My new goal- $10.00 to make 5 gallons

I made my first hard cider in 2010 for $12.00 with Great Value (Wal-Mart brand) apple juice concentrates. Turned out great.

I've since upped the quality by using White House apple juice, but still come in around $16.00 for 5 gallons, including a packet of Nottingham or S-05.

I buy most of my beer grain and hops in bulk, but don't reuse yeast, and routinely come in right around $18-22 for most 5 gallon batches.

For a good quality beer that's very drinkable, buying grain and hops in bulk and reusing yeast is the way to save money.

I can make 10 gallons of cream ale for $16! Propane isn't that expensive, especially if you use just enough to make the beer. A sack of base grain is $35 for 50 pounds.

Recipe for cream ale (5 gallon version):

7 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 4 75.0 %
1 lbs Corn, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 5 10.0 %
8.0 oz Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 6 5.0 %
8.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 7 5.0 %
8.0 oz Wheat Malt, Pale (2.0 SRM) Grain 8 5.0 %

0.75 oz Cluster [7.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 9 19.5 IBUs (or any bittering hop to get 19 IBUs)
0.50 oz Saaz [3.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 11 2.0 IBUs (or hallertauer, homegrown, or any other noble hop variety)
0.50 oz Saaz [3.50 %] - Aroma Steep 5.0 min Hop 12 0.0 IBUs (Or hallertauer, homegrown, or any other noble hop variety

Clean well-attenuating ale yeast (nottingham, S05, WLP001, Wyeast 1056, whatever you have)

I use homegrown hops for this, but it's really great with the saaz, if you have some leftover from a Bohemian pilsner recipe!

Flaked rice (like Minute Rice) is great to sub for the flaked corn, if you have a pound of Minute Rice left over.

SMaSH ordinary bitter, subbing bulk 2-row for M.O., single 60 min (bulk) hop addition, reused/harvested yeast.

Cheapest 24 I can but at the NSLC is 42 bucks. Even Cooper's kits and LME and an ounce or 2 of fresh hops blow that out of the water. I made a 2.5 gallon all grain ESB for 11 dollars on my stove. $11 for a 24 of beer sounds good to me. The $ saved will go towards a bigger pot and bigger biab batches, eventually. If you're Canadian, you can make good beer, including equipment costs, a lot cheaper than you can buy it.

Varmintman said:

I think the burning question of the day is why and how people spend 50 bucks for a batch when they can make great beer for 10 bucks

Of course I like to make a dime think it is a dollar whenever I can

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I make $50 batches and $10 batches and believe me .... They ain't even close to each other...lol

Each beer has its time and place and everyones taste is different. I love micro/homebrew but sometimes I just want a high life.

Just because I enjoy steak ddoesnt mean I can't enjoy a hot bowl of ramen noodles.

Xpertskir said:

Not possible.

Even when doing a bulk grain buy(35ish a sack of 2 row), using minimal hops bought in bulk, minimal specialty grains and adjuncts, and yeast washing, slanting ect....the cost of DME for starters, propane(this is a big one), water(if you dont filter), star san, cleaners, caps, ect will put you over that limit quickly. Thats not even considering amortizing equipment costs.

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Incorrect.

Ingredients-wise, once amortizing yeast reuses over 5 batches (so .50 per batch), base grain at .40c/lb (so $3.60 for 9lbs) and maybe a buck fifty for a specialty grain lb, then light hops, 2oz's at $1.50 each. That's what, $8.60.

No cost for DME because who needs a starter when re-using yeast? No one. Starsan when bought in the 32oz size lasts...forever! So cents on that one per batch, no cost for any other cleaners.

I use electricity which costs maaaaybe a buck for a brew, maybe. Water is essentially free from the tap. So, $9.60?

So under $10 including the electricity costs for a beer around 5%, 5 gallons or maybe a bit more final volume.

Keg it, spend cents worth of CO2 to carb and done.

Equipment cost is another ball of wax, of course.

divrguy said:

I make $50 batches and $10 batches and believe me .... They ain't even close to each other...lol

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Yup you are right. I have had some downright terrible 50 dollar batches and some outstanding 10 dollar batches. If more money cured everything then I would agree with you but come on we are talking a house beer here or I guess the better term is a session beer.

Squeek said:

J I pay .35 a lb for 2 row .41 a lb for specialty.

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How is this possible? Do you buy it directly from the malt producers?! I've never found specialty for under $.85/lb even in bulk group buys.

Another nice beer that I do that is inexpensive is a brown beer but it comes in around 15 bucks for 6 gallons

8 pd 2 row
1 pd crystal 60
4 oz chocolate malt (420 srm)
1.5 oz black barley (500 srm)

153 degree mash

1 oz kent goldings 60 min
.25 liberty 15 min
.25 williamette 10 min
.25 liberty

I use a coopers yeast harvested and it is a right tasty beer:rockin:

I think I've perfected the cheapest beer.

No DME, No cooling water, no propane, free yeast, no bottles/caps.

I did it while I was on a german pilsner kick, which only uses pilsner malt and saaz.

Saaz is fairly cheap. A 5% pilsner doesn't use much. Buy it by the pound from HopsDirect.

I get German grain by the bag from a local nanobrewery. Fairly cheap, but not as cheap as you guys in the PNW.

Save yeast trub. Forget starters, just save a bunch of it from the last yeast cake in sterile jars. No DME.

Brew with electricity. It's about $1.50 to brew an 11g batch.

Use the pool and a submersible pump to chill the wort. No water / ice.

Keg.

If you count the cost of buying my grains and hops in bulk I can make a mean Maris Otter and x hop SMaSH beer for around $8 @ 5 gallon batches. However my SMaSH's tend to be 1 gallon experiments and not 5 gallons.

Keep it simple. Use high alpha hops in small amounts for bittering. No flavor/aroma additions. Buy in bulk.

7.5# Domestic 2-row $6.50
1.0# Generic Cane (Table) sugar $.70
.5# Carapils $.95

1/2 ounce Magnum hops at 60 minutes $.40 (Based on Hops Direct current pricing.)

Harvested Yeast slurry $.57 (assumes an initial dry yeast packet at $3.99 harvested up to seven times)

$9.12 for a 1.042 simple blonde ale.

BierMuncher said:

Keep it simple. Use high alpha hops in small amounts for bittering. No flavor/aroma additions. Buy in bulk.

7.5# Domestic 2-row $6.50
1.0# Generic Cane (Table) sugar $.70
.5# Carapils $.95

1/2 ounce Magnum hops at 60 minutes $.40 (Based on Hops Direct current pricing.)

Harvested Yeast slurry $.57 (assumes an initial dry yeast packet at $3.99 harvested up to seven times)

$9.12 for a 1.042 simple blonde ale.

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The moral of the thread is "buy in bulk".

Here's how I look at it personally:

If you like hoppy pale ales invest in 50lbs bag of 2 row and some vacuum sealed 1lbs bags of Cascade hops.

If you like Belgian style ales invest in a 50lbs bag of Pilsner malt and some vacuum sealed 1lbs bags of Saaz hops.

Yeast can be harvested from a multitude of sources and their cost should be minimal.

The learning process of brewing costs the most money but once you figure out what you like and what your family/friends like you can buy in bulk and stick to a paradigm.

I really appreciate all the help and support!! Yes, I just want to perfect a nice, drinkable session beer. Have a couple, get back to work. Nothing fancy. Something cheap I can brew over and over. Just because you spent $50.00 on it doesn't mean it's good beer. Thanks so much for all the tips, recipes, etc!!!!

If you are spending $50.00 on a 5 gallon batch you are obviously not buying in Bulk. Looking through my last year since buying in bulk about $35.00/5 gallon was my most expensive batch. Have to love Beersmith.

Fuel costs? Well, there is wood. I mean if your really crazy about it. Around here we have wells, so water for brewing and cooling is free. You could also chop up a few cords and fire up your kettle outside with wood. Maintaining mash temps might be difficult. I don't know where you are, but we got lots of trees here and someone with perseverance and elbow grease could get all the free fuel you want.

Just having fun with this.
BTW, I was making that skeeter pee stuff for around 10 bucks per 6 gallons. But that stuff will rock your world if you're not careful. One day I got carried away with that "sissy stuff" and ended up passed out in the backyard. No thanks, give me a few mellow beers.

How about an imperial stout for under 10 bucks? There's a challenge.

Cider123 said:

Fuel costs? Well, there is wood. I mean if your really crazy about it. Around here we have wells, so water for brewing and cooling is free. You could also chop up a few cords and fire up your kettle outside with wood. Maintaining mash temps might be difficult. I don't know where you are, but we got lots of trees here and someone with perseverance and elbow grease could get all the free fuel you want.

Just having fun with this.
BTW, I was making that skeeter pee stuff for around 10 bucks per 6 gallons. But that stuff will rock your world if you're not careful. One day I got carried away with that "sissy stuff" and ended up passed out in the backyard. No thanks, give me a few mellow beers.

How about an imperial stout for under 10 bucks? There's a challenge.

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I actually have brewed extract kits on my wood burning stove. A couple guys from my local shop watched me do it one time and they were impressed. I don't see why I couldn't kick it up a notch, brew all grain on a good hot stove. Temps vary across the stove top, so just move it around to keep temps. Yes, I like this idea...

For sure I think u could do it. If u buy bulk u should be able to accomplish a $10 brew! -propane and - your own time.
Cream of Three Crops recipe on HBT you may be able to do for $10~

Good luck. Don't let people say cheap is cheap, I've had some cheap priced beer come out very good!

Bargain shopping is Never Bad

BobbiLynn,

you could always roast you own malts too. Its easy and i've done quite successfully. You can even make some awesome tasting caramel which goes great in an amber ale or a Belgian if you like those. There's a recipe from KingBrian (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/caramel-amber-ale-167880/) which is darn good and cheap even with the elevated hop bill.

http://barleypopmaker.info/2009/12/08/home-roasting-your-malts/

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/20-lb-sugar-jar-yeast-nutrient-114837/

It doesn't get cheaper then home roasting with a 55lb/35$ bag of 2-row. A 10$ batch will become easy as pie. I think the only styles that may be out of reach with home toasting are the black malts because of the bitterness without the proper equipment.

I'd brew all berliner weisse and ordinary bitter. Use boiled down second runnings for the next batch's starter. Obviously repitch.

Varmintman said:

Yup you are right. I have had some downright terrible 50 dollar batches and some outstanding 10 dollar batches. If more money cured everything then I would agree with you but come on we are talking a house beer here or I guess the better term is a session beer.

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I have a lower than session beer that I love that've less than $10. I have a $50 beer that I love as well. I didn't say it cured anything... I said they were different.

My experience is a little extreme. I used to live in the middle of nowhere, 2 hours from the nearest LHBS. Also, the bulk of my work was seasonal, so I had lots of free time in the winter. A brewer and rancher nearby grew 2-row malting barley. I bought it from him by the bag. I think I paid $18 for a 50lb bag. I malted it myself, and was even able to get pretty close on some specialty roasts. I also was growing my own hops and freezing yeast. I would pitch onto trub whenever possible.

So, just looking at ingredient costs, the cheapest I brewed was under $5 for a 5 gallon batch. Like I said, there was a lot of time and work involved, as well as equipment costs, but it's fun to see how low you can get the ingredient costs.

wickman6 said:

It can be done, especially if you are keeping the ABV low. It's gonna be a bit of a challenge however. Bulk 2 row cost me around .58/ pound. Specialty grains are about 1.69 for me, but you can search on making your own crystal malts at home from your bulk pale malt. Reusing yeast and bulk hops will save you a lot. My hops are .90/oz average. I bitter with magnum, so I use very little to get my ibu to bitter. Propane cost me $3 for a 60 min boil.

I can make a simple pale ale for about $10. That doesn't include caps or co2, or sanitizer though.

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What store do you go to? I pay almost double for that in my area?

This is not going to be everybody's bag, but when I hear of a simple cheap grain bill with minimal hops, I think about the chance to experiment with spices and other flavoring agents. Since there aren't all those hops and roasty toasty malts to get in the way of the flavorings.

Spices are cheap at Indian, Asian or Central American grocery stores. Coriander, chamomile, orange peel, dried chiles, cardamom, nutmeg, dried fruits, coffee beans, basil, raspberries, all that kind of stuff. Stuff you may already have in your cupboard or growing in your yard.

Anyway, it sounds like you want a nice steady repeatable recipe for daily drinking, so maybe this notion is not up your alley. But if you ever get bored ...

This sounds like a pretty cool challenge! If you found a smash recipe that you like and started harvesting your own yeast, I'll bet you could get pretty close (propane / electricity costs included).

Are you limiting your brewing to beer?

OP--thanks for the great thread! I can't tell you how to get to $10/batch because I'm really not running anywhere close to that number even buying bulk grain ad re-using yeast up to 4 generations (got 9 batches so far out of a single pack of US-05).

My wife is a CPA. She puts my capital costs at about $20/batch assuming 30 batch depreciation schedule. That is my basic all grain set up, bottles and other gear i bought before Quicken got involved. After if get through the 30 batches if my gear doesn't need replacing costs will drop and I can get into kegging...

I use Beer Alchemy (yep that was added to my CapEx "other gear") and track all my ingredient/consumable costs there. Sunday I brewed two batches which ran $23 and $35 in ingredients respectively. First was a 5.2 abv amber ale using 11 pounds MO plus a pound of specialty grain for $14 in grain. 2 oz hops was about $3 buying in bulk. Yeast was $4 as I brewed this batch intentionally to get a new first generation crop of US05 started. rest of costs were for caps ($1.25), yeast nutrient, whirlfloc and gypsum. Second batch was a 1.080 imperial ipa with $20 worth of grain and $16 worth of hops...LBHS scored some Amarillo and I've been dying to try it. Yeast was free from a 4th generation US05. Hope I didn't waste expensive batch trying to save on yeast but was very fresh and washed.

Anyway I estimate I'm running average of $25 ingredients + $20 capital per batch. Still a bargain compared to the $15 growlers I otherwise buy from my local microbrewer given a 5 gallon batch = 10 growlers.

Note I've not been able to find grain pricing anywhere close to what some of the other posters have described. I'm paying $1.10/lb buying 50 lb sacks from LHBS. That includes NY tax and there is no shipping charge but I'd sure like to find some of that $0.35/lb 2-row mentioned above!

This is making me think.

Last year I tried my first lager and screwed it up. Anyway, it was a take on the 'american light' style and had it at $36 for a 10 gallon batch. I have been wanting to retry the same recipe only using US-05 instead of a lager yeast, because I have been using US-05 for pretty much everything lately!

In order to get the grain that cheap, (0.89 a lb for 2-row), I had to search around a bit but, I would bet that you can still find it that cheap. Check amazon. I saw 10 lb bags of 2-row for $7 and change last week!

Damnit! This thread will probably have me all night...

Great thread. Even if I can't get that low there are just lots of great ideas and good, simple recipes.

Thanks everybody!

Up early this morning, printing off some of this info, my head is just swirling with ideas now. And I actually do have a green thumb, even make my own composted soil- costs me nothing, just labor. I like working hard and staying active so the labor part doesn't bother me. Many people have told me, even bosses at "real" jobs I've had in the past that I am the hardest worker they have ever met. I run a farm and planning a huge sorghum crop this spring. Last year I grew just for the seed heads.

jiggs_casey said:

Are you limiting your brewing to beer?

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I have done some cheap wine(fruit juice, extra sugar and yeast in one gallon glass jugs and an airlock) but I think I better just stick with the beer. Wine just doesn't float my boat. It was fun to make but the drinking it part, I could do without.

Proboscidea said:

This is not going to be everybody's bag, but when I hear of a simple cheap grain bill with minimal hops, I think about the chance to experiment with spices and other flavoring agents. Since there aren't all those hops and roasty toasty malts to get in the way of the flavorings.

Spices are cheap at Indian, Asian or Central American grocery stores. Coriander, chamomile, orange peel, dried chiles, cardamom, nutmeg, dried fruits, coffee beans, basil, raspberries, all that kind of stuff. Stuff you may already have in your cupboard or growing in your yard.

Anyway, it sounds like you want a nice steady repeatable recipe for daily drinking, so maybe this notion is not up your alley. But if you ever get bored ...

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I actually do like this idea, especially the thought of combining my 2 favorite beverages, beer and coffee. And I do grow spices as well as buy a lot for cooking. Sometimes they sit in the cabinet so long that they go bad... I don't like wasting stuff.... but first I better just get a good, cheap base recipe going, then I can get all froggy with it.


Fun, fun, thanks for all the tips!!!

jiggs_casey said:

This is making me think.

Last year I tried my first lager and screwed it up. Anyway, it was a take on the 'american light' style and had it at $36 for a 10 gallon batch. I have been wanting to retry the same recipe only using US-05 instead of a lager yeast, because I have been using US-05 for pretty much everything lately!

In order to get the grain that cheap, (0.89 a lb for 2-row), I had to search around a bit but, I would bet that you can still find it that cheap. Check amazon. I saw 10 lb bags of 2-row for $7 and change last week!

Damnit! This thread will probably have me all night...

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US-05 is da bomb


But the $7 bag of grain on Amazon is +$16 shipping...
Best price for that bag including shipping is $20....

I alway include shaping in my costs when entering into inventory. For example I bought $40 in specialty grains and a bag of hops from Farmhouse, but shipping brought the bill to $50 so everything got a 25% markup when I added them in.

I get those free shipping deals from "my Amazon" all the time. Many times I have gotten free shipping on items and it had to have cost more to ship then the items were even worth. I think it's like a preferred customer thing? I order tons of stuff from Amazon, even groceries when I find them cheap and can stock up... just wait for the free shipping offer to pop up.

I have Amazon prime and I get free 2-day shipping on just about everything sold by Amazon itself. I forget how much it costs a year though....

Mojzis said:

I have Amazon prime and I get free 2-day shipping on just about everything sold by Amazon itself. I forget how much it costs a year though....

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Same here, has to be stuff sold by Amazon itself. I don't think I pay anything for it but maybe it is one of those annoying charges that come out of my bank account once a year. Not sure on this, but can't you actually earn the upgrade without paying for it? Just by buying enough stuff from them? I do like the messages though, "you qualify for...." I recently bought 8 - 1/2 gallon bottles of fruit juice for about $15 bucks on sale with free shipping. Had to have cost them more than $15.00 to ship it. And I got fruit juice to go with breakfast or to make into cheap wine... the original reason for the purchase.

I have Amazon prime too. But the $7.15 price for the 10 lb sack is not Amazon Prime eligible. To get the same bag on Amazon Prime is $20.


I've been looking at 50 lb bags from a couple prominent online vendors. Rahr 2-row runs about $35 for the bag. That sounds good. But best price I could find for 2 sacks that included shipping (ground) to NEw York was $114. I get Briess for that or better from LHBS, not sure if there is a quality difference between Briess and Rahr but the online stores sell Rahr at a lower price than the Briess.

Near as I can figure, getting the $70/100 lbs price point will require participating in a group buy that is purchasing multiples of 40 bags of grain. I see one organized in here for my state but delivery is still about 50 miles away so I'd need to figure in gas costs plus sending money in advance to people I don't know...I'm sure it would be safe but not really preferred.

I'm recently returned to the hobby after a 20 year hiatus so maybe I'm overlooking something.

I'm lucky to be in South Jersey where we have a very active Group Buy culture going on. We are just completing the 35th one since 2010. Bulk Grain runs me under $.70 lb and I have 150 lbs of various grain in stock right now. Also members get together and split bags of specialty grains as well. I've gotten D2 Belgian Candy syrup for 10.00 for 3 pounds which is 7/lb at my LHBS.

bkl63 said:

I'm lucky to be in South Jersey where we have a very active Group Buy culture going on. We are just completing the 35th one since 2010. Bulk Grain runs me under $.70 lb and I have 150 lbs of various grain in stock right now. Also members get together and split bags of specialty grains as well. I've gotten D2 Belgian Candy syrup for 10.00 for 3 pounds which is 7/lb at my LHBS.

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When's the next one I wanna get in on that.

Happens almost monthly. It's right here on Homebrewtalk, hit the Group Buy section and you can sign up there. Pickup is in Pennsauken, NJ.

Lushife said:

When's the next one I wanna get in on that.

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They open and close in 1 to 2 days. Last order was 3 pallets around 120 bags, up from the normal two but still only took a day to close. You need to know what you want and get it in as soon as it opens, procrastination will surely mean you will miss it.

I did an english bitter for under $15, and that included buying yeast and hops. if you grew your own hops, which is pretty easy if you have a good location to plant them, and saved your yeast every batch, you could save even more. instead of buying dme for yeast starters, run a couple quarts of water through the mash after you are done collecting your wort for the boil. you can then freeze this wort and use it for a starter next time.