Less than $25 brew recipe?

My equipment:
1) Fermenting Bucket 6.5 Gallon bucket w/lid
2) Airlock
3) racking cain and tubing with hose.
4) Hydrometer

This is my first post! Here is what I am wanting to do. I would like to brew a beer for less than $25.00. This will be only my second time to brew and I am brand new to the hobby. Right now I am just experimenting and learning. I went to my local brew store and for their dry malt extract they want roughly $11.00 for 3lbs. For Liquid Malt extract they want roughly $11.50 for 3.3 lb cans.

I have searched and searched for a non-grain cheap recipe that I can use to make another batch but I haven't been able to find one. (Probably because I don't know how to adapt recipes yet) I would like to make a Lagar but does anyone have a recipie that I could make a brew with that is less that $25.00 with the equipment I have? Please be as specific as possible about the ingredients because I haven't learned all the lingo yet.

Thanks!

Pick what you want and scale it to your budget.
You can make a fairly expensive half batch for that.
I'm not sure what the prices are at your local store but you should be able to do something nice.
You might even walk into the store and ask the exact same question.
They will have some recipes on file to show you.
One thing is you want to make a lager so I've got to ask, do you have something to control fermentation temperature?

Do NOT try to do a Lager. You are just asking for trouble there, with it being your second brew.

Try this for a recipe:
5 lbs Light Dried Malt Extract ($18)
1 lb Crystal 40L Specialty Grain ($2)
1 oz Cascade Hops ($2) 60 Minute Boil Hop Addition
1 oz Cascade Hops ($2) 5 Minute Boil Hop Addition
Danstar Nottingham Dry Yeast ($4)

That's closer to $30 but extract is expensive.

Check out AHS new line of Brewing on a Budget.
They have a deal at the moment and you have to include shipping.
Brewing on a Budget

Hey python8! welcome to the forums!

Honestly, I thing you're going to have a hard time making decent recipe for $25 or less without going all grain. While I understand wanting to make cheap beer that still tastes like beer, there is only so cheap you can get before making sacrifices. I suggest you raise your price-per brew $30. If you're making a 5 gal batch (at least 50 12oz bottles), that raises the price-per-bottle from $0.50 to $0.60... which means your beer is still dirt-cheap.

At the price you mentioned for LME (Liquid Malt Extract), this leaves you with:
- 6.6 lbs of LME - $23.00
- 2 oz hops - $4 to $6
- Dry yeast - $1.50 to $3

This should put you into the $28.50 to $32 range.

If you're dead set on trying to stay below $25, here are some things you might look into:
- DME (Dried Malt Extract). I have no experience with this personally, but I believe that for the same targrt gravity, you need less DME than LME. Can anyone confirm/deny this?
- Buying in bulk. This is going to cost more up front, but will drop your cost per batch.
- Going all-grain. Normally this requires a bunch of gear, but the BIAB (Brew In A Bag) system is incredibly cheap to do.
- Make smaller batches. While probably not dropping the price-per-beer, doing a 1 gallon batch or a 2.5 gallon batch will be cheaper per batch, even if it's not cheaper per beer.
- Brew low-gravity beers. You're gonna have a hard time making a 8%abv IPA for less than $30, let alone $25. But you might be able to get a session ale (like, a 4% English brown ale) for around $25.
- Use table sugar as a fermentable. BE CAREFUL WITH THIS ONE. While it will save you money, this is a very easy way to make your beer taste bad. A small amount might be acceptable, but too much will affect the flavor. Also, purists and beer snobs (probably the vast majority of people on this board) will judge you if you do this.

Good luck with the brewing!

i would check out ritebrew.com. they have a bunch of extract recipe kits for around $20 some are under $20. i just bought a blonde ale kit for $18.99 and an oatmeal stout recipe kit for $19.99 (partial mash). kits don't include caps or priming sugar. shipping was about $10. this is my first order with them so can't speak on the quality yet.

- DME (Dried Malt Extract). I have no experience with this personally, but I believe that for the same targrt gravity, you need less DME than LME. Can anyone confirm/deny this?

Click to expand...

About 25 % less according to Randy Mosher.

You could also harvest yeast and re-use it.