How do you afford?

I just bought ingrediants for a magic hat clone. took me 7pds of dry extract and 3 different bags of hops, 1 yeast, and one irish moss..and a few tubes of apricot extract...came to over 65$. Do all you spend that much per batch?

(PURCHASED FROM NORTHERNBREW)

Do you need all the hops for this batch or will you have some leftover for future batches? You can also buy extract in bulk and save some $ that way.

Grains are also cheaper than extract. Dirt cheap if you can buy in bulk via a group order. Add to that hops being a joke to grow your self and some yeast washing/culturing and your cost for a basic 5 gallon batch will be down in the $10-15 range.

I used to spend around $ 7.00 on ice every brew. I purchased 30 ice cube trays for $ 10.00 at the dollar store.
I use my 5 cu ft freezer to freeze cubes (2 days), then pull them out and put in ice chest on brew day. (This probably costs $ 1.00 in electricity, if that.)
Wipe down inside of freezer with wet rags to remove ice, and set thermostat at 65 F, leaving top open to warm up.
(Wife wouldn't let me get a glycol chiller - don't know why.)

That does seem high, bobby.
I usually come in under $30 a batch, and that's for extract.

Try subbing some LME for the DME, that should bring your cost down (even though you need a little more it's still usually cheaper).

At my LHBS, it costs about the same to buy liquid or dry malt extract, so I used a lot of dry, because I could buy it in whatever amount I wanted rather than full cans. Online, at places like northern brewer or morebeer, liquid seems to be about half the price of dry. Even considering the lower yield (because LME is like 20% water), it still seems to work out a lot cheaper. I just paid $2.20 a pound for LME at morebeer which seemed like a great deal - I think your batch would be WAY less than $65 at that price. (not to mention free shipping if you bought some more stuff...)

Buy an American Amber Ale kit for $27, plus a bottle of apricot extract for $7. $8 shipping, you're at $42. Not a perfect clone, but should be basically what you're looking for.

Im glad I went all grain. My girlfriend asked me if it was cheaper and i showed her the bill for a 10 gallon batch. It was only about 30 dollars. I used to spend that easily on a five gallon extract batch. Now I can afford to buy or make other things for my arsenal of brewing equipment.

Around $30 for 6 gallon here.

£15 for 5 gallon in English.

I do All Grain and bought some bulk malt & hops & a gallon of StarSan. I propogate liquid yeast from those $7 smack packs so I can get at least 4 batches from one vial or smack pack. The end result is my beers cost anywhere from $7.85 to $6.02 for a 5 gallon batch for a Kolsch, Bavarian Hefeweizen or Pale Ale.

The cost is a big thing that will eventually make me go AG. The extract is the big thing-hops and yeast are relatively inexpensive. I'm thinking I may buy a 50# bag of DME and then go AG when it's gone.

bobbydigital said:

I just bought ingrediants for a magic hat clone. took me 7pds of dry extract and 3 different bags of hops, 1 yeast, and one irish moss..and a few tubes of apricot extract...came to over 65$. Do all you spend that much per batch?

(PURCHASED FROM NORTHERNBREW)

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For that kind of money why not just buy a case or 2 for the same money? I had to say an extract batch isn't going to taste nearly as good as the real deal.

I know, it's pretty amazing how much you save per batch AFTER the sunk cost of equipment upgrades. My grain bills hover around 10lbs per 5 gallon batch at a cost of about 70 cents per pound. Yeah, $7 for the fermentables that would cost $20 for DME (if you got decent prices like $10/3lbs).

Bobby, you didn't buy the DME is 1lb bags did you? I know they're the most expensive way at like $4.25 per pound. You can usually get 3lb bags of Muntons for $10 and of course, the larger the size, the cheaper it is per pound.

My cost for ingredients is under $20.00 a batch.

I buy DME in bulk (55# boxes), my yeast is washed (at $8 a vial I use it a lot of times and in the end comes out to about $0.25 each time), hops by the pound (my HW uses only 3% AA...at 6% AA I can make 32 batches from 1 lb!!!). Irish Moss by the lb. My water is PUR filtered tap water. Of which 4 gals goes into the freezer for 4-5 hours prior to brewing and is dumped into the primary to top off to 5.25 gals.

I made the #9 clone, it was pretty expensive, but only $45 or so IIRC....you probably bought a lot of extra stuff you aren't going to use all of....go easy on the extract, you can overdo it easily.

bobbydigital said:

I just bought ingrediants for a magic hat clone. took me 7pds of dry extract and 3 different bags of hops, 1 yeast, and one irish moss..and a few tubes of apricot extract...came to over 65$. Do all you spend that much per batch?

(PURCHASED FROM NORTHERNBREW)

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Egads. Very rarely. As others have noted, grain is much less expensive. Especially if you get a grain mill and buy 55lb sacks of your base malt. If you must stay with extract, buy the bulk canadian LME from listermann.com. It's like $2.10/lb, ferments out very cleanly, and they'll ship it to you for free if your order is over $35 (since you live east of the mississippi). As for hops, buy them in bulk from hopsdirect.com. You can get cascade for like $6/lb, and they typically give you MUCH more than you order. Get a foodsaver machine, and you can vacuum seal them so that they last forever in the freezer.

Flavor extract costs what it costs, though. That's always gonna drive up your costs. Stick with the basics and it's cheaper.

One thing I do to keep costs down and keep life simpler is freely substitute hops varieties, especially bittering hops. You can buy a pound of some good bittering variety like Columbus or Magnum or Northern Brewer (it'll really be more like 1.5 lbs) from Hops Direct and store it in ziplock bags in your freezer.

For Pilsners and Saisons and Tripels and the like, where the flavor profile is subtle, I try to stay true to the classic hops varieties for the style. But with a rich complex grainbill (like a stout) or a beer with a lot of flavor and aroma hops (like an APA or IPA), you are definitely not going to detect the *very* slight difference in flavor from using a different bittering hop, as long as you get the IBUs right.

To make a long story short, in addition to the other good tips you've gotten, use fewer varieties of hops and buy them in larger quantities.

My 10 gallon batch of Nierra Sevada cost me $34.00 delivered to my doorstep, precrushed. (No need for yeast since I harvest)

The extreme expense of extract was a huge factor in going all-grain. I felt that AG equipment was an investment in a hobby I loved anyway and if I could get my craft beers down to like 30 cents apiece, it was worth it.

The higher your brew volume (obviously) the quicker the payback.

I don't think I've ever gone over $45 for even a barleywine. Most batches are $20-$30

bobbydigital said:

I just bought ingrediants for a magic hat clone. took me 7pds of dry extract and 3 different bags of hops, 1 yeast, and one irish moss..and a few tubes of apricot extract...came to over 65$. Do all you spend that much per batch?

(PURCHASED FROM NORTHERNBREW)

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#9??

I had some last week..

Yummy!

You live in the most cosmopolitan city on the planet, the epi-center of world trade and commerce, at the pinnacle of western civilization and you have to order your ingredients from Minneapolis?

Is it that bad in NYC or are you not trying?

You probably paid $14 alone for the two apricot extract bottles.

Hmm...I get most of my ingredients online, and even with shipping, I spend less than that on a 15 gallon batch. Go all grain - it's worth it...

Also, using dry yeast will save you $6+, almost 20% of your total cost.

Beerrific said:

Also, using dry yeast will save you $6+, almost 20% of your total cost.

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But, if you use liquid and learn how to wash your yeast you can get many more uses out of the same vial.

Stop ordering from places that charge shipping or excessive shipping. NB used to be my go-to site for buying stuff but B3 has all my money now because they don't charge shipping on orders over 59$. I've saved about 80$ in shipping since march. And yeah, NYC ought to have some good brew shops.

And I'll throw in some props for my northeast favorite... www.brewbyu.com

yes #9. I've never tried to buy anywhere near me..maybe i should look around manhattan....

Yuri_Rage said:

Hmm...I get most of my ingredients online, and even with shipping, I spend less than that on a 15 gallon batch. Go all grain - it's worth it...

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Yuri's right, on my 16 gallon batches I never spend more than $40 going all-grain. That is counting gas costs, yeast, and water also. This is why I bulk brew, a keg of Bud here in Ada, Oklahoma (3.8%ABW) cost you $150. Thats $25 deposit and $125 for the swill beer inside. To add insult to injury, you can't just bring a keg in off the street for your $25 deposit. You have to have bought the keg there and show receits and all other kinds of crap. Please no comments about dumb beer laws, I moved back here from Texas and really miss the fact I can't even get good beer at an oklahoma liqour store (which is sold room temperature, and technically the are breaking the law by having an a/c going in the store since it is considered a means of refridgeration). So... bulk AG is cheaper, but if you ruin a batch it is a big batch. Under $40 a batch I couldn't care less except the fact my dumb ass wasted 15.5 gallons of beer doing something wrong (lets hope this never happens ).