Cost Per Serving: Does Homebrew Really Save Money?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

RogerMcAllen

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 10, 2009
Messages
619
Reaction score
10
Location
NW Suburbs, IL
Assuming a good craft beer costs $2, the numbers look pretty good as long as you keep going. I started homebrewing September 08, and after my last order total costs are up to ~$1,500.

$1,500/10 months/ 30 days = $5 a day (or 1 beer at the bar/~2 craft brews at home)

15 x 5 gallon batches = 75 gallons
75 gallons = 800x 12 oz servings

$1,500/800 = $1.88/serving, which is right on par with the lower end of good commercial brew. Had I not built a 4 tap keggerator that number would be down closer to $1/serving.

Now I just have to formalize this in a presentation to SWIMBO so that she can fully appreciate how buying new stuff saves money.

Here is a visual aid I made:
Savings.gif
 
There are about a bazillion threads about the economics of homebrewing. The simple answer is yes, if you figure ingredient costs only or brew often, you will save money. For those who brew rarely like myself, but buy tons of equipment, it will take me several batches to break even. It's a hobby, pure and simple. If you really need to please the SWMBO explain that homebrewing is a hobby that will keep you at home, and also dig up some info on other hobbies that cost more than brewing. :D

If you want to see some of the other threads take a look at the related threads at the bottom of the page.
 
Tell her you want to take up technical scuba diving, diving to 300-400 feet under the ocean on gas mixes you can't breath on the surface. Or that you want to take up ice climbing, finding frozen waterfalls and climbing up them with ropes and ice axes. Both take way more gear than brewing, are spectacularly expensive ways to kill yourself and you'll still end up buying beer at the end of the day to celebrate the fact you didn't die doing your 'hobby.'

She'll come around.

PTN
 
Tell her there are worse ways to spend your time than making the greatest things on earth.


SWIMBO = someone who is mining butt ore :D
 
Tell her you want to take up technical scuba diving, diving to 300-400 feet under the ocean on gas mixes you can't breath on the surface. Or that you want to take up ice climbing, finding frozen waterfalls and climbing up them with ropes and ice axes. Both take way more gear than brewing, are spectacularly expensive ways to kill yourself and you'll still end up buying beer at the end of the day to celebrate the fact you didn't die doing your 'hobby.'

She'll come around.

PTN
You missed one - Private Pilot !
 
Jaguar E-Type restoration. The gear shift knob cost more than my beginner brewing setup. I spent more on replacing a faulty thermostat in that SOB than I have spent on my entire brewing hobby combined, including ingredients.
 
You missed one - Private Pilot !

Or Bass fishing. Know how much fish you have to catch to pay off a bass boat?

Homebrewing is at best a cost saving hobby and at worst a marginally worse than break even hobby (if you drink expensive beer). I have less invested in this hobby than a golf membership would cost for a year (a month at some places) and a brewing a batch costs about what a round of golf costs. I'd still be paying for beer during the round of golf, too :ban:

I'd much rather brew beer. :mug:
 
Assuming a good craft beer costs $2, the numbers look pretty good as long as you keep going. I started homebrewing September 08, and after my last order total costs are up to ~$1,500.

$1,500/10 months/ 30 days = $5 a day (or 1 beer at the bar/~2 craft brews at home)

15 x 5 gallon batches = 75 gallons
75 gallons = 800x 12 oz servings

$1,500/800 = $1.88/serving, which is right on par with the lower end of good commercial brew. Had I not built a 4 tap keggerator that number would be down closer to $1/serving.

Now I just have to formalize this in a presentation to SWIMBO so that she can fully appreciate how buying new stuff saves money.

Here is a visual aid I made:
Savings.gif

So that $1500 is for your equipment and ingredients totals to date? What about propane/nat gas?
 
Assuming a good craft beer costs $2, the numbers look pretty good as long as you keep going. I started homebrewing September 08, and after my last order total costs are up to ~$1,500.

$1,500/10 months/ 30 days = $5 a day (or 1 beer at the bar/~2 craft brews at home)

15 x 5 gallon batches = 75 gallons
75 gallons = 800x 12 oz servings

$1,500/800 = $1.88/serving, which is right on par with the lower end of good commercial brew. Had I not built a 4 tap keggerator that number would be down closer to $1/serving.

Now I just have to formalize this in a presentation to SWIMBO so that she can fully appreciate how buying new stuff saves money.

...

So that $1500 is for your equipment and ingredients totals to date? What about propane/nat gas? Have you had to dump any beer yet?
 
OMG! Just buy it already. It's better to ask forgiveness than to.....

Does brewing save money?

Yes!




Wait, No!



well, sometimes yes.



But mostly no.

Oh bother! I need a beer.
 
I think this is a brilliant idea. I am going to make a similar sheet where I can update all my costs and compare it to my gallons produced to get a rough cost per ___ number. This is my hobby and I don't count my time as labor. We have dragged that topic through the mud enough times I think :D
 
Oh, for the love of all that is holy.

Go home and tell her that you are the king, and this is your castle and the king wants beer and will have beer and her job as the kings wench is to clean up after the king and go and get him a cold beer when he demands one and not talk while she is doing the kings bidding.








After you get up off the floor you might try jewelry. That usually works.

PTN
 
This would be a cool exercise to see where everyone is:

Brewing_Econ.bmp


Much better than I thought, considering I have been spending way more time and energy upgrading equipment in the last year and a half than brewing!
 
I know I have spent a ton (~$10 to $12k). My wife keeps reminding me.

I don't need a spreadsheet to give her justification.
 
absolutely not when you factor in the opportunity cost depending on how much money you could potentially be earning directly from working or indirectly from investing in your future by using the 4 to 5 hours a day it takes to brew an AG batch to study your field of work or degree seeking studies.

With that being said, **** all that, I want to brew.
 
Compare it to R/C cars, Lionel trains or coin collecting! She should be thankful you have such a CHEAP hobby! And if times get tough, try eating a Lionel train!
 
Tell her you want to take up technical scuba diving, diving to 300-400 feet under the ocean on gas mixes you can't breath on the surface.

Actually, that's my other hobby and homebrewing is much much much cheaper than tech diving could ever be. I could own a small brewery if I sold off all my dive gear and got a refund on all my training and trips. A set of double tanks is still more money than I've spent on homebrew equipment/ingredients at this point.
 
It is one of the few hobbies that may come close to breaking even, though as a money saver it is a dangerous path to begin investigating.

If you truly count all cash flows/costs and use a conservative discount rate your NPV of homebrewing will not likely be a sound business decision.
 
After the brew hut, I think I'm up to $10/gallon (cost of all equipment + ingredients divided by the total amount I've ever brewed). So, yeah, it's pretty cost effective :D
 
Actually, that's my other hobby and homebrewing is much much much cheaper than tech diving could ever be. I could own a small brewery if I sold off all my dive gear and got a refund on all my training and trips. A set of double tanks is still more money than I've spent on homebrew equipment/ingredients at this point.

Agreed! My Flathead VI regs for doubles cost me more than all of my brew gear... won't get into my computer or drysuit...

Oh, and working on my pilot license as well...

Holy crap! I know why I'm always broke now! :ban:
 
I don't drink enough to break even and that's including the 50 miles round-trip to the nearest brewpub to buy a few pints. Considering the trellis, irrigation system, soil preparation, fertilizer, etc. I've lavished on my freaking hop garden my 'free' hops are about $25/ounce. One of these years the weather will cooperate and I'll get a good harvest. That's the year I will find out I'm allergic to hops.

Got a half cup of cherries off of the two cherry trees, 5 years after planting. So, those are about $60/cup.
 
There is NO way to justify the cost of any hobby. So why even try? If the old lady doesn't like it, time to find one who does.

Of course this is coming from a guy married to a souse.:mug:
 
I do not include the cost of my equipment because that is my hobby but ingredients-wise I am at $30 for 10 gallons. I have a friend who is a brewmaster and I get wholesale for grain and I would like to guess I am below wholesale for hops. I pay .40/lb for grain and .50/oz for hops.
 
I do not include the cost of my equipment because that is my hobby but ingredients-wise I am at $30 for 10 gallons. I have a friend who is a brewmaster and I get wholesale for grain and I would like to guess I am below wholesale for hops. I pay .40/lb for grain and .50/oz for hops.

Man.... I need to become friends with a brewmaster ASAP. That's some awesome cost savings. Good for you! :mug:
 
After the brew hut, I think I'm up to $10/gallon (cost of all equipment + ingredients divided by the total amount I've ever brewed). So, yeah, it's pretty cost effective :D

Man, Yuri, you must be brewing about 1000 gal a year with all your DIY costs :mug:

I try to keep up !
 
I would like to say cost is not a factor, even though I do get comments about upgrade expenses - modest though they seem to me. But for me, I brew because I like what I can brew better than most of what I can buy. The downside to this is that when I buy, I end up buying expensive beer.
 
Got a half cup of cherries off of the two cherry trees, 5 years after planting. So, those are about $60/cup.

LOL! Between the squirrels and birds my wife and I are lucky to find the odd ripe blueberry on our bushes to pick and eat. We have never even gotten a blueberry shortcake's worth at one time. We were hoping that at some point the production would outpace the foragers but that was completely naive.

Luckily, they seem to have no interest at all in my hops which are starting to develop a bunch of cones all over.
 
Eh, I don't think it would be hard to save money brewing your own beer if that was really your goal, it just isn't the main consideration for most people here. If you figure that someone trying to save money would probably use a single plastic bucket fermenter, bottling bucket, cheap 5 gallon canning pot, and some free reused bottles, you're probably looking at less than $60 in equipment. It'd only take a couple extract kits to make the break-even point when comparing it to any moderately priced craft beer.

But if your goal is to make a killer brew at whatever cost, chances are you're spending more on your equipment than that.
 
I figure that any piece of homebrewing equipment I have ever used for a purpose other than brewing can't be added to the cost of brewing due to dual use.

I've used a keggle to heat water for the pool.
I've fried in a brewpot.
Used the propane burners to cook
Use the same two propane tanks for grilling
I've used the MLT for an ice chest (go figure)

So really, although I didn't have most of these items before I started brewing, I'll just say that homebrewing with that equipment is a secondary purpose. :)
 
Maybe it's because my LHBS seems to sell stuff cheaper than what I've read others paying for here on HBT, I get GREAT cost per serving ratios. Just bottled a Mild last night that is ~5%ABV and it cost me 30 cents per bottle, and that's including the water and electricity used to brew it.

It saves money for me!
 
Or Bass fishing. Know how much fish you have to catch to pay off a bass boat?

Have one, never won a bass tourney to pay it off. As for homebrew, I figure on ingredients only. If I went with equipement, I'd be on a 30 year mortgage payback schedule. I love the beer, that is all there is to it. When someone says "This is the best beer I have ever drank", I feel pretty good knowing I made it.

Single Women In Michigan Beer Orders
 
Back
Top