Should Have Started Doing This A Long Time Ago

Well I was down at my local Brew Pub the other day. And after paying $18.95 to fill a 2L growler, I thought there has to be a better way. Fortunately one of my buddies has a carboy that was not being used. And a LHBS opened up a few blocks down the street. I am pretty sure most of you know the rest of the Story.

The simple recipe for my first batch was:

8lb liquid malt
4oz Cascade
2oz Crystal
WLP001


I wanted to drink as soon as possible so I decided to use a keg and I just do not have time for bottles. On Wed. night I keg/carbonated my first ever batch of HB and started cooking the next batch at the same time. It has taken a couple of days for the carbonation to set in. This evening as I write this it tastes as good as any of the beer I have ever had.

I have used this site for reference and assurance many times over the past few weeks and thanks to all who contribute. I hope to never buy beer from the Corner Market again. Unless a hot chick wants a light Beer.

Here are a couple of pics of my setup.

I feel the same way, my company sent me to Munich for a couple months; ever since then I've been hooked on wheat beer, and also the Belgian "white" beer.

My first batch of Belgian Wit came out great! I shoulda been doing this a long time ago

I had a feeling That I was not the only one.

Here is another pic I took with a digital Microscope.

And here are the ingredients for the batch that is currently Fermenting:


.5# Caravienne
.5# Carapilis
.5# 40L Crystal/Caramel

9# liquid Malt

4oz Chinook

There is an optional Dry Hop and I have not yet decided to use.

I like the photomicrograph. Darndest thing I ever saw,looks like bubbles containing yeast cells. Quite orderly for what looks like chaos in the fermenter. Recipe looks ok for a pale ale. I'm getting ready to do a PM IPA with marris otter,pale malt (both from crisp),crystal 40L,& carapils,with some plain light DME. According to BS2,it should duplicate the amber orange color I was getting from my AE PA/APA/IPA base recipe with those wonderful English malt flavors.

If you think you're going to save money by homebrewing, all I have to say is "good luck!"

That is a tough path to follow.

LHBC said:

Well I was down at my local Brew Pub the other day. And after paying $18.95 to fill a 2L growler, I thought there has to be a better way. Fortunately one of my buddies has a carboy that was not being used. And a LHBS opened up a few blocks down the street. I am pretty sure most of you know the rest of the Story.

The simple recipe for my first batch was:

8lb liquid malt
4oz Cascade
2oz Crystal
WLP001


I wanted to drink as soon as possible so I decided to use a keg and I just do not have time for bottles. On Wed. night I keg/carbonated my first ever batch of HB and started cooking the next batch at the same time. It has taken a couple of days for the carbonation to set in. This evening as I write this it tastes as good as any of the beer I have ever had.

I have used this site for reference and assurance many times over the past few weeks and thanks to all who contribute. I hope to never buy beer from the Corner Market again. Unless a hot chick wants a light Beer.

Here are a couple of pics of my setup.

Click to expand...

Dood, is that FOOD in your kegerator?

weirdboy said:

If you think you're going to save money by homebrewing, all I have to say is "good luck!"

That is a tough path to follow.

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+1

I think the fact that he owns a digital microscope suggests that money isn't the issue per se, its giving the money to the corner store.

Looks like juice & berries to me. And saving $$ on brewing isn't too hard. I get local spring water from the source for 10c per gallon,I'm starting yeast washing,& PM brewing saves,on average,10-12 bucks per batch as well. Which over the course of 4 PM brews went towards needed new equipment.:cross:

I have only one fridge right now. And I have the Micro. from other projects.

I also live in San Diego and some of the prices for beer are ridiculous (Ballast Point in particular...word of caution, don't frequent their homebrew shop on Linda Vista Rd. as they don't know much about the hobby and the prices are not competitive...their really just there to serve tasters)

...but we also have some of the best breweries in Southern California so you should still get beer from them on occasion (like Coronado and Stone Brewing Companies because those are the two I've noticed who are experimenting the most right now) so you can see what else you may want to add to your next batch. I'm sure if you asked them, they'd be willing to tell you the ingredients they use, that way you can determine the type of hops you want to use to give a particular flavor.

Congratulations on getting started. Just think, that as you learn more and create better recipes and refine your techniques, that first one is likely to be one of your worst brews!

Also, If you get to all grain brewing, reuse your yeast, buy grains in bulk and get to a point where you stop buying new equipment, you CAN brew for less that it costs to buy the beer commercially. I have kept track and am now spending less that $2 per bottle.

Thanx for the advice and encouragement. I have been going to The Best Damn Brew Shop in Down Town. It is cool to know that experience will equal better Beer.

Whys the hot chick gotta want light beer?!!

I just mean that is what it would take to get me to go. Usually they like good beer.

Here are a couple of more pics.

Fantastic voyage 2013! Is it just me,or do those look like bubbles full of yeast cells??

unionrdr said:

Fantastic voyage 2013! Is it just me,or do those look like bubbles full of yeast cells??

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What you are seeing are the bubbles reflecting other bubbles. Based on the size of the bubbles, that picture isn't taken under a high enough power to visualize yeast cells directly.

Ah. It threw me due to the whitish color of the "inner" bubbles....

NadoHawk said:

I also live in San Diego and some of the prices for beer are ridiculous (Ballast Point in particular...word of caution, don't frequent their homebrew shop on Linda Vista Rd. as they don't know much about the hobby and the prices are not competitive...their really just there to serve tasters)

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Everytime I go to the grocery store I see the sixer of ballast point IPA on the shelf with its $16.99 price tag and I think, "Nah, maybe next time."

They are really pricing themselves out of the market.

weirdboy said:

If you think you're going to save money by homebrewing, all I have to say is "good luck!"

That is a tough path to follow.

Click to expand...

What's the old saying?

Home brewing to save money on beer is like buying a boat to save money on fish?

The scope Max is 150x. And the last pic is taken at pretty close to that. There was some yeast in the bottom of the bottle used for blow off.

Also the top pic was taken a few days ago when the fermentation was very active. The lower one was taken this morning and thing are down to a slow bubble.

Depends on how you're saving the money. To stock up on the style of beer my wife and I like the most it requires at least a tank of gas. At $50 for the gas and $15 for a 12 pack it becomes more cost effective must faster. A couple pounds of Niko hops when they were on sale for cheap and going predominantly AG (parted ways with my fly sparge equip when we moved but I think I'm happier with Batch honestly) along with frequently washing yeast and it's better than competitive. The beer selection where I live is a bit lacking but it is growing now at least. Most of my equipment is mishmashed together though to be fair and I picked up my carboys when they were on sale for $20/shipped @ Amazon.

The price of "Craft" Beer definitely weighs in favor of making your own. Some of these guys have even started selling 4-packs. And it is cool being able to bring Growlers to a party filled with your own beer. I do not own a car so not much spent on Gas these days.

Accidic said:

Depends on how you're saving the money. To stock up on the style of beer my wife and I like the most it requires at least a tank of gas. At $50 for the gas and $15 for a 12 pack it becomes more cost effective must faster. A couple pounds of Niko hops when they were on sale for cheap and going predominantly AG (parted ways with my fly sparge equip when we moved but I think I'm happier with Batch honestly) along with frequently washing yeast and it's better than competitive. The beer selection where I live is a bit lacking but it is growing now at least. Most of my equipment is mishmashed together though to be fair and I picked up my carboys when they were on sale for $20/shipped @ Amazon.

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If you are going to count the gas it takes for you to get the commercial beer, then you need to take into account the gas it cost for your AG ingredients to get to you. Then there is the whole cost of your time to brew versus to buy pre-made and ready to drink. Plus opportunity costs, if you were so inclined to do so, then amortized depreciation costs of the equipment you bought to brew that beer, propane cost, water costs, ingredient cost; electricity costs, etc.

I make this argument alot, and I'm usually flamed for it...but here I am doing it again. People do some creative accounting to justify their brewing. They obsess over saving $2-3 on a pound of hops, but figure that the 6 hours they spent brewing is somehow "free".

I'm all for saving money when you can and lowering the price/bottle; but to say you can actually make beer cheaper than what you can buy it for is a bit of a stretch.

No, you wouldn't include the cost of gas unless you went to buy it. As my LHBS is closed atm I pay to ship. I consider that in the cost of materials. Even if my LHBS was open, I burn under 2g to go and that's assuming traffic. If I add it into my trip home from work I use less than $1 in gas. I fill my propane tank on wednesdays when it's halfprice so I probably use $8 of fuel. My AG setup was pieced together with stuff I got for next to nothing to include the burner/pot I got from a yard sale unused for $5. The only splurge item I have is a MM2.0 I got as a joint birthday present and honestly I think part of that is because they use it to grind corn.

All in all a batch works out to about $40 at best. $50 if I have to get extra hops, yeast, or specialty grains. Compound that with the wife expecting to go shopping on a trip like that and there is no comparison. Granted if I just aspired to get drunk I'm perfectly happy with rockgut vodka. Even still, even if you went a bit overboard it's still a more productive and potentially beneficial hobby than golf...

Forgot the coolbrewing bag I got for christmas. The ice requires little energy to make but provide extra insurance in the event of power outtage and make a little of the cost to freeze in efficiency.

weirdboy said:

If you think you're going to save money by homebrewing, all I have to say is "good luck!"

That is a tough path to follow.

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you must like your cheap beer .. the dirty 30 .. bud light ?? right??.. i figured i get 42 - 48 bottles from 5 gallons at a 1$ or 2$ a bottle!! .. i hate cheap beer so in my book i am saving money

Interesting question: if I can make good beer at half price, how much beer do I have to drink to make a "profit"? Factor in making a kegerator, and at least two 5gal kegs, with all the brewing stuff, gas, etc.

The key factor is the beer consumption rate Say you consume a case a week, that's about $50 in retail terms (I only drink European wheat beers). That's a $25 savings a week, but the cost of the stuff was ..... zip, beep, $600. So I need to drink beer for another 24 weeks, and then I start to really save.

I think I can do that

My goal is to take a cpl kegs down to the lake, and if they are good, they'll be empty in a weekend.

billpaustin said:

So I need to drink beer for another 24 weeks WITHOUT BUYING MORE EQUIPMENT, and then I start to really save.

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Fixed that for ya! I didn't check the math but yes saving money by homebrewing can be done. Its just difficult for us with addictive personalities.

But I like to think I would be deeper in the hole with one of my other hobbies (fishing for example) which also generally involves beer consumption. By brewing I'm scratching the DIY itch and making good beer to go with the other hobbies. Its like double savings.

Can't wait to crack one of my Brown Trout Stouts at 7am on Opening Day in a couple weeks!

It also helps if you be patient and buy on sale for certain things, plan ahead, and use your wife's plan for a birthday party to supply some equipment (flasks, vials, rack etc). To be fair tho it helps most of all to have enough experience to know what you can "get by" with as opposed to want want want.

I'm convinced my homebrew is costing less than commercial including my aggressive depreciation schedule....all durable equipment amortized over 30 batches which is expected to be 18 months. I end up at about $1.25/bottle. That will go up a bit when I start using propane instead of NG but am looking forward to getting outside when the weather is nicer. Not counting time brewing or time spent posting on HBT, it's a hobby...

That said my waistline is also pretty clear evidence that my consumption has increased, likely offsetting most of the savings.

I feel the same way.

And for those who say homebrewing doesn't save money...well it depends on your equipment! You CAN make good beer with $200 worth of brewing equipment if you were so inclined and after 4 batches you would have covered the cost of the equipment.

I brew my session pale ales for about $4 for 12-pack of 12oz bottles. When you drink 12 beers per week on average the savings starts to add up fast.

I'm very much a minimalist myself,only buying what I need to make the job smoother,easier,faster. I buy a piece here & there as is warranted buy need or replacement. Like the bell on my wing capper stretching out a bit & leaving caps that leak under pressure. So I bought a super agata bench capper. I used it to bottle a dark lager on St Patrick's day. I've noticed that different breweries bottles cap differently. Sam Adams are very easy,Paulaner as well. But the Paulaner bottles leave the sides of the cap a bit straighter vertically than the Sam Adams. Even moreso than the other craft bottles,which leave the sides of the caps at the same angle as the collar under the lip. Some of these plain craft bottles stick in the capper's bell too. They don't leak,so we'll see how that works out.
When I brewed my BuckIPA originally,it cost me 57c per bottle. With drouts & wild fires driving up grain prices nowadays,that'll likely go up a bit. But it was an AE ale,whereas PM would still be cheaper.

The whole argument about is home brew less expensive than buying craft beer is kind of silly. No it is dang silly to try and compare one persons brewing favorites and system to another's.

My first brew cost 70 bucks for equipment, grain and yeast. I was able to reuse things like a cooler and such so my initial investment was not much. I buy grain, hops in bulk and reuse my yeast along with only brewing low gravity batches. I spend 10 bucks in grain and yeast for my light session beer and 15 bucks for the few browns I brew.

Compare 10 bucks for 60 beers since I brew 6 gallon batches to a 30 pack of bud light at 20 bucks and I am saving 30 bucks a batch or paid for my set up and put money in my pocket after 3 batches.

Does that mean that the guy that has spent thousands of dollars to brew his beer is wrong. No not hardly wrong at all just a different road than the one I took.

And by the way I do not brew to save money but rather because I enjoy it. The savings for me is just icing on the cake.

Yeah,that's about the size of it. Being retired,I need cost savings wherever I can,but that's gravy compared to enjoying brewing to start with. I just don't believe all that high dollar hardware is a necessity,but rather a nicety.

Well I have been getting Growlers filled for between $20-40/gal. (incl. tip). The price will vary based on Alcohol content. Hell even Banquet Beer at the Local Market is $10/gal. Also Corny kegs appreciate in Value. And compared to other Hobbies the supplies are very reasonably priced considering the return we get them.

For instance I have been watching this TV show about a Zombie Apocalypse. Think of how valuable Brewing skills and equipment would be in that kind of situation.

Ok. I truly doubt if there were such a thing they'd be all that useful save the pots perhaps for gathering/sanitizing water. Brewing would not be all that useful for more than entertainment value and even that would be excessively dangerous.

@Varmint,
Being fair, I believe his point was once you tallied up all the costs. AKA, cost of materials and ingredients, cost of gas or electricity to heat, cost of bottle caps, bottles (although this is more or less a one time charge) cost to clean said bottles), sanitizer, occasional hosing replacement, initial equipment (amortized), replacement equipment potentially needed due to breakage/contamination, and of course the occasional batch that frankly, just goes wrong. I can buy the ingredients for a batch pretty easily for $10-20 but the rest was factored in for the other things that go into it. The key factor here is while you might get more out of putting more money into it, you can also get stellar results by going the cheapest possible route as well. Or at the very least, good enough results to justify it over a ~180 mile each way road trip in my case.

That said, for people who are trying to save a penny and want to cut corners wherever they can, making your own bleach (calcium based but works fine for sanitizing) can be bought for about $10/box and lasts somewhere between eons and forever as it translates to hundreds upon hundreds of gallons of bleach. That said, I put my splurge money towards a bulk long lasting bottle of starsan and buy the big boxes of Oxy.

broadbill said:

I make this argument alot, and I'm usually flamed for it...but here I am doing it again. People do some creative accounting to justify their brewing. They obsess over saving $2-3 on a pound of hops, but figure that the 6 hours they spent brewing is somehow "free".

I'm all for saving money when you can and lowering the price/bottle; but to say you can actually make beer cheaper than what you can buy it for is a bit of a stretch.

Click to expand...

Why should you count the time involved brewing? If you enjoy it it is not work it is fun. Plenty of people have other hobbies that not only cost more money but are less fun with no benefit of producing a consumable good.

I think it's most accurate to only count expenses that actually cost something. Electricity,gas burners,gas for the car,shipping costs,etc can be legitimitly factored in. but it'd be rather difficult to accurately pinpoint exactly how much electricity,natural gas,& the like are used only for brewing.
So I count the immediet costs & devide by the number of bottles I get. Close enough for comparison's sake.

I don't understand how you can't save money at this, as compared to purchasing the equivalent retail, provided you brew enough of course. 6 packs of "craft" beer here run around $8-$10 dollars. Bombers start at $4.99.. If you add the cost of your hourly rate, I can't see how anyone that doesn't work at McDonalds wouldn't lose money. But the real question is why look at this like that? I am all for an efficient brew day, but I still enjoy doing it. If I didn't, I would buy commercial, and drink less. I enjoy challenging myself in efficient brew techniques and cost control, beyond the usual of trying to brew a great beer. I guess brewing a great beer just isn't enough for me?