homebrewing costs

While its not any cheaper to make your own beer in the short run, the long run only saves you little as well, so why do we do it? In my opinion its not about the beer its about the bragging rights of drinking YOUR beer, even if its not your recipe, you made it from scratch, and the process is challenging and fun!

I do it for the chicks. My Rufilin Pale is a big hit around here.

KuntzBrewing said:

even if its not your recipe, you made it from scratch, and the process is challenging and fun!

Click to expand...

I guess that pretty much sums it up for me. My son and I brew it together and we drink it together. We even put one aside for the wife.

KuntzBrewing said:

While its not any cheaper to make your own beer in the short run . . . . . . .

Click to expand...

I disagree, I have brewed 20 gallons of high quality beer for 8$. It does take alot of work and alot of time though

I think you are right about the reason however, most of us brew for the challenge and sense of accomplishment, and there is always something new to try with multiple levels. It can be as simple as you want or as complex, some would say it's a craft, others would say it's a way to get soused, I say it's art.

Definitly an art! You can have so many different tasting beers even in the same style, and that's what makes it so fun! And you must buy BULK to have an $8 batch, I've never brewed a batch for less than $35

KuntzBrewing said:

. . . . . you must buy BULK to have an $8 batch, I've never brewed a batch for less than $35

Click to expand...

Actually it's four batches (20gallons) for $8 and it's with home malted barley, home roasted grains, home grown hops and yeast cultured from juniper berries. But as I said it takes a ton of time and work. I never really liked buying stuff, not really. If I would have charged myself for my time, I'D BE RICH!!!! . . . . . .wait . . . . . .that doesn't work out, crap.

My homebrew has gotten pretty good after four years. Around here, low-end craft beer goes for $7-8 per six in the stores, and the big names like Rogue & Stone are pretty much obscene. That means entry-level to buy craft beer is about $35 a case, after I've paid our 9% sales tax. So- I most certainly can brew cheaper.

I don't count my investment in equipment, feeling that's been pretty much amortized over four years. If I count my own labor at $0, which I do and always have done for a hobby / pastime. I do such things because I enjoy them. If I didn't enjoy them, I wouldn't do them.

As for never spending less than $35 on a batch, I picked up the new Northern Brewer catalog that just came in the mail yesterday, and, yeah, if you're brewing extract, and brew only IPAs and big beers, it's certainly possible to never spend under $35. Plenty of kits in there for low-to-mid 20's, and a couple in the teens......

I haven't bought grain in bulk yet, but I do buy hops in bulk, and grow them myself, and I harvest and resuse yeast to save money too. I'd say 90% of my batches are under $20, not including imperials or other 1.070+ beers.

... But having said that I do enjoy the creative process of coming up with a recipe and making it, and telling others that I did so.

It's knowing I have the freedom to drink and choose what I want to drink. The distributors, commercials and store selection can't dictate what I drink.

I may be cooler drinking a Coors light or a Miller lite with a new neck etc. but who cares.

I am drinking and enjoying something I made adn wanted.

This is the way I explained to the people who ask if it's cheaper.
If you drink $12 a case beer then it is definitely not cheaper but once you start drinking good beer that starts getting up to two and three dollars a bottle then you can make beer that is just as good and way cheaper.

I find it to be cheaper if I ignore my time, and probably still cheaper even if I "paid myself" for the time involved.

6 packs of craft brews here go for $8-$9. I've been getting about 50 12oz bottles from a batch. ignoring my initial investment of say, $120 or so, I'm spending about $30-35 a batch...so, about $4-$4.50 a 6-pack.

by my calculations, I'm spending about 50% less to make my own beer than to buy good beer in the store.

now, if I wanted to include the mass produced "generic" stuff like miller, coors, bud, then yea, I'm not saving any money....but... when you want a porsche, you don't buy a VW because it's cheaper.


--and this is buying ingredient kits. eventually I'd like to get into making my own malt, roasting it, maybe growing my own hops, etc. I'm sure that will drive my cost way down...but then again, my time investment will go way up.

Much agreed, I just started brewing again after 6 years. It was far cheaper then, but still when looking at 'GOOD' beer and beer that is simply not available in the store or states for that matter, it's cheaper. I still brew extract, I'm sure it would be even cheaper yet to go all grain.

And yes, it's always nice to brag you drink the beer you made, it tastes fresher, and it's a great hobby.

My cost per bottle is cheap (.20 -.40). Bulk grain & hops, repitching yeast. Friends paying a dollar per really helps cover costs as well.

Lots of my homemade items aren't any cheaper than the commercial equivalents. My last batch of soap (7 pounds of it) cost far more to make than it would to buy. But I know what's in it, and it's great quality.

The same is true of my beer. It's probably not cheaper than a good quality commercial equivalent, but it tastes better and it's on tap in my home. I just spent another $100 on my brewstand, and another $125 on ingredients, this week alone.

Most hobbies aren't about saving money, they are about having an enjoyable hobby. Fishing doesn't save money, when you add in the cost of a boat! Sewing doesn't save money when you consider the cost of fabric and patterns. The soapmaking stuff (quality oils and butters) is obscenely expensive, and certainly doesn't save any money. Gardening probably does (Bob's obsession) except for the cost of the greenhouse.

But we have custom made duvet covers on the bed, great homemade soaps for showering, and wonderful organic vegetables and fresh fish with our beer.

Life is good.

If it was about cost, It wouldn't be worth it. If you think about how much your time is worth, there is no way you would save. Not to mention that the amount of money I have tied up in equipment, I would never come close to getting that money back. But money is not even a thought in brewing for me.
16 years ago, I have started a rich tradition, a brewing tradition that never exsisted in my family before. I intend to pass on this tradition to my kids, teaching them the craft and look forward to what they will contribute with fresh ideas and new technologies. Of coarse that is a long way off as they are 2 and 3. But they already enjoy being in the brewhouse (when I'm not actually brewing of coarse.

It's an art. Or is it a science?
I recently explained it to a friend as "something people have been doing for thousands of years, with the same four ingredients that can be as simple or as complex as you want depending on hops or yeast strains & time and temperature".
It's the art & science of magic.

Oh god can we please not have this conversation... everything that can possibly be said about is homebrew more expensive/is homebrew cheaper has been furiously argued many times in just the 6 months I've been on this forum

It's a hobby. Why is there a need to justify it?

bottlebomber said:

Oh god can we please not have this conversation... everything that can possibly be said about is homebrew more expensive/is homebrew cheaper has been furiously argued many times in just the 6 months I've been on this forum

Click to expand...

Ding, ding, ding, we have a WINNER folks... Or is that wiener??

For the record, I don't count hardware costs in my batch costs... I can brew a batch (using fresh, liquid yeast) for somewhere in the $18-$28 range. It all depends on what's going into the brew. I got my current grain supply during a group purchase. I buy my hops in semi-bulk (Farmhouse) or when on sale (Rebel). I make starters so that I can use a single packet of yeast for any batch I'll be brewing.

Since this is a hobby, you really can't count the time spent on it. Well, other than being time well spent.

1 day brewing + X weeks fermenting + Y weeks in keg/bottle + glass of homebrew = PRICELESS!

SarahMatt said:

It's the art & science of magic.

Click to expand...

This. I don't care what anyone says, but Merlin has nothing on me!

Yooper said:

But we have custom made duvet covers on the bed, great homemade soaps for showering, and wonderful organic vegetables and fresh fish with our beer.

Life is good.

Click to expand...

That does sound pretty amazing... im an avid organic gardener and brewer, my wife is an amazing seamstress, and we live 40 minutes from the ocean. I need to encourage her to take up soap making so I can live this dream too

You make it for that one batch every now and then that is so good you cannot buy beer better than it.

It's kind of like golf. You putz around with it, daydream about it, then maybe once or twice a round you hit a shot that'll make you come back out.

petep1980 said:

. . . . . . It's kind of like golf. . . . . . .

Click to expand...

Hmmm, I haven't thrown my racking cane in the pond nor wrapped it around a tree, nor have I run over my keggle with a truck and I haven't given up brewing to save my sanity so I don't see how you can compare brewing to golfing at all.

It's BETTER than golf... More like good sex... You know it when you're doing well, and everyone's happy when it peaks. :rockin:

Brewing is far easier than golf. Unfortunately my last golf outing my final drive was straight and 310 yards (100 more than all the other ones) so I have to go again to prove it wasn't the annual fluke. I could brew two batches of beer for that golf round money! Golf is a drain.

Brewing is an art and a science...Practice the science, perfect the art.

There is enough room in the hobby to get nerdy which I like, and enough room to get creative, which I like.

Saving money is just another draw for me. Not necessarily saving money against commercial beers, but seeing how low I can get my costs without compromising the quality of my beer.

My house ales are about $10 for a 5 gallon batch. The most expensive thing is really just propane (ok ok and grain is comparable even when bought in bulk).

Speak for yourself. I have saved around $1650 the last 18 months or so. It goes like this:

50 batches = 250 gallons, average cost - and this is being conservative - $20 or very roughly $10/case = $1000

Around here I pay $30 a case of decent beer = $3000

Subtract say $350 for my rig + keg setup = $1650 saved. Until I did this I had no idea just how much I was spending on beer!

Oh and "Golf is a good walk, spoiled." (Mark Twain.)

COLObrewer said:

Actually it's four batches (20gallons) for $8 and it's with home malted barley, home roasted grains, home grown hops and yeast cultured from juniper berries. But as I said it takes a ton of time and work. I never really liked buying stuff, not really. If I would have charged myself for my time, I'D BE RICH!!!! . . . . . .wait . . . . . .that doesn't work out, crap.

Click to expand...

Sounds like this "Country Boy Can Survive".

stevedasleeve said:

Speak for yourself. I have saved around $1650 the last 18 months or so. It goes like this:

50 batches = 250 gallons, average cost - and this is being conservative - $20 or very roughly $10/case = $1000

Around here I pay $30 a case of decent beer = $3000

Subtract say $350 for my rig + keg setup = $1650 saved. Until I did this I had no idea just how much I was spending on beer!

Click to expand...

+1

The beer I like can go for 7$-9$ a bomber in stores. On average a batch will cost me around 20-30 depending on hop quantities, yeast type etc... I buy grain in bulk so that helps.

So in a 5 gallon batch, I've saved roughly 170$ for comparable brew/styles. I made it, it sits in a keg in my kegerator and that kinda makes it priceless.

****, some of the beers I buy can cost as much as 16 bucks a six pack. I can make a great beer that is very similar, for $25 a 5 gallon batch and that's not buying in bulk.

Arguing that home-brewing saves you money is like arguing that hand-loading for firearms saves you money. You hand-load for precision, quality ammunition. Same thing goes for beer. If I wanted cheap I would keep drinking PBR.

My house beer costs me < $20 per batch if I re-use yeast, and that's without buying anything in bulk. I did the math, and if put off buying kegging equipment until next year I'll have made up the costs and be saving a ton.

That said, I don't brew beer for a cheap drink, I do it to express myself in one of those few creative things that I'm good at.

All good reasons but I'll add another, often overlooked but very important one: because we can.

A right not exercised will be a right lost. The same as gun rights have been slowly eroded and now is coming back in bits and pieces. Excerise your right! When the tax man cometh, thumb your nose at him since YOU brewed it! Maryland has just put another 10% sin tax on store bought beer. If I never buy another store bought beer it will be too soon.

Stay thirsty my friends!

desertw0lf said:

arguing that home-brewing saves you money is like arguing that hand-loading for firearms saves you money. You hand-load for precision, quality ammunition. Same thing goes for beer. If i wanted cheap i would keep drinking pbr.

Click to expand...

+1

I don't brew to save money, but a 24 is nearly $50 up here in Soviet Canuckistan. I made a simple bitter this weekend that cost me...let's see...$10 for grain, $4 for hops, and $2.50 for yeast (fourth use of a Wyeast). Add in a few brewing salts, equipment costs, etc...maybe $25 for the batch.

1/4 the cost of buying, give or take.

Yeah, I'm a cheapskate, I do it to save money, even if it's very little with a high buy in.
I know time is money, but my time is worth about $0.15/hr if it's something I enjoy doing.

But I'd also have to agree about the hand loading analogy. That's another hobby I'd like to get into... to save money... and to do it better than the factories can.

I need to start doing hand loading... it hurts my heart to leave 5 pounds of brass in the dirt at the shooting range.

Feh, to those that say homebrewing isn't cheaper: come to Ontario! $40 for a 24 of crappy macro beer, and $50+ for micro! And that's if you can find the micro you want at your local beer store or liquor store, we drown in a sea of crappy beer up here

I for one, got into this game so I could have cheap, drinkable beer!

Sokrateez,

I hear you! When a case of twenty-four of Southern Tier's 2XIPA would in theory cost over $70 at the LCBO that's when I decided that I needed to devote serious time to homebrewing.