What is your cost per pint?

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I have purchased most of my equipment used...with 20 batches done, I think it has been paid off. I brew all grain, utilize a frequent customer discount at my LHBS, and farm/wash yeast... I have been as low as $12/5 gallon and as high as $28/5 gal, but most styles I enjoy are in the $16 to 18 range...easily under $.50 each....for decent to excellent craft brew that would cost $1.35 to $3.00 per bottle in my local Utah State Liquor Store.

I do drink beer more often now...but that is more than offset by how much less i drink wine and hard alcohol....so another savings.

Looking at it in another scale: I typically spend $20-$25 per week (or every other) at my LHBS, and visit the liquor store at most 1 time per month for $30ish...total $100ish per month...AND I have built up 200+ bottles of beer in my cellar...and give away quite a bit more. Before brewing my alcohol spending was much higher...my enjoyment lower. Seems like a good way to spend my spare time.
 
I'll be the first to say that it is mathematically impossible to calculate my cost per beer of homebrew. Since my first batch is still sitting in that magic bucket, if I were to attempt to crunch numbers I would have to divide by zero. As we all know, trying to do that makes planets explode.

I started homebrewing because I love beer, I love GOOD beer, and I want good beer all the time. I've had some of the greatest microbrews in my life at places that are thousands of miles away and impossible to get here.

Plus, how good do you guys feel when you give someone a beer and they say, "Damn, that's a good beer!"

/waxing philosophical
 
There are definitely different facets to homebrewing. For the people who treat it as a hobby (depends on what you mean by hobby), it's a place where your disposable income goes. If I had to scrape by to keep in me in beer, I'm sure I could do it. It just wouldn't be as fun. I mow my own lawn to save money but I wouldn't call it a hobby.
 
Now that I buy most of my base malts and hops in bulk, I'd say around $0.55/pint for an average gravity/hopped beers, up to around $1/pint for a high gravity IIPA with a pound of hops in it.

I could get my costs down a bit more if I could reliably wash my yeast, but I always end up racking my beer during a brew day and I'm usually too tired/lazy to wash my yeast.

As others have noted, this definitely does not account for equipment and other "fixed" costs. E.g. I never would have purchased a kegerator had I not started brewing my own beer. And, brewing my own beer has further opened my eyes to the vast array of craft beers out there, so I almost certainly spend more per beer on commercial beers than I used to.

In any case, it'll be a long while before I break even. Fortunately, I love the hobby, so I'm not really trying to save money.
 
yso191 said:
Lets see... $3,873 on brewing expenses since I started in June. 15 gallons brewed... That would be $32.28 per pint.

Steve
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Wow! Hopefully your investment pays off in the decades to come. Was looking over the $79 turkey fryer I started brewing with three years ago last brew day and I figured out that my kettle had contributed about $0.03 to my pint cost. My $60 cooler mash/lauter tun has had maybe 200 gallons run through it... That's something like $0.06 for my equipment amortization.
 
I'm typically at $28 for a 5.5 gallon batch of all grain. More if I'm adding something exotic like Belgian candy sugar. That's about 44 pints so $0.64 per pint. That does not include propane, water, soap, or sterilizer.
 
Bobby_M said:
There are definitely different facets to homebrewing. For the people who treat it as a hobby (depends on what you mean by hobby), it's a place where your disposable income goes. If I had to scrape by to keep in me in beer, I'm sure I could do it. It just wouldn't be as fun. I mow my own lawn to save money but I wouldn't call it a hobby.
Click to expand...

very good analogy with the lawn mowing, I personally got into the hobby because I could not get the beers I liked at the time where I moved to and wanted to try replicating them at home. Well since then it has moved into obsession.
 
adman said:
I could get my costs down a bit more if I could reliably wash my yeast, but I always end up racking my beer during a brew day and I'm usually too tired/lazy to wash my yeast.
Click to expand...

If I feel that way I just put the bung back and do it another day. Haven't had an issue yet.
 
I love making beer because I love beer. But, I do like to see my (simple) batch-to-batch costs more for peace of mind that I'm spending less than going out and drinking it in a bar. Mine is averaging .40 to .60 cents a pint.

Bringing it more off topic, because it's fun: :off:
Of course, there are all sorts of costs, and I'm surprised no one tried to bring in the costs of their wives/significant other's as a cost when they leave for the day to go out shopping. If I did that I'd stay in the red every brew day by at least $60.
So, I choose to keep it simple and enjoy my beer.
 
I don't mean to be pedantic, but this is kind of a pedantic topic isn't it? ;)

But the question is cost per pint. Doing an amazing job of figuring out cost per bottle, is not apples to apples. I can do the math, but I thought I'd point out that the OP asked:

What is your cost per pint?
Click to expand...

To the poster above: I am both impressed and inspired by your awesome spreadsheet. I can make my own, but if you care to share, please PM me?

Thanks..and sorry for being pedantic. :mug:
 
Based on cost of ingredients... I can make a mild for about $0.17 a pint. Rinsed yeast, $40 sack of British pale malt, bulk or free hops - it's pretty good. I should add that my lease has free water and the introduction of weekly all grain brewing hasn't raised my natural gas bill a cent. Slightly higher than that if you count in equipment and the like. Of course, 40 or so batches in on my current equipment and I think I've paid it off. $40 for a pot, ~$60 for cooler and fittings. However, I am now thinking about building an electric brewery which would throw the whole equipment thing way way off.
 
Frogmanx82 said:
Yeah, belgian candi sugar is expensive to buy and probably not as good as what you could make. Thanks for that link, I've definitely considered doing my own candi sugar and that's a good summary.

Even buying grains in bulk, I don't see how people are getting under $20 for a 5 gallon batch unless you are reusing yeast.
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I´m going to break down a recipe cost (i buy in euros most of the times but prices are in dollars and quantities in kilos 2pounds: .09 kilos)

23 liter IPA (a little over 6 gallons:

4.5 kg of pale malt.......................$5
0.5 kg of diverse cristal malts.........$1.45
1 kg (munich or vienne).................$1.8
0.3 kg of table sugar.....................$0.3
1oz of high alpha hop for biterring....$1
2oz cascade................................$1.9
2oz centennial.............................$4.5
1 oz summit.................................$0.8

total grains+ hops: $15.75

yeast: from a plate or slant cost of making one slant...around $ 0.15,
Dme wort needed to step up from a single cell colony: $....1.5
Miscelaneos¡us (caps, wirfloc, chemicals for water, sanitizers and cleaners) no more than $1.5.

total cost: $18.90 ad that $1.10 for electricity. And there you go $20 for 6 gallons IPA (that will give around 5.6 gallons bottled)

Of course this is made up recipe that I´ve never brewed but the cost are even a little higher of real cost, I´m acounting for shipping costs as well, and this are of things I have in stock..., you can definitely brew a beer for less than $20 a pale ale will cost less in hops, or you can make a bigger IPA and spend more.
 
Looking at the cost of the pm pale ale kit I brewed last time,I get 53c per bottle. Depends on costs for the batch vs how many bottles.
 
jbaysurfer said:
But the question is cost per pint.
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I'm guessing most of us are actually computing our cost per "beer" which is usually 12 oz. If you're bottling - it's almost always 12 ounces. Most of the "pint" glasses that we collect are also usually 12 oz glasses. It's really hard to find a real pint here in the US.

My costs stated were per 12 oz pour.
 
JonW said:
I'm guessing most of us are actually computing our cost per "beer" which is usually 12 oz. If you're bottling - it's almost always 12 ounces. Most of the "pint" glasses that we collect are also usually 12 oz glasses. It's really hard to find a real pint here in the US.

My costs stated were per 12 oz pour.
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???? I'm thinking most of these are actually "Cost per pint". And I'm not feelin' ya at all on the "it's really hard to find a real pint here in the us" either. The standard US pint glass is 16oz. Maybe you're confusing imperial pint glasses (aka, continental pint glasses) with US pint glasses? The continental/imperial pints are actually 20oz glasses designed with room for head on the beer.

Standard US Pint Glass used:

photobucket-4108-1354907994676.jpg

photobucket-5559-1354908018267.jpg


Edit: it's all good, I just think if half this thread is 16oz costs (like mine were) and half is 12 oz cost (like yours were), then we're obviously not apples to apples comparing our costs. My cost per 12oz is (obviously) 25% less then my cost for a pint.
 
I keg, so I just figured out how much I get out (typical batch is 6 gallons into serving kegs) and ran the numbers that way. IMO, it doesn't matter, as much, about your glass size. If you're bottling, it just sucks since you're locked into 12oz bottles, getting ~11-11.5 ounces of beer into each glass (after figuring out what you lose to sediment in the bottles).

When I did bottle, most of my brews went into 16oz Grolsch style bottles. Some batches also used the 750ml Belgian bottles. I only used 12oz bottles for small parts of a couple of batches (ran short on the other bottles, at my brew-buddy's place). I've occasionally filled those off of tap/keg, but I'm getting away from that too. I'm more inclined to fill the 16oz bottles, or bring one of my [new] 1 gallon kegs of home brew with me. :rockin:
 
Obliviousbrew said:
I´m going to break down a recipe cost (i buy in euros most of the times but prices are in dollars and quantities in kilos 2pounds: .09 kilos)

23 liter IPA (a little over 6 gallons:

4.5 kg of pale malt.......................$5
0.5 kg of diverse cristal malts.........$1.45
1 kg (munich or vienne).................$1.8
0.3 kg of table sugar.....................$0.3
1oz of high alpha hop for biterring....$1
2oz cascade................................$1.9
2oz centennial.............................$4.5
1 oz summit.................................$0.8

total grains+ hops: $15.75

yeast: from a plate or slant cost of making one slant...around $ 0.15,
Dme wort needed to step up from a single cell colony: $....1.5
Miscelaneos¡us (caps, wirfloc, chemicals for water, sanitizers and cleaners) no more than $1.5.

total cost: $18.90 ad that $1.10 for electricity. And there you go $20 for 6 gallons IPA (that will give around 5.6 gallons bottled)

Of course this is made up recipe that I´ve never brewed but the cost are even a little higher of real cost, I´m acounting for shipping costs as well, and this are of things I have in stock..., you can definitely brew a beer for less than $20 a pale ale will cost less in hops, or you can make a bigger IPA and spend more.
Click to expand...

I would guess most people are figuring more than $01.65 for yeast. 2 row costs me about $1.35 per pound. With 10 pounds of 2 row and $6.75 for yeast I'm at $20 per batch. Are you buying grain in bulk?

My LHBS would let be buy a 50 pound bag and credit it to my account so I really wouldn't have to walk out with a 50 pound bag. I need to look into how much that would save me since I appear to be brewing on a regular basis.
 
I buy in bulk everything that I can. I don´t use american 2 row but english pale (2-row) a bag of pale can cost me €21 shipped around 1.05- 1.10 USD a kilo. Yeast: I decided to start a yeast bank so I only have to buy on pack and never buy it again, only DME and agar for the plates/slants and DME to step it up. I know that I´ll be brewing often so I never bougth a kit in my life. I also only use my own recipes so I can dial it in to make sure that I use my stock.
 
My PM beers run around $0.80 each (12 ounces, so $1 per pint, neglecting sediment losses).

Typically it's something like 3 pounds DME at $4/pound, 6 pounds of grain at around $1.50 a pound, about $4 for water if I'm not using tap, $3 or so for hops, $5-$10 for yeast (including the starter costs if needed), and a buck or two for nutrients and miscellaneous. That works out to $35-$40 for a 5 gallon batch, which typically gets me 50 bottles.

This is ignoring bottling costs since I usually reuse bottles, as well as cleaners and sanitizers. I figure those probably add a couple bucks a batch on average in the long term. For planning purposes, I assume it's about $1 a bottle.

Ignoring equipment costs, I probably come out a bit ahead. I have not increased my consumption at all, it's pretty much always been one beer per day for the last few years. When I buy beer, I usually stick to fairly mass market stuff (Sam Adams, Guinness, etc) and can usually find something on sale for ~$12-$15 for a 12-pack. So I'm not saving much if anything, but I'm not losing either.
 

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