and asked. He is trying to look it up. I think they don't stock all GFS products, but mostly what local business and peoples might buy. I hope he can quote the correct item!

Also, reusing hops is an interesting idea. I generally use hop pellets and have not yet dry-hopped, but it's coming up and I might see about doing this. I can dry-hop and then when I bottle/keg that beer, brew another batch and use those hops for bittering! Great idea!
 
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