You know you're a home brewer when?

Black Island Brewer said:

When you look at $12 bombers in the bottle shop and use it as justification for spending a couple grand a year on your "cheap hobby".

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At a microbrewery 5gal kegs were going for $90 + deposit. I've yet to spend half that much on a batch.

frozennorth said:

Granted, the initial investment is a chunk of change, but you can make the cost per brew cheaper. My question is how do you "do it right". I can not seem to get them under $50.

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Seems a little high to me, even factoring for electricity/propane. My most affordable was a batch and parti-gyle yielding 4 cases (24x355ml) for $28+hydro.

frozennorth said:

Granted, the initial investment is a chunk of change, but you can make the cost per brew cheaper. My question is how do you "do it right". I can not seem to get them under $50.

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Go All-Grain and quit brewing extract.


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It would also help to know what you are brewing. My most expensive batch was over $60, but it is an 8.2% Belgian. (People love it) The liquid yeast, spices, and big grain bill all raised the price. If you are brewing IIPAs, it's hard to make them cheaply. But buying in bulk, grain is $1/lb, hops $1/oz, yeast $3. That puts me under $25 ingredients most times for APA. Water is cheap here, electric expensive. I haven't calculated my power use, but I doubt it adds over $5.

You know you're a homebrewer when you pretend your only costs are for ingredients.

Black Island Brewer said:

You know you're a homebrewer when you pretend your only costs are for ingredients.

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Thats the one that keeps me from going All Grain. Figuring in the 'hidden costs' of propane and water and equipment. .... The extract seems just as 'cheap' after all those costs are added to the price of the grain....

WilliamSlayer said:

Thats the one that keeps me from going All Grain. Figuring in the 'hidden costs' of propane and water and equipment. .... The extract seems just as 'cheap' after all those costs are added to the price of the grain....

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Well water you are using either way so that's a wash yeast same thing goes. Propane or electric you use as you should still be at least boiling your extract with hops. And with approx1$ a pound of grain average 10-15pounds a brew I think all grain is the cheaper route. Heck a paint strainer bag and a 7-10 gallon pot is really the only needed cost maybe a mill if a LHBS isn't so L



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You know you're a homebrewer when you're driving down the road with two cases of bottles that were given to you and wonder how many "Open Containers" can they write you for at one time.

GilSwillBasementBrews said:

Well water you are using either way so that's a wash yeast same thing goes. Propane or electric you use as you should still be at least boiling your extract with hops. And with approx1$ a pound of grain average 10-15pounds a brew I think all grain is the cheaper route. Heck a paint strainer bag and a 7-10 gallon pot is really the only needed cost maybe a mill if a LHBS isn't so L



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I agree. I do BIAB and I managed to purchase a pretty nice 10 gallon stainless brewing pot for little more than $120. I figured it didn't take many of my high gravity brews for the saving of going all-grain to pay for the pot. My mill is one of those cheap corn mills and the crank handle replaced with a homemade fitting that connects to my cordless drill. My cost of brewing a barleywine dropped from around $55 worth of materials when brewing with extracts to $20 worth of materials by going all grain.

I went all grain a while ago, biggest "cost savings" I've noticed so far, also buying mlat in bulk through group buys; although the buy-in can be a bit much, it's worth it... I put "cost savings" in quotes because I still spend the same amount of money I did before (probably more), I just spend the bulk of it on equipment now

I do BIAB AG on the stove-top (mash, sparge, full or partial boil depending on how I'm feeling htat night)

base malt is $0.80/lb+/- specialty malt is $0.90/lb+/- (I buy 50lb sacks or split sacks of specialty malt)
I buy bulk hops separate and freeze at $10/lb or less so like $0.63/oz
I have food-grade air tight bins for storing the malt (I don't remember how much they cost)
My induction ready 8 gal (32 qt) pot was $80+/- (no ball valve)
--you can buy them for $110 with ball valve now on amazon
grain mill was a gift ($100-$200 depending on your choices)
kegging gear - I've lost track how much I've spent on kegging gear, I don't remember how much my CL chest freezer was, I built a collar, and was gifted two 630ss tap setups but will be buying two more, as well as a new regulator and misc lines/connectors etc.

as far as ingredients go - a 5 gallon "finished" batch of a SMaSH is ridiculously cheap - ingredients are about $10+/- (malt, hops, yeast). That doesn't include sanitation, CO2, electric etc. and I'm on a well so water costs are moot. But still, way cheaper than any other method.

ALSO you know you're a homebrewer when - you try to convert others to AG by explaining that although it won't save them money, it will give them more beer per dollar spent.

I also just blew a couple hundey-sticks on ball lock kegs I didn't exactly need; I just couldn't pass them up, I may need them some day

When you immediately notice Corny kegs used in movie 'drug labs' as props and get distracted and annoyed while wondering what genius is wasting them when the prices for them keep going up. The jerks.

When you are in a brew-pub, tasting a flight, and your wife says: "Eh, yours are better."
It didn't go to my head too much, she still liked the Lagunitas Undercover Shut-Down better than any of mine.

When you make your friends save all there bottles for you. Also have them drink Carlo Rossi just so you can have a mini mash fermentor for a test batch.


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When you've been kegging exclusively for a year, but refuse to get rid of 120 of your de-labelled bottles "just in case" you need to bottle a couple batches.

SPR-GRN said:

When you've been kegging exclusively for a year, but refuse to get rid of 120 of your de-labelled bottles "just in case" you need to bottle a couple batches.

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Ive done the same thing, but kegging for 2 years and closer to 300 bottles. Just got a buddy brewing two weeks ago, so he gets to inherit my bottle collection. Needless to say, SWMBO is pleased to have them leaving. They certainly DO come in handy, though.

3 kegs, building a kegerator, an Im embarrassed to say how many bottles. Its amazing why you find when u clean and organize your garage


"Sometimes Im right half of the time ...."

TrustyOlJohnson said:

3 kegs, building a kegerator, an Im embarrassed to say how many bottles. Its amazing why you find when u clean and organize your garage


"Sometimes Im right half of the time ...."

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+1 I know there are 3 cases (probably 4) of labeled bombers hiding in the garage. I think they were buried under her stuff for safe keeping.

Jeremy_84 said:

When you make your friends save all there bottles for you. Also have them drink Carlo Rossi just so you can have a mini mash fermentor for a test batch.


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I WISH I knew people who drank Carlo Rossi! I have bought it three times and mostly drank it all to have for some one gallon batches.

SO I guess mine would be, you drink cheapo wine just for the fermenting jugs

fuzzy2133 said:

+1 I know there are 3 cases (probably 4) of labeled bombers hiding in the garage. I think they were buried under her stuff for safe keeping.

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I wish that was all. I found nearly 50 cases, jus 4 of which were partially filled. Then half a dozen cases of bomber bottles, plus wine and champagne bottles. Evidentally cleaning bottles is theraputic for me or something. Hence, there are cases of clean bottles for sale in East Central Illinois for $8 a case. Jus get ahold of me


"Sometimes Im right half of the time ...."

When you will be asking your wine drinking friends to drinks acouple Rossi bottles after catchin up on this thread, thanks guys gallon fermenters check

JohnSand said:

When you are in a brew-pub, tasting a flight, and your wife says: "Eh, yours are better."
It didn't go to my head too much, she still liked the Lagunitas Undercover Shut-Down better than any of mine.

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I'm just finishing off a 22oz bomber of Lagunitas NightTime. It's very good and only $5

I'll keep an eye open for it. Most bombers I see around here are $8+.

JohnSand said:

I'll keep an eye open for it. Most bombers I see around here are $8+.

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Consider location. They're not going to sell for the same price cross country. With Lagunitas opening up shop in Chicago it is possible we'll see a slight decrease since distribution distance is cut in half, but $8 +/- is more what you and I would pay on the East coast. Notwithstanding, it's a delicious beer.

I got a bomber of lagunitas cappuccino stout for $5.99 in Ohio a few weeks ago!


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When you see an ad that says, "single, double, triple" and you instantly think ipa, not burgers or baseball.


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Hello said:

Consider location. They're not going to sell for the same price cross country. With Lagunitas opening up shop in Chicago it is possible we'll see a slight decrease since distribution distance is cut in half, but $8 +/- is more what you and I would pay on the East coast. Notwithstanding, it's a delicious beer.

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Lagunitas bombers are typically $4-$6 here in NY.

Villa Spirits in Birmingham has all Lagunitas 22oz bottles for $4.59 and all 6-packs are $8.99, even the seasonal ones.

When you hear of a start up Whiskey distiller and call him immediately for his barrels.

He had a waiting list 100 people long already the jerk bags beat me to him.

Maybe I need to distill my own whiskey so 15 years from now I can have my own darn barrel.


I'm not sure if my the flavors in my beer are off or complex 😳

When you walk through the bulk ingredients section of your grocery store and think 'yeah, I can brew with that'

When you spend the week of your vacation between spring and summer term replumbing your basement to install a new washer and dryer against a different wall in order to make more room in your basement to build your electric brewery.

Of course we did need a new washer and dryer, but the GF doesn't need to know the real reason for doing this. I even plumbed in a large wash basin. No more brew crap in the house. No more assembling and disasembling each brew...

I ordered the boil coils and rims rocket for my blichmann kettles. Now I'm ordering the parts for my BCS control panel. I already got the nema enclosure ordered. I'm 90% done with my brewery! Two years in the making... I won't know what to do with myself after this is finished. But then again I did read about diy glycol builds for cooling a conical. And I already have most the stuff...

It is all expensive up here in AK!

You and a buddy recklessly go to town on your keggerator packed with high gravity homebrew and you both end up passed out face down on the garage floor...wait maybe that's under the thread 'You Know You're an Alcoholic When?"

Cheers!


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Black Island Brewer said:

You know you're a homebrewer when you pretend your only costs are for ingredients.

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I've had that argument on an outdoors forum I frequent; the topic of reloading your own ammunition came up and several of us commented about how we can reload for under half the cost of factory-loaded ammunition. OF COURSE, Mr. Economics has to jump in and point out that that's not true, because we each had a couple hundred dollars wrapped up in equipment, and to be absolutely honest, we would have to figure the spread of that cost out - as you loaded more rounds, your overall average cost would eventually come down, but that first couple hundred rounds, you'd effectively have a $1/round cost instead of the $0.12/round we were quoting.

Our argument was (and is the same for homebrewing); the equipment cost is what it costs to get into the hobby - anything you do is going to have a 'startup cost'. It cost me $250 to get into reloading. Yes, it takes me an hour to load 100 rounds, and in theory that hour has a cost in terms of my time -- but I don't say fishing or woodworking costs me $50/hour, so why should I have to figure a time cost for reloading (or brewing)?

When you reluctantly go antique shopping with your wife for furnishings for your new house and you purchase:
1) An old beat up cast iron pan for use in the smoker
2) A cigar box as a housing for your stir plate project, and
3) A 5 gallon glass carboy in need of some love for $35

Wife's purchases:
1) A $3 bag of boiled peanuts.

Antique shopping ain't half bad

The Google Maps street view of your house shows you mid-brew session:



:rockin:

SPR-GRN said:

When you've been kegging exclusively for a year, but refuse to get rid of 120 of your de-labelled bottles "just in case" you need to bottle a couple batches.

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It's like you're inside my head.

When you do a sink full of dishes after cleaning your hydrometer & tube. And SWMBO sees you doing it. GOOOOAAAALLL!

BeerBDrew said:

The Google Maps street view of your house shows you mid-brew session:

:rockin:

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Thats impressive!


"Sometimes Im right half of the time ...."

BeerBDrew said:

The Google Maps street view of your house shows you mid-brew session

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That's awesome

--

When you're buzzing pretty good from simply pulling. Samples of the full kegs in the basement. I never labled them, and it's time to get things cleaned and organized...

I have 40 gallons of stuff just sitting there. Most of the kegs have been in there for a while, so they got some age on them.

- Apple wine about two and a half years old
- Nut brown
- Graf that's probably a year old and smooth as all hell
- Centennial blonde. I was worried this wouldn't be good aged, but it's very citrus and delicious
- pear cider this is 2+ years old. I crushed the pears myself.

Then the less old stuff
- Malted hard lemonade I gotta rack this out of the conical soon to get ready for the 4th
- lime wheat
- Saison

Anyone Live near by? Up for a party? Bring a growler over...

Used to live in salem amd would have gladly made the treck lol, live in Houston TX now

Cheesy_Goodness said:

When you buy Bud Lite from the store for an out of town guest and feel the need to explain to the cashier that it's really not for you.

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Seriously. I know it.