Money!!!

My initial setup cost about $175. Upgrading to an AG setup brought my equipment total to about $275. I'm pretty happy with what I have right now and the actual ingredient cost is really low. Can't wait to get a pipeline going so I can quit buying beer and start drinking more of my own!

However...kegging would be nice...and a kegerator with some taps...and maybe a ten gallon rig. Pretty sure I'll end up dropping another couple hundred bucks into this hobby before the year is out.

Dont use regular butter.
Cocoa butter.
Thats what you want.
mmmmmm

passedpawn said:

Yep. Hurts when you kill a $100 coral in 1 week.

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What really hurts is when you have a seaslug die a horrific death in a powerhead and it releases toxins in the tank and it kills off everything over 3 grand died in about 10 min.
I was nicely asked to find a new hobbie that day.. Little did she know i would start to build a rock crawler anouther ouch hobbie. Now i just do brew and take care of the kids...

My divorce, (worth every penny), cost me my plane. Nothing fancy but it was mine. Now I have to rent or fix my other one to have any fun at all. Whoops! I get to brew though! It's not the "same", but it helps me through the days til I'm back in the cockpit.

stokems said:

How do most people afford this?

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Sell your old crap on Flea-Bay or Crack's-list. I have already sold $3,500 to fund my project.

Chefkeith said:

Some people live in expensive houses, wear expensive clothing, drive expensive cars, and make expensive children.* I choose to spend my money on beer and brewing equipment

* According to the WSJ, a child born in 2009 will cost, on average, $222,360 to raise to maturity.

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I see them as brewers assistants. However, at 1.5 years old, not yet at peak efficiency.

On brewing equipment, I have spent more than I would probably like to know, but I have done as others in this thread have mentioned: Slowly acquire parts and pieces.

Start off with the minimum and slowly add things. I started with a boil kettle with PWM control and a wort chiller while extract brewing, then added a cooler when going all grain. More recently I have added PID control, and a pump. All of this was over a two year period, and I was drinking my beer the whole time.

Another thing I can say is make a plan or goal for the system that you intend to end up with. I've wasted a few dollars on things trying to save a few dollars. For instance, I started off with a SS braid, then made a cpvc manifold, and now have a false bottom. In hindsight I would have just went with the false bottom. While each will work, between the cost of the braid and the cpvc it was about the same as the false bottom.

Depending on what industry you work in you can get some great deals. I'm in HVAC/plumbing/electrical. I made a few friends at the supply houses and got some deals: Free 30' 10-4 wire, 50' of 3/8 copper for wort chiller for $20, A419 temp controller for $40, free kegs for keggle, stainless fittings for pennies on the dollar.

My philosophy is don't get fancy. Use the simplest, cheapest system that works. You don't really need a RIMS or HERMS system, sure they look cool but they're not necessary to make decent beer. I think I'm up to about $300 total for my AG cooler, turkey fryer system. It's not pretty and I have to tinker with it. But I've paid for the equipment in the the money I've saved from buying beer.

By recycling yeast I can make a 5 gallon Hefe for $15 that tastes just as good as a $10 6 pack. I like to make stuff also, but you have to realize that all the pretty stuff does little to make beer better than a cooler and a turkey fryer. I also have the philosophy that anything I buy has to be offset by the money I save from buying beer before I can make something else.

Part of the fun from brewing for me is making the system. I love gadgets and trust me, there's no bling here. Keggles and copper are fine by me. Kal's been the devil on my shoulder and I lust for a system like his.

I've been brewing for about 10 years now, and I just decided to dedicate a room in my house just for it - best brewing decision I've ever made.

Part of the problem of brewing is getting out all the stuff and putting it all away when you're done. As a result, sometimes I wouldn't brew or I would leave brewing stuff in my kitchen for weeks at a time, rendering it almost impossible to cook in. Having a dedicated room solves the problem, shaves time off of my brew day, and actually encourages me to brew. The added benefit is that everything has it's place in the brewery and is always at hand. Also, everything just works since it's designed for brewing, which streamlines the whole process.

My answer to the people who criticize advanced brewing systems: You're right. You don't need pumps and heat exchangers to brew a good beer. But I've been brewing for 10 years, and it'd be foolish not to want to expand my craft into something that's easier to do, faster to do, and produces much more accurate and consistant results.

Chefkeith said:

My answer to the people who criticize advanced brewing systems: You're right. You don't need pumps and heat exchangers to brew a good beer. But I've been brewing for 10 years, and it'd be foolish not to want to expand my craft into something that's easier to do, faster to do, and produces much more accurate and consistant results.

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There's nothing wrong with anything that makes you happy. I just want to disavow the notion that you need these systems to make great beer, or that the hobby has to cost more than you save in buying beer from the store.

If you're like me and you're still paying off student loans and trying to sock more away for retirement, you just have to relax and enjoy the cooler and turkey fryer.

rvklein said:

pfft, I have 3 kids, a wife and a Porsche!

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pfft, you could have skipped the kids and bought a Ferrari.

_

True enough, although I like to drive my cars!

You can get a very nice brew system pretty cheap if you are willing to do all the work yourself plus scour scrap yards and surplus electronic shops for parts.

I have a 25 gallon automated electric brewery that really didn't cost that much. Here is a breakdown of what I paid.

3 - 30 gallon pots $50 each. $150.00
2 - 30 gallon fermenters $150.00 each $300.00
1 - Brewstand (scrap) $150
1 - Control Panel $250
Misc pumps, chiller, ect $600.00

Total $1450.00

This does not include kegs, mill, serving equipment, ect...

What's the biggest batch size you've gotten from a 30 gallon pot?

rvklein said:

What's the biggest batch size you've gotten from a 30 gallon pot?

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I normally get 25 gallons but when brewing something like a Mild I go with a higher gravity and add water while transferring to the fermenter and I can get 30 gallons. My fermenters have a 3 gallon head space so fermenting 30 gallons works fine.

Tiber_Brew said:

Simple - D.I.N.K.

Dual Income No Kids. (wife & I are both engineers)

TB

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YES! I could not do half of the stuff I do, if my wife and I were not DINK's...

She even said to me one day "I'm glad I dont see the bill for this..." (referring to my purchase of even more beer related stuff).

you have to money launder your cash so your wife thinks your spending it on her!!!

HardHatPat said:

YES! I could not do half of the stuff I do, if my wife and I were not DINK's...

She even said to me one day "I'm glad I dont see the bill for this..." (referring to my purchase of even more beer related stuff).

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Exactly. My wife can buy all the new clothes, yoga classes, massages, etc she wants, and I'll keep upgrading my brewery, drive fast cars, ride my motorcycle, and buy new hockey gear. We stay out of each other's "fun budget", which also prevents unnecessary fights.

TB

Tiber_Brew said:

Exactly. My wife can buy all the new clothes, yoga classes, massages, etc she wants, and I'll keep upgrading my brewery, drive fast cars, ride my motorcycle, and buy new hockey gear. We stay out of each other's "fun budget", which also prevents unnecessary fights.

TB

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I love separate bank accounts. My wife and I also have a shared bank account, but our separate bank accounts save SO many unnecessary discussions about money.

Chefkeith said:

I love separate bank accounts. My wife and I also have a shared bank account, but our separate bank accounts save SO many unnecessary discussions about money.

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Yep. That's what we do too.

separate bank accounts is the advice I give to all my friends that are just getting married. She buys her piles and piles of clothes and shoes with hers, I buy motorcycles and brewing stuff with mine - and nobody has to fight over what we spend "our' money on.

We've got children, but the incomes leave plenty for new brewing gear and moto trackdays. It's the time commitment of kids that's a killer. Who knew you can't just put them away in a closet and take them out when you want to play with them?

My electric system only ran me about $600 total (including the pump), but I generally don't have to fight with SWMBO about spending money for my brewing. She drinks as much of the beer as me, possibly more, and she knows that my brewing saves us a lot of money vs buying commercial beer at the grocery store.

I could have dropped a couple grand and she would have seen the justification. I just personally couldn't bring myself to spend $2000 when $600 did it just fine.

separate bank accounts wouldn't work for me. She has no job and we have three kids.

edit: though I have considered opening another bank accound and skimming 1% of my salary into it via direct deposit. I don't think she'd ever know and I'd have money to play with if I ever DID get resistance from her on anything.

Walker said:

separate bank accounts wouldn't work for me. She has no job and we have three kids.

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why does she need a job for separate bank accounts to work? three accounts, one shared, which is where your normal household expenses are paid from, and then you each have an account for a certain amount of "i get to do whatever i want with this" money. just because you're the only one putting money in doesn't mean it wouldn't work just fine if you were inclined to make it work. :-D

I have a friend to go 50/50 with. Its not so bad if its half price.+ its half the work

I have my own company with accounts and cards. And I get a lot of packages related to said company. She has no idea what I'm doing, but wouldn't care anyway. My household has the budget of a small country I think. Juggle the funding for kids and cars and college... brewing gadgets are in the noise.

sithspitt said:

I have a friend to go 50/50 with. Its not so bad if its half price.+ its half the work

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Half the beer..