Saving or Spending More Monday?

You can definitely save money very quickly, if you brew Belgian beers.

For example:

Lets say you have invested $500 in beer making gear. It costs about $1 a beer to make a Belgian strong ale. That is if you buy two $7 yeasts and buy Belgian candi sugar. It can obviously be done for less, but I'll use the less economical method for this example.

A good commercial Belgian ale costs $6 per beer or more, so you're saving $5 per beer. Therefore, it only takes 100 Belgian home brewed beers (two 5 gallon batches) to break even on the equipment.

I see it as a way to divert expenditures from one area to another. For example, instead of paying more for extract, I use that money to buy equipment for all grain brewing. Another example, instead of spending money on more yeast, wash the yeast and use the savings to buy more equipment, etc., etc. Now that I've used up all my ideas to save money, I still buy more equipment. Whoops, now I just spend more and more money. Hey, at least I get to drink beer, while making beer!