Brewing on a Budget ... Advice?

So it's finally happened....after four years of marriage I've been forced to get into a joint account with the wife. As a part of that, we've both been given a weekly allotment of $50. This totally cuts into my homebrewing money. I'm pretty much ready to roll on 10 gallon batches, so i'm hoping to get some budget advice for my sometimes expensive hobby. I'm already prepared to buy sacks of grain base malt to make this happen and I have a Corona mill.

ardonthorn5 said:

So it's finally happened....after four years of marriage I've been forced to get into a joint account with the wife. As a part of that, we've both been given a weekly allotment of $50. This totally cuts into my homebrewing money. I'm pretty much ready to roll on 10 gallon batches, so i'm hoping to get some budget advice for my sometimes expensive hobby. I'm already prepared to buy sacks of grain base malt to make this happen and I have a Corona mill.

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Well, obviously major expenses you'll have to save for but you should be able to handle batches at that amount, especially if you begin buying bulk and harvesting yeast. I can brew 6 gallon batches for about $20-25 and I buy hops by the pound.

Be prepared for a lot of "who wears the pants" comments

How did you get forced into a joint account and why does that mean you get an allowance?

Maybe you should get a side job that pays cash or deposits to an account that is yours.

Bulk grains, bulk extract, bulk hops and re-use yeast.

I PM/PB and make an average beer of about 1.060. Including cost of equipment, I run about $0.50 a bottle, or about $25 for 5 gallons. Ingredients on their own, and it comes to about 2/3rd of that or about $18 for 5 gallons of my average beer.

i had already agreed to do the joint account, and we are working on saving money for upgrades to our house and kids. i may have some wiggle room with extra money depending on profit sharing at my job and such. i may go smaller on high OG batches or possibly partigyle when i can as well.

my paycheck and the wife's paycheck both go into an account that pays bills, howevr about 1/3 of mine goes to my personal account straight from the job, and her as well. maybe you should try this out....

as for budget brewing, i suggest group buys.

I brew 5 gallon batches for around $12-$15 per batch. Bulk grains. Bulk hops. Reuse yeast. We too have a joint account, and there is nothing wrong with that. If you plan your brews out correctly, you can brew once a week and still have cash left over for other things!

Buy everything in bulk that won't go bad and wash your yeast.


On a side note... I love having a joint account with my wife, it's all we have. No allowance though, just common sense.

You can wash and re-use your yeast. That will save you $4 to $8 bucks per batch. Then buy in bulk like the others say. There was a thread going a while back about making 5 gallon batches for under $10 or something. Some were trying to make the most inexpensive beer they could manage. You can make what you want but learn from those posts. Check the archives.

Cool, what upgrades are your kids getting?

Just messin'. I have four kids, newest one was born 11 days ago. I am broke and irresponsible with money, I brew every 2 weeks and I am not stopping, even for having another kid, even though I can't really afford it.

I do more than my share of the parenting though, even though I work full-time and she doesn't work much. So she can't complain about me taking a day every two weeks.

Good luck on econobrewing. Share any tips you figure out. I recently found out my LHBS does bulk cards, and started checking the other brew stores nearby (I'm in Los Angeles so there are options) and I'm going to start planning my grain purchases 'cause one shop has a great deal, but it is further away. So I'll buy recipes when I'm in that area, and save some without spending money driving.

Maybe ordering hops online is worth a lot too. I just got a scale, partly because I measured priming sugar wrong and messed up a batch and I don't want to do that again, but it is a tool I'll use for a long time and can save me money by not having to measure at the brew store, which is part of why I buy from them.

$50 a week!!!!!!!!! I wish I had $50 a month. Save a few weeks and buy a good grain mill, then buy malt by the sack ~ $50 per sack. As above this and bulk hops and washing yeast will probably get you down to $25-30 per 10 gallons. Even if you brew every week you will have money left over

Wow that's $2600.00 a year I brew 200 gallons a year on $1000.00

Base Grains $350.00
Hops (1lbs packs) $175.00-$200.00
Yeast (I keep 6 types cultured and ready for use)$50.00
Specialty Grains/ misc.supplys $400.00


Planning what to brew and what you can make vs. buy and watching for deals.
Don't play "Keep up with the Jone's"

It's been mentioned, but buying in bulk can really save money in the long run. A sack of US two-row runs about $45, which is much cheaper than by the pound! Reusing yeast is easy, and saves a lot of money. Hops in bulk, while an initial outlay, are so much cheaper it's unbelievable. A pound of hops goes for $8-16, depending on the variety, but I've seen them for $3 an ounce in LHBS.

A variety of hops like willamette is pretty cheap, and a lower OG grainbill can be really cheap as well.

My ultra-cheap beer is a cream ale- under $19 for 10 gallons! My house IPA, with purchased hops and grain but reusing the yeast, is $27 for 10 gallons.

I grow 8 varieties of hops, and use about 4 of them regularly. That makes my beer even cheaper to brew, as I love highly hopped beers.

Saving and reusing yeast is probably the easiest way to save money, especially with liquid yeast strains.

You're all saints and i appreciate the advice!

i'm definately going to starting buying in bulk when possible; that went into the thought process for 10 gallon batchs. As for an LHBS...closest one might be an hour or so away. I grow mt. hood (very awesome crop yield), chinook and nugget. I'm looking to grow a few more varieties this year, and that should help.

i actually work at an ethanol plant whose owners deal in grain commodities, so it may be possible to get unmalted wheat or rye on the cheap. not sure about barley.

+1 to reusing yeast.

If it isn't obvious, yeast is a big expense for one item. I started saving yeast and instead of $35 a batch, it is like $25. The other ingredients you can modify and depending on your budget you can make different recipes when you're short, but if you buy yeast it is the same amount every time.

ardonthorn5 said:

You're all saints and i appreciate the advice!

i'm definately going to starting buying in bulk when possible; that went into the thought process for 10 gallon batchs. As for an LHBS...closest one might be an hour or so away. I grow mt. hood (very awesome crop yield), chinook and nugget. I'm looking to grow a few more varieties this year, and that should help.

i actually work at an ethanol plant whose owners deal in grain commodities, so it may be possible to get unmalted wheat or rye on the cheap. not sure about barley.

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Where are you located? In PA, I know that quite a few homebrew clubs have "group buys", where you can get sacks of grain (the malted barley kind for brewing!) for about $30-35 or so- maybe more or less, since I'm not in on those group buys so that's my WAG.

Use software or a spreadsheet that tracks cost per batch. Really helps make that decision to stick with inexpensive hops and to wash yeast really easy. Bulk grain is a big savings, 2 row by the 50 lb sack, your corona mill should be fine for now. Try to limit specialty malts, and when you can look to buy those in bulk too. My LHBS has 10 lb sacks of some common malts that are decently priced.

Also...
Learn to love US05. I brewed my first 30 batches with this yeast, probably bought total of 4 packs. It is super easy yeast, cheap compared to liquid yeast, and easily harvested and reused batch to batch.

Dude spend all $50 on brew day than use debit card!!!! See how many times you can get away with it. Just joking the previous replies are spot on. Group buys and you need to find a local HB club this will help with trading, sharing, and group purchases! Good luck

Repitching yeast will save you some money. Especially with 10 gallon batches. My blog and book have information.

Besides all the above mentioned (great!) ideas think about basic recipes that don't use a lot of specialty grains, hops, special yeast, or special ingredients. Some of my favorites are dry stouts, milds, scottish ales, and wheat beers. The other thing you can do is if you give away a lot of beer have your friends buy your hops or maybe give you a gift certificate to your LHBS.

As everyone else has said buy in bulk and reuse yeast. I just looked on beersmith I average about $50 - $60 for ipa's, double IPA's. I justed did a scotch ale that wa $38.

This thread is making me think about what I'm doing wrong. I just spent about $65 total piecing together a 5 gallon recipe for a stout. It's PM but I was searching all over on ways to save on cost. It seems like I will end up having to convert over to all grain in order to save money. Even though this is going to be my second batch brewing I'm already feeling the pinch of brewing extract versions.

Heh I've missed this thread...

Oh wait this is a new one! Never mind it is still a great theme. At least you aren't trying to justify how much you spend on brewing as an offset to the family beer budget to get more money out of the deal.

Be careful about the assumption you need to go all grain to save big money. Both DME and LME can also be bought in bulk at considerable savings, and can frequently be added onto group buys for similar savings. Going all grain comes with a start up cost and I believe increases the rate of spend on equipment. For example soon you will want a better mill, then a better chiller, replacement hoses, maybe a pump, a brew stand,... the list just doesn't end. I'm looking at pH meters now... Most items after the lauter tun aren't necessary for all grain but I'm on a pretty tight budget too and the equipment expenses just don't seem to end.

That said all grain brew days are a lot of fun and much longer than extract days. For the same ingredient cost I probably get 3 all grain days for 2 extract days, and each all grain is 8-10 hours (double batch) vs. maybe 4 hours (I never did double batch extract, just guessing), bottling is the same, maybe 90 min per batch including clean-up, so for the same ingredient cost I am getting 33 hobby hours all grain vs 10 hours extract. YMMV. Plus I end up with 30 gal of beer instead of 20.

As a brewer on a budget thanks for the tips.


For bulk hop purchase how long can I store hops in freezer ziplock bags?

captainkirk83 said:

As a brewer on a budget thanks for the tips.


For bulk hop purchase how long can I store hops in freezer ziplock bags?

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Not as long as you would if you purged the air out (do you have a vac sealer?) Hops can last at least a year or so if they are in the original (nitrogen?) flushed bags. You can also blanket them with CO2 if you have the setup for it and they should last a little longer. Basically as long as they do not smell cheesy and still smell like hops you should be good.

DrunkleJon said:

Not as long as you would if you purged the air out (do you have a vac sealer?) Hops can last at least a year or so if they are in the original (nitrogen?) flushed bags. You can also blanket them with CO2 if you have the setup for it and they should last a little longer. Basically as long as they do not smell cheesy and still smell like hops you should be good.

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Don't have a sealer so if ziplock won't work ill have to stick with lhbs. Which is fine cause they are a good store.

Yooper, I live in Clearfield, which we consider Central PA (unlike the people in Harrisburg, who are a little more on the eastern part of the state ... lol). I'm not sure of any clubs in my direct area; i think I would have to travel at least 45 minutes to State College, and about that or more to get to Indiana, PA.

I appreciate all of the input into this thread and will definately look into all of the advice given!

ardonthorn5 said:

Yooper, I live in Clearfield, which we consider Central PA (unlike the people in Harrisburg, who are a little more on the eastern part of the state ... lol). I'm not sure of any clubs in my direct area; i think I would have to travel at least 45 minutes to State College, and about that or more to get to Indiana, PA.

I appreciate all of the input into this thread and will definately look into all of the advice given!

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I know that there are some group buys around from time to time- keep an eye on the "group buys" area of our forum and you may find that the cost savings is worth a 45 minute drive!