The $7 brew

So I just recently got into all-grain brewing, and I probably need to go ahead and get some brewing software, but in the meantime I'm looking for some advice on a recipe. I got a great deal on some bulk grains, and with a impulsive buy of a couple lbs of Belma hops from HD at $5.25, I decided I needed to see how cheaply I can brew a drinkable beer. This is what I have so far:

8lbs pale 2-row at $.72/lb
.5lbs Crystal 40 at $1.15/b
2oz Belma at $.33/oz
Washed US-05 yeast (free)

For a total of $6.99 for 5 gallons.

I am thinking hop schedule of .5oz at 60min, .5oz at 15min, and 1oz at flameout.

Any ideas on this recipe? I am very open to suggestion. Is the half lb of Crystal too heavy? I want to give a little body as I imagine the 2-row won't contribute much in the way of body or flavor. I also have Vienna and Munich at the same cost, so those could be potential substitutes. Is 2 oz of Belma on this schedule likely to be very powerful? Should/can it be scaled back? I like hoppy beers too, but the ultimate goal of this is just to make a good, balanced beer as cheap as possible.

Thanks!

Half a pound of crystal IMO is not at all excessive. I used over 7 ounces of crystal 60 in an SNPA clone and it was perfect - in a 2.5 gallon batch. Note that SNPA is darker than a lot of pale ales, but still.

Hats off to the cost cutting - I thought $10 for 2.5 gallons was doing good...

EDIT: You got me curious enough to plug it into BeerSmith, here's how it looks. I would definitely try it out.

Thanks for the reply! Those numbers are about what I was hoping for. It looks a little light on the OG for the style, but that is to be expected with only 8.5lbs of malt. I think I'll give this a try and see how it turns out. As far as the cost cutting, its more for fun than anything, I've brewed my fair share of relatively expensive beers too. I think a few batches like this may help alleviate the extra equipment costs I've incurred for all-grain. Someone told me this is supposed to be cheaper this way! Not that I actually expect to ever break even on this hobby...

No problem! Forgot to mention, you should try http://hopville.com/ to tide you over until you have brewing software, it does a fair amount of the things BeerSmith does from your browser and is free.

Good to know, I'll check that out. Alhough I think I saw somewhere Beersmith was having a Black Friday sale, that might be the perfect time to get into the software.

You may look at Brewtarget also.

BrewerBear said:

You may look at Brewtarget also.

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Thanks, that one's new to me. I'll check that out too.

Do it! For $7, you're looking at something like 13 cents a bottle! I can't even get sody-pop that cheap. Even if it's not an earth-shakingly good beer, you're way ahead of the game.

Never heard of Belma hops (is it me or does there seem to be a million new strands of hops out within the last year?), but that sounds like a great economical brew! I too have fun trying to keep my ‘per batch’ costs as low as possible sometimes. I make a mild ale that costs less than $15.00 for ten gallons, including heating power and rewashed yeast.

Yes all-grain is cheaper per batch in ingredient costs, but it usually takes quite a while before you recoup your initial investment of equipment. Usually you end up upgrading prior to recouping your costs (or at least I do).

Wait till you want to go electric, my 10 gallon batches cost me less than $1.00 in electricity, but I probably have over $500 invested in the equipment!

kpr121 said:

Yes all-grain is cheaper per batch in ingredient costs, but it usually takes quite a while before you recoup your initial investment of equipment. Usually you end up upgrading prior to recouping your costs (or at least I do).

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I think this is true for a lot of brewers, but it's also something that's up to you as a brewer--there are ALWAYS more gadgets, equipment etc that you can buy and which can make the process easier, simpler, or improve some discrete aspect. On the other hand, the basic equipment you need to brew AG isn't really much more than what you need for extract brewing--a cooler and a spigot are really the only necessary add-ons. I always have to resist that urge to constantly upgrade--I'd love to have an all-electric 1 bbl RIMS setup, but do I NEED it? Not really, and for me, part of the joy of homebrewing is doing really cool complex beers with minimal equipment. Different strokes for different folks.

jerrodm said:

I think this is true for a lot of brewers, but it's also something that's up to you as a brewer--there are ALWAYS more gadgets, equipment etc that you can buy and which can make the process easier, simpler, or improve some discrete aspect. On the other hand, the basic equipment you need to brew AG isn't really much more than what you need for extract brewing--a cooler and a spigot are really the only necessary add-ons. I always have to resist that urge to constantly upgrade--I'd love to have an all-electric 1 bbl RIMS setup, but do I NEED it? Not really, and for me, part of the joy of homebrewing is doing really cool complex beers with minimal equipment. Different strokes for different folks.

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The joy of homebrewing! Cheers!

This can knock some more $ off future brews:
http://barleypopmaker.info/2009/12/08/home-roasting-your-malts/

kpr121 said:

I make a mild ale that costs less than $15.00 for ten gallons, including heating power and rewashed yeast.

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Care to share? Thanks!

nevery said:

Care to share? Thanks!

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Sure, Its real simple. The key for keeping it so cheap is getting the hops and grains in bulk, and reusing yeast. Heres my last rendition from Beersmith, I think it turned out the best (out of 4 or 5 different tweaks):

Recipe: Brown Trout Stout
Brewer: Kevin
Asst Brewer:
Style: Mild
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 12.94 gal
Post Boil Volume: 11.44 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 10.50 gal
Bottling Volume: 10.50 gal
Estimated OG: 1.038 SG
Estimated Color: 19.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 23.7 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 80.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 83.8 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
$7.37 11 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 78.6 %
$0.80 1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 2 7.1 %
$1.25 1 lbs Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 3 7.1 %
$1.25 1 lbs Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 4 7.1 %
$0.98 1.50 oz Williamette [7.80 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 23.7 IBUs
$1.98 2.00 oz Williamette [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days Hop 7 0.0 IBUs
Free 1.0 pkg US-S05 [50.00 ml] Yeast 6 -
$12.95 total

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 14 lbs
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 17.50 qt of water at 172.7 F 154.0 F 60 min

Sparge: Batch sparge with 3 steps (Drain mash tun, , 5.25gal, 5.25gal) of 168.0 F water
Notes:

kpr121 said:

Sure, Its real simple. The key for keeping it so cheap is getting the hops and grains in bulk, and reusing yeast.

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Thanks Kev! I couldn't agree more about the yeast. Every smack pack or vial I get I split it up and put it into 8-10 autoclavable vials filled halfway with water and vegetable glycerine that's been sterilized. I then place them in the fridge for 48-hours, then freeze them. The rest of the smack pack or vial goes into a 500ml starter, then 1liter, then two, where it's cold-crashed decanted and pitched within the next week. Saves TONS of money and if I start more than I need from each frozen vial, I can bank even more. Making only four generations, I can make up to 10,040 batches from ONE package of yeast.

I also do this with a half-teaspoon of dry yeast, like Nottingham... Every time I use it, I just start a half-teaspoon in 500ml. It's not so expensive as to bank it, IMO, but that still saves a lot of money. I highly recommend people bank or wash yeast. It pays for itself hundreds of times fold.

Just to throw another free brewing software name into the mix: http://brewprint.com/

Man, based on kpr121's recipe and my costs, I could get down closer to $5 for materials. Haven't made the jump to electric yet but that's in the near future especially since it could be an easy, giant sous vide system as well. I really have no hopes of recouping costs, I spend as much time buying and or building brew equipment as I do actually brewing, that's half the fun of it!

BTW, the Belma hops are a new variety from Puterbaugh Farms (Hops Direct). They are selling them right now for $5.25 plus shipping, which is a great deal as long as you are already ordering some other hops. I figured this recipe might be a good way to see what these hops have to offer, since I have no idea right now.

Yeah that recipe is my go-to when I need to refill the pipeline or if I know a party is coming up that would benefit from a few kegs. One time I even adjusted to make it at a calculated OG of 1.065 and then dilute it down to around 17 gallons total. Basically just double the hop bill, add a tad bit more specialty grains (maybe ¼ to ½ lb each) and add about 10 lbs base grain. That way I have three full fermentors from a 4 hours brew session.

Sous vide is absolutely amazing! Being able to cook perfect steaks, chops, burgers, ribs, etc. is almost as gratifying as being able to brew beer in it. Plus it definitely gets brownie points with the SWMBO!

I checked those Belma hops out, I might pick up a pound along with some Cascades and Willamette since I’m running a little low… Let us know how this brew turns out!

Definitely will update. I may try to get a quick brew in this weekend. I'm just getting back into the states after a few weeks away so I'm getting the itch (in the Middle East no less, so it's been a bit of a drought for me, no beer!)

Well I just brewed this Saturday, no changes to the recipe. Pitched washed US-05 and it's happily fermenting away. OG of 1.046. I'll keg this in a couple weeks when done and we'll see how it turned out!

Hey brewzer, came across this post in a very random way....I was looking through HBT photo gallery and saw a picture of yours with a cider called "Redcoat Strong English Cider" being as though i'm british I googled it as I wondered if it was a commercial cider or homebrew and came across this post here......anyway long story short I see on you beer signature that you brewed a Dead Guy clone.....! Thats one of my co-brewers fave and wondered if yor recipe was any good and if so if you would share it with us....? Thanks.

I'm probably speaking out of turn, but I'd guess he used Yooper's Dead Guy Clone:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/dead-guy-clone-extract-ag-see-note-25902/

Great, thanks. I did some research and sounds like a well respected recipe.

Cheers
Ayup!

andycr said:

No problem! Forgot to mention, you should try http://hopville.com/ to tide you over until you have brewing software, it does a fair amount of the things BeerSmith does from your browser and is free.

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If you have an iPad/iPhone you should check out "Brewing Assistant". I find it much more accessible than BeerSmith for playing around with recipe ideas. While you lose the style guide, you do get a pretty good idea of the profile (IBU, SRM, ABV) once you've plugged everything in. And it comes with a handy timer.

No, I don't work for these guys - I have just been very impressed with this app

kingwood-kid said:

I'm probably speaking out of turn, but I'd guess he used Yooper's Dead Guy Clone:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/dead-guy-clone-extract-ag-see-note-25902/

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Actually, I was given a kit from Austin Homebrew. I have the recipe, but will respect the wishes of the owner not to publish it. I can say though, it is quite a good recipe, and very close to the original DGA. I highly recommend it.

EDIT: And as far as the cider, it is not a commercial brew, just a simple cider I threw together with grocery store juice, about a kilo of brown sugar, and fermented with a british ale yeast (I think I used Nottingham this time). It is actually pretty good (strong!) stuff and has become a bit of a staple at my house!

I promised I would update, and I have the beer ready today, just in time for New Year's Eve! Actually, this turned into a pretty decent pale ale. Just the right amount of body, thanks to the crystal malt. Low on malt character as expected, but great hop character from the Belma hops. Best $5 I spent! The Belma hops seem to have a bit of a fruity taste to them (reminded me of strawberries and maybe some melon of some type), and brought plenty of bitterness to the party. It is a bit of an interesting combination, but made a great refreshing, light sessionable PA. FG ended up slightly lower than expected (1.008), with an ABV around 5%. Will definitely do again, especially for the price.