Monthly supply bill

I still consider myself new at home brewing with only a couple months and 5 batches under my belt. My buddy and I have been splitting cost of pretty much everything but I was wondering what the typical home brewer spent a month on supplies. We are extract brewing now but we want to move to all grain soon. We're using kits primarily but I don't know if that is the best way or not. thanks

I budget about $100/month towards it. That's brewing 2-3 batches a month and random equipment purchases. Sometimes I'll buy something big and that bill will go up obviously. What you buy depends on how high your starting gravity is (higher gravity = more malt = more $$$), what you pay for hops (buying in bulk will save), and your yeast cost (reusing yeast will save $6-10 per batch). You could do 5 gal batches for $15-20 if you're cost effective.

There's no problem with kits for extract or all grain, but part of the fun of going all grain is having more control through putting together recipes. Do a kit or 2 all-grain, then give a published recipe a shot, then make your own recipe. You'll be hooked.

HAHA. You are likely to get a HUGE response on this. I'll keep it on a per batch basis and say that it costs me about $33 for a 10g batch of APA. Usually I keep it lower by harvesting yeast (saves $10).

RWeather3 said:

I still consider myself new at home brewing with only a couple months and 5 batches under my belt. My buddy and I have been splitting cost of pretty much everything but I was wondering what the typical home brewer spent a month on supplies. We are extract brewing now but we want to move to all grain soon. We're using kits primarily but I don't know if that is the best way or not. thanks

Click to expand...

Consumable supplies?

Maybe $80 a month averaged over the year, including mead making. I make more beer/mead than most, but well within the 200 gallon per year limit applying to my household. I brew all grain and buy base malt and hops in bulk which cuts costs, but otherwise I don't ever try to do things cheaply or save money.

For me it's probably comes out to around $15 a month for beer ingredients...maybe less. It all depends on the rate that you drink it. The bill for cider is higher depending on where the apples are from, and the fact that I will normally drink it faster than beer. You have to figure if you're buying a kit you could get it for around $20-30 depending if you buy it online or at a store, then if you make a specialty beer you add a lot more for things like oak chips, cocoa, flavoring syrup, fresh fruits, vanilla beans, etc. Kits will come with the stuff but they can be stingy sometimes.

All grain, you'll have a steep initial cost but if you're sharing the stuff you might as well save the money and go for at least a 10 gallon setup. That way you can each brew your own 5 gallons. You'll save money buying grain as well. Buying bulk will save you money if you can do it, but kits aren't priced horribly in my opinion...for 5 gallons of beer. I spend more on buying 4 craft beer bombers than I do on a 5 gallon kit...so I'm not complaining.

Another way to save is like AHS is having free shipping on their stuff over $100...you could buy a bunch of kits and save money on shipping down the road. Shipping is what kills if you buy bits and pieces online. Also you can buy bulk hops and stuff for very cheap if you just look on the forums for the vendors.

I'm on the low end. I buy grain in bulk and reuse my yeast as much as possible, so if I were to average it all out, I'm probably running under $25 per month.

Oh, and that's just ingredients. I very rarely buy any new equipment anymore.

A typical recipe is $20-30 per batch depending on what I'm making. I don't buy in bulk. Soooo... maybe ~$70 as month.

Geez, I spend a lot more a month than that... hopefully it's because I'm still starting and buying random equipment.

I'm starting to harvest my yeast to cut down on it a bit, but that involves more equipment. Hahaha... this is a cyclical process.

Braufguss said:

Geez, I spend a lot more a month than that... hopefully it's because I'm still starting and buying random equipment.

I'm starting to harvest my yeast to cut down on it a bit, but that involves more equipment. Hahaha... this is a cyclical process.

Click to expand...

It gets better. As you mentioned it's the initial investment that drives the cost up. It's good to look around at non-homebrewing places that sell the same stuff cheaper because it has a more general purpose. Also if you look at auction sites or garage sales you might find something. Some people on here have found some cool stuff like old metal bottle cappers, old carboys, antique bottles, etc.

I budget for about $120 a month. Its usually a little over that though. Thats enough for 4-5 extract batches per month on average. But I buy hops and DME in bulk and wash most of my yeast.

I am brewing 2.5gal batches. I have my equipment pretty much dialed in, and nothing to buy at this time. My wife is getting me a Barley Crusher soon as a gift. Nice wife. So, with 2.5gal the recipes are cheap: $10-18 depending on the gravity. I think the dubbel I am planning may be $20 or so. I have four fermenter, so If I keep them full, it would be $60-100 a month, but that is a lot of beer for me. If I brewed 5 or 10 gal batches, I wouldn't be able to brew as often. What would I do with all that beer? I know, I know... drink it.

I buy everything in bulk. Hops by the pound, grain by the sack, and harvest some of my own hops. I rarely buy yeast, and either wash and reuse liquid yeast or buy dry yeast four times per year.

I brew about 2-3 times per month, usually 5 gallon batches but sometimes 10. Today's brew was 11 pounds of grain (less than $1/pound average- probably less) and 4 ounces of hops (willamette was like $8 a pound- so $2ish) and the yeast was a package of Nottingham ($1.29). So, that's about $13 for a 5 gallon batch.

Of course, if I bought the grain just for this batch and the hops separately, the grain would have cost about $20 and the hops (locally $3-$4 an ounce!) would have been $12, so that's $32, not including yeast. It really pays to buy in bulk if you can.

I figure it costs me about $18 or so per 5 gallon batch of all grain. I buy base malt by the sack, hops by the pound, so in between it is just specialty malts. I use dry yeast exclusively, and use each packet for 2-3 brews.

I have a burner and all kettles and mash tun, so I don't have much to buy.

As with any hobby, this one will cost you as much as you want it to.

dono i really 100-150 a month don't budget for it, i try to stock enough so i can brew what i want when i want.

250# of various base malts
5# containers of various other malts
10# of hops mostly noble
7 or so yeast strains

Wow, it seems a lot of you buy in bulk. I assume that you all mill your own malt as well. I know there are other threads having to do with storage, but are these all vacuum-packed and dry-stored? How long is 250# stored. And what about 10# of hops? Are they sealed and frozen? I don't buy bulk, yet. I may never buy bulk, because my batches are so small, but do I need to worry about storing malt and hops for a few months?
I guess I hijacked the thread..., but it is in keeping with the idea of budgeting...

Yes I mill my own malt I suggest it you have more control. Grain is not vacuumed packed all of the grain until this fall is from last year and maybe from the year before. It keeps and doesn't go bad as long as it’s kept dry the biggest issues is pests…. we have a cat. I’ve also never paid list price for malt I get a bigger break for multiply bags from my brew supply.
- Hops are vacuume sealed and frozen

i store my grain on a dolly here's 200#

rugman said:

It keeps and doesn't go bad as long as it’s kept dry the biggest issues is pests…. we have a cat.

Click to expand...

Hmmm...is the cat the pest you refer to (Insert your own cat joke here...), or is the cat on pest control duty?

depends on the day and time

I don't want to hijack this thread, but I personally have a few ways to cut down costs on brewing.

1. Like many other people said, buy in bulk. Its a lot up front, but evens out with every batch.
2. Invest in an all grain set up. LME and DME are twice as much as whole grain.
3. Wash your yeast and re-use it. I re-use my yeast about three times, but some people have been known to do it many more than that.
4. Mix up your beers to include beers with small grain bills along with the big boys. They make great beer and its nice to drink a great cheap brew every now and then (that doesn't taste like wet cardboard)

That's all i can think of for now.

Buy hops from hops direct.com. I brought a mix of three varieties and it cost about $35 with shipping. Depending on how often you brew, this will last you at least six months. Get a neutral bittering hop and then just grab an ounce here or there depending on the recipe you want to brew.

I do not mill my own grain, so I build my recipes on Brewmasters Warehouse (brewmasterswarehouse.com). I order four batches a month and average about $45 to $50 an order. Brewing five gallons at a time.

I'm pretty new to brewing, but after spending 35 bucks on a single extract brew, I decided to look into buying bulk.

Hops - I bought from hopsdirect.com, about $10/lb

Grains - I bought from LHBS, about $65/55lb, a little more expensive than I'd like, but I support them when I can

Yeast - I bought from rebelbrewer.com, about $1.50/pack, I bought a bunch to save on shipping, dry yeast.

Edit: For a 5g brew, it's around $15, the grains being the most expensive.

I paid 28.00 for 50 lb of great wester 2 row and 48.00 for the 55 lb of Belgium pils

I am at about $100 a month too, now that my capital investments have gone down. Don't dispair OP, I think I spent ~$1500 in the first few months getting going in this hobby...

shortyjacobs said:

I am at about $100 a month too, now that my capital investments have gone down. Don't dispair OP, I think I spent ~$1500 in the first few months getting going in this hobby...

Click to expand...

Just about the same here on the initial investment. Now I've realized I have more kegs than I'll be able to use and I'm going to have to sell some off. My eyes were bigger than my stomach, one might say.