Cheapest recipes? (substitutes for malt/grain suggestions?)

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So my friend of mine recently told me that his sister used to brew her own beer. But instead of using grains and malt and all the ingredients one would normally use to make beer, she used stuff that was already in her kitchen.

Maybe oatmeal or something like that for the grains. And instead of using malt could you just use sugar for the yeast to eat?
I want to try this just to see HOW cheap you could make a batch of beer and what it would tase like (could still be better than bud light yaknow). It doesn't have to taste great it just has to be cheap and ALRIGHT.


Anybody heard of people doing things like this or of things you could substitute in?
 
If you are looking to save money then you are in the wrong hobby.

If you are looking for super cheap beer then just go to the distributor and buy the generic "beer" that is usally no more than $10-15 a 30 pack. You won't be able to make beer that is drinkable for cheaper than that with stuff you find laying around your kitchen.
 
Buying bulk malt would still be cheaper than buying Quaker Oats.

I made a 5.5gal batch of the Centennial Blonde for around $9 (bulk hops, bulk grain, and Notty).
 
I buy some raw wheat locally. I toast it and use it at about 10% in my pale ales. I also get some flaked rye I use in my American rye recipe and polenta I cereal mash for CAPs. Still most of the grist comes from malt. And then there's my popcorn cream ale too.

The rye beer is cheapest being 42% base malt, 33% toasted raw wheat, 17% flaked rye, and 8% crystal. I use a cereal mash and one addition of Summit at 15 minutes for about 20 IBU.

Frankly some of this stuff is better than I get from the brew stores and cheaper too. I'm not out to make some crap pruno ****. I make quality craft beer. ;)
 
Not mush cheaper than this:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f62/cream-three-crops-cream-ale-66503/

I've brewed it twice now- not bad the first time and the second time I dry hopped it with 1 oz of Citra and it became a big crowd fav. with two cases done in a few hours at a small family party. Cost for the basic all-grain was about $14 (Used uncooked rice from the pantry) and $2.00 for the extra hops.

Damn cheap!
 
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